# Aspartame



## Brian G Turner (Nov 11, 2004)

My girlfriend had me reading the quoted research papers on an Aspartme-hate site, after being concerned about the kids having it in their drinks. 
It has to be said that the whole Aspartme argument is completely misrepresented - there are known allergic reactions to it from people with a strong susceptibility to it - but for the general population there are no known health issues. 

The Aspartame-hate sites even make that clear, because the research papers they use to claim that Aspartame is harmful, are those same research papers that state at the start that there are known allergic reactions to Aspartame, and that the purpose of the study is to explore the adverse reactions.

Campaigning against Aspartame would be like campaigning for the banning of nuts - a significant proportion of the population are allergic to nuts, and ingestion of nuts could kill them. It's so serious that many food products are clearly labelled to warn when they contain nuts. So why are nuts not banned? The same reason with Aspartame - there is a small number of people affected, and there is a clear labeling policy to warn consumers.

And why is there no campaign to actually ban nuts? Because nuts are _natural_. 

2c.


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## Alexa (Nov 11, 2004)

Hmm. I use aspartame every day. No allergy reaction. I cannot stand sugar any more. It's too sweat for me.


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## Maryjane (Nov 11, 2004)

_Hi Alexia, haven't seen you for a while. I had a whole lot more recent info on both Mars and Titan on the Cassini meets Lord of the Rings thread. Nice to see you back, that is if you left at all, maybe just not connecting on the same threads._


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## Alexa (Nov 12, 2004)

Hi Maryjane,

Sorry, I didn't have the time to read your new posts about Mars and Titan. I have only one word in my head :"VACATION". Still I have to be patient for another month. For the rest, I spend more time on the other forum.


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## Maryjane (Nov 12, 2004)

_Hope you have a nice hollidy, maybe we can keep track of each other on the weekends pretty dead on the weekends. Do you have MSN? If you do we can have a chat on there. Got lots of new stuff in Cassinie meets Lord of the rings but no one is going there anymore, Might have to discnotinue my postings there. It's not hard to understand the terminology that goes with it either. Termonology is formated for the general public to understand by NASA. Some realy nice shots, can't wait for Cassinie's next fly by of Titan. _


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## Alexa (Nov 13, 2004)

Thanks Maryjane. I saw some interesting threads in here and I would like to "fond myself into the picture" in order to know better people on this forum.


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## Rane Longfox (Nov 13, 2004)

Well, I think all the "Diet" drinks taste crap anyway...

But that aside, aspartame _can_ cause manic depression, and no one should have to live with that. Better your teeth rot, IMO.


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## Alexa (Nov 13, 2004)

Oh là là ! I'm in trouble. I didn't know about the side effects. Actually I never bothered to find out about them till now.

No more diet drinks for me. I'll take the detox program. Thanks.  

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html


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## Maryjane (Nov 13, 2004)

_Never heard of apartam until now either. I don't drink diet pop unless there isn't anything else available. Ya learn something new everyday but then you can find lots of stuff in the food chain that is not good foryyou, will not go into this further, could take all day to type out anyway. Lots of neat folks in here Alexa, just hope they like my sense of humor _


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 13, 2004)

Yes, but that's my original point - the adverse reactions are equatable with allergic reaction to nuts.

Both have known side-affects _if susceptible_. But the percentage of affected peolpe as small.


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## Maryjane (Nov 13, 2004)

Ya like carsonogenic compounds in the food, people die like flies from cancer and they say, oh, it's only trace amounts used in chemicals that are meant to preserve the food. If they took those chemicals out of the food people would die of bocholism. Ya the preservatives work well, dig me up in a hundred years and I'll still look like I do now, well, maybe dust me off a little. Aaaak!!! and it's better to kill them with cancer? I asked. Had a little run in with those nice folks once. Getting to old for getting into noncence like that anymore.
Sorry getting off topic now I guess but there is a similarity lots of $$$$$$$


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## Alexa (Nov 14, 2004)

I don't like nuts, so I do not need to worry about them.


