Aspartame

fillymum

synful soul
I am sure this is a tpic that has been discussed here before my time on the site.

However, I must say the article I read frightened the life out of me.

On checking all my sugar free foods, the one that I am most alarmed about is yogurt.

The drinks that arrived from the U.S. the otherday also have high levels as dpes the sugar free bread I bought.

The list is endless......diet drinks, sweeteners etc.

This is one article I read.

www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects

I then also found this

Like many food additives, the safety assessment for aspartame has led to the setting of an Acceptable Daily Intake, or ADI. This is an estimate of the amount of an additive that could be routinely consumed every day over a lifetime with no appreciable health risk. In the case of aspartame, the ADI is set at 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This is equivalent to 2800 milligrams for an average British adult. For an average 3-year-old child the amount is of the order of 600 milligrams

and that can be found on

www.food.gov.uk/safereating/chemsafe/additivesbranch/sweeteners/55174

Now I am confused.......

Help !!!!
 
I must admit I try and avoid this as much as possible, I used to be a diet cola monster many moons ago-now I rarely have any. I find I get a lot of headaches when I have it. The only thing I have it in at the moment is SF jelly and I don't do that very often either.
Its only my opinion (although I know quite a few who agree ;))I believe that the human body doesn't recognise it as "food" and struggles to process it. So low cal versions of things often lead to cravings (with me anyway) -I now have foods that have been messed with as little as possible -I do have full fat yogurts (8syns each) -but they are worth everyone and I find the full fat versions of things much more satisfying -so I eat less,
I am on week 12 of SW and have had no cravings what so ever -even thoughI have cut out all choc, sweets, crisps, cakes etc...
As I say it only what I think and Im sure others have completely different views.
 
Thanks for that. Your reply is very appreciated.

Up until recently I haven't eaten any low fat or sugar free products, no yoghurts, nothing and I am seriusly thinking of reverting to me preious way of thinking.

I am waiting for the results of a brain scan and must admit that my headaches have been worse since I started adding these products to my diet. It has quite worried me.

It is back to natural yogurt with chopped fruit and a tsp. of honey. A tsp. of honey is only 0.5 syns

What am I going to do with 4 boxes of sugar free drink mixes !!
 
On the one hand you have an article from the Food Standards Agency.

On the other hand, you have a website written by someone
  • with several books to sell,
  • a "detox" programme to promote,
  • a hair analysis system to sell (at $187 a time),
  • and when talking on her website about taking increasing amounts of niacin as part of her "detox" programme, says "do not panic if you turn red or your heart beats rapidly; this is a good sign that your blood is pure and toxins are being removed". To tell people that turning red and rapid heartbeat is "a good sign" is seriously irresponsible.
I am not telling you what you should think about aspartame - just that you should consider your sources carefully.
 
I would not touch aspartame with a ten foot pole myself, ditto for Sweet and Low ( saccharine ). I do not even use Splenda anymore, it is bleached and chlorinated sugar. Go figure.

I left England in October, so not sure of the latest developements there, but last I heard you still do not have Stevia there. Stevia does not play around with your blood sugar levels and comes from a plant. It can be bitter, so I have had to try a few different brands, but it is a safer alternative to saccharine and aspartame.:confused::confused::confused:
 
This really is a hard one and I think I will ask my oncologgist on Monday when I go to see her in Valencia.

Thank you for the feed back and would love to hear more opinions.
 
I was wondering about this a while ago. I have been suffering from a lot of the symptoms aspartame can apparently cause, so obviously I'm concered. I can't get away from it though - it's in everything I eat!
 
I was wondering about this a while ago. I have been suffering from a lot of the symptoms aspartame can apparently cause, so obviously I'm concerned. I can't get away from it though - it's in everything I eat!
That is the big problem if you want to vary your diet.

