aspartame! ooh! evil.. or is it??!

[*ULA*]

Hey beloved's:
I was sent an e-mail that has seemed to spark some controversy over the validity of it all... aspartame (the nasty little chemical in diet coke and nutrasweet and such things) was allegedly proved to be linked to tons of cases of lupus and MS.. and it seemed very convincing (haven't had a diet coke since!)- they said that after exceeding a certain temperature it turned to formaldehyde (sp?) or something very similar... and that the makers of it funded the American Dietic Association and the other Big Boys in the Industry which is why we haven't heard anything about it....

has anyone else heard this? believe this?

(yeah! so happy my computer is fixed!)

much love!

[Yvonne Belisle]

Don't know if it's true or not but a friend sent this to me. I'd take it with a grain of salt.




COKE

No wonder coke tastes soooo good:

1. In many states
(in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons
of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after
a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet
bowl and .......Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola
to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, Remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FYI:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

[Mairwen]

Well, I for one know how bad aspartame is for my health. I have to be very careful with the foods I eat because of it ~ I have to check labels for "NutraSweet" and for Aspartame. I have very mild depression, and Aspartame aggravates that, so I have to be very careful not to drink/eat anything with it.

[bluecat]

Originally posted by Yvonne Thomas
Don't know if it's true or not but a friend sent this to me. I'd take it with a grain of salt.

Several of these are correct.



COKE

No wonder coke tastes soooo good:

1. In many states
(in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons
of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after
a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet
bowl and .......Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola
to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, Remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.




I have done 2, 3, 5, 7, and the greasy clothes part of 8 ... also soaked blood stain in coke and it helped clean it (but I am not sure about cops carrying Coca-Cola in their cruisers)



FYI:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!


1 and 2 are also correct, the same goes for any strong syrup, even and especially sprite and seven up, both are very corrosive. We have a canner here and I have a friend who is a biologist and used to work QA at the coke canner.

Not sure about 3, they would have to steam then engines afterwards because of the sugar, which is also very corrosive.

I drink Pepsi ;) ... not too different.

Blue :cool:

[Yvonne Belisle]

Thank-you Bluecat that's good to know. Knowledge is never wasted!

[bluecat]

Originally posted by Mairwen
Well, I for one know how bad aspartame is for my health. I have to be very careful with the foods I eat because of it ~ I have to check labels for "NutraSweet" and for Aspartame. I have very mild depression, and Aspartame aggravates that, so I have to be very careful not to drink/eat anything with it.

I have migraines caused by a dormant seizure disorder and aspartame will trigger a migraine. I have friends who had headaches until they quit using it.

Blue :eek:

[Vinga]

And I just opened a new can of coke not even a minute before reading this thread :eek: .....oh well :p
I've also tried some of those 'other uses' for coke and most of them work. Back in high school we did an experiment in chemistry class where we put a tooth in a glass of coke, and yes it's true - coke does eat your teeth! :D

Ketchup is another great rust remover by the way.

[sherry]

As and EX diet coke drinker I can tell you that when I stopped drinking Diet coke and chewing Eclipse gum My migraines did stop
It took about 3 weeks to get over the cravings for the diet coke

But I have not had a migraine in since the last week of Febuary.
They had been so bad I'd spend 1 - 2 days in the dark in bed and calling off of work! And all this time my Diet Coke was on the night stand right next to me!! If I had only known it was the cause of it! 8O But thanks to someone who LOVES ME I feel much better now!!

[Amora]

I kept getting recurrent yeast infections and my doctor advised me it was from drinking too much soda. I cut back and they stopped. I am now trying to quit but the caffeine in it is such an incredible drug. I went hiking the other day and when I got off the mountain I swear I could've held up a conveinent store for an injection of caffeine.

After reading all of these uses I wince to think of what it does to our stomachs. :eek:

Heres to quitting:smash: !!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if the withdrawal kills me......

[tempest69]

No wonder I drink so little coke!8O Gimme Pepsi! And real sugar!:)

[*ULA*]

Originally posted by Mairwen
I have very mild depression, and Aspartame aggravates that, so I have to be very careful not to drink/eat anything with it.

Does it really? I didn't know that! oops!

[Amora]

Doesn't Pepsi also contain citric acid which eats "stuff"?

