How Does Aspartame Damage Your Brain

[DrYongrel]

high fructose corn syrup is what we should really be worrying ourselves over.

jmo

agreed. But don't tell the Iowans that.

 

[freelance]

Aspartame, sucralose, even stevia--it's likely that none of them are particularly good for you in large quantities, just like anything else. Then again, neither is sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Empty calories. Eat real food, drink real juice, wine etc. in moderation.

In my opinion, Monsanto is a shitty company, but not for aspartame--for the terminator seeds they produce and dominate the market with. That, in my opinion, is the true danger of Monsanto. If something should happen, and the majority of farms have terminator seed crops, there is no way of easily sustaining the food supply. For that reason alone, I will not buy anything put out by Monsanto.

I like to garden and tinker around with plants a bit, ala Gregor Mendel. If those are the only seeds available, I can't do it. I don't want a garden that is genetically engineered to survive RoundUp (tm). Nasty chemicals in that shit that will end up on food you eat and in the water supply.

There are better ways.

What's wrong with stevia?

 

[SWATH]

I work in a genome science lab. My story is anecdotal but noteworthy. One of the phD students and I decided that we would both start drinking nothing but diet soft-drinks for a while (as part of a diet). During that time I remember feeling fatigue, mental haze, confusion, lack of motivation, irritability, and most commonly insomnia. I would lie awake in bed at night for hours before I could get to sleep. I didn't attribute it to the sodas so I didn't mention it to the phD student. One day, he just blurted out "I'm not drinking diet drinks anymore" I said "why?" He said "I think it is doing something to me, I feel weird and I can't sleep". I recognized the symptoms but asked "how do you know it's the diet drinks?" He said "I always feel weird after I drink one and when I went to visit my parents for a week I didn't have any and felt fine.

Then a couple of years later my wife started getting some artificially sweetened lemonade packets and would mix them with water and drink them for lunch. After a couple of weeks she said she wasn't going to drink them anymore. Immediately after drinking one she would feel really weird, and just kind of sit on the couch and stare into space. She finally quit when her eyes started to bother her after consumption. She said her eyes would kind of get blurry and she was unable to focus on things for any period of time. She has stopped drinking artificial sweeteners and has not had the problems since. We do not waste food but she threw the remaining boxes in the thrash and would not give them away.

 

[shida]

Video on the dangers of aspartame.

Pulled from the 'must see documentary' section in hot topics.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-566922170441334340

 

[amy31416]

What's wrong with stevia?

I read up on it a while ago and have used it on occasion, no ill effects, but I rarely crave sweet things so my personal experience is just about useless. Since it's easy, and has links to the research done, here's the link to wikipedia's information on the controversy about stevia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia#Controversies

In essence, some studies show mutagenic effects (likely, just as aspartame, by megadosing mice.) The studies are not entirely complete and some of the studies contradict each other. When I'm in the mood for tea or coffee to be sweet, I'd use it though, given that it's been used for many years in Japan with no ill effects recorded.

I also looked into sucralose, which I think appears to be the safest alternative sweetener, unfortunately it is not used in the majority of diet sodas and juices. But I've found plenty of generic brands that use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose#Safety

The only problem they found, so far, is shrinkage to the thymus and some DNA damage when megadosing mice and rats. (We're talking the equivalent of someone eating around 5-10,000 packets of the stuff/day.)

Anyways, of the three I'd rank aspartame as the worst, both for potential liver damage from methanol and formaldehyde. Sucralose as the best, only because it's had more thorough studies than stevia--which is to be expected from a 100% naturally derived sweetener. So that's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Oh, and I agree that high fructose corn syrup is the absolute worst--and that shit is in everything.

 

[angelatc]

I've heard that story before, though I don't recall where.

Might be from me. I've told it here before. ALthough I emailed my ex-co worker last night, and discovered he didn't go to Harvard, that was his brother. He went to Emory, in Georgia.

 

[amy31416]

Might be from me. I've told it here before. ALthough I emailed my ex-co worker last night, and discovered he didn't go to Harvard, that was his brother. He went to Emory, in Georgia.

Must be, because I googled it and couldn't find anything. Usually Snopes will have that sort of story on their site and there wasn't anything.