Aspartame: Bad reactions and side effects?

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Porkchop_express

Trad climber

Springdale UT

Oct 15, 2010 - 04:57pm PT

sweet n lo is off the chain for coffee. stevia based sweeteners are supposed to be better for you but they have a gnarly aftertaste if taken alone-mixed with sweet n lo it is good. it cuts down on the volume of the artificial stuff without compromising the taste. I never got into coffee, but diet coke (or coke zero) are my crack.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Oct 15, 2010 - 06:53pm PT

Sweetened Coffee, the horror!

Argon

climber

North Bay, CA

Oct 15, 2010 - 07:22pm PT

I've always been a bit concerned about aspartame and I hate the taste of diet sodas so I don't drink them. If I'm going to drink a sweet drink, I want real cane sugar - not HFCS or some artificial sweetener. If they ever build an A-hole hall of fame, Donald Rumsfeld should have his own wing. But, just like with cell phone radiation, haven't we been conducting a defacto decades-long study with many hundreds of millions of aspartame users? There just doesn't seem to be much of a correlation with any serious effects - not that it can't be harmful to some and probably beneficial to no one

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Oct 15, 2010 - 07:36pm PT

What's interesting is that the listed potential side-effects listed before are also 'cured' by Big Pharma with more side-effects in their 'cures'. Here they are again;

Abdominal Pain
Anxiety attacks
arthritis
asthma
Asthmatic Reactions
Bloating, Edema (Fluid Retention)
Blood Sugar Control Problems (Hypoglycemia or Hyperglycemia)
Brain Cancer (Pre-approval studies in animals)
Breathing difficulties
burning eyes or throat
Burning Urination
can't think straight
Chest Pains
chronic cough
Chronic Fatigue
Confusion
Death
Depression
Diarrhea
Dizziness
Excessive Thirst or Hunger
fatigue
feel unreal
flushing of face
Hair Loss (Baldness) or Thinning of Hair
Headaches/Migraines dizziness
Hearing Loss
Heart palpitations
Hives (Urticaria)
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Impotency and Sexual Problems
inability to concentrate
Infection Susceptibility
Insomnia
Irritability
Itching
Joint Pains
laryngitis
"like thinking in a fog"
Marked Personality Changes
Memory loss
Menstrual Problems or Changes
Migraines and Severe Headaches (Trigger or Cause From Chronic Intake)
Muscle spasms
Nausea or Vomiting
Numbness or Tingling of Extremities
Other Allergic-Like Reactions
Panic Attacks
Phobias
poor memory
Rapid Heart Beat
Rashes
Seizures and Convulsions
Slurring of Speech
Swallowing Pain
Tachycardia
Tremors
Tinnitus
Vertigo
Vision Loss
Weight gain

Aspartame Disease Mimics Symptoms or Worsens the Following Diseases

Fibromyalgia
Arthritis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Parkinson's Disease
Lupus
Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)
Diabetes and Diabetic Complications
Epilepsy
Alzheimer's Disease
Birth Defects
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lymphoma
Lyme Disease
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Panic Disorder
Depression and other Psychological Disorders

Makes you wonder if we're being poisoned intentionally for profit. Go as natural as possible. And don't let docs give you bizarre drugs.

I told my son's doc this and she agreed. She has kids herself.

Some drugs are great, but Big Pharma has strayed. The FDA is political now.

jogill

climber

Colorado

Oct 15, 2010 - 07:41pm PT

Well, that's a real downer for Aspartame. So, as someone has asked before me: what about stevia???

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

Oct 15, 2010 - 07:43pm PT

It also seems conclusively proven that consumption of aspartame causes its victims to become paranoid, as shown by the "arks on the moon" thread. There doesn't seem any other explanation for their fantasies.

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Oct 15, 2010 - 07:45pm PT

jogill, read here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

Do more research too as Wikipedia can be exaggerated or false.

Myself, I just use good 'ole sugar, but I don't use a lot of it. Bad teeth...

justthemaid

climber

Jim Henson's Basement

Oct 15, 2010 - 09:04pm PT

Stevia is indigestible for me personally. Completely f*#ks me up. Other people don't seen to have issues with it.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 15, 2010 - 09:34pm PT

I can drink aspartame-laced crap all day long - just makes me crazier.
My wife has a neuro condition similar to migraines and just reading a label
with the stuff will set her off.

I recall quite a few years ago the British equivalent of our FAA was
considering banning it for pilots but I don't think it actually did so.

Crimpergirl

Sport climber

Boulder, Colorado!

Oct 15, 2010 - 10:05pm PT

I'm curious NWO, what do you eat and where does it come from? Not being a jerk or messing with you, I'm genuinely curious.

