Aspartame....Good or Bad?

Hi @leslie10152 - this is a topic that has raised temperatures multiple times on the forum. Have a look at these for some idea:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/concerned-about-aspartame.80763/
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/is-aspartame-safe.111843/
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/aspartame.46426/

Suffice to say that there's masses of debate but little evidence against it.

I can no longer use sweeteners of any sort as if I do my bladder lets me know about it with a lot of pain. To me that is a good sign it's not good for anyone.... although I do happen to have an inflammatory disease of my bladder. So my guess is sweeteners like sugar probably cause inflammation or at least irritate inflamed things (I have an inflamed bladder). When I did drink drinks with aspartame though I did notice it raised my BGLs. I'm not sure I'd be the only one. I know it doesn't for others. I guess we're all different. I tend to talk from my own experience.,.. what science says may well be another thing. I've read articles before on how aspartame isn't good.... but then people either love it or they don't I guess.

I avoid drinks with aspartame because it makes me feel weird, and then it makes my joints really painful - mostly hips and knees, but cheap lemonade will affect my arms as well.
I have experienced it too many times to have any doubt about the cause of the pain, which is rather memorable. I don't need to look for evidence from research.

I wonder why it failed FDA approval so many times?

Just wondering.

I had muscle spasms in my face which I am convinced were due to long term use of aspartame. My dentist agreed. I am also convinced that artificial sweeteners helped me on my way to insulin resistance and obesity and T2. I am fearful that the obesity epidemic will become even worse when the authorities push more and more people into drinking diet drinks instead of sugary drinks. I haven't had a sugary fizzy drink for decades, but drank around 2 litres of diet coke a day for years.

The effect of artificial sweeteners on the gut microbiome seems to be one of the newer areas of research and the results so far don't seem too favourable.

If it is a choice between refined sugar or aspartame I choose aspartame for me the lesser of two evils.

I can't abide the - to me absolutely vile - taste, so I've avoided any food or drink using it since long before becoming diabetic; I won't touch the stuff with a barge pole. Since there are other non-sugar alternatives, we have a wide choice.

Robbity

zand said:

I had muscle spasms in my face which I am convinced were due to long term use of aspartame. My dentist agreed. I am also convinced that artificial sweeteners helped me on my way to insulin resistance and obesity and T2. I am fearful that the obesity epidemic will become even worse when the authorities push more and more people into drinking diet drinks instead of sugary drinks. I haven't had a sugary fizzy drink for decades, but drank around 2 litres of diet coke a day for years.

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interesting you say that.... I also drank pepsi max and used equal for years and I'm on insulin now too. Also wonder whether the stuff contributed to my other diseases. So many questions going through my head. lol. I'm beginning to think the safer option for any food is whole foods and not modified foods.

I think there are better sweeteners than Aspartame. Apart people intolerant to phenylalanine and
phenylketonuria I stopped to use it because I think gave me headaches.
I've also stopped to drink diet coke and similar beverages for this, because wasn't a big problem for me - never liked very much their taste.

JohnEGreen said:

If it is a choice between refined sugar or aspartame I choose aspartame for me the lesser of two evils.

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And I would choose sugar (as the lesser of two evils) if it was absolutely necessary to use a sweetener. We each make choices based on our own experiences.

I put 100ml of polish vodka in a large glass filled with ice and topped of with coke zero or diet coke. I have several of these and wake up with a headache.........must be that aspartame seriously though, one mans poison is another mans medicine.

Maybe it all depends on what the aspartame is in.
For example, in diet coke, could it be the caffeine or one of the other ingredients rather than the aspartame that causes issues?

I very rarely drink anything but tea, decaff coffee, water and red wine, but I do put 2 Sweetex in my hot drinks. Ingredients are
Sodium Saccharin, Anticaking Agents (Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium Stearate). I haven't had any adverse effects.

I think people have reactions to a whole variety of ingredients, whether natural or man-made. I have a friend whose liver starts failing when she ingests regular sugar (yellow skin and eyes, pains etc.), but nothing happens when she consumes honey. I have a friend who says artificial sweeteners give her dramatic headaches, but only when eaten with solid foods - she only drinks diet soda whenever she has soda and somehow that's fine. There are a lot of reasons why this can happen. Some of this might be psychosomatic in nature, and I do think it's important to make a distinction between correlation and causation so we don't start turning random coincidences into medical facts.

Personally, I drink diet soda every now and then without problems. I actually can't stand the sickeningly sweet taste of regular soda anymore, it just makes my mouth dry and makes me thirstier. Diet soda doesn't do this and I like the taste just fine.

All excesses are bad. There's a difference between enjoying a glass of soda once or twice a day, and consuming 2 liter bottles of it every day whether it's regular or diet. Even too much water and oxygen is bad for you if you overdo it. Consuming reasonable amounts and having the majority of your diet be as unprocessed as possible is what you should always aim for obviously. A glass of diet soda can fit perfectly in that mindset no matter what version you go for.

(If you're really worried about artificial sweeteners and sugar, but still want to enjoy a soda, I also encourage people to make their own sodas by mixing (concentrated) fruit juice with carbonated water. Doesn't have to be much to create flavorful fizzy drinks low in carbs!)

DaftThoughts said:

I do think it's important to make a distinction between correlation and causation so we don't start turning random coincidences into medical facts.

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I couldn't agree more. I can't comment on whether sweeteners are good, or bad, as everything we hear tends to be anecdotal. At the time of diagnosis of any of my ailments, there is no one foodstuff I have been consuming that could shoulder the blame specifically. Human nature seems to accept the first explanation, and if abstaining works for someone, I am in no position to stop them from doing that!

I have all the artificial sweeteners and to my knowledge suffer no side effects and the taste is fine. I'm sure some people will react to them but many like me don't suffer problems with them. There are lots of scare stories in the press but no real evidence yet that in the quantities we take they are harmful. Anyway they are not as harmful as that poison - sugar.

zand said:

And I would choose sugar (as the lesser of two evils) if it was absolutely necessary to use a sweetener. We each make choices based on our own experiences.

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Though refined sugar has been proven to be harmful in many ways aspartame has not been proven to be harmful as yet so as I said for me its aspartame that's my choice You are free to make your own choice. I also prefer to use some form of sweetening in some of my drinks and food though again it's not a necessity I often do not bother to use any sweetener at all. .