Aspartame's effects on the body

[Lamb]

Stravinsk is a strong proponent against Aspartame and rightfully so.

Diet pop (I'm from the midwest and we call it pop!) contains aspartame, at least the ones sold in my area. When we hear about the effects of Aspartame on the body we tend to believe that it's usually when a person consumes copious amounts of it yet that is not the case.

For probably 15 years or so I've had leukoplakia underneath one side of my tongue. I always assumed it was from my nickel allergy and the fact that I have dental fillings on that side of my mouth (I actually have fillings on both sides) that aren't smooth enough. I assumed that the rough edges somehow were nicking my tongue and causing these white patches to form.

Since Leukoplakia is pre-cancerous (not necessarily turning into cancer every instance though), my previous dentists have photographed the lesions in case there were changes so a biopsy could be ordered. When I moved 3 years ago I noticed the lesions had grown and my dentist here is tracking it.

I am not a huge pop drinker and had mainly consumed 5 cans a week but this past summer I consumed 2-3 cans per day!!

When I stopped working I decided to stop drinking pop altogether.

Here's what happened...the leukoplakia is disappearing at a fast rate! :thumbsup: I am thrilled by this but it has me wondering what the effects that aspartame had on the rest of my body...and is it now healing as well?

Thanks, Strav for keeping the notion in my head about how harmful aspartame is. I appreciate you telling me about it and now I realize that even in small portions it is dangerous.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Stravinsk is a strong proponent against Aspartame and rightfully so.

Diet pop (I'm from the midwest and we call it pop!) contains aspartame, at least the ones sold in my area. When we hear about the effects of Aspartame on the body we tend to believe that it's usually when a person consumes copious amounts of it yet that is not the case.

For probably 15 years or so I've had leukoplakia underneath one side of my tongue. I always assumed it was from my nickel allergy and the fact that I have dental fillings on that side of my mouth (I actually have fillings on both sides) that aren't smooth enough. I assumed that the rough edges somehow were nicking my tongue and causing these white patches to form.

Since Leukoplakia is pre-cancerous (not necessarily turning into cancer every instance though), my previous dentists have photographed the lesions in case there were changes so a biopsy could be ordered. When I moved 3 years ago I noticed the lesions had grown and my dentist here is tracking it.

I am not a huge pop drinker and had mainly consumed 5 cans a week but this past summer I consumed 2-3 cans per day!!

When I stopped working I decided to stop drinking pop altogether.

Here's what happened...the leukoplakia is disappearing at a fast rate! :thumbsup: I am thrilled by this but it has me wondering what the effects that aspartame had on the rest of my body...and is it now healing as well?

Thanks, Strav for keeping the notion in my head about how harmful aspartame is. I appreciate you telling me about it and now I realize that even in small portions it is dangerous.

I prefer water to pop. So I drink pop only rarely. The sugary kind tastes better anyway ... artificial sweeteners may make for low calorie drinks but they always taste a bit odd and probably are bad for you.

 

[Rens]

I used to take it a lot when I thought I was too fat. Everything light or with aspartame. Then I stepped over to normal sugar, because my sister's ex who's a doctor said the body needs sugar and will get it anyway, so after your tea with aspartame you'll take a Mars or something.
Since then I don't take it anymore, didn't have to diet anymore either. Last year I read on Facebook that it's not good and warned my parents. You also can get depressed from it.

 

[Lamb]

It never made me depressed. I'm almost always a very happy person

 

[Stravinsk]

Thank you, Lam, for sharing your experience. I'm glad my hyper anti-aspartame message perked some ears to listen and hopefully some others investigated for their own benefit and anyone else they could convince.

That being said - both refined sugars and aspartame are both bad. They are bad for different reasons and in degree - but they are both either non-food or once food.
I started researching Aspartame back in 2003 when it was clear that the mass in C's head was a serious brain tumor (a biopsy analysis). The information I got at the time was mixed, some research gave it a clean bill and other research showed numerous problems caused by the substance - specifically - neurological problems, including brain tumors. The main difference I found in the studies I could find was primarily

Funding.

The studies showing no problems were funded or partially funded in some way by the patent owners or manufacturers, while the independent studies consistently showed numerous health problems associated with it. It's not surprising that this was so - where there is money and monopoly involved - things can easily become skewed or misrepresented, and yet claim to have a rigorous and open testing process using the best science.

Now I don't believe that this substance *alone* caused C's tumor, but I do believe it played a significant role. Her father (who is not her biological father - she was adopted), also died of a brain tumor - but when he was much older. He was a regular consumer of Aspartame as refined sugar was off the diet because he was diabetic. His diet otherwise was healthier (had to be), and he died as an elderly man.

Even though Aspartame is a horrible sugar-replacement - refined sugar itself is not a health product. It was once a food that became a non-food through the refining process. The main problem with refined sugar is that it's refined - and from whatever source it is refined from - it lacks the minerals and vitamins that the source provided - because of that refining process.

Rens mentioned that the body needs sugar. This is true - but it does not need what *we* would call sugar. If one eats a bowl of brown rice the body will convert this rice into blood sugar - or glucose - over time. All starches are converted to blood sugar in the body - some faster than others (a piece of white bread vs a piece of wholemeal), some with enzymes included and some not (sprouted grain vs un-sprouted, raw vegetables and fruits vs heated ones).
One of the biggest bad points about refined sugars (including fructose or fruit sugar), again - is that they are refined. That means they are extracted from the natural source and consumed. This is not what nature has intended and it inevitably causes problems - minerals and vitamins that are in the whole foods are still used by the body to process the sugars or starches - and unless they are getting replaced regularly by some other food or foods, then a person can start getting deficient in them - and that means health problems down the road.