Aya K

Trad climber

New York

Oct 15, 2010 - 10:38pm PT

NWO, I eat food from plastic containers and Camelbaks...
I also drink plenty of soda with aspartame... never noticed a problem.

I think people freak out too much about stuff these days just for the sake of freaking out.

Fritz

Trad climber

Hagerman, ID

Oct 15, 2010 - 11:57pm PT

Broke-down and all: Thanks for starting and posting to the thread. Heidi has had problems with Aspartame and actively avoids it.

So------Glenn Beck went blind?

Glad this wasn't all bad news.

tomtom

Social climber

Seattle, Wa

Oct 16, 2010 - 12:06am PT

The reality is that Glenn Beck went blind from masterbating too much (he hides his palms.)

The aspartame blame is just another deception.

deepnet

Boulder climber

Oct 16, 2010 - 01:48am PT

I drink diet sodas sweetened with sucrolose (splenda)
Shasta/RC Cola/Diet Rite are a few I know of.

Wayno

Big Wall climber

Seattle, WA

Oct 16, 2010 - 03:17am PT

I remember starting a similar thread about aspartame a couple years ago when I was still a noob here and getting ripped by Radical and Ouch and maybe others. It wasn't pretty. This is a nicer thread.

hagerty

Social climber

A Sandy Area South of a Salty Lake

Oct 16, 2010 - 10:52am PT

A teaspoon of real sugar is only thirty calories. Why deal with all the little packets of sweet and low/splenda and diet soda cans to throw out? I can burn off what I put in my coffee (3 cups) by running a mile.

You might not have the same attitude if you are diabetic.

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber

Douglas, WY

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 16, 2010 - 11:33am PT

I'm glad that there is a lot of interest in this thread; when I had the adverse reaction 18 years ago I set myself on a course of educating the users of Aspartame of the problems associated with it's consumption. That was my first-ever ingestion of the crap, and it was accidental.

Of my 45 year career as a lab chemist, and most of that time involved with peptide chemistry at one level on another, I was initially appalled at the concept of using a fragment of a highly active peptide hormone as a "sweetener."

For those tacoans who know only little or nothing about peptides and their relationship to the field on endocrinology, here's a "Primer.":

Peptides are macromolecules composed primarily of a sequence of amino acids covalently bonded together by means of "peptide bonds," wherin lies the name applied to the entire class of compounds. A peptide bond is between a carboxylic acid function on one amino acid, and the alpha amino function on a second amino acid. (Unfortunately I'm on the wrong computer or I'd do a graphic of this--I'll do that later)resulting in the peptide bond. When the resulting peptide is only two amino acids long, it's referred to as a "dipeptide." Aspartame is a "dipeptide methyl ester," and therin lies the rub: Methyl esters, under the action of gastric acid and/or enzyme activity, can liberate the methyl alcohol, or "Methanol," that is a distinctly toxic substance to the nervous system (can result in blindness if ingested). Methanol can also oxidize to form formaldehade, an even MORE toxic substance. But this is a "long term benefit" of Aspartame users; the short term effects are the much more immediate properties as a hormone.

As I stated early in this thread, Gastrin I is a very active peptide hormone released by the stomach mucosal lining after eating, that triggers aseries of events, primarily liberation of "gastric acid" that adjusts the acidity of the stomach to an appropriate pH to activate various enzymes used to "digest" the meal. Also, since this requires an input of energy initially, blood pools in the stomach lining to provide the necessary oxygen for the metabolic process and carry away waste gases.

Going back to the definitions: Gastrin I is technicall a "heptadecapeptide" containing 17 amino acides in a chain linked by peptide bonds. Aspartame is "only" a dipeptide analog of the "C-terminal" fragment of Gastrin I, and is a methyl ester instead of the natural Amide.
One of the important features of the Gastrin molecule is that smaller fragments contain LOTS of activity, and a widely used fragment called "Pentagastrin" is used by lab researchers studying the system in place of the native Gastrin I for cost effectiveness; "Pentagastrin" is almost as active as Gastrin I. Morely, et.al., the researchers in England who successfully synthesized Gastrin I about 45 years ago found, the dipeptide fragment (that is nearly the same as Aspartame) still retained 4-6% of the activity of the parent molecule! Activity is determined at microgram levels: 1000 micrograms = 1 milligram.

Consider how much of this $hit a person consumes in a cup of coffee or in cereal at breakfast every day, the only reason more people DON'T NOTICE the effects is that they're eating food at the same time. Consume that much Aspartame at the same level without food, and the problem I described in the OP are immediately evident.

Sorry for the rant! Questions? Quiz tomorrow! ;)

Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber

I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!

Oct 16, 2010 - 11:51am PT

my apartment has been tame for years, i might have to pay for some if things don't get better soon,

havin a rough ride with the ladies ever since the fire,

and i Don't mean Richard Pryor,