• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

aspartame

citizen327

Student
C
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
28
I was just wondering what the general consensus here is about aspartame... Is it safe like the FDA says, or is it deadly and to be avoided at all costs??
 
Did you see my article in the next-to-the-last issue of Skeptic magazine? It will give you some insight into the thinking processes of the anti-aspartame activists.

Science and government regulatory bodies here and in Europe have reviewed all the published evidence and they think it's safe.
The activists think it is a poison that causes every evil except perhaps global warming.
I use it.
 
I can't speak to the safety issue that much. I can tell you that I asked my doctor about artificial sweeteners, and he had no issues with me using them. Personally, for coffee, I prefer Sugar Twin, which I believe contains sodium cyclamate (in Canada; after reading about the reasons why it isn't used in the USA now, though, I might stop...).
 
Off-topic (probably): why use sweeteners at all? Substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar is rather like coming off heroin and onto methadone.
I'm in no way comparing sugar to heroin, but what's wrong with just doing without the sweet taste altogether?
 
sophia8 said:
Off-topic (probably): why use sweeteners at all? Substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar is rather like coming off heroin and onto methadone.
I'm in no way comparing sugar to heroin, but what's wrong with just doing without the sweet taste altogether?
Click to expand...


I think the word "taste" answers all that. :)

I use sweeteners because I like to eat and drink sweet things, but I don't need the excess sugar. I could do without the sweet taste, but why should I? ;)
 
Complexity said:
I like it.
Click to expand...

And so do sparrows!

Today, while eating lunch at a restaurant, I saw five sparrows on an outside table, going for little white grains I first thought were salt. But then one of them got a little Equal packet in its beak, pecked a hole in it and began shaking the contents out onto the tabke top. Equal is Aspertame.
As soon as they'd clean up most of the grains, one or another of the birds would shake the packet again. It was the best show of the day!

I said, "Oh noes! Sweet little birds will get cancer!" (joke)

But it sure had them fooled.
 
Last edited:
for aspartame, some of the fears (plus the fact it does break down in heat or acidity)MAY be reasons to worry but I used it for several years (obviously anecdotal) with none of the claimed effects - my use was neither heavy or constant. Personally, I have used Splenda for longer than I used Equal and more of it - and have had no negative effects. My favorite "dangers from Splenda" is the "it's putting Chlorine in your body!!!" to which my response is "So you do not eat anything with salt in it, don't take antibiotics or any such, avoid most vitamin supplements, etc.?"
 
citizen327 said:
I was just wondering what the general consensus here is about aspartame... Is it safe like the FDA says, or is it deadly and to be avoided at all costs??
Click to expand...
You have to realize the myth about aspartame causing an increase in cancer was caused by a faulty study. Only after the study was published the mice were determined have an natural increased risk in cancer.
Off-topic (probably): why use sweeteners at all? Substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar is rather like coming off heroin and onto methadone.
I'm in no way comparing sugar to heroin, but what's wrong with just doing without the sweet taste altogether?
Click to expand...
Your metaphor is backwards. Artificial sweeteners are sweeter than natural sugar. They have to cut the sugar because it's 100's of times sweeter than actual sugar.
 
Last edited:
I don't know as much about the chemistry/safety issues as I'd like; but I do know that for me, aspartame is a very very bad thing. I can always taste it when it's in food, and it is one of my most effective and powerful migraine triggers. I cannot eat the stuff at all without getting a horrible metallic taste in my mouth, and ending up in bed in agony. Only MSG gives me worse migraines.

And yes, I actually do know that I can taste it specifically through several mostly accidental blind tests. On a number of occasions, I've purchased sodas, thinking i'd gotten the normal version, only to discover after starting to drink them that they contained aspartame. And one one occasions, got a cup of some sort of "soda" at a party where I never saw the bottle prior to drinking it (I just asked for "something without alcohol"), and tasted aspartame right away (I checked the source afterwards, and I was correct in recognizing it as containing aspartame).

I also dislike the taste of sucralose, but as far as I know, it has no adverse effects on me. The taste of the "sugar alcohols" like xylitol and sorbitol don't bother me at all, but there's that laxative issue to deal with.
 
Last edited:
technoextreme said:
Your metaphor is backwards. Artificial sweeteners are sweeter than natural sugar. They have to cut the sugar because it's 100's of times sweeter than actual sugar.
Click to expand...
What's interesting is that aspartame-sweetened drinks have helped me curb my appetite for sweets completely. I buy those single-serving drink mixes that you are supposed to add to a 16 ounce bottle... except that I find the flavor so strong that I've taken to adding one packet to 32 ounces of water. Now, any sort of sugar-sweetened soft drink tastes like pure corn syrup to me, and I can't drink them. :D
 
citizen327 said:
I was just wondering what the general consensus here is about aspartame... Is it safe like the FDA says, or is it deadly and to be avoided at all costs??
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's deadly, but it leaves a ****ed-up aftertaste in my mouth and hence is to be avoided at all cost.

Splenda is even more horrific.
 
Michael Redman said:
There wouldn't be many people around in developed countries today if it were particularly deadly.
Click to expand...

Also, it is magnitudes less deadly than sugar, wheat, or other simple carbohydrates.

Or fats for that matter.
 
Whenever I spell check posts containing my username, my spell checker tries to get me to change it to "Aspartame".

I blame it on a vast NWO conspiracy. ;)
 
I dislike its taste monstrously. A rumor around is that there's a gene that determines if you can tell the differnece between sugar and aspartame. That may be BS though. :)

http://www.321recipes.com/aspartame.html "aspartame has been proven to increase appetite"

http://www.aspartame.org/aspartame_faq9.html "Based on the overwhelming scientific evidence from numerous scientific studies, aspartame does not increase hunger, appetite, or food intake"

And depending on who you believe, it may or may not increase your appetite.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom