An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener

reply to post by XIIIth

I have used powdered aspartame to kill ants for the past 5 years. The store brand sold at --- Mart, eliminates them in about 36 hours. Our son worked for a local producer of various dietary supplements during summer vacations from college. When a supplement formula called for aspartame, they could only work with it dressed in full HAZ-MAT suits. Might make sense to use aspartame only in small amounts.

Guys, you know what else is extremely poisonous to the human body in large quantities???

WATER!

I kid you not. It's called "water poisoning" and it's very much a real thing.

Water poisoning is caused by excessive consumption of water during a short period of time. This leads to a disruption in normal brain function due to the imbalance of electrolytes in the body’s fluids. Humans are made up of approximately 55 to 65% water, depending on gender, so water is necessary to survive. Water in and of itself is not toxic by any means, but rapid ingestion of a large quantity of water can dilute the careful balance of sodium compounds in the body fluids.

Source: www.wisegeek.com...

That's all well and good but has anyone really ever died from Water Poisoning? YES! Remember the lady that was participating in the radio station contest to win a Nintendo Wii?

www.msnbc.msn.com...

So what - should you now stay the hell away from water because it can be considered a poison, too?

No. The key is moderation. And my point is, you don't know EXACTLY HOW MUCH ASPARTAME IT TAKES for aspartame toxicity to really be a threat to you. Can small quantities over time be absorbed and flushed out of the body without harmful effects? We don't know because these studies don't tell us! What they do tell us is the result of wildly over-stimulating some test subjects, most likely mice.

Is anyone even surprised?

I have been drinking pepsi one and coke zero for the past two months.

It tastes sooo good.

Coke zero has coc aine in it cuz i get high when i drink it.

Its so cool... its like i can legally get high while im working.

It also flushes out the stomach. Remember.. toxins dont have a target they kill everything



So just use moderation and all is good.

I have noticed that diet pop gets an odd or unpleasant taste, and loses its sweetness when it lays around too long. I wonder if the odd taste is due to the decay products mentioned here? Maybe I am tasting diluted formaldehyde or methanol. Yum.

reply to post by velovetc3v3


Oh, absolutely, I'm not advocating aspartame or anything. Nor am I saying that you should eat the stuff in buckets. All I say is that the whole "everything gives you cancer" thing is just getting ridiculous.

But then again that's just my opinion and anyone is free to challenge it or disagree with it.

reply to post by demonseed


I can only assume that you're joking about coke zero having coc aine in it, because otherwise... well I'm just gonna have to say that I disagree with you.

See, coke does not have any coc aine in it, and if it did (and a lot people used to speculate that it did) - no one knows in what amounts. The thing is, coc aine was very popular in 1870's all the way though to 1914. I mean the guy name Angelo Mariani used to make wine that was treated with coca leafs. So the drug was legal. Why was it made illegal? Politics, racism and stupidity. ” In 1914, Dr. Christopher Koch of Pennsylvania’s State Pharmacy Board said that - “Most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a coc aine-crazed Negro brain." After that coc aine received some more bad publicity and in 1970 was made illegal.

As for you getting high after drinking coke - it's most likely because of sugar. If you drink coffee with 2-3 spoons of sugar you are very likely to get the same buzz from it.

Not trying to be smart or anything... just sharing some information that some people may not know but may find interesting.

reply to post by tigermoff


check out stevia, coca-cola is now offering a few brands with it, diabetics can eat it. I belive it's called sprite green. Hope they make more products with stevia, imagine having some cakes with no bad sugars in it!

reply to post by Truth4hire
Barbarian doesn't begin to describe this. It is a desecration of the sacred water of life! I cannot imagine the tortures that await this one when he dies. Neither God nor the Devil will want him!

My Grandma drank tea sweetened with aspartame up until she died of cancer. I remember reading the warning on the packets about it causing cancer in lab animals and everyone shrugged it off in my family. Then on I was conscience of foods that were harmful and made it a mission to never consume the stuff on purpose.

S&F for you my friend!

I've been avoiding this stuff for years, as 'diet' sodas have never tasted quite right to me...too 'chemical-y'.

I'm glad to hear the general public is being made aware of some of the issue with this substance.

reply to post by fouine


wow im going to have to look for some sodas made with stevia instead of aspartame. Maybe this is part of the reason im always so tired and washed out, i never feel well.

reply to post by sos37


I think the issue that scientists and health officials have with Aspartame is that it has negative side effects over long term use. Water does not.

