Artificial Sweeteners good or bad?

I look at it this way: There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to consume aspartame (or any artificial sweetener). Use sugar and count your calories, or use Stevia and don't look back.

I fully believe that a billion people consume artificial sweeteners every day with no measurable side effects. We used to make buildings with asbestos and paint with lead too.

I have been reading lately about the harm artificial sweeteners can do to your body. For example, the chemical aspartame is used in diet coke, Snapple, and other diet/healthy drinks and I have discovered several articles about, when consumed for a long period of time, the substitute builds up inside your system and begins to poison it. In one of the articles, a women had gained exessive weight, though already beinging heavy, and lost the ability of mobility. She was exhausted all of the time and was unable to accomplish simple things like walking or sitting up. She became an awake vegetable. She went to plenty of doctors and stumped them all concerning what was causing her illness. One day her sister called her after reading an article about aspartame and diet drinks like diet coke, dr. pepper, etc. The sister told her to immediatly stop drinking diet cokes. In less than 32 hours the immobile woman could walk again. What had happened was that her body had been slowly poisoned with aspartame.

Aspartame is also known to cause:
blindness in one or both eyes
dizziness
depression
virtigo
seizures
slurring of speech
high blood pressure
hives
gradual weight gain
loss of control of diabetes
exessive thirst
irreversible brain damage
birth defects
lupus
chronic fatigue syndrome
cancer
etc
the list goes on and on

So I was wondering, since I would wish and encourage others to avoid these problems, what artificial sweeteners are "okay" to
use as substitutions for sugar. Is Splenda okay? Sweet n' Low?

Here is a link to one of the websites that confronts and informs readers about aspartame, for credibility purposes.

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

You need to learn so here ya go please read and maybe this might revise your way of thinking. :flowerforyou:

"Also, with the exception of aspartame, all of the sweeteners listed below cannot be broken down by the body. They pass through our systems without being digested so they provide no extra calories."

"As with anything, do not go overboard when you using artificial sweeteners."

Size Up Your Sweetener Options
Don’t know which little packet to choose? Here’s a quick primer on the big three—plus the newcomers stevia and agave nectar. All of them are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but they do vary in flavor and uses, so you may find you need to do a taste test of your own.

Saccharin
Brands: Sweet’N Low and Sweet Twin
Sweetness: 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Some people report a bitter aftertaste.
Safety: First produced in 1879, saccharin is the oldest of the artificial sweeteners. In 1970, a study in rats found that the sugar substitute was associated with bladder tumor growth, resulting in an eat-at-your-own-risk warning on the pink package. Years later, however, the warning was revoked as more than 30 human studies reported no saccharin-tumor connection.
How to cook with it: The Sweet’N Low brand sells packets as well as a bulk version for baking, a liquid formula, and a brown sugar blend. When baking, replace 1 cup of sugar with 24 packets, 2 tablespoons of saccharin liquid, or 1 cup of brown sugar saccharin.

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Aspartame
Brands: Equal, NutraSweet, Natra Taste
Sweetness: 180 to 200 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: There’s no aftertaste associated with aspartame, though some say it has an unnatural flavor.
Safety: Search the Web for aspartame’s side effects and you’ll find stories about its purported link to cancer, dementia, headaches, and depression. Most scientists (as well as the American Diabetes Association) maintain that the powder is a safe alternative to sugar for people with diabetes. One caveat: Aspartame contains phenylalanine, which can be harmful to people with the rare disease phenylketonuria and should be avoided by them.
How to cook with it: High temperatures can diminish aspartame’s sweetness, so even though some brands (like Equal) sell bulk versions, most chefs avoid
baking with them.

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Sucralose
Brand: Splenda
Sweetness: 600 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Though some sugar purists say an aftertaste lingers, most sweetener fans maintain Splenda is the most natural tasting of all.
Safety: Since Splenda is the newest artificial sweetener to hit the market, there are fewer long-term studies of it than of saccharin and aspartame. That said, the FDA says that Splenda is safe.
How to cook with it: Splenda sells various baking products, including a granular version that measures cup for cup with sugar. If you use the half sugar blend or half brown sugar blend, replace a cup of sugar with a half cup of the blend.

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Stevia
Brands: Truvia, PureVia, SweetLeaf, Stevia in the Raw, Sun Crystals sugar-stevia blend
Sweetness: 250 to 300 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Some people say the sweetener derived from the whole leaf of the stevia plant leaves behind a licorice taste. Brands that use a purified portion of the leaf known as rebaudioside A have less of an aftertaste.
Safety: Stevia has been used as a sweetener in Japan for years, but the FDA had previously banned its use because of reports of reproductive problems in lab animals. In late 2008, the FDA approved the purified part of the stevia leaf for American consumption. Look for that form—rebaudioside A—in the list of ingredients when purchasing stevia.
How to cook with it: Each stevia brand recommends its own sugar-to-stevia ratio (so check your brand’s Web site), and some brands sell the sweetener in liquid or bulk form. A good start is to replace a cup of sugar with 24 packets of stevia.

