This is a very watchable and important movie!
At the time this movie came out, concerns about aspartame were dismissed as kooky. So this film was groundbreaking for its time, and remains an excellent exploration of an internet rumor - aspartame is damaging - that turned out to be fact.
The question Cori sought to answer is: Is aspartame a dangerous substance and do doctors support that contention?
The film's agenda, explicitly stated, was to first find out if these professionals were "real" doctors, and then to find out if they thought aspartame was dangerous.
Dr. Roberts, Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Walton were all practicing physicians at the time of the film (Blaylock retired as a neurosurgeon but was a nutritional adviser at the time of his interview). These professionals state their positions unambiguously - nothing is taken out of context.
The fact that the full length version of this movie is available free of charge on the internet suggests that the filmmakers were not in this to make a buck. And further, the filmmakers have not been sued for Sweet Misery, despite this movie putting a pretty big dent in Ajinomoto's sales of artificial sweeteners. Surely if the movie is wrong about the effects of neurotoxic aspartame there would have been legal action taken.
You can't disregard the evidence in aspartame being on the market for three decades. Victims talk about slurring their words and being thought to be on alcohol while they were using aspartame.
In Nov l996 John W. Olney, M.D, reported that brain tumor rates had risen for 17 years with a sudden 10% increase three years after aspartame was introduced. Olney linked aspartame's mutagenicity to the function of aspartate as an excitotoxic neurotransmitter. Dr. Olney appeared on 60 Minutes and with him Dr. Ralph Walton who declared that only NutraSweet funded studies showed safety and that 83 of 90 independent studies show it harmful. This year world famous toxicologist, George Schwartz, M.D., in writing to Monsanto said: "By ignoring the scientific studies which disagree with your position, you are doing a great disservice to consumers. Further, you may have created base for litigation against your company by denying the existing science."