Though many people think aspartame is a healthy, simple artificial sweetener, it has many harmful effects after long-term use. Commonly seen in tabletop sweeteners, it is consumed by over 200 million people each year. Many are tempted seeing as it has only a few calories per serving and is 200 times sweeter than sugar.
The harmful effects of long-term aspartame use are joint pain, nausea, headaches/migraines, rashes, depression, hearing loss, vision problems, insomnia, memory loss, vertigo, tinnitus, loss of taste, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, tachycardia, fatigue, irritability, numbness, muscle spasms, dizziness, and seizures.
Aspartame is in over 4,000 products worldwide, including such common foods and drinks as yogurt, juice beverages, cocoa mixes, breath mints, and diet soft drinks.
Aspartame is made up of 50% phenylalanine, 40% aspartic acid, and 10% methanol. Phenylalanine is a substance that can be neurotic and can cause seizures. Its main component, aspartic acid, can cause brain damage. Methanol is broken down and converted to the harmful substance formaldehyde. The converted methanol can cause permanent genetic damage, as well as damage to the neurological and immune systems. Excitotoxic amino acids released from the aspartame increase damage caused by formaldehyde.
Another common effect of aspartame is weight gain. Many people find they gain weight and have difficulty losing it. It can also increase appetite and causes cravings for sweets/sugar. The weight gain begins with the aspartame being absorbed from intestines and passing to the liver. The aspartame is then taken inside the liver through the liver filter. The liver breaks down the aspartame, making less energy in the liver cells for fat burning and metabolism.
Along with the many effects of aspartame, it can also cause serious ailments such as epilepsy, birth defects, and emotional disorders. The aspartame alters brain chemicals that affect behavior. People with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to aspartame.
Diabetes can be worsened by aspartame use: poorer diabetic control, precipitation of clinical diabetes, aggravation of diabetic complications, and some diabetics even experience convulsions.
The more serious ailments from aspartame are cancers such as breast cancer and brain tumors. From 1984-1992, brain tumors rose from 48 tumors to 53 per million people.16 Breast cancer cases also rose rapidly concurrent with use of aspartame.
When a comparison was made between the symptoms of aspartame poisoning and Gulf War Syndrome, many surprising similarities were discovered. It wasn't so surprising when it was found out that the soldiers were given many cans of diet soda during the day.
Aspartame accounts for over 75% of reactions to food additives. Use in moderation will lessen the risks.
In my opinion, it hasn't been stressed enough that aspartame is very harmful. Along with the effects, faulty and fraudulent testing, irrelevant animal research, misrepresented testing, and misrepresented findings have made the tests that were run to prove the effects seem incorrect. To make matters worse, administrations such as the FDA and the US congress are failing to warn of possible dangers of aspartame, or even protect the consumer from the dangers. It is not a healthy, simple artificial sweetener, but rather an extremely harmful substance.
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