Everyday, we are finding out that the FDA isn’t trustworthy, and I’m here to remind you that it hasn’t been trustworthy for decades. Because of brain tumor issues, aspartame in NutraSweet/Equal® was denied FDA approval twice.
We are also realizing that pharmaceutical companies who keep getting denied safety approval … well, they just finagle it. That’s what GD Searle Pharmaceuticals did 40 years ago. Aspartame’s creator was projecting to make millions off their newly discovered “sweet ulcer drug.” So how did they finally get it approved?
They cheated and pilfered its unjustified approval.
Aspartame Secretly Approved Overnight
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- In 1974, FDA Commissioner Alexander Schmidt, M.D. approved aspartame for the first time as a food additive in dry foods only.
- In 1975, FDA Commissioner Schmidt’s aspartame approval was rescinded due to brain tumors and breast cancer issues.
- In 1980, after six years of safety debates, a FDA Public Board of Inquiry revoked aspartame’s second approval request pending more brain tumor testing and banned aspartame for human consumption for the second time.
- In January 1981, G.D. Searle reapplied for aspartame approval for a third time.
- In April 1981, newly-elected President Ronald Reagan appointed Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., M.D. the new FDA Commissioner; Dr. Hayes had an agenda – aspartame’s approval came from this one man. After the FDA’s Public Board of Inquiry denied aspartame public approval – twice – he secretly pushed it through.
- One night in July 1981, Dr. Hayes overruled the investigator team’s recommendation that aspartame “not be approved until further animal testing be conducted to finally resolve the brain tumor issue.” But Hayes ignored all concerns, and solely granted FDA approval overnight for aspartame in dry foods (marketed as NutraSweet®), and as a tabletop, sugar substitute (marketed as Equal®).
- In 1982,NutraSweet’s patent was extended until 1992 as an amendment to the Orphan Drug Act, sponsored by Representative Henry Waxman.
- In 1983, NutraSweet was approved in carbonated beverages and carbonated beverage syrup bases. FDA Commissioner Hull Hayes resigned his position at the FDA to accept a position as senior medical advisor to GD Searle’s public relations firm, Burston Marsteller.
- In 1984, aspartame was approved in children’s chewable multivitamins. The brain tumor issue had still not yet been resolved.
- In 1987, NutraSweet received FDA approval in baked goods and baking products.
- By 1988, researchers began tallying increases in headaches, seizures, tumors, depression, and brain tumors – all confirming the predictions of aspartame’s neurotoxicity from twenty years before.
- In 1992, after 92 deaths from aspartame were submitted to the FDA, the FDA stopped excepting death counts attributed to aspartame.
- As of 2025, aspartame is still on the market.
The detailed Aspartame FDA Approval timeline is in my book Sweet Poison.
The shenanigans in DC aren’t new. This corruption has been going on a very long time.
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