Why Aspartame Isn't Scary

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  • useyourthorns
    useyourthorns Posts: 30 Member
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    The early MSDS for it were not convincing, however. (The exact warning I believe was, "Safe if no more than a mouthful is consumed".) However, for some of us, it tastes like pure bitterness.

    I am assuming that this refers to the aspartame itself... and given that aspartame is 200+ times sweeter than sugar, I think your head would literally explode from the sweet overload if you tried to eat a mouthful of aspartame. If it refers to whatever the aspartame is in, I think that 50+ years of common usage across the entire planet has disproved that statement.

    Considering I was working with pure aspartame, I'd say the MSDS for it was for pure aspartame. Lol.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,451 Member

    ...and there you have it. Conclusive proof.

    I can possibly get cancer by going on a long run if I forget to put on sunscreen or accidentally inhale too many diesel fumes. Guess it's best to just sit on my couch all day.

    What I'd like to know is what about it/how it is possibly carcinogenic. You know...scientifically speaking.


    Right! This is my problem with the “clean eater” “food snobs” I mean I think we all know we shouldn’t down 20 diet Coke’s a day and eat more unprocessed foods. That’s a given- however Hard core vegans get cancer too, should we be somewhat responsible eaters. Sure. I’ll enjoy my diet soda on occasion and even eat my lower calorie tortilla that YES is processed and full of crap, who cares.
    I can’t stand food snobs. Huge pet peeve.
    Me too. I invited a couple from the gym to a backyard party where we had home cooked food, cake, ice cream, beer, etc. and they came with containers of "clean food" (they weren't prepping for any contests) and while there started conversing about the foods to my other guests. Needless to say, I've NEVER reinvited them again and broke off any contact after.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    Analog_Kid wrote: »
    For those of us who suffer from migraine, it is well known that aspartame (and other artificial sweetners such as saccharin, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neotame) can trigger skull-splitting headaches.

    So can salt, but I don't see anyone jumping up and down screaming we need to ban salt...
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I'm glad it was never a trigger for my migraines when I did elimination attempts to discover what were.

    Turns out carbonation was!!! ;)
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    I'm not convinced it's 100% safe, but I still use it a bit in sugar free coffee syrup and a diet soda a couple of times per week. However, I do think it makes me feel hungrier after I use it.

    It does trigger heart palpitations in my mom, so she has to avoid it.
  • durhammfp
    durhammfp Posts: 493 Member
    I'm not a scientist but found this interesting. Not sure the merits of the study. Basically, they found that the equivalent of two diet sodas causes your bacteria within your microbiome to attack the lining of the digestive tract, I assume potentially leading to inflammation.

    Aspartame and Sucralose were specifically named.

    It was all over the Microbiome publications last month. I'm certainly not qualified to evaluate the quality of the study/methodology, but it's the first thing that I've read that makes me wonder and actually has a potentially valid scientific reason for avoiding these sweeteners.

    I don't use artificial sweeteners but my wife did (massively) when she was younger. I often wondered if that had a lot to do with her Fibromyalgia. She knows a lot of folks, through support groups with Fibro and nearly 100% of them used heavy sweeteners. This might explain a lot about the ties between the two things, which have been just observational and correlational.

    https://www.ajc.com/pulse/study-shows-potential-dangers-of-artificial-sweeteners/BQ277ZOYPJGXXDKK7K6GPT7DFM/

    Replying only to link to the original study referenced in the ajc.com article above: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/10/5228
  • stuntin666
    stuntin666 Posts: 15 Member
    So interesting, I knew this lady that would swear she was allergic to aspartame, that it would give her migraines, apparently it only gives her migraines when she knows she's eating it though, because I gave it to her a few times, when I gave her gum and diet soda she had nooooo idea, completely fine. Now, now don't judge me I was only a teenager when I gave her the stuff just so that I could prove she was not allergic.

    I might stop drinking it for awhile but then I always find myself drinking a nice diet soda, cause YOLO
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    stuntin666 wrote: »
    So interesting, I knew this lady that would swear she was allergic to aspartame, that it would give her migraines, apparently it only gives her migraines when she knows she's eating it though, because I gave it to her a few times, when I gave her gum and diet soda she had nooooo idea, completely fine. Now, now don't judge me I was only a teenager when I gave her the stuff just so that I could prove she was not allergic.

