Does Aspartame become Formaldehyde?

[phillybri]

I heard this over the weekend and it freaked me out...Do you guys know anything about this???

[qb]

1. This article says "yes", but I don't know how truthful it is

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/fraud.htm

[geebensis]

20. Are they trying to sell people something to use

...in place of nutrasweet? That should raise some red flags for you.

I took a quick look at the article. Looks like we're to believe that every scientific study indicating that aspartame is safe is either fraudulent or part of a conspiracy. And every collection of anectdotal reports of symptoms is gospel.

Feh.

[bicentennial_baby]

2. As far as I know

I have heard that the metabolite of aspartame is formaldehyde, yes. In other words, when you consume it, it converts to formaldehyde.

[Gato Moteado]

3. i have also heard this.....

....supposedly when it is exposed to heat for extended periods, like if a truckfull of diet pepsi sits in a hot warehouse in august for a weekend.

the fda has no problem with this, but they won't approve stevia, an organic, safe, non-addictive sweetener that is 100 times sweeter than sugar and does not cause tooth decay or diabetes. the sugar and aspartame lobbies are quite powerful.

[morningglory]

6. Stevia lowers your cholesterol.

Tastes all right in my iced tea.

[meatloaf]

4. Snopes.com says it's another internet hoax.

www.snopes.com is a decent resource for checking urban legends.

[yella_dawg]

5. Sorry

I used to really enjoy the "Wooden Spoon", but lately they've become just another cog in the corporate media BS machine.

[qb]

14. Snopes debunked a particular e-mail hoax

about an epidemic of brain tumors, multiple schlerosis, and lupus. It did not address the issue of formaldehyde formation.

[morningglory]

7. What about Splenda?

I love it in my "lemonade". Has anyone heard anything bad about yet?

[liberalnurse]

8. I had a full year of chemistry.....

Inorganic, organic and bio-organic.....I got A's and B's....

After that my alter-ego took over and I blocked out all chemistry formula and data. It would come in handy right now.....to make an informed decision.

I'll just play it safe and switch to Splenda as it is made from sugar.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

9. Heard Rumsfield was responsible for aspartame getting FDA approval

so it is probably deadly. I did some research on it because I never ever drink it and one day I had 3 glasses of diet dr pepper and had terrible terrible muscle spasms (I have fibromyalgia). I found out that aspartame can cause muscle spasms and a lot of other things. It also makes fibromylagia worse.

[dolo amber]

13. I heard Rummy was involved as well

Had some holdings with the company that makes it or something. Over the past year or so I've developed some wonky joint problems; blew out the cartlidge in my knee, had some carpal tunnel-like symptoms in both wrists. "No conclusive evidence" said the doc when I mentioned the whole aspartame thing. This is terribly grim for me as I practically have a keg of diet pepsi hooked up intraveniously 24/7. I've been trying to cut back after reading all of the nasty about it but I swear, that stuff is like crack to me. Can't live with it, can't die a slow painful death without it...:(

Edit: I still don't know what I believe, btw, but the joint thing is a bit worrisome.

[geebensis]

21. I tend to believe

the thousands of reputable scientist who have tried to make a name for themselves by finding something wrong with nutrasweet but have failed. As reputable scientists they will try to present their results objectively.

Not like the, um, "questionable" folks who put up scary web sites full of words like "brain damage" and "mental retardation" in bold italics, so you can't miss their objectivity. Oh yeah, and don't forget to order their book or "all natural" sweeteners from the same website...

[Unknown Known]

10. Here's the article on the original study

Abstract from "Life Sciences" 1998

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9714421&dopt=Abstract

It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard because of its contribution to the formation of formaldehyde adducts.

[dofus]

11. I remember hearing about this

at least twenty years ago.

Why I don't consume diet sodas.

[geebensis]

12. An acquantance told me about this last week

...as he watched me guzzle a diet soda.

I asked him "Aren't you the same guy who told me the world was going to end on 1/1/2000 because it was foretold in the bible?"


Aspartame is possibly the most tested food additive in history. It has been in mass consumption for decades. Millions of people around the world consume TONS of it on a daily basis. Don't you think if it were causing brain damage and blindness there would be something besides rumor and internet scare-mail?

Aspartame is simply a combination of a couple of amino acids that happen to taste sweet when put together.

[Interrobang]

17. Yeah, and it gives me migraines.

It may have been tested to death, but it's not without its own peculiar quirks.

"Still, some people may be sensitive to aspartame and may experience headache or fatigue." http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/aspartame.htm

People with phenylketonuria shouldn't take anything with aspartame in it, either, because their brains can't process phenylalanine (a component of aspartame) properly, but I don't think that's likely to affect anyone here, because it's a very rare genetic disorder.

[JVS]

15. I had a friend who could not consume it

If he did he would feel bad and throw up a lot.

[geebensis]

16. That's why there's a warning on products containing it

It's a genetic thing with a very small percentage of people. Babies in the US are tested for it (I think it's called the PKU test) when they are a couple days old.

[JVS]

19. yup

He shys away from most beverages offered because you never know if one of the bottles of ginger ale used to make a punch was diet.

[musiclawyer]

18. Yes, stay away from it.

Also, stay away from nitrates, causes cancer; any sratches that are fried for a long time, e.g.. chips, as they turn into acrylamide
( think acrylic--nail polish; and stay away from HFCS, which for lack of time to explain, causes you to get fat, perhaps worse. Got it? That means virually all processed meat, chips, cookies, soft drinks, any sweetened drinks such as iced teas and sweetened. flavored water. Read your labels. Live long and prosper.

[BiggJawn]

22. That's why I like Faygo flavoured water.

nothing but fizzy water and fruit flavouring. No Aspartame.

I heard about the Nutrasweet=formaldehyde thing back around the time of GWI (Gulf War I) I stay away from the shit.

Also, don't forget, OLEAN is supposed to be "safe" to consume too. I have practical experience with that stuff.

The were giving away bags of "WOW!" chips one day at lunch. Everyone in the office had them (not me, I was wise to 'em) everybody ate them, everybody shit their pants and had to go home. Everyone comes back to work anywhere from the next day to 3 days later, and as my boss told me "Those things not only gave me the runs, but they gave me the VILEST-smelling farts I've EVER had..." I said "thanks for sharing..."

Just because the FDA says it's safe doesn't make it so. Hell, Rumsferatu says we're giving the Iraqis FREEDOM, but none of us believe THAT, do we?