Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is commonly used in many diet products in order to provide the taste of sugar without the calories. It is known as NutraSweet, Equal, and E951, to name a few. However, there has been some controversy surrounding aspartame's safety, so we've looked into it in order to find the truth.
Basic Facts About Aspartame
Aspartame was invented in 1965 by a chemist named James Schlatter. It is a sweetening ingredient that is low in calories, and is thus a substitute for table sugar. This allows people to enjoy the sweet taste of sugar but in a healthier way. It was approved by the American Food and Drug Administration in 1981 and it is made from two amino acids – phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Aspartame is contained in thousands of products worldwide, but some common foods with aspartame include:
- beverages
- dairy products
- confectionery
- frozen desserts
- tabletop sweeteners
- powdered products
- cereals
- preserves
- pharmaceuticals
The acceptable daily intake (ADI) of aspartame is 40mg per kilogram of bodyweight. The ADI is a figure that you can eat or drink daily over your lifetime without experiencing any adverse effects. A person that weighs 70kg would have to drink more than 5 litres of soft drinks sweetened only with aspartame in one day to consume the ADI of aspartame. Surveys and studies have shown that even the most frequent adult consumers of aspartame only get about 4 to 7 percent of the ADI. The most frequent child consumers get up to 16 percent of the ADI of aspartame.
Aspartame and Your Health
Many studies have shown that aspartame actually has few side effects. There are no scientific studies that have proven that aspartame does not cause or contribute to allergic reactions, headaches, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. Nor does it affect vision, cause mood or behavioural changes, or interfere with thought processes. It is interesting to note that some studies have shown that artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, in diet drinks can actually stimulate your appetite and cause you to eat when you're not hungry, thus defeating the purpose of diet drinks. Aspartame is still widely thought to be a useful weight management tool by many experts; however, if it is used as part of a well designed weight management program.
Products that contain aspartame have a warning on it that alerts people to the natural amino acid phenylalanine. This amino acid is not dangerous to most people but it is toxic to people that suffer from the rare disease, phenylketonuria. People that suffer from phenylketonuria cannot break down the phenylalanine and it can rise to toxic levels and cause neurophysiological symptoms, if not brain damage.
People are also concerned about the amount of methanol that is released into the body by the breakdown products of aspartame. However, the methanol that is produced by the metabolisation is the same as the methanol that comes from fruits and vegetables. As an example, one glass of tomato juice produces 6 times the methanol that a similar sized glass of diet soda would provide. The methanol does not accumulate in the body.
Aspartame is considered to be safe to use during pregnancy, by nursing women and by children.
The Negative Effects of Aspartame
Despite numerous studies attesting to the fact that aspartame is safe to use, there are still many health experts that believe that aspartame has a negative effect on our health. In fact, over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives that have been reported to America's FDA have been due to aspartame.
Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and when taken in high doses, it can cause brain dysfunction and a host of other health concerns. Some of the symptoms documented by the FDA include:
- Headaches and migraines
- Dizziness
- Seizures
- Nausea
- Numbness
- Muscle spasms
- Weight gain
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Tachycardia
- Vision problems
- Hearing loss
- Cognitive impairments
- Breathing difficulties
- Anxiety attacks
Some researchers and doctors also believe that consumption of aspartame can have neurobehavioral effects, and have found links between aspartame and chronic illnesses like multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Alzheimer's, diabetes and fibromyalgia.
Aspartic acid makes up approximately 40 percent of aspartame, and it is an amino acid that, when taken in its free form, significantly raises the blood plasma level of aspartate and glutamate. The excess aspartate and glutamate leads to a high level of neurotransmitters in the brain. Too much aspartate or glutamate kills certain neurons by allowing too much calcium into the cells, the influx triggering free radicals which also kill the cells. Some diseases linked to the damage caused by this cell death include hearing loss, dementia, memory loss, hormonal problems, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. Acute reactions to the excess aspartate and glutamate include headaches, nausea, fatigue, sleep problems and vision problems.
Phenylalanine is an amino acid that is naturally found in the brain and people with phenylketonuria, as previously mentioned, cannot metabolise phenylalanine and thus cannot consume aspartame. However, studies have shown that consuming aspartame can lead to high levels of phenylalanine in the brain even in people that do not suffer from phenylketonuria. Excessive intake of phenylalanine can cause the levels of serotonin to decrease and trigger negative neurobehavioral effects such as depressive symptoms.
Methanol is also considered as being dangerous. It is gradually released into the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounters an enzyme called chymotrypsin. The absorption of methanol into the body occurs quickly when aspartame is heated to over 30 degrees Celsius – heating that can easily occur when the product is stored incorrectly or is heated before consumption, such as in sugar substitutes in coffee. In the body, methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a neurotoxin. Symptoms of methanol poisoning include headaches, buzzing in the ears, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal problems and memory lapses. One of the most well known symptoms of methanol poisoning is vision problems. Fruit juices and alcohol do contain small amounts of methanol but the methanol is never present alone in natural products. It is accompanied by ethanol, which is an antidote for methanol toxicity in humans.
Avoiding the Negative Effects of Foods With Aspartame
Often, people are unaware that what they are consuming is harmful to their health. It is important to read food labels just like you should be reading product labels in general before making a purchase.
It may seem obvious but it is surprising how many people assume what something is by what it is called or what it looks like. This is not always the case and can often be deceiving. What appears to be harmless fruit juice may actually contain aspartame in its sweeter form, explaining why you get an instant headache after drinking a 'healthy' sugar-free drink thinking that it is good for you while you are actually consuming something that has no nutritional value.
Avoid buying foods containing aspartame if you want to avoid ingesting harmful chemicals. As a general-purpose sweetener, raw honey and maple syrup are natural sweeteners that are safer for the body. Although both have higher calories, they are lower in the glycemic index than sugar, hence do not cause blood sugar levels to spike and are clearly better sugar alternatives.
The daily intake of aspartame, though it might not seem like much, can have adverse effects if it is consumed consistently over time. The human brain is our most powerful weapon, but it has its limitations. If bombarded continuously with neurotoxins through aspartame consumption, what impact will that have on our overall health in the long run?
Originally published on Dec 16, 2010
