Should I eliminate aspartame from my life? My Doctor says yes!
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I think it's going to vary from individual to individual. I drink 1-2 cans of Diet Mt Dew a day and since I've joined MFP almost 3 weeks ago, I'm down 10.8 lbs, and I lost 8 lbs prior to joining. Some people are more sensitive to aspartame than others. I've tried cutting it out completely before and I saw no difference in my weight loss progress. I was simply just testing the theory, but I've also never truly had a stall. I'm also on a low carb diet and I see weight loss every day, even if it's only 0.2 lbs. When I first started my weight loss journey I was 240 lbs and now I'm a few lbs away from breaking into the 160's. The entire time I've drank diet pop or sugar free drink mixes that have aspartame in it.0
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lauraesh0384 wrote: »I think it's going to vary from individual to individual. I drink 1-2 cans of Diet Mt Dew a day and since I've joined MFP almost 3 weeks ago, I'm down 10.8 lbs, and I lost 8 lbs prior to joining. Some people are more sensitive to aspartame than others. I've tried cutting it out completely before and I saw no difference in my weight loss progress. I was simply just testing the theory, but I've also never truly had a stall. I'm also on a low carb diet and I see weight loss every day, even if it's only 0.2 lbs. When I first started my weight loss journey I was 240 lbs and now I'm a few lbs away from breaking into the 160's. The entire time I've drank diet pop or sugar free drink mixes that have aspartame in it.
Good post, congrats on your weight loss so far
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Years ago I have had a physician tell me that aspartame attacks the surface of the brain over time. I avoid it like the plague.0
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galgenstrick wrote: »I don't consume aspartame or MSG because both of those make me feel like crap, not exactly sure why.
There have been studies about aspartame and weight gain, and I've seen it blown way out of proportion. For example, here's an article titled "Artificial Sweeteners Cause Greater Weight Gain than Sugar, Yet Another Study Reveals"
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx
It states that aspartame makes you fat............. Then you look at the study they reference and the study is done on rats, no humans, and states:
"It has been suggested that the use of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) can lead to weight gain, but evidence regarding their real effect in body weight and satiety is still inconclusive."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666312004138
I see a lot of doctors get lazy and read these articles, but not the actual research and give a bunch of false information to their patients.
Bet me to those links. Just want to add that some people that were diagnosed with MS actually have been taking too much aspartame. One of them was a close friend of mine. She drank about 5 litres of diet coke a day, eat mostly processed foods and take away. She also couldn't get pregnant. Doctors asked her to cut down on diet coke and eat more home cooked food but not to do both at the same time, do it gradually. They re did the test for MS and no MS!! She also got pregnant and had a baby. That was before she changed her food habits.0 -
maineapple wrote: »Years ago I have had a physician tell me that aspartame attacks the surface of the brain over time. I avoid it like the plague.
The physician that told me this was a radiologist who reads x-rays and all other types of imaging studies. At the time I was working as an MRI technologist so was scanning people's brains daily. It gave me the creeps and scared me. We only have one brain so we better take good care of it! Lol.0 -
maineapple wrote: »maineapple wrote: »Years ago I have had a physician tell me that aspartame attacks the surface of the brain over time. I avoid it like the plague.
The physician that told me this was a radiologist who reads x-rays and all other types of imaging studies. At the time I was working as an MRI technologist so was scanning people's brains daily. It gave me the creeps and scared me. We only have one brain so we better take good care of it! Lol.
Did this doctor give you any legitimate research to back up his/her claim?
eta: the neurologist David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain, says it's evil gluten that's rotting our brains, not aspartame. And round and round we go
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galgenstrick wrote: »I don't consume aspartame or MSG because both of those make me feel like crap, not exactly sure why.
There have been studies about aspartame and weight gain, and I've seen it blown way out of proportion. For example, here's an article titled "Artificial Sweeteners Cause Greater Weight Gain than Sugar, Yet Another Study Reveals"
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx
It states that aspartame makes you fat............. Then you look at the study they reference and the study is done on rats, no humans, and states:
"It has been suggested that the use of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) can lead to weight gain, but evidence regarding their real effect in body weight and satiety is still inconclusive."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666312004138
I see a lot of doctors get lazy and read these articles, but not the actual research and give a bunch of false information to their patients.
Bet me to those links. Just want to add that some people that were diagnosed with MS actually have been taking too much aspartame. One of them was a close friend of mine. She drank about 5 litres of diet coke a day, eat mostly processed foods and take away. She also couldn't get pregnant. Doctors asked her to cut down on diet coke and eat more home cooked food but not to do both at the same time, do it gradually. They re did the test for MS and no MS!! She also got pregnant and had a baby. That was before she changed her food habits.