    I might stop drinking it for awhile but then I always find myself drinking a nice diet soda, cause YOLO

    I try to avoid making assumptions about whether or not something might cause migraines in a particular person or whether that response is "real" or psychosomatic. Maybe it does maybe it doesn't, as far as I know pretty much anything can be a migraine trigger (or be perceived to be a migraine trigger) but it clearly doesn't in everyone and there is no clearly defined causal link.

    If someone tells me they get migraines when they ingest aspartame I would say "oh okay, best to avoid then". But if they say I get migraines when I ingest aspartame, therefore its dangerous and everyone should avoid it...that is when I call BS.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,925 Member
    stuntin666 wrote: »
    So interesting, I knew this lady that would swear she was allergic to aspartame, that it would give her migraines, apparently it only gives her migraines when she knows she's eating it though, because I gave it to her a few times, when I gave her gum and diet soda she had nooooo idea, completely fine. Now, now don't judge me I was only a teenager when I gave her the stuff just so that I could prove she was not allergic.

    I might stop drinking it for awhile but then I always find myself drinking a nice diet soda, cause YOLO


    that doesnt neccesarily mean her migraines were not triggered by aspartame in soft drinks or whatever though.

    Many people have allergies that are not neccesarily to that product in all its forms - people with egg allergies can often still eat custard or baked goods, for example
    Does not seem unlikely that a person could get migraines from aspartame in some products.

  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    @Aaron_K123 -- I thought it might be a bit of a leap, especially being in vitro. Also, I understand they didn't mention Fibromyalgia. That's simply observational on my part. Seems to be extremely heavily correlated.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    stuntin666 wrote: »
    So interesting, I knew this lady that would swear she was allergic to aspartame, that it would give her migraines, apparently it only gives her migraines when she knows she's eating it though, because I gave it to her a few times, when I gave her gum and diet soda she had nooooo idea, completely fine. Now, now don't judge me I was only a teenager when I gave her the stuff just so that I could prove she was not allergic.

    I might stop drinking it for awhile but then I always find myself drinking a nice diet soda, cause YOLO


    that doesnt neccesarily mean her migraines were not triggered by aspartame in soft drinks or whatever though.

    Many people have allergies that are not neccesarily to that product in all its forms - people with egg allergies can often still eat custard or baked goods, for example
    Does not seem unlikely that a person could get migraines from aspartame in some products.
    Yep, definitely agree with all this.

    My mom got heart palpitations whenever she drank diet soda. Once she stopped, they stopped.

    As someone with food sensitivities, I can tell you that I don't react to a food or chemical every time or even the same way each time.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited July 2021
    @Aaron_K123 -- I thought it might be a bit of a leap, especially being in vitro. Also, I understand they didn't mention Fibromyalgia. That's simply observational on my part. Seems to be extremely heavily correlated.

    How is fibromyalgia heavily correlated to aspartame? Curious as to what you are basing that on.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited July 2021
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    @Aaron_K123 -- I thought it might be a bit of a leap, especially being in vitro. Also, I understand they didn't mention Fibromyalgia. That's simply observational on my part. Seems to be extremely heavily correlated.

    How is fibromyalgia heavily correlated to aspartame? Curious as to what you are basing that on.

    My wife had it for years. She formed a large support group with nearly 4K members online. She did multiple polls and found that most that had it (like nearly all of them) heavily used sweeteners. Like I said, very correlational, but I believe there's something there. My wife used sweeteners in her coffee for over 20 years. Nearly everyone in her group drank diet soda (and a lot of it).

    There have also been many cases (documented) where when someone with Fibromyalgia gives up Aspertame, their Fibromyalgia goes away.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21176433/

    Do I think it's the only thing? Absolutely not. A lot of other factors. MTHFR genetic defect, toxin exposure, diet, other genetic predispositions and even most of them have had a severe physical accident in the years preceeding acquiring it.
  • mrfriendly1970
    mrfriendly1970 Posts: 1 Member
    If it were truly dangerous I would have been dead from my Diet Mountain addiction years ago:)