To whoever wrote the thread about Aspartam a bout 1 1/2 month ago Thank you so so much!!!

[gorionine]

Sorry I cannot find the thread anymore, nor can I remember who was the OP. It was about Aspartame (I think it was the fact that they had given it a new name to fool people avoiding it) and amongst the posts was a link about bad effects it could have.

For over a year I had felt I had a personality transplant, and definitely not a good one. GP ruled out depression and said I was most probably exausted. I felt tired yes but also very aggressive all the time even to the people close to me that I absolutely adore. Also felt that everybody hated me.

Now I have totally stopped aspartam (I was sweetening most of my hot drinks with it)and a month or so on I am so pleased with the difference. Even the Dcs have noticed that I am "nice" again. In fact I cannot remember having shouted at them in the last few weeks at all.

So again Thank you, a 1000X

I can't eat Quorn, it makes me run to the loo an hour after eating it. I'm hypersensitive to potted meats and hot dogs (vile things). My mum used to put potted meat in my sandwiches when I was school (mid 70's), and I kept telling her I got a headache after eating them.

Eating well is easy.
Just steer clear of overly processed food.
So, regular meat, plain yoghurt (sweeten with fruit if you must), porridge instead of cereals (which, for what they are are hideously expensive)fresh veggies and fruit, diluted fruitjuice or water to drink, unprocessed carbs.

I love soy beans thoguh-eat them by the handful.

Departing from quorn for a moment and returning to original aspartame theme...

Went to see a physio a couple of years back for pelvic floor/stress incontinence advice after my babies and she recommended cutting out artificial sweeteners too. I must admit that I ignored this particular bit of advice until recently . But now have finally kicked my diet tonic water habit (wierd I know) and it's helped a little.

Back to quorn, yes, JarethTheGoblinKing I'm not sensitive to any other food either, I eat everything! Infact my stomach is as tough as old boots, very rarely pick up any of the tummy bugs that go round.

Runnybottom-
Im exactly the same as you...my DS can have anything in moderation but I will not let him have anything with aspartame in as it makes him go absolutely loopy. I thought it was a coincidence the first time he had it because someone gave him a dreaded fruit shoot and he'd drunk some of it before I had a chance to swipe it but literaly within 20 mins he was almost climbing the walls. So a couple of weeks later I got another one & tried him with a little bit of it and once again exactly the same reaction.

I think all my friends think Im slightly mad because so much of the stuff thats marketed for children contains aspartame but I just avoid anything with any sort of sweeteners in it...will never forget the look on my friends face when I let my DS try a little of my orange juice & lemonade one day in a restaurant. She basically couldn't believe I was letting him have some because she had perceived lemonade as bad (well its not exactly good but ykwim!) whereas her 2 boys were drinking fruit shoots 1 after another which was apparently ok because they were for children. I would much rather he had sugar than any artifical sweeteners.

i hate aspartame, it gives me chronic headaches
i avoided it for ds1, until one day at a friend's he had some squash with it in (she offered 'juice' and i thought she meant juice)
about an hour later he had the worst tantrum i have ever seen
i had to take him home and he sat on the sofa screaming and shaking - he was so upset and couldn't calm down
he said "i don't know why i am crying!"
it was IMO the aspartame

I have been looking for squash that do not contain artificial sweetners, for my DC for a while now, and have resorted to the high juice squashes lately. They are much tastier that the standard squashes. I will look into getting myself off of them now.

Bloody hell, is this why I can be such a moody bitch every day at times? I'm on a diet, so the fridge is full of low fat yoghurt's etc, I have Candarel in my tea/coffee/on cereal which is basically pure Aspartame, I hate the taste of tap water without a bit of fruit juice in it which also has Aspartame in it...

I think I'll ditch all sweeteners for a few weeks and see if there is any improvement in my moods. I always know when I am in a mood, but never know why. I hope it is the sweeteners fault, and I'm not just a crank

there was a program on BBC1 a while back that was exposing the diet industry and it reckoned that aspartame etc made you hungrier!

SheWillBeLoved, good on you for starting to cut this stuff out.

But these foods and sweeteners do not just affect moods. It is a lot more serious than that. Just because people don't feel sick immediately, doesn't mean that damage isn't being done. Illnesses don't appear immediately, they take time to develop.

glittery I always knew there was a deeper reason for me reaching for that 2nd Snickers, rather than me just being a greedy git

claig I always knew of the dangers, I suppose I just always thought "Ah everything is bad for you these days!". I'm having my first cuppa with no sugar or sweeteners in it, it isn't that bad at all I'll be very interested to see how I feel in general over the next few weeks.

