The Aspartame Game

Often referred to as the most studied substance in the world, the artificial sweetener Aspartame owes its economic resiliency to the millions of repeat consumers who use it every day, sometimes without even knowing it.

Not to be outdone by its competitors such as saccharin, sucralose and more recently the Stevia plant, aspartame can be found in everything from diet cola, children’s pain relievers and vitamins, most sublingual pharmaceuticals, all mint flavored nicotine replacement lozenges, and cough drops.

With the current global sugar prices expected to remain high through to 2012, aspartame, a combination of the two amino acids phenylalanine (50%) with aspartic acid (40%), and Methyl Alcohol (10%), has a global market presence in the sugar replacement industry that remains solid. However, in spite of the number of studies done on this substance, empirical evidence as to Aspartame’s long term effects on the human body have yet to be reliably established.

A cursory internet search for information regarding the safety of Aspartame use poses a challenge. From one website to another a searcher is faced with trying to decide credible information from that which is inaccurate and possibly spurious. Right up to the present many personal reports of aspartame’s long term ill-effects on humans have been thought of in terms of a co-relational association with excessive aspartame use acting synergistically with a previous, or underlying health condition.

In spite of a lack of solid empirical data on causality of any type of illness pre-existing or not, the FDA receives more adverse reports on aspartame use than any other food and beverage product on the market. Many independent reports claim that aspartame has been the cause of blindness, brain tumours (primarily high grade astrocytomas), Gulf War Syndrome and seizures, while others claim aspartame mimics auto-immune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus Erythematosus.

Additionally, aspartame appears to aggravate many mental health conditions such as Depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism and anxiety/panic disorders. All in all aspartame has been indicated as a cause of 92 distinct symptoms, some quite severe and debilitating. Fortunately many of these symptoms reportedly abate upon the cessation of aspartame in the diet.

Article Author: LynnfromBC

Lynn from BC a freelance writer and a sometime blogspot commentator, is a college graduate who lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

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