Opinions on Aspartame

[Vision]

I'm curious to what Freepers think of Aspartame. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in diet products like diet coke.

Many websites, albeit possibly kooky websites, say Aspartame produces side effects like anxiety, blurred vision, depression, etc. The medical establishment and Feds say its heavily tested and safe.

Anyone with an opinion or experience?

[SuziQ]

I always thought Aspartame had a bad aftertaste. I'll drink a Diet Coke, sometimes, but it's not my favorite.

We prefer Splenda, and our grocery store has a less expensive line of sodas, the 'Waist Watcher' brand, that is sweetened with Splenda, and they have a Black Cherry flavor is yummy. 'Diet Rite' is also sweetened with Splenda, and their Tangerine soda is terrific! I'm not a big soda drinker; I usually make unsweetened iced tea, and sweeten it with Splenda.

[Tainan]

What a thread.


Everybody should calm down and just drink beer. Preferably a good home brew.

[SuziQ]

Why isn’t there a good, all-sucralose diet soda out there?

There is a Diet Coke sweetened with Splenda, but it's hard to find. Diet Rite Cola is sweetened with Splenda; WalMart sells it. I don't particularly like the Cola flavor, preferring Tangerine, or White Grape.

[Minn]

Does that sound like a good thing...health wise?

How many thousand chemicals from all kinds of places are in your body? Does the fact that one of them, when pure and in large quantities, can be used for various things like dead tissue preservation mean anything at all?

[Rebelbase]

Makes me fart.

[dangus]

Thanks. I did not know that. I’ll have to get my hands on some.

[Flying Circus]

If you think HFCS is bad, then Agave is worse. It can be up to 92% Fructose depending on the brand. Low glycemic yes, but fructose in those concentrations is hard on the liver and could trigger high triglycerides.

I’ve never found anything really bad about stevia (except the flavor I can’t stand). Too much simple sugar is just bad for the human body and virtually everyone is getting too much.

[kaehurowing]

Thank you, Tim the Enchanter.

[Arizona Carolyn]

rat poison.....

[upsdriver]

>It makes me irresistible to the opposite sex.

Ahh...! Mind altering, huh? Beer does it for me. :-P

[Yaelle]

Aspartame is poison. The people who get reactions to it are the lucky ones, seriously. Any careful research, avoiding the “mainstream frankenfood companies,” will show you what a neuroTOXIN it is.

Sugar is not anywhere near as bad for you.

Eat natural, healthy foods that grew from the ground or ate things that did.

[upsdriver]

It turned me into a newt.

Uh oh, next thing you know, you'll be sitting on a bench with Nancy Pelosi.

[upsdriver]

I have knee pain from years on the job. My sis was visiting me just recently and she likes diet coke and diet mt dew so I stocked up. Well, I started drinking it too and after a few days, I couldn’t hardly walk for the pain in my knees. Finally, it dawned on me the only thing different I had done was drink diet soda so I quit. It took a few days but my knees started feeling better. I’ve been trying to find out what exactly caused this. My theory is that it is the artificial sweeteners, I was hoping this thread would help. Your post has come closest so far.

[upsdriver]

Would you check out post#133? I’d value your opinions. Thanks

[big'ol_freeper]

RE: Creepy on so many levels.

Congratulations. Seeing yourself the way others do is the first step in overcoming silliness.

[dangus]

Mtn Dew and Diet Coke are both very high in caffeine, a diuretic. My first guess would be you suffered some effects of dehydration. But its so hard to tell, there could be countless ways a sudden change in diet could affect you. The stimulant effect could have made you increase your muscle tension... it’s hard to guess. But if you have joint issues, stay away from phosphoric acid! No Mtn Dew, no diet coke, no Lipton canned iced teas!

[Fresh Wind]

Water doesn’t need artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, or artificial colors.

[aruanan]

Many websites, albeit possibly kooky websites, say Aspartame produces side effects like anxiety, blurred vision, depression, etc. The medical establishment and Feds say its heavily tested and safe.

Aspartame, as a substance used in food, is one of the most thoroughly tested substances in history. In the amounts commonly encountered in food (as well as in amounts hundreds of times higher than that), there is no evidence of any impairment of or endangerment of health. Phenylketonurics need to monitor their intake, but this is like saying that diabetics need to monitor their intake of glucose. The amounts commonly encountered in food, though, is too small to present a problem for phenylketonurics (I suppose if they were to drink several gallons diet soft drink a day they could notice something, but then someone drinking several gallons of diet soft drink per day already has problems that don't have aspartame as their origin).

I say this as a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition/Nutritional Biology.

By the way, when you say "the medical establishment" you are reifying. There is no such being.

[Oceander]

Never had a problem with it and use it all the time.

[aruanan]

It turns into formaldehyde in your gut and causes neurological damage.

These statements are either irrelevant or false. Formaldehyde is produced by your own body as part of the normal metabolic process. There is nothing in aspartame in amounts commonly encountered in food that will cause neurological damage. If you want to say methanol then you'd better tell people to lay off fresh fruits and vegetables because they have naturally occurring methanol in amounts equivalent to or greater than that formed as a byproduct of aspartame metabolization.