ASPARTAME.....Good or bad for you?

DangerMouse7

Aspartame is broken down into two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. These amino acids are found in chicken and bananas naturally. Methanol is a digestive byproduct of aspartame and that's also in certain fruits/fruit juices.

Aspartame is not good or bad. It just is. There are some people who get headaches from aspartame and if you're one of these people you should obviously not consume it. If you're NOT one of these people then the dosage levels at which anyone would experience negative effects from aspartame, are so high that you'd have to consume a BUTTLOAD of it to have problems.

In short, enjoy your diet soda if it doesn't give you headaches.

^^^^This is the correct answer.
Also a very small percentage of people are unable to process the byproducts, hence why there is a warning label in large letters stating CONTAINS PHENYLKETONURICS.

Seajolly

There is no way that an artificial sweetener would be GOOD for you... just saying. Eat natural - it's the best 'diet' for you!

NyimaR

No joke, aspartame can activate cancer hormones.Use Stevia instead,a plant,all natural.

Evidence?

That would be lovely. When making dramatic statements like 'aspartame is poison' and 'aspartame can activate cancer hormones' it is good to be able to provide peer reviewed scientific studies, otherwise it is fear mongering.

Aspartame causes female pattern baldness.

Source please..

http://www.hair-lossvitamins.com/Causes-Of-Baldness-The-Food-You-Need-To-Avoid.html

In a previous article, I listed white sugar as one of the causes of baldness. Another sweetener that is actually worse than the one I just mentioned is aspartame. Not only does it aggravate hair loss “better” than white sugar, but studies have linked it to cancer and a number of other disorders as well.

BOOM. Proof you can find some whack-job internet source to support any made-up bullsh!t claim.

Sounds legit to me.

It's not a patch on Dihydrogen monoxide though - you should read some of the stuff that's been involved in. http://www.dhmo.org/research.html
And it's in so many different types of food! ;-)

baptiste565

which do you think causes more health problems in the world the over use of sugar or over use of aspartame

Robin_Bin

Extreme statements tend to be oversimplified and incorrect.

Hemlock and cyanide are natural. The thing about foods we consider "natural" is that they've been "tested" over centuries. As someone else pointed out, bread, vitamins and many medicines are not "natural" in the sense that they require human processing. You can't just pick them off the tree. And many people have bad reactions or allergies to natural foods that can be "picked right off the tree" -- ask anyone with nut allergies.

That said, one of the problems with processed foods and ingredients is that the testing before widespread release is fairly limited. (As an aside, did you know that one of the things that early "home economics" courses used to teach was tests people could do to see if their food had been adulterated. For the most part, government agencies and labeling laws make that unnecessary in modern, industrialized countries.)

Many things cause headaches, migraines, neurological and digestive issues. So whether or not aspartame causes these problems for you, cutting it out may not completely resolve those issues.

For me, aspartame causes problems. It isn't the only cause of my migraines. But it will definitely trigger them. I have several long stories with accidental, "blind" tests that I won't go into here, but enough to be sure it's not just psychosomatic. (Other artificial sweeteners have different problems for me, like a nasty aftertaste, but so does Stevia, so I stick to sugar and honey for those few things where I want to add sweetener.)

As others have pointed out, these ingredients are in many prepared foods. In addition to food and drink, they're in other things. Check your toothpaste. The most popular brands in the U.S. have artificial sweeteners, usually saccharine. (Other toothpastes without those sweeteners taste just fine. They're just harder to find.) Some aspirin tablets have saccharine, which also triggers headaches for some. Talk about building in a need for your product! Many products that (in my opinion) don't really need sweetening have one or more sweeteners.

As with many other fitness questions, you need to read the label, educate yourself, check your body's reaction and decide what works best for you. Good scientific research is part of the education process. It helps sort superstition from supported theory. But even if the research shows that X works for 95% of the population, you could be the one out of 20 people where X doesn't work. So learn about your body using the information from other sources to choose some of the most likely options for being healthier.

Almost everything is bad for you when you have too much of it -- food, exercise, rest -- all necessary, but too much can cause problems. (See the results of dihydrogen monoxide referred to earlier - http://www.dhmo.org/research.html.) So even if your body can tolerate a bit of aspartame everyday, I suspect that hundreds of grams of it won't be healthy.

Finally to answer the original poster's question, aspartame is bad for me. I want clear labeling, so I can avoid it. But your mileage may vary.

(Edited to fix typo and neurological to the list of possible reactions.)

Summerful

I honestly drink diet coke 1-2 maybe more a day and never have any headaches or stomach aches. Everybody's body is different, try having something else to replace it for 3 days and the result might be better for your body. It could be the caffeine or something else, just make sure you get lots of water too That might help... other than that I'd check it out with a doctor.

monicalosesweight

ya lets not get into that I am not up for a debate. I knew someone would come back with this

I agree with this. There are people here who adore the synthetic sugars. Luckily, this isn't a debate on whether it's good or bad chemically; basically, it's whether it can cause headaches or allergic reactions. Yes. It can. My mom can't have any of it as it gives her heart palpitations.

Luckily, there are other options now such as Sweetleaf (get the original which is now processed in a special plant using water and not chemicals to draw out the sweetener) and even Nectresse which comes from Monk Fruit. I believe there are even sugary drinks made with Sweetleaf. Keep in mind, if you're allergic to Ragweed, you may be allergic to sweetleaf. That's why I ended up with Nectresse as my sweetener.

Technically, the only way to determine if you're having an issue is to go cold turkey.

Also, you could be deficient in Magnesium. I've read a lot of articles that say people today are not getting enough in their diets and that triggers migraine's and headaches. I've been using it and my migraine's have vanished. I know others who have done the same. Granted, my household water is a water softener system and that strips both calcium and magnesium from our water which could explain it.

Robin_Bin

Oh, and back to your original post... to try to figure out what's causing all those headaches, lots of people suggest keeping a headache log. You could use MFP for that. Add it as a category or in the notes. Describe them and try to figure out what kind of headaches you have -- migraines (there's more than one type), sinus, muscular, etc. Some other causes to explore are
* menstrual cycle and/or hormones (especially migraines can be tied to hormones)
* too much or not enough exercise
* food allergies
* other allergies
* dehydration (even minor dehydration that isn't enough to be bad in other ways)
* alcohol
* caffeine or caffeine withdrawal (caffeine can trigger a migraine, but it can also help alleviate one that's starting)
* sulfites and tannins - found in multiple foods
* stress
* low levels of certain nutrients - check magnesium, B vitamins, copper
Good luck! You shouldn't have to suffer through multiple headaches a week. (And recent research indicates that migraines can actually trigger more migraines, so if you have them, it's best to break the cycle early.) Check with your doctor, but over time I've learned more through my own research and alternative medical sources, such as nutritionists and chiropractors. (Found a really useful supplement that's mostly vitamin B through my chiropractor. It takes a bit longer to work than over-the-counter pain killers, but helps me avoid the "bounce-back" effects.)
I wish I'd known some of what I now know about how to avoid headaches and migraines decades ago!

Oh, I forgot on my list of possible causes...
* MSG (which has many other names when added to food and drink)
* not enough omega 3
* eyestrain
* too much time at lit screen (computer, tv, game system, other electronics)

MissFit0101

Mmm aspartame!

cottoncloud

No joke, aspartame can activate cancer hormones.Use Stevia instead,a plant,all natural.

Or just get used to the natural, unsweetened taste of things.
I don't use sugar, stevia or any other sweetener on things anymore.
I have made myself get used to the taste of it and now I actually prefer everything unsweetened.

THIS^ can't stress this enough