By the way - this applies to home brewing as well. I use a mixture of malt, malt *extract, and dextrose (a refined sugar). These are converted to alcohol of course - but even in my more natural than commercial beer brews there is a lack of vitamins and minerals that would be present to a greater degree in full grain, or all grain - brewing. So I haven't gotten all the (refined)sugar out myself.

With regard to sweetening things naturally - I would highly suggest this site - which I only recently became aware of.

http://www.21stcenturysimpleliving.com/

It has some great ideas for natural, unrefined sweeteners that one can make (and store for long periods) at home. These will require a dehydrator, however - otherwise there are a number of products on the market that one can buy that are powdered unrefined sugars made in various ways - including commercial dehydration and/or freeze drying various fruits.

When I get a better dehydrator, I'm going to dehydrate some watermelon for sweetener - a recent suggestion given by the site.

Getting back to the theme of this thread, a good rule of thumb(which I admittedly have not fully applied with regards to refined sugars) is:

Aspartame and other chemical sweeteners: Never eat. Ever.

Refined sugars: Only when nothing natural is available

Whole, un-refined sugars as from fruits or flowers: Good for you in moderation and safe to eat unless a specific condition (such as a yeast infection) requires short term abstinence.

 

[MoreCoffee]

It never made me depressed. I'm almost always a very happy person

me too, a follower of (the imaginary) our lady of perpetual joy

 

[Josiah]

Wine! Beer! Scotch! Undoctored Iced Tea! WATER!

 

[MoreCoffee]

Aspartame!

 

[Lamb]

Look, it's a monster! Can't you see it?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Look, it's a monster! Can't you see it?

Reaching out to grab you with that scary OCH[SUB]3[/SUB]

 

[Rens]

Aspartame!

Nice Halloween costume!

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Well since I am a diabetic I can only drink diet, unless Jordan lets me treat myself. I do drink sweet teas that probably have regular sugar and its okay for my levels. Its not like what soda or candy does to me.

 

[Lamb]

Well since I am a diabetic I can only drink diet, unless Jordan lets me treat myself. I do drink sweet teas that probably have regular sugar and its okay for my levels. Its not like what soda or candy does to me.

I'd avoid the diet drinks even though that limits you more. To see what it did to my body and now how my body is healing is just a strange sight! Even diet gum contributed to my problem!!!

I mostly drink water since we have the best tasting well water here but I also like to drink milk and I bought pineapple juice cans for when I need something different.

 

[tango]

Well since I am a diabetic I can only drink diet, unless Jordan lets me treat myself. I do drink sweet teas that probably have regular sugar and its okay for my levels. Its not like what soda or candy does to me.

Or get used to the taste of unsweetened things.

In years gone by I could gain 10 pounds or more during a 3-week trip to the US. Once I switched from drinking root beer to drinking unsweetened iced tea that stopped. When the waitress keeps bringing me more root beer it's easy to go through half a gallon of it or more, and that potentially means taking in half a pound of sugar in an evening. If anything I find unsweetened tea more refreshing and there's no sugar in it at all.

One article I read about artificial sweeteners in general (I can't remember where, so take this is anecdata rather than a formal medical study) suggested that they can be even worse for diabetics because essentially they trick your body into thinking there is sugar when there isn't. If the body tries to produce insulin to deal with the sugar when there isn't actually any sugar the outcome may be undesirable. For what it's worth the concept sounds plausible to me, although I don't have the medical training for my thoughts to be of any more value than anyone else who posts on the internet.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well since I am a diabetic I can only drink diet, unless Jordan lets me treat myself. I do drink sweet teas that probably have regular sugar and its okay for my levels. Its not like what soda or candy does to me.

Drink water, it is better

 

[MS140ukn]

oh you woudnt believe how much i used in the past. id add several packets to almost everything i ate and cooked. but as of now, ive scaled back using it. -to only one or two packets once every 3-5 weeks. iam trying out natural agave syrup hoping its properties are ok and safe.

 

[Stravinsk]

By the way peeps...

I read once that Aspartame kills ants - and then someone tested it and it didn't work (mythbusted! - or so one might think). Ants will not touch Aspartame that is by itself - but they will eat it if you mix it with some sugary syrup. I tried this (can't remember the ratio, but I added quite a generous percentage of Aspartame to sugar syrup) - and the ants did eat it, and they did die. It took a couple of days - but they did die.

I've since re-labeled my Aspartame (bought specifically for this experiment) - ANT POISON - because that is what it is.

 

[MoreCoffee]

oh you woudnt believe how much i used in the past. id add several packets to almost everything i ate and cooked. but as of now, ive scaled back using it. -to only one or two packets once every 3-5 weeks. iam trying out natural agave syrup hoping its properties are ok and safe.

I use sugar when I want to sweeten something that is not sweet already. I only rarely sweeten things. Coffee and cocoa maybe lemon juice - these are the sorts of things that I may sweeten if they need it. More often than not I use these things as flavourings in cooking and then they do not need sweetening. Cooked Onions, carrots, and several vegetables are sweet themselves and fruit is sweet too so I prefer the sweetness that is packed into foods to added sweetness. But I do eat some pre-sweetened things like chocolate and the sweetener used with those things is either sugar or glucose & fructose mixed.

 

[Ruth]

When I want a little bit of sweetness in my coffee I use a bit of honey. I am stopping the diet cokes after reading this thread. They taste gross any ways!! Ewww...:crying2:

 

[Lamb]

When I want a little bit of sweetness in my coffee I use a bit of honey. I am stopping the diet cokes after reading this thread. They taste gross any ways!! Ewww...:crying2:

Some of them were pretty tasty like the caffeine free Dr. Pepper and the Diet Canada Dry ginger ale. I really don't miss them since I know the damage they've done!!!