[bluecat]

Originally posted by Amora
Doesn't Pepsi also contain citric acid which eats "stuff"?

Not sure about citric acid, but it does have phosphorus acid, like Coke does.

Blue :D

[Amethyst Rose]

Originally posted by *ULA*
they said that after exceeding a certain temperature it turned to formaldehyde (sp?) or something very similar...

This is actually a hoax. I once saw a post by a chemist who proved why the chemicals of aspertame could NEVER be converted into formaldehyde.... the right chemical structure just isn't there.
Anyway.... I did a search and found this article on an urban legends website:

http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/aspartam.htm

[Mairwen]

Originally posted by *ULA*
Does it really? I didn't know that! oops!

Sure does. Causes migraines too. The FDA wanted to pull the stuff off the market, but all the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies wouldn't let them ~ at least that's my tale. I do knwo that Aspartame/NutraSweet has been fought against for years, yet the FDA won't do anything about it. Think about it ~ the drug companies are getting rich off all the anti-depressants and pain killers! :bad: :bad: :bad:

[eaglewolf]

Originally posted by Mairwen
:bad: :bad: :bad:

Now that is evil...

~ew

[Mairwen]

miss you ew!! 8O

[eaglewolf]

It is good to be back, clanking around with all of you again...

~ew

[Yvonne Belisle]

It's good to have you back the double entendras just aren't the same without you!

[Mariposa De La Luna]

Well when my mom passed over years and years ago, she was a heavy Coke drinker, they said her liver was black and probably about to go because of her Coke drinking. thats not why she passed BTW. she was so into Coke there is just about a picture of each one of us with coke in our baby bottles!

[idusty88]

Love your new avatar SAHM.

One time when watching Jeannine Garafalo doing her stand-up routine, she mentioned she had to stop drinking diet sodas containing aspartame (Nutrasweet) because she noticed the affect on her short term memory was becoming intolerable. I don't know where she had gotten the info to connect the two, but it does seem a logical connection since aspartame is capable of crossing the blood/brain barrier (I know this from reading science journals). I'm addicted to Crystal Lite and also suffer short term memory losses (I don't smoke pot or have alzheimer's), so seems possible, need to investigate further.
I do remember reading a scientific study done before aspartame was approved for use. In the study it was concluded that no child under the age of three years should be exposed to aspartame in any amount (this included in utero), because aspartame supressed neuronal growth; both number of neurons and connections between neurons. Projecting these results out I can see where memory would be affected by this same mechanism.
So it may be time to say bye-bye to my Crystal Lite and hello to what? Water only? Love it and drink lots, but not with meals. Beer? Nah, don't care for it in mass quantities. I suppose honey sweetened tea will work.

[Mairwen]

I wonder if that could be a connection between some kids and add? Not all of them, mind you ~ I'm a firm believer that 90% of add-diagnosed kids are "normal" and their parents and teachers just don't know how to "deal". :rolleyes:

[starfire]

This is actually a hoax. I once saw a post by a chemist who proved why the chemicals of aspertame could NEVER be converted into formaldehyde.... the right chemical structure just isn't there.
Anyway.... I did a search and found this article on an urban legends website:

http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/aspartam.htm


Well I am still not convenced. I didn't read anything here by a chemist saying that Aspartame at high temperatures were not dangerous. I had read something a chemist sent me when I asked him about the chain letter you discuss here, and he said it would be affected at high temperatures. Because that is where the chemical changes occur. So I have decided not to drink anything with Aspartame that has been sitting out in my car for days.

Splenda is sugar based, supose to be OK, Our bodies use one chemical form of glucose and this is suppose to be the opposite. There goes my physiology class down the drain. I can't remeber which is wich.

My daughter use to break out in rashes from eating to much equal, the little rat would find the stach and eat gobs of it. I had to hide and stop buying it.

One of the articles stated it didn't cause MS, lupis,etc. Which may be true, but If I had some of those things it wouldn't hurt to stop using it and see. Also what hasn't been determined one way or another, if it enhances any of these or makes them worst.

Well I am trying to cut back, and appreciate the other information about depression and migraines, since I have both. Can't hurt to see what happens.

[Karma Chameleon]

No wonder I drink so little coke!8O Gimme Pepsi! And real sugar!:)


Ah but they put the same junk in Pepsi as they do Coke!