Good grief-that's 14 cans of soda a day! I don't know how you could physically even do that-you'd spend the whole day in the bathroom peeing
Yeah, anything in extreme amounts is going to cause issues-you can die drinking too much water for example. But you can't compare what your friend was doing, with someone who's drinking diet soda in moderation. I drink 2-4 cans of diet soda a day and have had no issues at all. 0 -
@Sarasmaintaining, just what I was pointing out. Anything that is taken into extreme quantities can do harm. I try not too take too much aspartame and MSG but its in everything and under different names. It can even be found in protein shakes. I hear people saying they only give their kids water cos there is sweeteners in everything. What happened to milk and natural fruit juices?
Oh a little of anything doesn't hurt!
OP cardio..... is for heart, diet....... is for food. They dont deal with the same organs or issues facing the organs. Advise do your own research. If its just a little then its ok but a lot........well try it and see for yourself.0 -
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Sarasmaintaining wrote: »maineapple wrote: »maineapple wrote: »Years ago I have had a physician tell me that aspartame attacks the surface of the brain over time. I avoid it like the plague.
The physician that told me this was a radiologist who reads x-rays and all other types of imaging studies. At the time I was working as an MRI technologist so was scanning people's brains daily. It gave me the creeps and scared me. We only have one brain so we better take good care of it! Lol.
Did this doctor give you any legitimate research to back up his/her claim?
No. This was a while back, but I respect this physician's opinion because he was avoiding it himself at that time and he was very well read, highly educated, and a very experienced radiologist. Similar to Sara's above post, the other radiologists that I was working with at the time (same hospital) also said that there had been a sizable increase in positive MRI scans demonstrating plaques on the brain that resembled MS plaques. The radiologists (MD's) indicated that this was not MS, but the patients had similar symptoms as MS and had been linked to the increase in consumption of aspartame.
This information came from informal discussions with these doctors while looking over MRI images, but the sources of the information were not shared in these discussions. I would imagine if someone had some time and particular interest in this topic, researching it could yield some more specific findings etc.
There is so much in the literature such as to avoid this, avoid that...and for some things, I am not willing to give them up regardless of what they say (e.g., real butter for example). But for something like aspartame, that could potentially be affecting my brain, for me that was an easy one to avoid. I have stayed away from it for 20+ years. I don't care if nothing is actually found to be wrong with it over time, personally I am not willing to wait and see when it comes to my brain.
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@Sarasmaintaining, just what I was pointing out. Anything that is taken into extreme quantities can do harm. I try not too take too much aspartame and MSG but its in everything and under different names. It can even be found in protein shakes. I hear people saying they only give their kids water cos there is sweeteners in everything. What happened to milk and natural fruit juices?
Oh a little of anything doesn't hurt!
OP cardio..... is for heart, diet....... is for food. They dont deal with the same organs or issues facing the organs. Advise do your own research. If its just a little then its ok but a lot........well try it and see for yourself.
Ah, gotcha 0 -
YayFoodYayFood wrote: »isulo_kura wrote: »get a new Doctor one who understands science would be useful.
I would advise the opposite OP. Keep your doctor.
"Understands science" seems to have different meanings depending on who you are. As a general observation, I see many people on here throw phrases around like "because science" or "do you science?" when referring to reductionist principles that they learned in grade school or high school or first year university that conveniently explains all the facts of life and allows people to high five others on the forum when "debunking" others with substantial professional expertise in health care who have responsibilities and mandates to be up to date on current evidence/science far beyond the level of those who are high fiving.
Instead of using the suggested reductionist principles to make your decisions OP, I suggest that it is better to ASK your doctor why he/she advised what he/she advised. Ask him or her to show you the evidence, or to recount any experience with patients that may have led them to prescribe such advice. In other words, at least get more info from this doctor/source that may in fact be willing to keep an open mind regarding emerging science.
Just realize that those reductionist principles we all learn at the basic levels of education are meant as a platform to build additional knowledge upon. They are NOT by any means a solution to problems in the real world.
Or at the very least, when you see someone on a forum throwing down a "because science", ask them what THEIR working knowledge/expertise is about science, and how much clinical relevance it has in the real world.
nu uh cuz science0 -
maineapple wrote: »Sarasmaintaining wrote: »maineapple wrote: »maineapple wrote: »Years ago I have had a physician tell me that aspartame attacks the surface of the brain over time. I avoid it like the plague.
The physician that told me this was a radiologist who reads x-rays and all other types of imaging studies. At the time I was working as an MRI technologist so was scanning people's brains daily. It gave me the creeps and scared me. We only have one brain so we better take good care of it! Lol.
Did this doctor give you any legitimate research to back up his/her claim?
