Aspartame in fizzy drinks
Posted by: mista h on 10 February 2013
This is one for all the Doctors on this M/B
Friend has just sent me an e mail regarding the above product,often found in diet & fizzy drinks and if over consumed can be fatal !!!
Your comments please.
Mista H
Aspartame: a safety evaluation based on current use levels, regulations, and toxicological and epidemiological studies.
Source
Burdock Group, Washington, DC, USA. bmagnuso@umd.edu
Aspartame is a methyl ester of a dipeptide used as a synthetic nonnutritive sweetener in over 90 countries worldwide in over 6000 products. The purpose of this investigation was to review the scientific literature on the absorption and metabolism, the current consumption levels worldwide, the toxicology, and recent epidemiological studies on aspartame. Current use levels of aspartame, even by high users in special subgroups, remains well below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority established acceptable daily intake levels of 50 and 40 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. Consumption of large doses of aspartame in a single bolus dose will have an effect on some biochemical parameters, including plasma amino acid levels and brain neurotransmitter levels. The rise in plasma levels of phenylalanine and aspartic acid following administration of aspartame at doses less than or equal to 50 mg/kg bw do not exceed those observed postprandially. Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. Critical review of all carcinogenicity studies conducted on aspartame found no credible evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic. The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior. Epidemiological studies on aspartame include several case-control studies and one well-conducted prospective epidemiological study with a large cohort, in which the consumption of aspartame was measured. The studies provide no evidence to support an association between aspartame and cancer in any tissue. The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828671
This link provides a more general summary of artificial sweetener safety :
Many thanks for the info Jan.
Mista H
All these so called 'diet' drinks are worse chemical cocktails than their 'full fat' sugary alternatives. Unfortunately a lot of these artificial sweeteners are in other food products also. Another lesson to be learned along with dodgy meat in processed food. However I don't think there should be too much scaremongering as the levels used and consumed are below the safe levels prescribed by government agencies. The best advise though is to have a diet that is high in fresh produce wherever possible.
Steve
Apart from water or "health" shakes, what is a recommended light "diet" drink ?
Water, black coffee, various teas unsweetened all zero calories. Refreshing on ice.
Sugar-free gum is loaded with aspartame.
It may not give you cancer but i have found it to be pretty evil stuff! I discovered some years ago that the significant stomach problems and headaches i was having were solved almost overnight when i gave up those 'plastic' sweetners. Admitedly it was one of several things i gave up but i certainly wasn't consuming a lot of it. That said it was entertaining were one found it! Toothpaste, yogharts etc never mind gum etc. Hidden away in a great many processed foods.........and yes while i have always avoided processed stuff it can be difficult to avoid in many day to day eating moments.
Hi Mista h,
great post,
firstly you dont have to be a doctor to know that Aspartame is a well known neurotoxin.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/as...study-on-humans.html
it was banned by the FDA in the 60+ 70`s as it was causing cancer in the lab monkeys in the research til a chap called Donald Rumsfeld (Health Sec under Reagan) got it approved.
Your right to be concerned, its to be avoided but its quite difficult as its in so many things.
ed.
Eddie,
The link you provide does not refer to neurotoxicity, but cancer. The article is from Natural News who make their living out of distorting findings from studies. Scaring people for profit. Here's the abstract from the original study :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23097267
Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Dec;96(6):1419-28. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.111.030833. Epub 2012 Oct 24.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Despite safety reports of the artificial sweetener aspartame, health-related concerns remain.
OBJECTIVE:
We prospectively evaluated whether the consumption of aspartame- and sugar-containing soda is associated with risk of hematopoetic cancers.
DESIGN:
We repeatedly assessed diet in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). Over 22 y, we identified 1324 non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), 285 multiple myelomas, and 339 leukemias. We calculated incidence RRs and 95% CIs by using Cox proportional hazards models.
RESULTS:
When the 2 cohorts were combined, there was no significant association between soda intake and risks of NHL and multiple myeloma. However, in men, ≥1 daily serving of diet soda increased risks of NHL (RR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.72) and multiple myeloma (RR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.20, 3.40) in comparison with men who did not consume diet soda. We observed no increased risks of NHL and multiple myeloma in women. We also observed an unexpected elevated risk of NHL (RR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.51) with a higher consumption of regular, sugar-sweetened soda in men but not in women. In contrast, when sexes were analyzed separately with limited power, neither regular nor diet soda increased risk of leukemia but were associated with increased leukemia risk when data for men and women were combined (RR for consumption of ≥1 serving of diet soda/d when the 2 cohorts were pooled: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.00, 2.02).
CONCLUSION:
Although our findings preserve the possibility of a detrimental effect of a constituent of diet soda, such as aspartame, on select cancers, the inconsistent sex effects and occurrence of an apparent cancer risk in individuals who consume regular soda do not permit the ruling out of chance as an explanation.
In other words, the researchers found a slightly increased risk for aspartame, a slightly higher risk for sugar-sweetened drinks, with the effect seen inconsistently between the sexes. The study would appear to have sufficient power to detect weak effects, due to its size and, being a prospective study, fewer biases than a retrospective one. As the authors state, chance cannot be ruled out.
Keep in mind also that it's one study and that biological plausibility (mechanisms for cancer causation by aspartame) has not been established, AFAIK.
Firmer conclusions can be drawn when Hill's criteria are met :
- Strength of association (relative risk, odds ratio)
- Consistency
- Specificity
- Temporal relationship (temporality) - not heuristic; factually necessary for cause to precede consequence
- Biological gradient (dose-response relationship)
- Plausibility (biological plausibility)
- Coherence
- Experiment (reversibility)
- Analogy (consideration of alternate explanations)
For something really scary, look up the risk of childhood leukaemia associated with hot dog consumption.
Jan
Hi Jan,
Natural News is a great site with Mike Adams being a fantastic guy with some good advice especially against big PHARMA.
There have been loads of studies to confirm Aspartame is a Neuro toxin.
Research Dr Richard Blaylock - one of the top Neuro surgeons in the world and have a look at what he has to say about it.
No-one is trying to scare anyone & were not talking about flippin hot dogs!?? (strawman)
Aspartame is the waste product of Genectically Modified Bacteria that is roughly 60 times sweeter than sugar - FACT.
Donald Rumsfeld while in government in conjuction with the FDA was on the board of a company called Searle that produced this toxin.( no conflict of interest then!?)
All people are trying to do is educate themselves to what they might be consuming? -
(I`m off to tesco`s to buy some horsemeat!)
ed.
Never mind aspartame in Diet Coke. I'm more worried that there might be horse meat in it!
Diet Colt anyone?
John.
I went to a Tesco cafe yesterday and ordered a Burger. They asked me if i wanted anything on it.i said yes please a fiver each way.
Mista h
Interesting - when I was pilot training I was told in no uncertain terms to avoid all diet drinks because of a possible neurological effect.
Having said that I'm not sure that the air supply from bleed air is any better, or the impact of cosmic radiation so no matter what you do it's pretty difficult to avoid risk.
Jonathan
This just in: