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

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  • JewelsinBigD
    JewelsinBigD Posts: 661 Member
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    oops
  • JewelsinBigD
    JewelsinBigD Posts: 661 Member
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    Bad. Anything tampered with by scientists in a lab is not good for our bodies

    What about vitamins? How about medicine?


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

    I am happy to entertain your claim that aspartame is bad, but until you provide any evidence you're just being alarmist.
    And even though the burden of proof isn't on me, here's some leisure reading:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828671
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12180494
    You sound like my husband...anytime he hears anyone say "chemicals are bad" he loves to remind them that they are just a bag of chemicals...
  • shanice_22
    shanice_22 Posts: 202 Member
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    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.

    Agreed! I regularly consume aspartame and never have any problems with it. I drink it in my coffee and when I have a diet DP. But like this guy said it depends on you and unless you are eating a bucket of the stuff I wouldnt worry.


    Same! I've drank diet soda all my life and aren't about to stop now! I also used to use sweetener in my tea for ages. I've started using tate & lyle fruit sugar because it's apparently better for you and is lower in GI, but aspartame has never caused me any issues and I probably won't ever give it up entirely.
  • Illona88
    Illona88 Posts: 903 Member
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    All I know is that every time I have something that contains aspartame, I get a horrific migraine.
    So I am staying well away from that stuff.
  • curvykim78
    curvykim78 Posts: 799 Member
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    I for one cannot tolerate aspartame. The truth of it is that some people can consume it all the time and never realize a side effect from it. I am one of the people of whom this is not true. I started WW before my wedding to lose weight to look good in my dress. Typical. While on WW I never really changed what I was eating only the way it was processed i.e pop was now diet pop, puddings were now sugar free, everything was low cal (and most of it contained aspartame) as I could eat more and still stay within my point range. Now don't get me wrong I don't blame the WW program for this at all, it was my pure ignorance to how to safely and effectively change my lifestyle to achieve the desired results.

    Now after about 6-7 month of eating this way and about a month after my wedding my right arm started shaking uncontrollably. I was relieved from work and sought my doctor. Over the course of the next 4 months I was poked, prodded, had CT scans, MRIs was speculated to have epilepsy and MS. All tests came back clear and the doctor's were stumped as to what could be causing this horrible condition. I couldn't drive, work, or do much else. The only way the doctor's were able to stop the uncontrollable shaking was to pump me full of sedatives. Not the best way to live. After visiting with friends of mine, their mother (who is a nurse interested in nutrition and naturopathic medicine) asked me what my diet was like. She was the first and ONLY person to ask me this question. When I told her that I was still actively doing WW and what kinds of products I was eating, she told me to cut out all foods containing aspartame and see what would happen. Within 2 and a half weeks of doing what she had instructed I was no longer experiencing any episodes and was taken off all meds.

    Now I say this just to give you a word of CAUTION. This is MY body's reaction to aspartame and now I stay away from it. I am obviously in the camp of stay away from it as it is an artificial sweetener. Having it once in a while might be okay but why not eat a small amount of the natural sweeteners (honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, etc) instead?

    Anyway there is no harm in eliminating it from your diet to see if it is the cause of your headaches. I hope that you can find out what is causing them and eliminate them. Its no fun not feeling 100%

    Good luck to you :D
    I wonder if this is why my hands will shake from time to time. I've been to several doctors and put on meds from anti depressants, blood pressure meds, narcotics, and more...He was trying to make the headaches go away, but I wonder if the headaches and shaking are from the aspartame...hmmmm....oh, it's not diet pop I drink. It's in the 'sugar free' drink packages you can buy at wal mart. That's what I put in my bottled waters to drink. Maybe I need to cut it all out and see what happens.
  • emtjmac
    emtjmac Posts: 1,320 Member
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    I'm going to say bad.
  • michelleindeed
    michelleindeed Posts: 117 Member
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    I don't ingest artificial sweeteners- it's either sugar or honey.
    Aspartame gives me headaches, as does Splenda.

    And saying that all things doctored in a lab can't be bad for you because of medicine and vitamins- vitamins supplements don't digest as well in your body as the vitamins you get from your food, and medicines all have long lists of side effects.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    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.

    It really should have been 'end thread' here!
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    Bad. Anything tampered with by scientists in a lab is not good for our bodies

    What about vitamins? How about medicine?

    SideSteel has this problem of ending stupid arguments by using LOGIC!

    whatever

    Oh no your fear mongering failed :( *hug*

    I dont fear monger its what I choose for myself and i am not the only one that thinks so. So thanks and have a GREAT day

    Lol, cute. Too bad that's not what you said. You said "Anything tampered with by scientists in a lab is not good for our bodies" which goes beyond "This is what I choose" to "this is what YOU SHOULD choose". It's completely delusional to think you can abstain from anything "tampered with by scientists". Pretty much everything we depend on has been "tampered with" by scientists, from medicine all the way to vegetables that you grow yourself in your own yard with 100% organic growing practices.
  • Danied13
    Danied13 Posts: 117 Member
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    If it's man-made and my body doesn't need it, I typically choose not to eat. Aspartame wasn't approved to help us...it was approved to help companies. I'd rather have real sugar.
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
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    Some people get headaches, some people don't. It's not unhealthy, but obviously if it gives you headaches, you should try a different kind of sweetener. I find Stevia to be a great alternative.
  • citygirl04
    citygirl04 Posts: 286 Member
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    Very bad for you. Try honey.
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
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    if you are drinking diet soda etc instead of water, it's bad for you (relative to water alone).

    why?
  • juliesjuke
    juliesjuke Posts: 93 Member
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    I have a problem with Aspertame.I was chewing a lot of gum,(Aspertame is in about everything that you buy) and i started breaking out with red bumps(looks almost like a small boil) that itched like crazy.Then started having a weird feeling that is too hard to discribe.So now i do not chew any gum, and am very careful about watching labels for it. Since i stopped using it the "weird " feeling are almost gone and no more red bumps. So from now on it is natural sugar for me...
  • DeeDel32
    DeeDel32 Posts: 542 Member
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    Personally, I think anything that isn't harvested or raised should be limited.

    The idea of things coming from a lab doesn't do it for me. Maybe I should stop watching Soylent Green. ;)
  • hamncheese67
    hamncheese67 Posts: 1,715 Member
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    Personally, I think anything that isn't harvested or raised should be limited.

    The idea of things coming from a lab doesn't do it for me. Maybe I should stop watching Soylent Green. ;)

    But Soylent Green is natural... of course, "Soylent Green is people!"

    http://youtu.be/9IKVj4l5GU4
  • sheelyg
    sheelyg Posts: 3 Member
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    Aspartame is poison!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Aspartame is poison!

    Either you are joking or you are good with the hyperbole. Not sure which.
  • AmyFett
    AmyFett Posts: 1,607 Member
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    Well it's definitely not good for you. I dunno why anyone would think it was good. Lol.

    It does give me headaches actually. I've cut out diet sodas and 'fake sugar' from my diet when I started on MFP. If I want soda now, I either have to have regular soda, or something with Splenda in it. Usually just stick with the regular and count it in my calories.

    It makes me nauseous and gives me headaches, learned that quick when I wanted a diet Pepsi a couple weeks after starting my diet. It'd be best to cut out these things completely, but I don't refuse myself something that I want, I just account for it in my calorie goals for the day.
  • cindyhoney2
    cindyhoney2 Posts: 603 Member
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    It's artifical...get rid of it or at least reduce your consuption...I have flavored water about once a day, maybe twice, that's it. See if it helps

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