No. This was a while back, but I respect this physician's opinion because he was avoiding it himself at that time and he was very well read, highly educated, and a very experienced radiologist. Similar to Sara's above post, the other radiologists that I was working with at the time (same hospital) also said that there had been a sizable increase in positive MRI scans demonstrating plaques on the brain that resembled MS plaques. The radiologists (MD's) indicated that this was not MS, but the patients had similar symptoms as MS and had been linked to the increase in consumption of aspartame.
This information came from informal discussions with these doctors while looking over MRI images, but the sources of the information were not shared in these discussions. I would imagine if someone had some time and particular interest in this topic, researching it could yield some more specific findings etc.
There is so much in the literature such as to avoid this, avoid that...and for some things, I am not willing to give them up regardless of what they say (e.g., real butter for example). But for something like aspartame, that could potentially be affecting my brain, for me that was an easy one to avoid. I have stayed away from it for 20+ years. I don't care if nothing is actually found to be wrong with it over time, personally I am not willing to wait and see when it comes to my brain.
I would be curious to know why the doctor thought it was due to aspartame and not a million other things? I have done a bit of looking into this subject and I couldn't find any legitimate research that said humans that consume aspartame are at a greater risk for health issues?
I edited my post after you quoted it, but I recently read Grain Brain, written by a neurologist. He believes its gluten, even gluten in things like whole grains, that's the cause for all our brain issues. So, yeah who do we actually believe?0 -
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Here's some actual analysis based on actual scientific study.
examine.com/faq/does-diet-soda-inhibit-fat-loss.html
examine.com/faq/is-diet-soda-bad-for-you.html
examine.com/faq/does-aspartame-increase-appetite.html
And, to be in before anyone cries "but the soda industry shills", the same site has this: v6.examinecdn.com/erd/sneakpeek7.pdf
Which is a long diatribe calling out food industries rigging research, in particular, Coca Cola!0 -
This, so much. Adding you to my mental list of pro-science posters / posters I like on the MFP boards.MercuryBlue wrote: »That's the exact same logic anti-vaxxers use, and it's the reason why kids are dying in first-world countries of preventable diseases. If the science isn't there to support it, I don't believe it. In this case, it's not even a matter of "we don't know because there haven't been enough studies done"; to the contrary, people have actively been studying the effects of aspartame for over three decades now and STILL haven't found it to be harmful. If that's not convincing enough, I don't know what is.0 -
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Artificial sugar is poison to our bodies....proven link to Dementia and other brain function , the list goes on... study up!0
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I don't consume it anymore because I react to it. I have no idea if it slows weight loss though.0
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What about the natural ones like Stevia? What common principle do they all share, since there are several? What is the causative mechanism, beyond any kind of correlation the "proven link" might show. What was the methodology of the "proven link"? What was their number of subjects and their p-value? Was the study designed to look specifically at causes of dementia, or did the study look at people who use artificial sweetners and p-value farm the heck out of them?Artificial sugar is poison to our bodies....proven link to Dementia and other brain function , the list goes on... study up!0 -
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stevencloser wrote: »campjackson wrote: »Hello Everyone!
I just got back from seeing my cardiologist with a glowing report that I am praising the Lord for giving me my health back. During our conversation, my Doctor noted that I had lost weight. I told her that I had been on Nutri System...and that I really LOVE the frozen food plan! She said that Nutri System was a good way to lose weight...but that I needed to watch the labels to make sure that there were no Aspartame in the ingredients. She went on to say that Aspartame usage will result in very slow weight loss...or NONE at all...and that I should stop the Diet Coke as it was full of Aspartame. Right then and there...I swore off "pop" for ever!
But when I got home...I noticed that almost all the diet foods and drinks have Aspartame in them. Now I am wondering what I am going to eat. And I need a second opinion. Any help would be so appreciated! Roland
Don't take nutrition advice from a cardiologist just like you shouldn't take heart advice from a nutritionist.
This ^ ^
As far as aspartame (and other sugar substitutes) goes, if it bothers you or you are sensitive to it, you should limit or avoid it. Otherwise, go ahead (but I do believe in moderation in all things, including sugar substitutes). There is no credible evidence that it is harmful to the general public or inhibits weight loss.
+1 for common sense!
I cut back on diet soda b/c it makes me feel jittery and sick to my stomach, but if you don't have any ill effects, ignore your cardiologist on this bogus advice. I still add fake sugar (Splenda, Nutrasweet, Equal) to my coffee and that neither makes me feel bad nor does it affect my ability to lose weight.
That being said, eating foods w/ fewer, simpler ingredients can't be a bad thing. I try to look at labels for this... If you must use prepared meals b/c you can't cook or can't portion effectively, there are some good prepared foods out there such as Amy's (link).0 -
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