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Genetics and Health

Aspartame is safe.. really?

by Elaine on September 12th, 2007

A sweeping review of research studies of aspartame has announced that there is no evidence that the non nutritive sweetener, aspartame, causes cancer, neurological damage or other health problems in humans.

Well I tend to disagree.  One of my abiding memories when I took my genetics degree way back in the (ahem) mid 1980’s, is a class experiment on how carcinogenic aspartame was.  That was the time when diet products such as diet cola and diet yogurt were hitting the supermarket shelves.  The results were spectacular - 100% confirmation aspartame was carcinogenic. Since then I have rarely knowingly eaten artificial sweeteners. Also it was that experiment that really fired me up for the whole subject of genetics, that’s why I remember it so well after all these years.

The study looked at more than 500 reports, including toxicological, clinical and epidemiological studies dating from 1970’s preclinical work to the latest studies on the high-intensity sweetener, along with use levels and regulations data, an international expert panel from 10 universities and medical schools evaluated the safety of aspartame for people of all ages and with a variety of health conditions.

Nope, all that peer review still won’t get me to eat aspartame … I saw the results with my own eyes!

Penny Harrington

b5 media Genetics and Health correspondent

POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health, Genetic Testing, Nutrigenomics

9 opinions for Aspartame is safe.. really?

  • Eleta Grimbeek
    Sep 12, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    My father, after diagnosed with diabetes and start using “sweeteners”, became suddenly ill, never feeling good, having headaches etc. Somebody
    suggested it might be the sweeteners. He stopped using the “sweeteners” and became ok, and his old self again. I started reading about aspartame and was surprised by the symptoms and ill-health people were experiencing, by using this “poison” .

    The FDA approved of it as being “safe” with a few problems such as :
    *Limitations:*

    Aspartame is not suitable in applications that require prolonged exposure to high temperatures as it loses sweetness. However, it can
    successfully be added to recipes, and an encapsulated form is now available for commercial baking. It also is used successfully in beverages, but does lose its sweetness in liquids over an extended period of time. (The rate of change is gradual and is determined by temperature and acidity.) Persons with PKU (phenylketonuria) must
    restrict their intake of phenylalanine. As such, all U.S. products containing aspartame are labeled: “This product contains phenylalanine.”

    *BUT*

    After I read : Sweetpoison, by Dr. Janet Starr Hull, a book exposing aspartame dangers and Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic on reactions to aspartame, currently being used by more than two-thirds of the population as an additive/sweetener, I am certain aspartame is a no-no. Dr. Roberts is widely regarded as “the” expert on a host of adverse effects from popular products containing this synthetic chemical because of his many original observations and extensive research spanning two decades.

  • Penny
    Sep 12, 2007 at 2:57 pm

    Thanks Eleta - your comments are really interesting. I’m a great believer in putting foods into our bodies that we’re able to cope with. Our digestive system is still 50,000 years old and only able to cope with the foodstuffs we were eating all those centuries ago. None of this processed junk that is mixed with chemicals, surrounded by plastic wrappings and irradiated to death so it looks pretty. The food industry and health and safety overkill have a lot to answer for!!

  • Wally
    Sep 14, 2007 at 7:52 am

    These reports about aspertame are making the public confused with their different results.
    It’s better if we avoid these artificial sweeteners.

  • Pat
    Sep 15, 2007 at 1:17 am

    I agree with you. They may not see it’s effects now, but sooner or later, they will realize that this is something they should have considered carefully.

