Why Aspartame Isn't Scary

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  • conqueringsquidlette
    conqueringsquidlette Posts: 383 Member
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    Well you sound like you know your stuff so I appreciate the info.

    Feigning competence.... one post at a time.... :-P

    Thanks.
  • snikkins
    snikkins Posts: 1,282 Member
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    :love: :love: :love: I'm pretty sure I got smarter reading this. Thanks for the info, OP and people who contributed! :drinker:
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    Young man. You've got a new sticky.

    (Great.

    Now the alarmists will compelled to go all out in this thread.)
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
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    Thank you for this post!! I am a diet pepsi addict of 20+ years. I have felt awful in the past and craved and binged carbs, and was led to believe that this was all due to the aspartame in my drinks. Since coming to MFP, I have learned how to eat properly (increasing proteins and vital nutrients) to banish the cravings for carbs and sweets. I can tell you, it's NOT the diet pepsi that causes this. I can control my eating easily and still drink 3 cans a day. I may still have an addiction to diet pepsi, but it is much more likely to be to caffeine rather than the aspartame.

    Now that that has been answered for me... I have also heard recently that the caramel colouring is actually the toxic/carcinogenic culprit in diet soft drinks, rather than aspartame. Anyone have scientific info on that?
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
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    I do know that the levels of aspartame that have caused cancer in lab mice and rats are thousands of times higher than any possible ingestion by human consumption. Also, rats and mice are highly susceptible to the cancers, which is they are so often used in cancer research.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Now that that has been answered for me... I have also heard recently that the caramel colouring is actually the toxic/carcinogenic culprit in diet soft drinks, rather than aspartame. Anyone have scientific info on that?

    Well no to be honest. Don't take that to mean that there is, it just means I haven't looked into it at all and I'm being honest about that. I don't know just means I don't know.

    I, of course, would be very skeptical of such a claim and would want evidence provided before I believed it.
  • CanGirl40
    CanGirl40 Posts: 379 Member
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    I am on month 6 of giving up diet pop...I was "addicted" Diet Dr. Pepper for years. 3 cans a day easy. I have honestly never bought the idea that aspartame is evil. Which is why I found it so hard to give up.

    My biggest issue is that I felt it was controlling ME...I couldn't "go without" one...I would always buy one, or have one around, even if I didn't really want it. My goal is to give it up for one year, and then perhaps see if I can once again try to moderate it.

    This extremely intelligent post does not help me when I'm on the wagon...LOL

    What IS bad then about diet pop? Aluminum in the can? Acidity wearing down tooth enamel? It can get expensive... Give me SOMETHING! LOL
  • BondBomb
    BondBomb Posts: 1,781 Member
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    Excellent and informative.
    OP I am a biochemist as well. However, I gave up trying to explain things to the 'I want to be afraid for the sake of being afraid' crowd quite some time ago. I appreciate your effort. But usually those that post things like 'why take a chance' have no interest in following logic and cannot be swayed by any amount of data. These are the same people that would have us still believing the Earth is flat and the center of the universe. Because...you know...why take the chance of finding out the truth.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    Great post, glad it was made a sticky.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    I am on month 6 of giving up diet pop...I was "addicted" Diet Dr. Pepper for years. 3 cans a day easy. I have honestly never bought the idea that aspartame is evil. Which is why I found it so hard to give up.

    My biggest issue is that I felt it was controlling ME...I couldn't "go without" one...I would always buy one, or have one around, even if I didn't really want it. My goal is to give it up for one year, and then perhaps see if I can once again try to moderate it.

    This extremely intelligent post does not help me when I'm on the wagon...LOL

    What IS bad then about diet pop? Aluminum in the can? Acidity wearing down tooth enamel? It can get expensive... Give me SOMETHING! LOL

    I gave up soda in 2005 just to prove that I could. I don't drink it now because I just don't like it (and because I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners and I sometimes struggle to hit my protein and fat target while staying under my calories, at least when cutting).

    Do it just to prove that you can...because it's empowering. (That said, don't use this same logic to give up something that would be dangerous to give up...or as an excuse for making other bad decisions if you fail at your objective.)
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Excellent and informative.
    OP I am a biochemist as well. However, I gave up trying to explain things to the 'I want to be afraid for the sake of being afraid' crowd quite some time ago. I appreciate your effort. But usually those that post things like 'why take a chance' have no interest in following logic and cannot be swayed by any amount of data. These are the same people that would have us still believing the Earth is flat and the center of the universe. Because...you know...why take the chance of finding out the truth.

    I'm fine with people taking that attitude as long as while taking that attitude they don't decide to expound upon how dangerous aspartame is and get on their high-horse about it without actually having a reason for believing that that they can logically convey. If they don't want to drink soda because it is scary then alright by me really, just prefer they not distribute misinformation.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I am on month 6 of giving up diet pop...I was "addicted" Diet Dr. Pepper for years. 3 cans a day easy. I have honestly never bought the idea that aspartame is evil. Which is why I found it so hard to give up.

    My biggest issue is that I felt it was controlling ME...I couldn't "go without" one...I would always buy one, or have one around, even if I didn't really want it. My goal is to give it up for one year, and then perhaps see if I can once again try to moderate it.