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## Maledoro (Nov 14, 2004)

Alexa said:
			
		

> I don't like nuts, so I do not need to worry about them.


Some of them are nice people!


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## Alexa (Nov 14, 2004)

I'll do an exception for them.


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## Maryjane (Nov 14, 2004)

_I don't eat nuts either but I think it was Brian said the ingrediance for nuts you will find in other items like diate pop etc. Don't know what else. Very hazordous to people with croans desease, however one spells croans._


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 14, 2004)

Crohn's. 

Is it the ingredient with nuts or aspartame that's supposed to be irritable with Crohen's (and, I presume, forms of Colitis as well).


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## Maledoro (Nov 14, 2004)

I said:
			
		

> "forms of *Colitis* as well"


Are we allowed to used that word, here?


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## Maryjane (Nov 14, 2004)

*"Colitis" Colitis is an intestinal desease I believe and it's something unpleasant so the word can be used but I don't know if you want to think or talk about the end result of colitis * *Yucki!!!!!*


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 14, 2004)

Lol!! I mis-spelled "Crohn's" as "Crohen's". No wonder Maledoro was expecting me to drop another "L" in "Colitis". 

Colitis is a specific and continuous inflammation of the large colon - I was diagnosed with a form of it earlier this year. For the moment it's very mild - but there's a very real danger that it could become much worst - as the inflammation can spread througout the colon, and gradually destroy it.


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## Maledoro (Nov 14, 2004)

Oops! I thought that it was something else...


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## Alexa (Nov 14, 2004)

I'm sorry to hear about that, Brian. I wish you a quick recovery.

Do you have to make drastic dietary changes ? Are you on meds ?


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## Maryjane (Nov 15, 2004)

_Sorry to hear that Brian, may the great spirit shine uppon you . OK I had heard of the word colitise but I guess when I heard it I forgot to stop and listen to what the word was. _


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## littlemissattitude (Nov 15, 2004)

Ouch, Brian.  Doesn't sound like much fun at all. 

As for me, I'm currently sitting here drinking my Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi with...of course, aspartame.  Oh, well.  Don't do it very often, and I can't stand the sodas with actual sugar in them anymore - much too sweet for my taste.


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## blue_cephalopod (Nov 16, 2004)

This article says its genetic whether you like the taste or not and genetic if its harmful to you and everything else is unproven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame

 The link also refers to an EU report(link below) which has some more detail. Aspartame itself it appears isnt absorbed into the blood but its broken down and methanol, aspartic acid and phenyalanine which are absorbed into the blood. Thes are all metabolised quickly. But phenylalanine is the only chemical that you get more than you normally would in food and the methanol concentration is too low to be harmful in average doses.

http://www.greenfacts.org/aspartame/index.htm

 Before i read about it i thought it might be harmful but it seems okay, though methanol was a bit concerning, and the people associated with it on the wikipedia article, like rumsfeld and monsanto. I reckon unless you already have some health problem it isnt necessary to use aspartame if you eat a balanced amount of sugar.


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## littlemissattitude (Nov 17, 2004)

This whole discussion reminds me of when I was in junior high school and an artificial sweetener called cyclomate (sp?) had been introduced, chiefly to sweeten diet sodas.  But it was eventually taken off the market because no one wanted to use products that contained it after a study came out that said that it caused cancer in lab rats.  Well, nobody paid attention to the whole story, which was that for a human to get as much of the product as the amount that caused cancer in the rats, a person would have had to drink some ungodly high amount of soda(in the tens or hundreds of gallons per day) daily for twenty years.

This may or may not be the same kind of situation with aspartame.  However, it really illustrates that the information the media hands out about these kinds of things is rarely complete and often not completely accurate.  Alarmist reports sell papers, and so we get lots of alarmist reports about food and other products.  My theory with aspartame, as with other similar substances, is to be careful, use it sparingly, and check out the actual studies and not just the news reports about the studies.

Just my two cents' worth.


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 17, 2004)

Thanks for the comments, folks - I can't say I'm particularly bothered at the moment. It's more stress related - so maybe it wasn't the best year to go self-employed in marketing!!


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