[starfire]

I wonder if that could be a connection between some kids and add? Not all of them, mind you ~ I'm a firm believer that 90% of add-diagnosed kids are "normal" and their parents and teachers just don't know how to "deal". :rolleyes:

I don't think so, kids with ADD or ADHD usually suffer from not being able to concentrate on something to long. Their memorys are usually fine. Also they can get bored easily and tend to be active. I so agree with the fact that sometime these kids just are active kids and need to be involed in doing things. I once went on a field trip with my daughter's class when she 8, a boy in her class was diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, I can't remember wich, and he was taking meds. During lunch, he opened his lunch box and it consisted of cookies, grape juice, fruit pie, some surgar. Gee I wonder why this little guy was hyper. The teacher took half of it away and gave him half a sandwich. Yep wonder if diet is sometime the culprit here.

I do believe there are many with some degree of this disorder, but can funtion without meds. On the other hand I have seen kids that really do need the meds. Hopefully the doctors and parents would do a check on their diets before meds. Doesn't always happen though.

[CoolJ]

artificial sweeteners are bad for the body, the chemicals cant be digested by the body properly

[Isil Darkmoon]

Regardless of what any studies show, or don't show, it's evil in my book. Damn stuff gives me SERIOUS migranes. Painful, long-lasting migranes. I can't even drink a single diet soda or I'm in pain. If I am in a situation to use an artificial sweetener, I go with Splenda--that gets along OK with my system--but any of the aspertame based ones are instant death to my day.

[Hellenic_Witch]

I don't know anything about aspartame.

But saccarine (sp?) triggers HORRIBLE migraines for me. . . I mean the worst i've ever had.

For me, I just try and stay away from any substitutes. . . you don't really need a sugar subsitute anyway. There are so many organic fruits and vegetables available and you don't reeally need sodas. . . OK, I even have a hard time giving up sodas, but if you are dedicated to trying, you can make positive dietaary changes without sugar substitutes and chemicals.

[indebted]

I have heard this. I was recently diagnosed with a rare neuro-muscle disease and one of the things that is really admonished by all doctors and researchers is to stay away from Aspartame. Some of the research the doctor quoted (sorry I don't have it with me) indicated it could behave as an activator for this disease. I am diabetic, too. Aspartame is a big no no for diabetics who have difficulty controlling blood sugars.

[Djiril]

Well, I don't know about the artificial sweetener stuff, but snopes.com does have a response to that e-mail:
http://snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp (http://snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp)

[Bethra]

Aspartame has also been linked as a possible inducer of Altsimers

[argento_occhi]

I've always been a bit cautious about artificial sweeteners. Never been keen on them, and I'll try and avoid them when possible. Call me paranoid; probably not a bad thing to avoid sweeteners anyway. I try and cut back on the sugar too, though if i had to choose between sugar and sweeteners, I'd choose sugar every time. It doesn't help that I did a unit on nutrition and my text has a lovely list of all the food acids and discussions about them all too. I'm much more aware of them now than I was before.

Argent

[SilverClaw]

All I know is when I have anything with aspartame, not only does it taste awful( it always tastes like metal to me) but I get the worst migraine headaches.

[erlynn]

This is actually a hoax. I once saw a post by a chemist who proved why the chemicals of aspertame could NEVER be converted into formaldehyde.... the right chemical structure just isn't there.
Anyway.... I did a search and found this article on an urban legends website:

http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/aspartam.htm

I have a degree in a biochemistry and I have studied organic chemistry. Plus, I went and spoke with one of the organic chemists here at my company. While what that chemist says is true on the surface, we can't be sure what kinds of enzymatic reactions occur in the body to change the chemical structure of aspartame into formaldehyde.

I know that if I drink diet sodas, I get severe headaches lasting several days. They don't feel like migraines to me, but they are almost as painful. The same thing does not occur if I drink regular sodas.

[SilverNightShade]

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

The bone isn't gone...but the bone turns very soft and flexible. I did this expierement once for school.


i hate coke. I like pepsi or sprite...very good stuff

[Old Witch]

Aspartame gives me horrible headaches and appaerently I'm allergic to it too, it will cause my throat to itch and close up....Just got up, must go get my Coca Cola.........