  • Charmelle Guercio
    Sep 15, 2007 at 10:31 pm

    Beginning in the early and into the middle ’80’s I was reporting (to FDA) our bad effects from Aspartame intake. Those symptoms included extreme nausea, dizziness, inability to focus, and horrible headaches which left us with a feeling of “heavy head” for days following a bad headache. (cerebral edema as with neurotoxic MSG?) By the middle ’80’s repeated phoning FDA finally led to their saying they no longer needed to send papers for filing complaints as we usually had to do. I remember the girl saying that they were so swamped with Aspartame reports that she could take them over the phone. Sad to say though, when we were then finally trying to ween a family member off addictive (methanol yielding) diet sodas, we were still clueless of the deadly effects another close relative was having from the SAME addictive Aspartame diet soda. The brother we were already weening off Aspartame was having several types of effects from Aspartame intake, including “loss of vision” that returned/improved as the Aspartame level was lessened in his body. One night he went totally blind. The vision returned shortly before he was seen in the ER. Today he faces severe GLAUCOMA. I could go into detail about the terrible effects, including my own breast cancer after using Aspartame for almost 2 years, my sister in law’s 17 year old sister, a diet tea user, died of OVARIAN cancer whle all her Drs insisted they were taught that 16 yr olds do NOT get Ovarian Cancer (that was BEFORE Aspartame was marketed in ‘81) and my diabetic mom’s inability to heal when she consumed Aspartame… (Searle’s own scientists reported seizures & MAMMARY, OVARIAN, BRAIN, & other horrible tumors which twisted the bodies of lab rats fed Aspartame, also Grand Mal Seizures & total heart block/sudden death syndrome in infant monkeys fed Aspartame.) Sad to say my brother with Downs Syndrome had been having horrible choking attacks since the early ’80’s, yet we were clueless of his Aspartame intake triggering the life threatening Aspartame Choking. It was Summer of 1997 that I found Aspartame Victims online who were reporting severe effects from the neurotoxin. I still believe it to be a true miracle for Billy when I found all those dedicated people warning the world off Aspartame. I demanded that he get NO MORE DIET SODAS and certainly no more Aspartame products in any form. He was quite upset when we denied him Aspartame Diet Sodas because he clearly was addicted to the methanol yielded by the 10% methyl ester in Aspartame’s makeup. Thank heavens our dad knew how to use the Heimlich Maneuver one day as he saved Billy during his worst Aspartame Choking attack. After weening, he had choking again once when a former sister in law did sneek some Diet Soda to him. This was before she learned a bitter lesson about the deadly stuff. She came to realize more one day when her older daughter informed her that her little sister’s “falling” for no reason…might be due to the diet sodas her diabetic dad was giving her. Their mother did not believe he’d give the drinks to her, but he finally admitted it. Though they were already fearing some type of “dystrophy”, the sudden falling stopped when the Diet Sodas were stopped for the PRESCHOOL CHILD. Billy stopped ASPARTAME CHOKING once he was Aspartame FREE. Since that time we have identified 2 more Aspartame Chokers in our family…our youngest grandson who is now 12 and my now 31 year old niece, both who choked horribly several times…each time they chewed Aspartame sweetened GUM. We’ve learned this is possibly a “neuro” effect. Perhaps this is the effect we get while others who are instead prone to SEIZURES have that common neuro effect reported by many Aspartame victims. To our knowledge, none in our family are prone to seizures. However horrible Aspartame choking is indeed very frightening when the attacks trigger inability to breathe normally for quite some time until the airway is either clear or free of spasms again. We witnessed the SAME type choking in an elderly lady who was on a Delta flight with us. She was chewing GUM when we left the airport. As soon as we were in the air, she began to choke severely. Once the flight attendants felt she was better..they offered her something to drink. She said YES…a DIET SODA ! She poured about half the diet soda over ice…drank that and sat back to relax. Instead of relaxing she began WORSE CHOKING than she had had earlier. As those around her tried to help her, we could hear that she was not responding as well as she did earlier. (likely since MORE Aspartame was in her and we were at a HIGHER altitude) Through some miracle..she did recover eventually. It was the SAME type Aspartame choking we SEE in our own family. We learned that Aspartame BREAKS DOWN to the deadly NEUROTOXINS more RAPIDLY at HIGH ALTITUDES and also WHEN HEATED. I reported this to Delta when we arrived at home. The Pilots’ Hotline online has much posted by pilots who reported their own deadly effects AT HIGH ALTITUDES after Aspartame intake…effects which put passengers too in HARMS WAY when they lose vision, focus, & often experience LOSS OF DIRECTION and CONFUSION. It’s noted too that these pilots want the public to note that THEY ARE THE PILOTS WHO MADE IT BACK TO TELL of their neurotoxic effects of Aspartame. I hope more people read the reports from the Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology, 2006 (Dr. Morando Soffritti) reporting Aspartame as a Carcinogen…also that (2001)…from Norway’s Scientific Technical University (Aspartame gives brain damage especially in the area of the brain used for learning)..and also Liverpool’s Aspartame Study, 2006, reporting Aspartame as a Neurotoxin, giving it’s worst COCKTAIL EFFECT when it’s mixed with other additives, especially artificial colorings. Dr. Morando Soffritti’s expertise speaks for itself. He oversees the work of 180 scientists and researchers in 130 countries which communicate regularly regarding toxic substances. Dr. Soffritti and his team who worked on the Aspartame Studies believe Aspartame remaining on the market is a Worldwide Health Emergency so should be banned IMMEDIATELY. I totally AGREE.

  • Anonymous
    Sep 29, 2007 at 8:03 pm

    […] Is Aspartame really safe…maybe, maybe not..who should we believe? Penny at Genetics And Health has her own opinion. Aspartame Is Safe…Really? […]

  • “My Aspartame Experiment” by Victoria Inness-Brown
    Feb 24, 2008 at 11:59 am

    […] I recently wrote an article on my first hand research experience on the potential carcinogenicity of Aspartame - the artificial sweetener used in thousands of everyday products, particularly diet products. It was titled “Aspartame is safe … really!” […]

  • erica
    Mar 7, 2008 at 2:56 am

    Today at school I got a piece of gum from this one guy…then I said ”hold on let me see the pack of gum.” Then I read the ingredients on pack of gum because my stomach was hurting I started to feel nauseaus. So when I read it said ”aspartame”. So I told him. Now it has spread around the school that I’m a liar!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Stacey
    Jul 20, 2008 at 11:33 pm

    I avoid artificial sweeteners and have a page on my website encouraging others to do so as well. Nothing good can come from this. Wake up people.

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