Artificial sweeteners, and aspartame in particular, occupy one of the most condemned positions in the entire framework of Aajonus Vonderplanitz's nutritional philosophy. They are not a food category at all, they are industrial chemicals that were fraudulently inserted into the food supply under regulatory corruption and corporate pressure. Aspartame is the primary artificial sweetener Aajonus discussed at length, and he treated it as one of the most dangerous substances in the modern processed food supply, describing it consistently as "a deadly chemical sweetener," "a dangerous poison," and one of the most toxic substances on the planet.

Within Aajonus's framework, the subject of artificial sweeteners serves a dual purpose: first, as a direct warning about a specific chemical poison that pervades virtually every processed food product on the market; and second, as an illustration of the broader systemic corruption he saw operating between large corporations, regulatory agencies like the FDA, and the political establishment. The subject of aspartame, in his teachings, was never isolated, it was always presented as the flagship example of how the modern food and regulatory system actively works against human health while protecting corporate profits.

In his framework, the only legitimate sweeteners are unheated raw honey, raw fresh fruit, and raw fruit juices, all of which promote better health rather than destroying it. Every other sweetener, including all sugar substitutes, all refined sugars, all fructose-based processed sweeteners, and every artificial chemical sweetener including aspartame, is categorically rejected as either damaging or outright poisonous.

He noted that aspartame goes by at least eleven to thirteen different names on product labels, making it almost impossible for the average consumer to identify and avoid it. He described the naming strategy as deliberate deception, designed to give a deadly industrial chemical "friendly names" so that consumers would not recognize what they were ingesting.

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Aajonus described aspartame not as a food additive but as an inorganic chemical, debris, in his words, that creates toxins and damages health. He stated explicitly and repeatedly that the substance is a poison. The effects he documented, both from his own research and from his accounts of scientific and documentary evidence, include the following:

Cancer causation: Aajonus cited animal studies showing that in 32% of animals tested, aspartame created kidney cancer or bladder cancer. In approximately 33%, stated as "33 point something", it created bladder cancer and brain tumors. He described these as findings from the studies Monsanto itself conducted, meaning the very company that created the substance had data proving it caused cancer, and the FDA approved it anyway.

Neurological destruction: Aspartame causes what Aajonus described as "drying of nerves" and "loss of neurological function." He was emphatic that in many women, it produces symptoms that are clinically indistinguishable from multiple sclerosis, fatigue, neurological loss, nerve drying, and other symptoms associated with MS. He referenced a documentary called Sweet Remedy that interviewed doctors who treated women diagnosed with MS, only to discover that those women did not have MS at all, they had an allergy or toxic reaction to aspartame. He described hundreds of thousands of women who suffered for six or seven years under an MS misdiagnosis before discovering that stopping aspartame caused their symptoms to disappear entirely.

Diabetes causation: Aspartame causes diabetes, in Aajonus's direct statement.

Seizure induction: Aspartame causes seizures, he stated plainly and without qualification.

Systemic illness: He described aspartame as causing "all kinds of problems" beyond the specifically named conditions, a broad, systemic toxicity that affects virtually every system of the body.

Insect lethality: He noted that even insects were harmed or killed by aspartame, citing this as evidence of its fundamental biological toxicity across all forms of life.

The nerve-drying mechanism: Aajonus specifically identified the neurological mechanism by which aspartame causes harm as a drying and destruction of nerve tissue. This is consistent with his broader framework in which toxins that are not properly bound and eliminated by raw fats become stored in the nervous system, where they cause chronic neurological deterioration.

Beyond aspartame specifically, Aajonus categorized all sugar substitutes without exception as inorganic chemicals. He wrote that "SUGAR SUBSTITUTES are inorganic chemicals. They are debris that create toxins and damage health." He left no room for any artificial or chemically processed sweetener to be considered safe or beneficial. He then stated: "Unheated honey and raw fruits are the only sweeteners that promote better health."

He also indicated that there are "other sweeteners which are just as bad" as aspartame, describing them all as poisonous, though aspartame was his primary focus.

Aajonus was particularly emphatic about the connection between aspartame and false MS diagnoses. He described a documentary, Sweet Remedy, that he said documents the history of aspartame, interviews doctors who treat women diagnosed with MS, and reveals that these women had been treated chemically and medically for MS when "all they had was an allergy to aspartame." He stated that hundreds of thousands of women suffered for six or seven years before learning this information. He described the filmmaker as having been one of these women herself. The moment she stopped aspartame, her symptoms disappeared.

His conclusion from this was: "It can be one chemical in your body that can cause a complete havoc. And that's what it takes in some people. And with aspartame, it happens in too many people. But yet they allow it."

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There is no safe form, state, preparation, or dosage of aspartame or any artificial sweetener within Aajonus's framework. The substance is a chemical and remains a chemical regardless of how it is presented, what it is combined with, or what form it takes in a product. Unlike his teachings on raw versus cooked foods, where the same food can be either healthful or harmful depending on preparation, artificial sweeteners have no beneficial state. They are always harmful.