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Agave Nectar
Brands: Wholesome Sweeteners, Madhava, and Volcanic Nectar, among others
Sweetness: Somewhat sweeter than sugar, so use between a quarter and an eighth less agave nectar than if you were cooking with regular sugar.
Taste: The lighter, golden version tastes syrupy while the darker, amber variety has a more intense honey flavor.
Safety: Agave nectar isn’t carbohydrate or calorie free—it has the same amount of calories and carbs as sugar. But since it’s a food with a low glycemic index, the syrup won’t raise your blood glucose levels as much as sugar or honey do. Plus, it’s sweeter than sugar, so you’ll use less.
How to cook with it: Sweetening with agave nectar is simple if you’re swirling it into coffee. Things get more complicated when you start baking with the syrup. To adjust a recipe, replace each cup of sugar with two-thirds to three-quarters cup of agave nectar, then reduce all other liquids in the recipe by a quarter. Lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent burning, and shorten the cooking time on cookies by 3 to 5 minutes and cakes by 7 to 10 minutes.


http://forecast.diabetes.org/magazine/food-thought/size-your-sweetener-options?page=1

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/artificial-sweeteners/?keymatch=aspartame

Artificial anything is pretty disgusting to me. Aspartame breaks down into methyl alcohol (methanol), which the body converts into formaldehyde. This is well known science, no one refutes this fact. Certain studies (namely those paid for by Monsanto, the company who makes NutraSweet) are the ones that find "no evidence" that aspartame causes harm. However, there are many more studies that link it with ill effects on the body. The debate lies in the dosage and whether or not formaldeyde build-up occurss in the body. A formaldehyde build up would absolutely cause all of the symptoms you listed, but supposedly it doesn't build up in the body, you just process it like any other toxin. I have done A LOT of reading on this subject and have steered clear of artificial sweetners for nearly 6 years now. Not only did most of my health problems simply vanish, I also dropped 30 lbs without changing anything else about my diet. I guess until studies aren't controlled by manufacturer's we won't ever know the difference, but it's not a risk that I'M willing to take. Personally, I really liked what someone had to say about cutting it and sugar both out and training your taste buds to not crave sweet things. it's better in the long run. I personally try to stay away from anything artificial ESPECIALLY sweetners and food dyes. If you feel the need for something sweet it's best to use a natural sweetner like coconut sugar, honey or blackstrap molasses. Using regular refined sugar has the drawbacks of causing osteoperosis among other things because the body has to draw components out your bones to process it as a usable molecule where as most of the natural sweetners are already complete and also help to keep your blood suger steady instead of spiking it the way table sugar does.

and I would just like to add that for the people on here who keeps griping about "scientific evidence" blah blah blah... please take a look at who pays for the studies. and let's not forgot what tobacco companies did for years. Think about how many years it took us to realizes (or maybe admit) that lead in paint and gasoline was harmful. take a look at who the members of the FDA were at the time aspartame was approved for human consumption, and which companies THEY were affiliated with. The food industry is run like a business with the purpose of PROFIT not the purpose of people's health in mind. Just saying.

Clinical studies by the AMA, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Nutrition, ADA and others aren't bought off.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Just sayin' There's a difference between studies of peer review than those that are reported and paid for by the company selling a product.
And if you've read about formaldehyde, you WOULD know you get more from "natural fruits" so the build up you speak of would be accelerated as long as you kept eating them.:embarassed: More so where is a link showing that sugar causes osteoporosis? Please don't make statements that aren't true.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Fake sugar is fake.

I'll take the real thing in smaller quantities, or just go without altogether, thanks.

Rewind this same discussion a few hundred years and it's "don't be silly, mercury in makeup isn't bad for you!"

Artificial Sweeteners are really bad. Check their chemical composition and you will know why ?

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/hidden_dangers.htm

Artificial Sweeteners are really bad. Check their chemical composition and you will know why ?

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/hidden_dangers.htm

More hoopla with no clinical references to back them. What happened to people actually doing research?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I look at it this way: There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to consume aspartame (or any artificial sweetener). Use sugar and count your calories, or use Stevia and don't look back.

But the products I like don't use Stevia and I like to drink lots of sweet tasting drinks. That's the reason I consume it.

We used to make buildings with asbestos and paint with lead too.

That argument could be used about anything.
Potatoes, for instance.

You're a nurse, and your using huffpo, livestrong.com and that mercola article that was shot down as your sources.....and then telling us to open our eyes and do our research? Seriously?

Put simply in laymen terms watch out for certain web site scare MONGERS.. Most seem to be from extremest's holistic web sites that have no real studies to back up their claims. They try to trick and scare the feeble minded thus in turn having those feeble minded people spread their garbage nonsense claims. Do not believe every thing you read and if some thing does interest you then find and read the real research studies behind it and make your opinions based off of those.

Sure, real life research has its place. However, what about the millions of people who consume these sweeteners with no ill effects? Even if I were to go with anecdotal evidence over peer reviewed studies, the vast majority of anecdotal evidence points to artificial sweeteners being perfectly safe.

Most people that claim to have reactions to artificial sweeteners list off the exact same symptoms of any other food allergy. It's not that the artificial sweeteners are unhealthy, some people are just allergic to them. No different than people being allergic to peanuts, strawberries, soy, shellfish, or any other food.