Aspartame: (artificial sweetener) what you don't know can hurt you! Aspartame is the collective name for many artificial sweeteners, (additive code E951) used in soft drinks and food and very few people are aware of the hidden dangers. Aspartame is by far the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods. Below is part an interesting article by Dr. Mercola.To make matters worse, our government is adding a poisonous waste product from the aluminium and fertilizer industry to our water, so it is very difficult to avoid taking in a chemical cocktail. - Werner
Artificial Sweeteners -- More Dangerous than You Ever Imagined.
By: Dr. Mercola October 13. 2009
If you still believe sweeteners like Equal and NutraSweet are safe, you’ll want to pay very close attention to this special report.
You’re probably aware of the dangers of consuming too much sugar and that sugar is not healthy for you. You might have been led to believe that artificial sweeteners like aspartame are safer, and less likely to cause you to gain weight. Well, neither of those beliefs are true.
Slick marketing of products containing aspartame by giants in the food industry -- especially marketing that sends the message it’s healthy to consume these products -- might be giving you a false sense of security.
You might even be convinced you’re doing the right thing for your health and the health of your family by using products artificially sweetened with aspartame. You couldn’t be more mistaken.
It’s not pleasant to learn that corporations, government-sponsored regulatory agencies and politicians are more interested in lining their pockets than protecting your health and the health of your loved ones. But unfortunately, these are serious issues that you must consider for your and your family’s safety.
Manufacturers, marketers and others with financial interests have successfully convinced millions of consumers the chemicals used in artificially sweetened products are safe. Don’t believe them! The arguments used to convince you these ingredients are healthy and “natural” will be addressed later in this report.
For now, just keep in mind that the reason you feel products containing aspartame are safe is a direct result of deliberate deception on the part of big business and government.
For now, just keep in mind that the reason you feel products containing aspartame are safe is a direct result of deliberate deception on the part of big business and government.
Remember:
If you’re consuming a food or beverage created in a lab instead of by nature, you can be assured your body doesn’t recognize it. This opens the door to short-term and long-lasting health problems for you and your family. If you already avoid aspartame, the information you’re about to read will confirm the wise choice you’ve made, and cement your resolve to stay away from any product that contains this potential toxin.
How Aspartame Acts Inside Your Body.
The two primary components of aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, are amino acids that are combined in an ester bond. You normally consume these two amino acids in the foods you eat. These amino acids are harmless when consumed as part of natural unprocessed foods. However when they are chemically manipulated and consumed out of the normal ratios to other amino acids, they can cause problems.
Your body initially breaks down the ester link between the two amino acids to turn them into free amino acids. The neurotoxic effects of these chemicals in their “free form” can result in immediate health consequences such as headaches, mental confusion, dizziness and seizures.
Your body does require small amounts of these amino acids to function properly. However, the high concentration of these chemicals in the form of aspartame floods your central nervous system and can cause excessive firing of brain neurons. Cell death is also possible. This is a condition called excitotoxicity.
Your body doesn’t recognize phenylalanine and aspartic acid in their free form, but your system will try to manage them through metabolization. Whenever your body tries to process an unrecognizable substance, the stage is set for health problems.
The chemicals in aspartame will be absorbed by your intestinal cells, where they will be broken down into other amino acids and byproducts. A large percentage of the absorbed chemicals will be used immediately in your small intestine.
A Formaldehyde Cocktail.
Ultimately, aspartame will be fully absorbed into your body. Ten percent of what is absorbed is the breakdown product methanol (wood alcohol). The EPA defines safe consumption of this toxin as 7.8 milligrams a day, which is the amount found in about half a can of diet soda.
It’s not the amino acids themselves or the methanol that are toxic to your system, it’s the breakdown products they turn into along the way -- either during transport, on the store shelf, or during the metabolization process. Stored at warm temperatures or for a prolonged period of time, phenylalanine turns into diketopiperazine, a known carcinogen.
