posted
Alucard, rivka, CT, or anyone else, is there any evidence to support the claim I have heard that aspartame is addictive?
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
There is no evidence to support either physical or psychological addiction to aspartame. Keep in mind that there is a HUGE difference between the 2 types of addictions, and given the chemistry of aspartame, psychological addiction could be ruled out with relative certainty.
Physical addiction is another matter. Sadly, the proponents of apartame marketability will never stand for such a study to implicate their product as harmful. I'm afraid we are stuck with it for now.
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Thanks. I was really more concerned with physical addiction, but even knowing that we do not know is better than my previous state of knowledge.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Looks vaguely possible, but current research is insufficient to prove the case. Notice the anecdotal nature of almost all the claims. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Thanks a lot. I asked because I have an acquaintance who says that he drinks Diet Coke because he is addicted to aspartame, and while my mother would deny such an accusation, she uses enough to make me wonder. At this point, even anecdotal evidence is better than nothing for me.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Habit is a powerful motivator. And being USED TO (or habituated to, if you prefer) drinking or eating something can resemble addiction.
In either case, one of the best ways to break the habit (or addiction, if it actually is one) is to replace it with something else.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
mackillian - Possibly, but I have heard that he takes some form of amphetamine, so there is no particular reason not to just take more amphetamine (or regular Coca-Cola, which incidentally I asked him why he did not use that).
rivka - I wish I could, but she does not particularly like alcohol, and to my knowledge does not consciously (sp?) use drugs anymore, if indeed she ever has. Otherwise I would make my best effort to have her use cannabis, but I believe she thinks it is wrong. As far as non-(directly)chemical means, she is (and we are) already strong Christians, so religion is out. As for hobbies, if I find one, I will certainly try it, but I doubt it. The only method that I believe has a chance of working is telling her that it is wrong to use aspartame, but that is the least reliable method in my experience.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate being informed.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I was suggesting some other type of drink -- perhaps some type of fruit juice, or bottled water (flavored, maybe?) or even sugar-sweetened soda -- NOT alcohol (which, while I do occasionally imbibe, I suspect is far more dangerous than aspartame) and certainly not drugs!
Sheesh! Substituting drugs for aspartame strikes me as a particularly poor idea! Aspartame MAY cause some problems, but (with the exception of for phenylketonurics) there is no proven link. But illegal drugs are PROVEN to be harmful. Yes, even cannabis.
Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Cannabis, harmful? Please tell me where. While I certainly am willing to believe that cannabis is harmful, I have not found an unbiased study saying so, because to my knowledge there are no unbiased studies. (An unbiased study would not be funded by any government (or government funded) organization, nor would it be funded by a pro-cannabis organization, such as (although not limited to) NORML). I am certainly willing to believe that an equivalent amount of alcohol is more harmful ::EDIT:: than aspartame, not cannabis/THC ::/EDIT::, but I honestly have not seen any respectable studies claiming the same for cannabis. This is not to say that I am claiming that cannabis is harmless. It is just that I have not seen any study that I can respect that proves/suggests such. Also, while I cannot recall of the top of my head any studies that suggest cannabis is more harmful than aspartame, I cannot recall any to the contrary either. Any supporting either assertation would be greatly appreciated.
That said, to my knowledge alcohol is far less harmful than marijuana and most hallucinogens, but that point is not to be taken as an endorsement of those. I mean it as a condemnation of alcohol. To make the same point but in a more specific manner, caffeine is at least as addictive as cocaine, and has similar effects in high enough dosages, but I believe that caffeine is worse than most people think, and that cocaine is in general about as bad as the government portrays it.
More to the point of this thread, are there any ways that reliably convince people who use aspartame to cease (or at least cut back) usage?
posted
Caffeine is a stimulant, but requires great amounts to really have a stimulant effect like an amphetamine.
Danzig, is it a LEGAL amphetamine or illegal?