[SilentDreams]

*shrugs*

Practically everything we eat these days is gonna kill us. I just stopped worrying. Now of course I won't be seen eating a box of baking soda or anything but honestly I'm not going to fret over coke. While I've not heard any reports of it being deadly or not did you know that twinkies and other snacks with cream fillings often have a preservative(sp) that is also found in anti-freeze? *nods* Yep. So really there is a whole lot of bad stuff in a whole lot of food, I've been drinking coke and other sodas for 17 years, diet coke mainly in the last 2 years. I aint dead yet lol

[SphinYote]

I haven't read through all the posts, it's possible that someone has already covered this stuff. But anyway, if not, here's food for thought, that hopefully steps away from the fear tactics that the anti-nutrasweet lobbyists at dorway.com use, and the blind and in my personal opinion innacurate, information that the nutrasweet promoters feed the public.


This is actually a hoax. I once saw a post by a chemist who proved why the chemicals of aspertame could NEVER be converted into formaldehyde.... the right chemical structure just isn't there.
Anyway.... I did a search and found this article on an urban legends website:

http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/aspartam.htm

Um, an acquaintance did it in their chem class and tested it. It does break down to formaldahyde, aspartic acid, and phenalalinine., your chemist is full of crap.

Besides, the main websites for the nutra-sweet companies even acknowledged it for a while. They argued that there are much higher quantities of it in natural fruits and we don't get sick from the fruits. What they left out was that fruits also contain the other alchohol that neutralizes the formaldehyde, so obviously in natural fruits it wouldn't hurt us (Formaldehyde is either methyl or ethyl alcohol, I can't remember which. Whatever it is, fruit has both types...).

The question does remain as to whether there's enough in Nutra-Sweet (or rather, enough can breakl down) to harm us though. I honestly don't know. But there's also the phenylalinine and aspartic acid to consider. Ever notice the PKU warnings on diet pop and other thngs? That's because there IS enough Phenylalinine to be toxic to phenylketonuric people--they can't metabolize it properly. They are amino acids, the body does need both in small amounts.

Clearly, nutra-sweet does at least break down in the body into the phenylalinine and the other aspartic-acid/formaldehyde component part, because if it didn't, this would not be an issue for people with PKU. As it is, the producers of nutra-sweet and diet foods thus acknowledge indirectly that the phenylalinine DOES separate, as they put the warning on the product...

As for aspartic acid, I don't know enough about it to say whether or not the anti-nutrasweet people are accurate in their info. In theory according to them in high mounts (as they claim is to be found in nutra-sweet, again I don't know), it is what they call an excitotoxin, meaning it makes the neurons in your brain become way too active and over time kills them. The anti-nutrasweet people have described it in the past as "eating holes in your brain"--I imagine even if it is harmful, that's exaggerating the point.

There is the claim on some websites that the components of nutrasweet can't get past the blood-brain barrier, and thus the claims that it causes migraines and siezures is innacurrate. Yet, the warnings about PKU contradict this, as it is in part the brain that is harmed in PKU. Likewise, I'll have to see if I can find it again, but some people are the opposite and require supplements of aspartic acid or phenalalinine, I was looking on an advertizement pge for supplements a while back and noticed that for phenylalanine it DOES give warnings that in succeptable individuals that it causes seizures. I will have to look for this and see if I can find it again. Hence, it gets past the blood-brain barrier.

Again the issue here is whether there is a high enough quantity of ANY of these substances to do the damage that the anti-nutrasweet lobbyists claim it does. Personally, given all the people I know who react badly to the product, I think there is a high enough quantity of...something, whichever of the components it happens to be...I have a co-worker and two or three relatives who get migraines from it. My cousin, whose mother is a heavy diet-coke drinker, was born with a cleft palate, a supposedly common birth defect for babies whose mothers diring a lot of the subsance (I would love to see an independant study done that is funded neither by the nutra-sweet producers, nor the fanatics at dorway.com that looks at this and either confirs or denies this information. As yet, I've found no study that is independent, funding wise, of these two major groups....