Methanol can spontaneously break down to formaldehyde, also a toxin, which can accumulate in your cells and result in severe health consequences. Methanol is found naturally in some of the foods you eat; however, it is never bound to amino acids in nature, as it is as an ingredient in aspartame. In nature, for example, methanol is bound to pectin. Pectin is a fiber which allows the methanol to pass through your body without being metabolized and converted to formaldehyde.
Since methanol in aspartame has no natural binder, nearly all of it turns into formaldehyde in your body. Formaldehyde (which is used in, among other things, paint remover and embalming fluid) is a poison several thousand times more potent than ethyl alcohol.
The EPA has determined formaldehyde causes cancer in humans. Specifically, it is known to increase your risk of breast or prostate cancer. Incidents of both types of cancer have been on the rise at a pace closely associated with the expanding use of aspartame throughout the world.
The EPA has also concluded there is no known “safe” level of formaldehyde in your body -- risk depends on the amount and duration of your exposure.
The end waste product of formaldehyde is formate. An accumulation of formate in your body can cause metabolic acidosis, which is excessive acidity in your blood. Metabolic acidosis can cause methanol poisoning and can result in blindness, fatal kidney damage, multiple organ system failure, and death.
How Aspartame Acts Inside Your Body.
The two primary components of aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, are amino acids that are combined in an ester bond. You normally consume these two amino acids in the foods you eat. These amino acids are harmless when consumed as part of natural unprocessed foods. However when they are chemically manipulated and consumed out of the normal ratios to other amino acids, they can cause problems.
Your body initially breaks down the ester link between the two amino acids to turn them into free amino acids. The neurotoxic effects of these chemicals in their “free form” can result in immediate health consequences such as headaches, mental confusion, dizziness and seizures.
Your body does require small amounts of these amino acids to function properly. However, the high concentration of these chemicals in the form of aspartame floods your central nervous system and can cause excessive firing of brain neurons. Cell death is also possible. This is a condition called excitotoxicity.
Your body doesn’t recognize phenylalanine and aspartic acid in their free form, but your system will try to manage them through metabolization. Whenever your body tries to process an unrecognizable substance, the stage is set for health problems.
The chemicals in aspartame will be absorbed by your intestinal cells, where they will be broken down into other amino acids and byproducts. A large percentage of the absorbed chemicals will be used immediately in your small intestine.
A Formaldehyde Cocktail.
Ultimately, aspartame will be fully absorbed into your body. Ten percent of what is absorbed is the breakdown product methanol (wood alcohol). The EPA defines safe consumption of this toxin as 7.8 milligrams a day, which is the amount found in about half a can of diet soda.
It’s not the amino acids themselves or the methanol that are toxic to your system, it’s the breakdown products they turn into along the way -- either during transport, on the store shelf, or during the metabolization process. Stored at warm temperatures or for a prolonged period of time, phenylalanine turns into diketopiperazine, a known carcinogen.
Methanol can spontaneously break down to formaldehyde, also a toxin, which can accumulate in your cells and result in severe health consequences. Methanol is found naturally in some of the foods you eat; however, it is never bound to amino acids in nature, as it is as an ingredient in aspartame. In nature, for example, methanol is bound to pectin. Pectin is a fiber which allows the methanol to pass through your body without being metabolized and converted to formaldehyde.
Since methanol in aspartame has no natural binder, nearly all of it turns into formaldehyde in your body. Formaldehyde (which is used in, among other things, paint remover and embalming fluid) is a poison several thousand times more potent than ethyl alcohol.
The EPA has determined formaldehyde causes cancer in humans. Specifically, it is known to increase your risk of breast or prostate cancer. Incidents of both types of cancer have been on the rise at a pace closely associated with the expanding use of aspartame throughout the world.
The EPA has also concluded there is no known “safe” level of formaldehyde in your body -- risk depends on the amount and duration of your exposure.
The end waste product of formaldehyde is formate. An accumulation of formate in your body can cause metabolic acidosis, which is excessive acidity in your blood. Metabolic acidosis can cause methanol poisoning and can result in blindness, fatal kidney damage, multiple organ system failure, and death.