And cannabis impairs judgement just as alcohol does. Both kill brain cells. The judgement piece can kill both the user and other people. I witness a car accident yesterday morning cause by a male driving under the influence of cannabis.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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The link you have of David Icke that he believes aspartame is addictive: He also believes that the Bush family and most of the powerful elite of planet Earth are shape-shifting reptilian aliens that feast on babies. I have read David Icke and I own some books of his, I am ashamed to say. He is one of the most entertaining readers I have read because he can find conspiriacy in everything, and I believe he can offend anyone. He is definitely on the fringe of belief for the casual reader of conspiracy theory literature. Interestingly though, I had a fellow colleuge spend actual hard-earned cash and found over a long series of inquiries and research that David Icke may be right on a lot of his theories. If so, God help us all!
Mack, if you limit your diet pop intake to 2-3 cans and you feel fine, you should be fine. I am worried what 5,10 or even 20 years of aspartame intake may do though. It would be better and prudent to drink less. But this is like the pot calling the kettle black. I drink 2-3 cans of Mt Dew per day (not diet though).
Danzig, please do not turn this thread into a question of illicit drugs and their ability to do harm. The FIRST rule of pharmacology is:
Every drug is a poison. Too much kills. Not enough is sub-therapeutic. The optimal range of a drug to produce its DESIRED effect is called the therapeutic window.
Cannabis in a therapeutic sense can stimulate appetite in patients whose appetite is diminished. However, if you are smoking pot to obtain your cannabis, pot has 6 times the tar of tobacco. Cannabis may not kill you, but lung cancer just might.
Period. Tag youre it. No tap backs.
As was stated earlier, moderation is the prudent thing to consider with aspartame, as it is with almost any substance.
posted
I've noticed that all the Splenda flavored drinks are caffeine free. If someone can find a splenda soda with caffeine, I will switch. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Drat, I thought I omitted all the obvious lunatic-fringe anti-aspartame sites. I skipped a few that were more blatantly "out there." I'll remember his name next time, I expect.
Although that Nexus magazine you recommended seems to be convinced aliens visit Earth on a regular basis, too.
*jumps at noise behind her*
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Hi, I want to be educated! I just got into O-Chem and I have some chemistry questions.
quote:Alucard wrote: Sorry I got here late. CT is exactly correct, and I would be surprised that Splenda could have many long-term health concerns considering its chemistry.
I don't understand this. Didn't Thalidomide cause birth defects because half of the product was one enantiomer, and the other half was another enantiomer(i.e. it was a racemic mixture)? They had the same chemical formula, with atoms in the same sequence, but only one enantiomer caused the birth defect. Without experimental data concerning aspartame's reaction with chemicals in the body, I think it would be tough to determine long-term health care effects given the number of chemicals a person ingests and produces over a long time. So how can you determine the probability of long-term health concerns just from the chemistry of the molecule itself?
quote:Alucard wrote: There is no evidence to support either physical or psychological addiction to aspartame. Keep in mind that there is a HUGE difference between the 2 types of addictions, and given the chemistry of aspartame, psychological addiction could be ruled out with relative certainty.
I don't really understand what the chemistry of the substance has to do with psychological addiction. I thought you could be psychologically addicted to gambling or other habits without any chemical interaction other than what's already in the brain. Can't someone be psychologically addicted to the taste of aspartame without there being a chemistry related (and thus I assume physical) addiction?
quote:Danzig wrote: That said, to my knowledge alcohol is far less harmful than marijuana and most hallucinogens, but that point is not to be taken as an endorsement of those. I mean it as a condemnation of alcohol.
I don't know if you meant just chemically to the body or in general. In general, more US deaths are related to alcohol than either marijuana or any other drug. More than all other drug related deaths combined. This is probably mostly due to drunk driving, liver failure and accidents. You prolly meant that if you locked a person in a room after giving them a substance, then alcohol would be a less dangerous substance, per weight, than either marijuana or most hallucinogens.
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Uhh, first of all this really is an acquaintance, not me.
mack - I do not really know, but I doubt it. I never said I thought he was making a wise choice. It was probably silly for me to mention this guy at all, but I was looking for anything that makes aspartame seem bad and thought it might be so.
JNSB - I just made a mistake in the part you quoted. Even managed to miss it in my edit. Change the "less" into a "more", because that is what I meant.
I guess I was hoping to find something that would convince my mother to stop drinking so much Diet Coke, but unfortunately nothing here seems scary enough. That bit of hearsay I hoped might pan out, but it looks like everything on that is inconclusive.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Just do something to scare the cr*p out of her every time she starts to drink one. Pretty soon she'll associate having a diet coke with the scary stimulus, and won't like the drink *nearly* as much.