Aajonus made an important distinction between the only sweeteners he considered health-promoting:

• Unheated raw honey: Beneficial, contains insulin-like substances, enzyme precursors, and predigested carbohydrates
• Raw fresh fruit: Beneficial in appropriate amounts
• Raw fresh fruit juices: Beneficial

He then contrasted these with all processed sweeteners in a hierarchy of harm:

• Refined sugar/sucrose: Harmful, made from sugar cane or sugar beets processed at approximately 320°F, damages digestion, glandular health, and nerve function
• Processed fructose sweeteners: Harmful, "fructose is the lesser of two evils" compared to sucrose, but processed fructose still causes "as many similar complications as sucrose"
• Artificial chemical sweeteners (aspartame, etc.): Most harmful, categorically poisonous with no redemptive properties

He noted that even when manufacturers label something as "natural," this is not a guarantee of safety, kerosene is natural, he noted, but you would not eat it.

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This is one of the most practically important warnings Aajonus gave about aspartame: the substance appears on product labels under at least eleven to thirteen different names. He stated this fact in multiple workshop sessions. In one account, he said "eleven different names"; in another, "13 different names." He described all of these alternate names as designed to disguise the chemical's identity from consumers. He said they "all kind of reflect what it really does", implying the names were chosen to sound harmless and friendly while masking the chemical reality.

He specifically noted that aspartame is given "friendly names" including what he described as names like "a sugar supplement or a maple syrup supplement", names that sound natural and harmless and give no indication that they refer to a synthetic chemical. He said: "They don't say it's a chemical. It's strictly a chemical. It tastes sweet, but it's a poison."

Aajonus identified aspartame as ubiquitous in the modern processed food supply:

• Diet sodas: He identified diet soda as a primary delivery vehicle, stating "It's in diet soda."
• All sodas: He stated "it's in all cokes, diet and otherwise," and "almost all sodas."
• Virtually all processed foods: He described it as "the main sweetener on every food on this planet that's processed."
• Packaged foods of all types: He warned that "if you're eating anything from a package, you know that there's chemicals in it, preservatives, additives, sweeteners, like aspartame."
• Cereal products: He mentioned cereals with "60 varieties of chemicals in it including aspartame and all those other toxins."

Aajonus shared a detailed personal account of his direct involvement with a NutraSweet commercial in the early 1990s, he specifically dated it to approximately 1993. He described being hired for the commercial because he looked to be in his early thirties when he was actually 47 years old. The character he was hired to play was a 30 or 31-year-old man celebrating a 10th anniversary re-wedding with his wife.

Aajonus stated that he deliberately sabotaged the commercial, he described it as "blowing the purposes", because he knew what aspartame was. The consequence was that the commercial was so expensive to produce (everyone was being paid a percentage) that they could only run it for six weeks before it cost too much to continue. He stated: "I cost them so much money on that commercial, they only ran it for six weeks. I made another fortune on it, but it cost them too much to run the commercial because they had to pay everybody in a percentage of it." He added: "And I purposely did it and still have no regrets about doing it because aspartame is a poison, a dangerous poison."

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The concept of a required fat buffer does not apply to aspartame or artificial sweeteners because they should not be consumed at all. There is no protocol within Aajonus's framework for consuming aspartame with a protective fat pairing. The teaching is avoidance, full stop.

However, in his broader teachings about toxic exposures from processed foods including those containing aspartame, Aajonus consistently recommended that raw fats, particularly raw butter, raw cream, and raw dairy generally, are the primary protective and detoxifying agents. He stated that if someone has consumed processed foods containing aspartame and other chemicals, it requires "a lot more raw nutrients to handle that toxicity." The implication is that raw fats help bind and process toxins, but this is framed as a damage-control measure for unavoidable or past exposures, not as a protocol for ongoing consumption.

He also noted that urine therapy was one method he mentioned for blocking or neutralizing aspartame exposure, but he specified that on his Primal Diet this was unnecessary because the body receives sufficient nutrients from the diet itself.

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There is no safe dosage of aspartame or any artificial sweetener in Aajonus's framework. The question of dosage does not arise because the answer is always zero. He described it as one of the most toxic substances on the planet, caused cancer in one-third of animal test subjects, and produced MS-like neurological destruction in hundreds of thousands of people. There is no context in which any quantity would be acceptable.

Aajonus made a philosophically important point about dosage when discussing aspartame and MS symptoms: "It can be one chemical in your body that can cause a complete havoc. And that's what it takes in some people." This teaching establishes that even trace exposure to aspartame could, in susceptible individuals, trigger complete systemic breakdown. The implication is that there is no "small enough" amount that could be considered safe for everyone.

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There are no culinary applications for aspartame or artificial sweeteners in Aajonus's framework. They are not used in any recipe, preparation, or protocol. The culinary applications section of his work is occupied entirely by unheated honey, raw fresh fruit, and raw fruit juices as the only acceptable sweet foods.