* * * * * * *
And here is a step in the right direction by our Kiwi neighbours.
New Zealand's Phoenix Organics Launches Anti-Aspartame "Think Before You Drink" Campaign
by David Gutierrez.
(NaturalNews) New Zealand beverage manufacturer Phoenix Organics has launched an anti-aspartame campaign called "Think Before You Drink," to inform people about what it says are serious health risks from the artificial sweetener.
Aspartame is a common zero-calorie sweetener, marketed under brand names including Equal, NutraSweet, Canderel and Tropicana Slim and used in more than 6,000 products worldwide.
As part of the new campaign, Phoenix Organics has labeled 20,000 bottles of Phoenix Organic Cola with information about the potential health risks of aspartame, and plans to give out those bottles for free over the next few months. The company has also created a section on its Web site linking to information about the chemical and "the 92 different symptoms noted in over 10,000 complaints received by the FDA."
"Having read the Bressler Report of the FDA and other reports on the effects of aspartame, we had the living daylights scared out of all of us," said company directors Stefan Lepionka and Marc Ellis. "We cannot believe that the New Zealand government has declared this safe in the face of such evidence."
The Bressler Report was a 1977 FDA report on the inadequacies of aspartame maker GD Searle's trials into the safety of the chemical. In 1981, Searle Chief Operating Officer Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense for Gerald Ford and later serving the same position for George W. Bush, reapplied for FDA authorization. Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for beverages in 1983.
Numerous studies have linked aspartame to brain damage and cancer, while others have shown that it breaks down in the body into toxic byproducts such as formaldehyde.
Lepionka and Ellis expressed concern that in the face of increasing efforts to remove sugary soft drinks from school grounds, beverage companies have suggested aspartame-containing diet soda as a good alternative.
"Phoenix Organics has contacted a number of groups that have been fighting to raise awareness of the health concerns surrounding aspartame and said the company will do whatever it can to support the overall aim to have the government restrict and ban aspartame," they said.
As part of the new campaign, Phoenix Organics has labeled 20,000 bottles of Phoenix Organic Cola with information about the potential health risks of aspartame, and plans to give out those bottles for free over the next few months. The company has also created a section on its Web site linking to information about the chemical and "the 92 different symptoms noted in over 10,000 complaints received by the FDA."
"Having read the Bressler Report of the FDA and other reports on the effects of aspartame, we had the living daylights scared out of all of us," said company directors Stefan Lepionka and Marc Ellis. "We cannot believe that the New Zealand government has declared this safe in the face of such evidence."
The Bressler Report was a 1977 FDA report on the inadequacies of aspartame maker GD Searle's trials into the safety of the chemical. In 1981, Searle Chief Operating Officer Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense for Gerald Ford and later serving the same position for George W. Bush, reapplied for FDA authorization. Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for beverages in 1983.
Numerous studies have linked aspartame to brain damage and cancer, while others have shown that it breaks down in the body into toxic byproducts such as formaldehyde.
Lepionka and Ellis expressed concern that in the face of increasing efforts to remove sugary soft drinks from school grounds, beverage companies have suggested aspartame-containing diet soda as a good alternative.
"Phoenix Organics has contacted a number of groups that have been fighting to raise awareness of the health concerns surrounding aspartame and said the company will do whatever it can to support the overall aim to have the government restrict and ban aspartame," they said.
2 comments:
Thanks Werner for bringing the valuable info about “Aspartame” into the open, this should be an eye opener, especially for the young people, but would they take any notice? With all the chemical additives added to our food and drinks, even our drinking water (fluoride) plus the chemicals doctors prescribe, the polluted air we breathe in, no wonder everybody is sick resulting in long waiting times at doctors and hospitals.
The Americans I chat with online also tell me there is another highly dangerous artificial sweetener, called, misleadingly "corn syrup". I have not done any research into this, but the Americans tell me it is a highly addictive substance. It is present in most commercially prepared biscuits, cakes etc. which is another good reason to bake your own these days!!!
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