Aspartame - work of the devil?

[nigelslaterfan]

My s has sent me a real scaremongering article basically shouting that all MS and world poverty is caused by aspartame.

I quite willing to believe it, I hate the stuff but is that in any way true? Do all sweetners have the same stuff in them?

Any informed calm information welcome

It?s old news, I think, nsf. There have been periodical fears about aspartame, but such claims have largely been discredited ? or at least haven?t stood up to objective scientific analysis.

Both DCs have auto-immune conditions, so I do read up quite carefully when these sorts of stories surface, but I haven?t yet found any reason to stop taking it in small amounts. HTH

The FDA in the US claim it's totally and utterly safe.

I'm not so convinced and I don't trust the FDA - they have strong business interests and approve colourings here that have been banned in Europe.

Personally, I stay well clear and I wouldn't feed it to my children. It does have some known metabolic effects which are supposedly harmless but that's enough to convince me we don't know exactly what we're messing with and I wonder whether there are more effects and interactions that have not yet been discovered.

I feel the human body is too delicate to mess around with introducing unnecessary chemical compounds which may or may not have long term effects or which may or may not effect cell changes or chemical balances over time.

The problem with research which finds aspartame, tartrazine etc. 'safe' is that it can't effectively test for long term safety and it can't clearly test its interaction with less well understood conditions such as autism (for example). It can only test for what is clinically measurable. Really, these things will always be an 'unknown' and to me, it's an unnecessary risk. A small one, but an unnecessary one.

Plus aspartame tastes like crap. Nothing wrong with a little sugar if you're in normal health.

I would never knowingly give this to my family, it is a chemical poison and thanks to
Donald Rumsfeld it was approved by the FDA.
You can read more on rense.com, search aspartame. I also read years ago that airline cockpit crew are not allow to use it. It's found in many products so please keep a look out.

Teatotal, I was a bit sceptical about your comment about airline crew but a quick google on the subject is fascinating. The ACSN, whilst clearly biased does have a lot of info and links on their website.

here

?I'm not so convinced and I don't trust the FDA - they have strong business interests and approve colourings here that have been banned in Europe.?

While I share Carmen?s mistrust of the FDA, it?s only fair to point out that aspartame has had EU-wide clearance since 1994, a stance that has been re-examined twice, in 2002 and 2006, following further studies.

It?s been around since the 1960s so I don?t really get the point that it can?t be tested for long-term safety, and lots of substances have ?metabolic effects?, that doesn?t really mean anything unless they?re harmful metabolic effects. The only proven metabolic contra-indication is for people suffering from PKU.

It?s probably sensible to restrict, if not avoid, exposure to aspartame, but please let?s not use phrases like ?chemical poison? unless you really know what you?re talking about, it?s unnecessarily emotive.

One of the best sites with over 300 articles is on Dr Mercola's site - mercola.com just type in aspartame in search box also search for list of products that contain aspartame.
It's worth a look too on naturalnews.com. Please don't shoot the messenger, make up your own mind.

i just think it tastes awful so avoid it wherever i can.

'Please don't shoot the messenger, make up your own mind.'

I completely agree, teatotal, but if you want to be properly informed read published articles in peer-reviewed scientific papers and journals rather than on single-agenda websites.

naturalnews.com has some interesting ideas and articles, but is automatically prejudiced against anything not 'natural'. As for Dr Mercola, I'm wouldn't take advice on food from someone who doesn't even understand the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Hi Mattellie, Perhaps it would be a good idea to start a new thread on that subject, the history talks about 400BC and 1674, it's now 2010. If it happened to me I would have to at least look at Dr Whitakers and many more success stories as 300 plus years does not do it for me, sorry.

Hi again Mattellie , Forgot to mention that natural news is also linked to truthpublishing.com, with many articles and books. including some from the scientific world. It was formely newstarget.com and only recently changed. It's more of a truth seekers site and the published articles are worth a read. They appear to have info on every health subject and pill or potion.