The issue is that it's only been around for a few decades, so we don't really know all the long term side effects, nor can we judge if this has caused the rise in some cancers over the years.

I for one have a feeling it will get banned, or have some limitations set on the amounts allowed in foods.

The water argument isn't very reasonable though. The fact is that small portions of Aspartame are causing vicious cancers in mice. That's not a good thing.

Water doesn't cause cancer

I used to get horrible migraines throughout high school and could never figure out what it was... My mom was giving me extra gum to have each morning on my way into school and pretty much I was done after 1st period most days. Horrible headache, couldn't stay awake, etc.

Anyway, later on I found out that I am highly allergic to pretty much all artificial sweeteners. So much as a drink of something having it is enough to make me woozy and cloudy now since I don't intake it at all.

I also have a friend who's son is highly active and has been labeled ADHD. Pretty much every time I've seen him he's bouncing off the walls, distracted, and somewhat moody. His mother won't give him anything with sugar, but he gets loads of the sugar free goods. Even sweetened sugar free fruit water as his drink to tote around.

Kind of frustrates me as this stuff is getting into every imaginable food source out there, and it's causing problems with people that are sensitive to it. If we stuck to the basics and made alternatives available as just that, alternatives.... then I'd have no problem.

Don't get me wrong, the poor kid has has become a product of his surroundings and I guess that the typical drink at home was never water.

For people that just hum and haw at the possible effects, take a look at these two links, I picked them out because they appear pretty bias free. In fact parts of one of them has been hacked out for a aspertame hater. Sometimes it's difficult to find the good information out there as most are someone ranting on about how it's got 2,000 chemicals in it designed to kill you. I don't think that's really true, but on the other hand this is not a naturally occurring product made for food production, and we really don't understand the long term effects on a large population........

But I get the feeling we'll know the effects within the next 10 years or so.

Wiki Link on Phenylalanine: (Dare you to find a gum at your grocery that doesn't have the warning about the contents of this on the back)
en.wikipedia.org...

Health and Vitamins on Phenylalanine: (Very balanced)
www.healthvitaminsguide.com...

I might have already said it but I recently quit using products with aspartame and about a week after, I did have some withdrawal symptoms, such as a craving for diet soda that wouldn't subside. Gradually, that craving went away and it hasn't returned. Unfortunately, I have a craving for things with real sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is likely the next thing that I plan to purge from my diet but it's going to be somewhat more difficult as I like to drink tea and sometimes, iced tea (green and black) in place of soda/diet soda and the majority of those teas are sweetened with HFCS.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Well thank God the administration knows this much.

I happen to be more so allergic to it than normal. It's very good, to. I cannot have aspartame without violent headaches and minor seizure-like twitches. So it's other bad affects will never be felt as I cannot have it long term.

I remember they did brains scans when I had my first allergic reaction as a kid to it. luckily everything was normal. Then they finally found out what it was. Aspartame is indeed poison.

[edit on 5-8-2009 by Gorman91]

reply to post by ModernAcademia


It's called xylitol (if you must have some type of non-natural scientific mumbo-jumbo in your drink) or stevia (if you're smart).

I've been using stevia for years in my coffee. It's a shame it isn't sold in the major supermarket chains, but it's readily available online, Trader Joes and health food stores. I understand that Japan food manufacturers use it in their diet sodas and other products. Once again they're a step ahead of us. Hey corporate amerika, you'll make a lot of money if you start giving us a healthy choice, eh?

I have just returned from a holiday in the US and observed(and tasted) that your food is laced with:

1. Sugar (invariably corn syrup).
2. Salt.
3. Fat
4. Chemicals.

It was like going back the UK in the 70's. Even the so called "healthy" food is full of the stuff. It is no wonder you have health problems. God knows what has been injected/absorbed by fresh produce.

I would suspect that because your food is so full of sugars to start with it would take a very high quantity of sweetener to get the "sweetness" to match. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea I'm afraid.

reply to post by dizziedame


How long does it take to affect toxic reaction?

My 9 yer old daughter can get a migraine1 to 3 hours after having a piece of chewing gum or accidentally having it in a drink or snack. My husband gets immediate terrible headaches from it.

It is poison and I really think it should be banned. i like you, cook everything from scratch and read the lables. It is so frustrating when you start to pay attention...don;t get me started on restaurants.