Well, I poured all the diet coke away last night, ditto the bottle of squash. Had none last night (did have wine though).

Had a cup of tea this morning and threw away the canderel, and had half a spoon of sugar instead (am weaning myself off gently).

I feel slightly anxious - I would have normally had half a bottle of diet coke by now.

DP is full of support for the idea - he has been saying for ages that drinking so much diet coke can't be good.

I thionk diet coke and squash is all we have in the house that has aspartame in - don;t bother with yoghurts, low fat choclate bars etc.

watch out for the high juices - some of them are aspartame free but others aren't.
Also beware of flavoured spring water - haven't found one yet that is free from aspartame.

If you can't manage to read the teeny tiny print on things to see if aspartame is in anything, look for the panel that BY LAW states whether or not a product contains phenylalanine (if it's not a protein product, that is).

Glad so many of you are making the change - I have a couple of friends who are total diet coke freaks and WILL NOT give it up despite everything.

Another point of interest - did you know that Michael J Fox used to drink diet coke all the time? And then he got early onset Parkinson's... (as has been said, aspartame is a neuroexcitotoxin - messes with your nerve receptors)

following up thumbwitch's point about Michael J. Fox and Parkinson's disease
arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/parkinsons_disease.html

Just had a convo with dd (14) in sainsbury's as I was reading the back of squash bottles to see if they had aspartame/phenylalaline.

She just sighed at me 'oh mum, did you read that on mumsnet'

When I said she did she laughed at me! And said 'why don't you lot get badges then you can recognise each other in shops and chat about all your mumsnet stuff'

Cheeky bugger.

Btw Sainsbos basics (and all their squashes actually) do not have aspartame - it is sucrose instead.

Very cross as I have just checked DH's Robinson's squash and it contains aspartame and saccharine. And to think I made him put back the sugar-free one he picked up accidentally and get the normal one

IReadCookeryBooksInBed, do you mean they even managed to put aspartam in the normal one? What a cheek!

Yup, it has aspartame, saccharin as well as sugar in it. My sainbo's high juice however has not.

DH doesn't like to drink any diluting juice with 'no added sugar' - he prefers the sugary version because it doesn't normally contain aspartame.

Glad you are feeling more like yourself now OP.

I tend to drink the sugary drinks now rather than the 'no added sugar' variety.

agree with others, the 'high juice' diluting drinks tend to be free of aspartame and phenylanline (sorry about the sp!).

I have been trying to replace my sweeteners with splenda as I was told it was much safer. is that true or a crock of shit too?

Panicking as I never realised aspartame was prevalent in so much of what I eat and drink. And one of my dcs really only likes squash which we try to dilute as much as possible, god knows how I will wean him off. God I am really panicking now.

And I love quorn and soya beans, which I eat lots of in the belief they are healthy. Am I a ticking time bomb? Think I may implode with anxiety right now. It must be the aspertame that makes me so anxious and so the cycle goes on.

I wouldn't use splenda (aka sucralose)
www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx
www.vegan-nutritionista.com/sucralose.html

I also wouldn't take quorn or soya beans (and also I check bread and everything I can for soya, which is unfortunately practically everywhere).

I think an interesting question is

why are we told not to eat red meat, eggs, bacon, butter etc., because they are not good for us? (when they are really)

yet we are told nothing about aspartame, soya, sweeteners, GM, quorn etc?

for these things it is down to us ourselves to try and find things out.

I don't understand why anyone would eat or drink anything that contains chemicals rather than naturally-occuring ingredients.
Why does it come as a shock that food manufacturers put crap in food and governments allow us to eat it?
I'm genuinely not a health freak, I've just known since having kids (15 years ago) that some things are likely to cause harm and I've subsequently avoided them.
I think it must have come from reading the Guardian daily for all those years (no MN), but, to me, not knowing about the ill-effects of all this stuff is akin to not realising smoking is bad for you.
I've just scoffed half a bar of white chocolate and a glass of Pino Grigio, as I delude myself that these are occasional vices made with reasonably natural, if not entirely healthy, ingredients.
But I would recoil if anyone offered me a glass of diet coke.

agree with you OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper, eating natural foods is the way to go

But why do governments give us health warnings about cutting down on certain foods to reduce cholesterol etc. and tell us to have 5 fruit & veg per day, and yet mention nothing about things which are far more dangerous?

That's true, it is baffling and shocking, and it's been the case for as long as I can remember - doesn't seem to make any difference who's in power, either.

But I think if you asked a gp about it they wouldn't tell you any different either - the effects of diet, other than the obvious ones like fats and cholesterol (which are debatable according to some quarters), don't seem to come into their view of things.