Additionally, if my grandma gets even a little nutra-sweet from a stick of gum, she ends up in the hospital with agonizing stomach pains (completely different from the potential impact on the brain I mentioned before, but a side-effect for her, nonetheess. Granted, she could be a minority exception....). She's unfortunately too blind to read the labels, it's only after she ends up in the hospital that someone actually THINKS to check the labels for her. When she lived at home, I tried to do this regularly every time I visited. To date, people have gotten her gum with nutra-sweet on numerous occasions (quite honestly I can't find mint gum without either aspartame--the other name for nutra-sweet--or asculfame), someone got her diet jello, diet swiss-miss cocoa with nutra-sweet, icecream bars, etc. Some IDIOT even gave her a whole box of it once to use as a sweetener in baking....Now the gum and the swissmiss I can kind of understand, as they weren't really labeled clearly except in the ingredients, but the entire box of the stuff, that was just plain stupid....

There's weight to both sides of the argument as to whether nutra-sweet is harmful or not.

And a word on Snopes.com
Snopes I respect most of the time, but some of their stuff (as in this case) isn't necessarily accurate. I think they are an excellent starting point, but they are NOT the end all of whether or not something is an urban legend...

Anyway, I hope that someone finds this stuff helpful, as a starting point for food for thought. I will try to look for sources later, although every source I've found thus far on either side of the argument is questionable...to be honest though I'm more likely to trust the anti-nutrasweet people even though I think they are grossly inaccurate in the MANNER in which they present the information, I detest them for using fear to promote their information, and they only succeed in undermining themselves this way...while I think they are closer to the truth, I'd carefully research anything they said. Every study I've seen thus far that has touted nutra-sweet's safety has ultimately been funded by the groups who make a profit from it (even those who claim to be independent researchers--ALWAYS look to see where people get their money from).

[Mistress_Ravenshadow]

Hey beloved's:
I was sent an e-mail that has seemed to spark some controversy over the validity of it all... aspartame (the nasty little chemical in diet coke and nutrasweet and such things) was allegedly proved to be linked to tons of cases of lupus and MS.. and it seemed very convincing (haven't had a diet coke since!)- they said that after exceeding a certain temperature it turned to formaldehyde (sp?) or something very similar... and that the makers of it funded the American Dietic Association and the other Big Boys in the Industry which is why we haven't heard anything about it....

has anyone else heard this? believe this?

(yeah! so happy my computer is fixed!)

much love!

i can understand why they would link aspartame with lupus.. alot of people with lupus tend to drink the diet sodas because of the calorie intake.. i know for myself i cant lose weight easily due to the fact that its hard to get enough exercise to make the pounds come off because of pain and fatigue and not being able to even go out for a short walk.. being in the sun for any period of time lands me in bed for the next couple of days.. so in order to keep the weight off/in check i tend to favor the diet stuff..
they have done studies that show links between cancer and artificial sweeteners and no doubt there are links between them and other disorders and diseases.
there are so many other things that cause illness that if we were to try and avoid them all no one would ever eat or drink again.. i think the key to it all is moderation.. if we are moderate in our intake of things then we should be ok..
my step mother stresses about all that sort of thing.. shes like dont eat this it causes cancer dont drink that it does this to you.. shes like a broken record when it comers to this stuff and yet she is one of the sickest people i know.. my dad never worried about this sort of stuff before he married her and he was never sick.. now hes almost as sick as her.. there are so many things he can no longer eat because of everything thats wrong with him (most of which were his favorites before they got together)

[starfire]

[QUOTE=Mistress_Ravenshadow]they have done studies that show links between cancer and artificial sweeteners and no doubt there are links between them and other disorders and diseases.
there are so many other things that cause illness that if we were to try and avoid them all no one would ever eat or drink again.. i think the key to it all is moderation.. if we are moderate in our intake of things then we should be ok..]

Well said, so true, when you cut things out completely regardless of the food type, your body no longer processed it well. Many vegitarians have extreme pain when they eat meat, even chicken. So moderation is for most part they key to many things. Organic products don't have the sprays or preservatives that other stuff does, but it cost more sometimes (Until my son worked produce, I didn't know they put preservatives on the fruits, boy am I unimformed)

As far as cancer goes, some people are more prone to cancer, already have the cells, so it is a matter of something causing the free radicals (not to be confused with protesters) to mutate the cells. You see this with different types of cancers that have been linked to genetics.

Asparatame also causes many to have diarrhea, so they stay away from it too.