    This extremely intelligent post does not help me when I'm on the wagon...LOL

    What IS bad then about diet pop? Aluminum in the can? Acidity wearing down tooth enamel? It can get expensive... Give me SOMETHING! LOL

    Heh well if I was to point to any particular ingredient in diet coke that likely has a clear effect on the body that is not necessarily positive i'd say caffeine. But hey, let us be honest, we aren't giving up caffeine anytime soon are we.
  • fultimers
    fultimers Posts: 153 Member
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    I'm no scientist but I know what works for me and aspartame just doesn't work. For years I thought I had fibromyalgia and I was even diagnosed with it by a specialist. A couple of years ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke and I have no more fibromylgia-like symptoms. Perhaps for some people it's perfectly harmless but I believe that some are sensitive to it. For me--I'm staying away from it as much as possible.
  • CanGirl40
    CanGirl40 Posts: 379 Member
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    [/quote]

    I gave up soda in 2005 just to prove that I could. I don't drink it now because I just don't like it (and because I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners and I sometimes struggle to hit my protein and fat target while staying under my calories, at least when cutting).

    Do it just to prove that you can...because it's empowering. (That said, don't use this same logic to give up something that would be dangerous to give up...or as an excuse for making other bad decisions if you fail at your objective.)
    [/quote]

    Yes, that was my original thought "give it up to prove that I can do it!" But I still miss it...:) I have had a few sips of regular pop and I don't even like it! I prefer diet (although diet coke sucks is kind of gross to me...) Thanks!
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I'm no scientist but I know what works for me and aspartame just doesn't work. For years I thought I had fibromyalgia and I was even diagnosed with it by a specialist. A couple of years ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke and I have no more fibromylgia-like symptoms. Perhaps for some people it's perfectly harmless but I believe that some are sensitive to it. For me--I'm staying away from it as much as possible.

    That is fine if you feel like avoiding soda but I think there is no reason to single out aspartame as the cause of your issues unless you have some reason to believe it was specifically aspartame and not many of the other ingredients present for example caffeine which can have definite effects on the body.

    Also correlation does not demonstrate causality. You did X you felt Y, you stopped doing X you stopped feeling Y. That does not at all indicate that X caused Y.
  • threnjen
    threnjen Posts: 687 Member
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    It can get expensive
    This is about the only reason I wish I could kick the habit. I drink 2-5 cans a day. :(

    I'm so glad this is a sticky!
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I'm no scientist but I know what works for me and aspartame just doesn't work. For years I thought I had fibromyalgia and I was even diagnosed with it by a specialist. A couple of years ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke and I have no more fibromylgia-like symptoms. Perhaps for some people it's perfectly harmless but I believe that some are sensitive to it. For me--I'm staying away from it as much as possible.

    That is fine if you feel like avoiding soda but I think there is no reason to single out aspartame as the cause of your issues unless you have some reason to believe it was specifically aspartame and not many of the other ingredients present for example caffeine which can have definite effects on the body.

    Also correlation does not demonstrate causality. You did X you felt Y, you stopped doing X you stopped feeling Y. That does not at all indicate that X caused Y.

    As a person who has fibromyalgia I can confirm that my symptoms come and go with no apparent cause. It makes treatment difficult, even with proven meds.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I'm no scientist but I know what works for me and aspartame just doesn't work. For years I thought I had fibromyalgia and I was even diagnosed with it by a specialist. A couple of years ago I stopped drinking Diet Coke and I have no more fibromylgia-like symptoms. Perhaps for some people it's perfectly harmless but I believe that some are sensitive to it. For me--I'm staying away from it as much as possible.

    That is fine if you feel like avoiding soda but I think there is no reason to single out aspartame as the cause of your issues unless you have some reason to believe it was specifically aspartame and not many of the other ingredients present for example caffeine which can have definite effects on the body.

    Also correlation does not demonstrate causality. You did X you felt Y, you stopped doing X you stopped feeling Y. That does not at all indicate that X caused Y.

    As a person who has fibromyalgia I can confirm that my symptoms come and go with no apparent cause. It makes treatment difficult, even with proven meds.

    Our brains are wired to pattern-recognize. This can be very beneficial but it also means we like to see patterns in the noise. Our brains are very much tuned to see causation where there is only correlation. One of the first lessons in the sciences is learning exactly how misleading that can be.
  • Heatherybit
    Heatherybit Posts: 91 Member
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    As yet another bio-chemistry major in here with a minor in genetics... correlation does not equate to causation.

    That being said, there are small segments of the population that do have reactions to various organic compounds, like those who react severely to compounds found in chocolate. (So so very sorry for those of you). That does not mean that chocolate is toxic on normal doses for the vast segment of the population.

    Aspartame, may indeed cause few to have headaches etc., but there are similar groups that have the same reaction to orange juice.

    The study that indicated aspartame caused brain cancer in humans (study out of Japan) could not be replicated and the material was not provided to any peer review journals, but are being notoriously spread around the internets.

    As for Diketopiperazine, a group of peptides, have been widely used in the pharmaceutical field for cardiovascular, anti-fungal, and anti-tumor needs.

    And if you are really concerned about the half life of formic acid, it would be better to stay away from wine or worse yet Angry Orchard cider.
  • FunkyTobias
    FunkyTobias Posts: 1,776 Member
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