Simple q, can anyone justify the reason they would NOT use aspartame.

This is something that I believe is scare mongered by mass media claims, and has no shred of scientific evidence behind it.

Your thoughts,.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASIVE question lol...very complex!

Data out there on both sides!...

Personally, I conciously now try to avoid it if I can...but things like Diet Coke etc you can avoid if your drink them...

KP

taken with protein the bad effects are negated apparently.

best to avoid tbh, but otherwise take with protein

Recent studies have demonstrated that when aspartame is digested, its methyl ester bond is broken down to form methanol (wood alcohol) and then further degraded to formaldehyde (embalming fluid). However, while methanol and formaldehyde are toxic, as the researchers behind these studies also point out, to obtain an amount that is considered dangerous a person would have to drink something like 500 cans of diet soda a day. Even if you were able to accomplish this feat, it would only provide the same amount of either compound that is contained within a piece of fruit such as a tomato or an orange!

The whole aspartame thing was blown out to outrageous proportions a few years ago by the media (they never let the facts get in the way of a good story). The truth is that aspartame is simply two amino acids joined together; phenylalanine and aspartic acid.

Aspartame is sold in virtually every continent around the world. To gain this amount of wide-spread acceptance, it means this compound has undergone an enormous amount of research to assess its safety. In fact, not one study has been able to show a harmful effect from the consumption of aspartame. On the other hand, a diet that is high in sugar (a ‘natural’ ingredient) has been linked to just about every modern day disease or chronic ailment.

I still prefer my coke - diet.

Canuck PT wrote:Aspartame is sold in virtually every continent around the world. To gain this amount of wide-spread acceptance, it means this compound has undergone an enormous amount of research to assess its safety. In fact, not one study has been able to show a harmful effect from the consumption of aspartame. On the other hand, a diet that is high in sugar (a ‘natural’ ingredient) has been linked to just about every modern day disease or chronic ailment.

I still prefer my coke - diet.

as you alluded to, there's far worse out there that is "allowed". I mean cigarettes are legal lol.

Just thank your lucky stars that the European version of Coca Cola doesn't contain, like the USA version, high-fructose corn syrup... now that IS a killer

Wasnt the issue that it was passed by the FDA just TOOO fast..and a few big players were involved financialyy?...I beleive this was the case......it passed within one of the fastest times to be approved.....

KP

From what I've read in the past the amount of aspartme that would need to be consumed to be in any way dangerous you would kill yourself just trying to consume it. Never mind waiting for it to have an effect.

Dont wory about it. Nobody ever died from drinking diet coke or anything

Aspartame has definitely been made controversial and for what legitimate reason I really don't know. All the research shows aspartame to be completely safe.

I got an email the other day from someone I considered reasonably intelligent saying that aspartame contained wood alcohol and it causes brain tumors. Where do people get this information? Instead of relying on he said/she said information a clear look at the research is needed.

Aspartame is made by joining two natural amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and a tiny amount of methanol (the methanol thing must be where this "wood alcohol" started). What some people don't realize is that methanol is found naturally in the body and in many fruits and vegetables. Methanol is produced in the body through normal metabolism of many different foods. In fact, a glass of tomato juice provides 6 times as much methanol as a typical diet drink sweetened with aspartame.

Another thing that aspartame critics don't seem to realize is that aspartame itself never enters the bloodstream. It is digested like any other protein. After digestion, the individual components are absorbed and utilized by the body. It's physiologically impossible for aspartame to ever enter the bloodstream much less permeate the blood-brain barrier.

Aspartame is the most extensively tested and scientifically studied food additive there is. The critics of aspartame use everything but research to validate their position. If you look at the research as well as the anecdotal and epidemiological data there is nothing to support aspartame as being unsafe. It's only when you stray from the science and rely totally on fanatical, unscientific hype does anything negative on aspartame creep up.

Several recent reviews have confirmed that there is no connection between Aspartame and any health problems.

I will continue to look into the research, and post some quality references, hopefully,

I avoid it - partially due to the scare stories but primarily because my project tutor in my final year specialised in research on aspartame and had found some quite profound psychological and neurological effects. Obviously it's neurotoxic for those with PKU but during my project I found that it had an influence on satiety when ingested without tasting.

I just perceive it to be one of those things that's best avoided to be on the safe side.

I try and avoid aspartame and other artificial sweeteners because I've noticed that if I drink a diet coke shortly afterwards I get hungry and cravings for something sweet and I am most likely to unthinkingly reach for a chocolate bar if I have recently had something with an artificial sweetener.

The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

This could be all in my mind and due to a lack of willpower but since I have cut the amount of diet soda I drink down I have fallen off the good diet wagon a lot less.

GymBunny wrote:The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

The sensation of sweet can also rise insulin. When insulin rises and you don't have any sugar ingested, your BG will drop and you feel hungry.

Tartulho wrote:

GymBunny wrote:The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

The sensation of sweet can also rise insulin. When insulin rises and you don't have any sugar ingested, your BG will drop and you feel hungry.

^^ spot on mate. That is "sugar-free" drinks are pointless... perhaps slightly better than "sugar-full" ones but not much tbh.

And now the problem is really want a diet coke...curses

GymBunny wrote:I try and avoid aspartame and other artificial sweeteners because I've noticed that if I drink a diet coke shortly afterwards I get hungry and cravings for something sweet and I am most likely to unthinkingly reach for a chocolate bar if I have recently had something with an artificial sweetener.

The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

This could be all in my mind and due to a lack of willpower but since I have cut the amount of diet soda I drink down I have fallen off the good diet wagon a lot less.

Think thats just you Lis lol I drink quite a bit of diet coke and I never get hungry afterward although I am always hungry regardless of diet coke or not lol ....Diet coke is my only vice. I can still to my diet 100% so long as I have a diet coke or two im happy

Tartulho wrote:

GymBunny wrote:The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

The sensation of sweet can also rise insulin. When insulin rises and you don't have any sugar ingested, your BG will drop and you feel hungry.

Never seen any data showing that. If that were true drinking diet coke could make you fat...but it doesnt.

Tartulho wrote:

GymBunny wrote:The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

The sensation of sweet can also rise insulin. When insulin rises and you don't have any sugar ingested, your BG will drop and you feel hungry.

Whether this has/can be proven or not, I had the same experience that GB described with Aspartame. Plus anecdotally I know of many people who felt that omitting aspartame cleared up a whole load of idiosyncratic symptoms overnight.

nrage04 wrote:

Tartulho wrote:

GymBunny wrote:The only reason for this I can think of is that my stomach anticipates its going to get some calories due to the sweet taste and then when they fail to turn up it sends me in search of them.

The sensation of sweet can also rise insulin. When insulin rises and you don't have any sugar ingested, your BG will drop and you feel hungry.

Never seen any data showing that. If that were true drinking diet coke could make you fat...but it doesnt.

Cephalic phase of insulin secretion and food stimulation in humans: a new perspective: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/conte ... 249/6/E639

There are a few others done with rats, but those won't apply to everyone

One more thing, the cephalic phase of insulin secretion happens not only with the taste of sweet but also with the smell, sight and anticipation of getting/eating some foods.