{"id":1314,"date":"2012-03-06T08:19:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T13:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2012-03-06T08:19:42","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T13:19:42","slug":"aspartame-harmless-additive-or-poison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/03\/aspartame-harmless-additive-or-poison.html","title":{"rendered":"Aspartame &#8212; Harmless Additive or Poison?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since sugar is bad and high fructose corn syrup is worse, why not switch to diet colas and artificially sweetened food?\u00a0 Just Google \u201caspartame\u201d and you\u2019ll see why that isn\u2019t such a hot idea.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2012\/03\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1315\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/261\/2012\/03\/207166_10150566829270537_758175536_18018906_565319_n3-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Thousands of hits pop up with this search. \u00a0You&#8217;ll find official-sounding studies and claims of conspiracy and fraud &#8212; both by the makers of aspartame and the opponents.\u00a0 How do we make sense of this mountain of accusations and justification?<\/p>\n<p>First, let\u2019s take a look at what aspartame actually is.\u00a0 It is made up of three ingredients: two amino acids,\u00a0 phenylalanine and aspartic acid, hooked together with a methyl ester bond.\u00a0 Yes, I know, chemistry is the stuff of headaches, but hold on to your brain and let\u2019s take a quick look at this stuff.\u00a0 It\u2019s in more than 6,000 products &#8212; some of which may surprise you &#8212; and you should know what you are eating, especially since there are thousands of claims that it causes damage to your brain.<\/p>\n<p>The two amino acids are found naturally in foods and are safe, but the question is one of percentage.\u00a0 In proteins like meat, fish or eggs, the two amino acids make up about 4% to 5% each of the total amino acids. However, in aspartame, the ratio is 50% to 40% with 10% being the \u201cglue\u201d that holds them together.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot more than your body will ever encounter in actual food and the anti-aspartame force claims this unnatural \u201cchemical cocktail\u201d is more than your system can handle. \u00a0They claim \u00a0it causes damage to your neurological system.\u00a0 There are lots of studies available online that explain it in more detail, but you didn\u2019t sign up to read a book here on my blog, so I\u2019ll just say this is the conclusion of the studies. If you want to know more details, I encourage you to look it up.<\/p>\n<p>The other chemical problem is the bonding agent.\u00a0 The methyl ester bond turns into two different substances when metabolized by your body: wood alcohol and formaldehyde.\u00a0 Wood alcohol is a known poison and carcinogen and formaldehyde\u00a0 &#8212; well, it embalms you.\u00a0 Not a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>If it is so poisonous, how did it ever get approved for use?\u00a0 Again, an online check reveals lots of accusations and claims of flawed studies and payoffs. I\u2019m not an investigative reporter, though, and not every source on the Internet is reliable. You can check it out yourself.<\/p>\n<p>If you are already a diet soda drinker, I would recommend this test:\u00a0 Lay off the soda and drink something else for a month.\u00a0 Take note of how you feel before you stopped the diet soda habit.\u00a0 How is your sleeping?\u00a0 Your memory?\u00a0 Your general feeling of well-being?\u00a0 Aches and pains?\u00a0 Energy level?\u00a0 If you have been drinking two or more sodas a day, you will probably go through a spell of detoxing where you will feel worse, but stick with it and you may be surprised at how much better you feel.\u00a0 Let me know what you find.\u00a0 What\u2019s the worst thing that could happen?\u00a0 You will have to worry about how to spend the money you saved by NOT buying all that Diet Coke.<\/p>\n<p>And read the labels of your food.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find aspartame in many places under different names.\u00a0 NutraSweet, Equal, Equal Measure, AminoSweet, and Benevia are just a few of them.\u00a0 It turns up in yogurt, children\u2019s vitamins, and almost everything labeled \u201csugar free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m no scientist, but if something is not natural and hundreds of thousands of people claim it has caused side effects from headaches to fibromyalgia symptoms, tremors, and brain tumors &#8212; well, maybe I can do without it!\u00a0 Check it out and decide for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/p>\n<p>Susan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since sugar is bad and high fructose corn syrup is worse, why not switch to diet colas and artificially sweetened food?\u00a0 Just Google \u201caspartame\u201d and you\u2019ll see why that isn\u2019t such a hot idea. Thousands of hits pop up with this search. \u00a0You&#8217;ll find official-sounding studies and claims of conspiracy and fraud &#8212; both by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,26],"tags":[377,376],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eating-plan","category-helpful-tips","tag-artificial-sweeteners","tag-aspartame"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aspartame - Harmless Additive or Poison? - Beyond Gorgeous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2012\/03\/aspartame-harmless-additive-or-poison.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aspartame - Harmless Additive or Poison? - Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since sugar is bad and high fructose corn syrup is worse, why not switch to diet colas and artificially sweetened food?\u00a0 Just Google \u201caspartame\u201d and you\u2019ll see why that isn\u2019t such a hot idea. 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