Worked for...who, Little Albert? It's been too long since I've read about that horrifically cruel study for me to remember the kid's name. You know, the one in whom they were able to instill a nearly paralyzing fear of fluffy white rabbits? Who was that?
I wonder how his life turned out?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Another low-cal sweetener worth considering is Stevia extract. The pure white powder is an extract from the Stevia plant. It has been used as the artificial sweetener in diet drinks in Japan for over a decade.
In the U.S. Stevia is readily available in health food stores, at a price comparable to other artificial sweeteners--except that the FDA does not allow it to be marketed as a "sweetener." It has to be marketed as a "food additive." Go figure. (Actually, I think this came about because Monsanto leaned on the FDA to protect its Nutrasweet marketshare.)
What I have found is that Splenda and Stevia complement each other when used together, and actually produce a much more pleasant and satisfying sweet taste than either one separately. When I get a diet pop that is sweetened with Splenda, I add a dash of Stevia and slowly stir it in (slowly to avoid too much fizzing up). That greatly improves the taste.
Of course, Splenda or Stevia alone are much better than Aspartame (Nutrasweet), and anything is better than saccharine, which has a bitter after taste.
Someone mentioned honey. The reason why some people consider honey as a reduced calorie sweetener, is that it tastes about 50% sweeter than sucrose (regular table sugar), so you don't need as much of it to get the same sweetening value.
But for my money, I will go (and have been going for several years) with a combination of Splenda and Stevia.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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There are counters and links to counters for information provided in the Aspartame is bad links provided previously. They also cite studies that do not agree with the bad stuff already linked.
Of course, there will be those that say - it is just big corporations feeding us false information and that government is supporting those big corporations. Yes, the Aspartame Information Center is put together by the Calorie Control Counsel which represents manufacturers of low-calarie and low-fat foods. However, I don't believe in a one-sided story so I am giving a link to another side. They do link and cite sources independent of themselves and what I have read makes sense.
Now, what do I think? Well, we put a lot of crap in our bodies. I prefer to put the real stuff in my body and do not use nutrasweet, splenda and all that. Sugar is not bad for you as long you don't consume it excessively. I don't ignore concerns about artificial sweeteners and do not encourage others not to but I do recommend getting all sides of the story.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I agree with Alucard - moderation, moderation. Shoot, if you are going to moderate you might as well moderate the real thing.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jul 2003
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Aspartame gives my dad bad migranes, and that tendency has been passed to a few of my siblings. Splenda doesn't bother him, but the only drink that seems to carry it is a certain kind of OceanSpray. But if you're doing a Protien Power/Atkins kinda diet, OceanSpray, even with Splenda, has way too many carbs to be of any use as a diet drink.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Chemical formulae of asbestos: Amosite: (Fe2+Mg)5Si8O22(OH)2 Anthophyllite: (MgFe2+)7Si8O22(OH)2 Chrysotile: Mg3Si2O5(OH)4 etc. Notice presence of iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). No carbon or hydrogen; inorganic compound.
Chemical formula of aspartame: C14H18N2O5 Note large amount of carbon and oxygen in this organic compound. Note absence of heavy metals.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Actually, rivka, I think that if I could dread it under controlled circumstances -- i.e., nice, even, small skinny dreads -- that it could make the crappy hell-days bearable. And washing it would be so freaking easy, because you just, well, wash them. It tightens them. And there are nifty products and stuff to keep dread hair smelling all herby and sweet.
As it is, if I want to wash my hair and not end up with a few big knots hanging out from the sides, I have to comb it all out both before and after I wash it. And it usually won't dry overnight, so I end up with ice particles on my way into work. Dread hair can be head-banged shaken dry.
(Don't even mention short hair. I've seen myself with short hair. Egads. )
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Have you ever noticed that people LOVE to ruffle short hair, especially on women?
...or maybe it's just me. My landlord sees me like one of his kids (have I mentioned that my Greek landlord's Greek sons are hot?) and does it ALL THE TIME. But that's okay, he's a barber. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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MSN has this informative article listing all the different artificial sweetners and their known effects on the body. After reading this, I think I'm going to be trying Splenda.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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