For example I am really thirsty right now and I have 4 boxes of Wylers light drinks but am reluctant to drink one. I also have Shweppes slimline tonic but haven't checked it out yet. I suppose for now I will just settle for ice cold water.


Your symptoms could be other things.That applies to my increased headaches as well. I think we need to ingest a lot, a very lot each day for it to become dangerous.

I liked Avist's reply pointing out the commercial aspect for the antis. I f you go back a few posts you will see it.

How confusing the whole thing is.
 
Someone left me a really nice and flattering reputation comment about my contribution to this thread - whoever you were, thank you very much. Your comments are really appreciated.
 
Someone left me a really nice and flattering reputation comment about my contribution to this thread - whoever you were, thank you very much. Your comments are really appreciated.


Think it twas moi !!!
 
I'm not quite sure where I sit on this one (not on the fence but not sure what I think....)

I don't try to avoid it, if I want something I will have it - I guess the biggest one is in the diet pepsi or diet coke I have but that's maybe one glass a day, if that.

I do have a yoghurt a day mostly, one yoghurt, not lots. Other than that I don't buy a lot of diet products so I suspect I don't have a lot of it.

My opinion is this, if it was that bad it would be banned in this country. I know it can affect blood sugar levels etc, but in what quantities? Like most things, is it everything in moderation? If I was drinking 2l of pepsi a day and eating 8 diet yoghurts then maybe I'd look at it but I don't so I tend not to worry.

There really has been a lot of scaremongering over the years about this, eggs, processed meat etc etc and I think it is all down to choice. The only way to go is to grow, kill and cook all our own food and, sadly, this isn't quite achievable for me (well, I do the growing, not the animal side of things).

My twopennorth for what it's worth.....

PS - can sugar not have the same effect on blood sugar as aspartame? Too many sweets give me a headache and make me feel crappy......
 
My opinion is this, if it was that bad it would be banned in this country. I know it can affect blood sugar levels etc, but in what quantities? Like most things, is it everything in moderation? If I was drinking 2l of pepsi a day and eating 8 diet yoghurts then maybe I'd look at it but I don't so I tend not to worry.

There really has been a lot of scaremongering over the years about this, eggs, processed meat etc etc and I think it is all down to choice. The only way to go is to grow, kill and cook all our own food and, sadly, this isn't quite achievable for me (well, I do the growing, not the animal side of things).

My twopennorth for what it's worth.....

PS - can sugar not have the same effect on blood sugar as aspartame? Too many sweets give me a headache and make me feel crappy......

I think I agree with you about the all things in moderation.

I don't think that you can compare a natural product like sugar with a man made product that contains toxics.

This made interesting reeading.
Aspartame vs. Sugar

Thanks for the imput.
 
I wasn't really making a direct comparison about the two things, more about the effect on blood sugar. And is sugar natural or is it a refined product? Ooh, could get really deep now!

Interesting stuff.
 
I wasn't really making a direct comparison about the two things, more about the effect on blood sugar. And is sugar natural or is it a refined product? Ooh, could get really deep now!

Interesting stuff.

So right Jaylou...sugar is over processed.....bleaching etc............oh blow it here goes with my sugar free drinks and my yoghurt. I will take the chance.

Cancer didn't kill me neither has a second life threatning illness so I am sure I can continue to enjoy a few sugar free products.
 
I try to avoid aspartame as much as possible following the discovery that it could make a couple of my existing health problems worse. I was told that sucralose (such as Splenda) would be a better (though not perfect) option. However, when I'm on Slimming World I do drink diet coke/pepsi and eat Muller Lights and sugar free jellies!!!

Today I discovered that Sainsburys Diet Classic Lemonade is made using sucralose as is Marks and Spencer Count on Us yoghurts so will be swapping to those from now on. Just need to do some research on the SF jellies now!
 
I think I noted that the onken vanilla FF yog (the sort in a big tub) uses sucralose not aspartame. I've got the strawberry one in the fridge too but haven't looked at the ingredients yet.
 
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