For reference and contrast, the sweeteners he did use extensively in his recipes included:

• Unheated raw honey: Used in kefir preparation (1-2 tablespoons per quart, or 2 tablespoons per half gallon of milk); in smoothies; in ice cream recipes; in cheesecakes; in chocolate preparations; in the milkshake (1-2 tablespoons per serving); in the coffee substitute (2 tablespoons); in infant formulas (1/4 teaspoon for the Infant Milkshake); in the Pain Formula (1 teaspoon optionally); in sauces; and throughout the recipe book.
• Raw Medjool dates: Used in pie crusts and cheesecake crusts as a natural whole-food sweet element.
• Raw fresh fruit: Used in ice cream, smoothies, and dessert preparations.

These are presented here purely to contrast with the categorical rejection of artificial sweeteners, everything Aajonus sweetened was sweetened with these whole raw foods, never with chemicals.

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Aajonus identified Dick Cheney as the political figure who pushed aspartame through FDA approval. He stated this directly: "Dick Cheney was the one to push that through the FDA." He framed this as a deliberate political act in which the regulatory approval was achieved despite overwhelming evidence of harm, because of "big money", not because of any finding of safety.

Aajonus repeatedly emphasized that the data proving aspartame was harmful came from Monsanto itself, the company that created the chemical. He stated: "All of the examination, all of the material that Monsanto did on it proved it was a bad substance, and the FDA approved it anyway." He then used this to make a broader point about regulatory corruption: "Even after the FDA had looked at the information, they approved it anyway. They're worried about raw milk." He drew a direct and deliberate contrast between the FDA's aggressive suppression of raw milk and raw juices, which he considered health-promoting, and its approval of aspartame despite evidence of carcinogenicity and neurological destruction.

Aajonus described a consistent pattern of regulatory inversion: "The FDA and the USDA three years ago took away all raw juices. You can't have a pre-made raw juice in your health food store. Only from a juice bar can you get fresh juice. Everything has to be pasteurized. And they threw aspartame out on the market." He used this contrast repeatedly to illustrate what he saw as a deliberate strategy of suppressing genuinely healthy foods while approving and protecting genuinely harmful chemicals.

Aajonus referenced a documentary called Sweet Remedy made by a woman whose name he said he had forgotten at the time of the workshop. He described it as available on DVD for $25 and documentable through an internet search. The film, in his description, covers: - The full history of aspartame - Interviews with doctors who treat women who were diagnosed with MS - The revelation that those women did not have MS but rather had an allergy to or toxic reaction from aspartame - The filmmaker's own personal story of suffering for six to seven years under an MS misdiagnosis before discovering the aspartame connection - Interviews with people who worked for the FDA

He described this documentary as important evidence and recommended it as a resource for people wanting to understand the danger of aspartame.

Aajonus stated directly that both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola knew aspartame was dangerous before they used it in their products. He stated: "Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola knew it was bad. They knew what the tests were." He described the documentary Sweet Remedy as going through this history in detail. He then described the corporate behavior around eventually removing aspartame from some products as hypocritical: "Some of them are now bragging that they don't have it in there. Yet they poison people for ten years with it. Oh, we don't have it anymore. Well, why did you have it in the first place when you knew it was bad?"

Aajonus identified the use of eleven to thirteen different names for aspartame as a deliberate deception strategy. He described the names as designed to sound friendly and natural, "like a sugar supplement or a maple syrup supplement", so that consumers could not identify the chemical they were consuming. He said: "They don't say it's a chemical. It's strictly a chemical." This was presented as an intentional corporate and regulatory strategy to ensure continued consumption of a substance that all involved parties knew to be harmful.

Aajonus placed aspartame in a historical sequence of major corporate assaults on human health through the food supply. He described the sequence as: first, the introduction of hydrogenated oils, "plastic oil," which he described as turning cooking oil into "a liquid plastic" that behaves like styrofoam inside the human body, and then, as the "greatest assault" that followed, aspartame. He stated: "The greatest assault before aspartame was oils that were hydrogenated. Plastic oil." This framing positioned aspartame as the culmination or apex of a long series of deliberate toxifications of the food supply.

Aajonus described in considerable detail his deliberate sabotage of a NutraSweet television commercial in approximately 1993. He was hired because at age 47 he appeared to be in his early 30s. The commercial scenario involved a couple celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary by getting remarried. He described "blowing the purposes" of the commercial deliberately, causing repeated expensive retakes and production problems. The result was that the commercial cost the company so much money, because everyone involved was being paid a percentage of production costs, that they could only afford to run it for six weeks before pulling it. He stated he made "another fortune" from this but had "still no regrets about doing it because aspartame is a poison, a dangerous poison."

He identified the product by the name "NutraSleep" in some accounts within the transcripts, though context makes clear he was referring to NutraSweet, the primary brand name for aspartame.

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