Aspartame - Diet Sodas and Weight Loss

Being involved in nutrition research for such a long time I can't stop wondering what's wrong with our natural food. Why do sugar substitutes and artificially created ingredients receive such an enormous attention? Why can the industry freely and without prove advertise artificial sweeteners as being a healthy alternative? Consumers are manipulated to think the label "zero calories" translates to "good for health".

Well, I don't blame the consumers, although nowadays it is easy to obtain information on the internet and one has got no excuse. The reason why I'm writing this article is the misinformation I come across almost daily in newspapers, magazines and other media. Food and beverages containing artificial sweeteners are advertised as being beneficial for health. I regard this as a deception per se. It means the industry tries to manipulate you into believing that it is concerned about your health. Let's zoom in on an artificial sweetener called Aspartame for example. There is a large number of diet products mentioning this name on the ingredients label. What is Aspartame? Does our body know how to digest it? Our digestive system regards the molecule structure of Aspartame as a foreign substance and it does not know how to process it.

Aspartame contains Methanol. Methanol is known to be a dangerous neurotoxin, can cause cancer and other severe health risks. Aspartame is created by using Methanol to fuse together two amino acids. In our body Methanol breaks down into Formic Acid and Formaldehyde.

Long term studies on rats by an Italian Cancer Institute, the Ramazzini Foundation, found increases in Lymphomas, Leukemias and Breast Cancer. The rats were fed 20 mg of Aspartame in relation to 1 kilogram of body weight. One can compare this to a 50 pound child that consumes two and a half cans of diet soda. This doesn't sound alarming as currently the acceptable daily intake is set at 50 mg/kg of body weight. But there are hundreds of other products which contain Aspartame and are likely to be consumed by kids and adults alike. It all adds up. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) downgraded the rating of Aspartame to "everyone should avoid". The FDA has been asked by experts to review the new scientific results and to warn consumers about the health risks. Remember, this is a multi billion dollar industry and the pressure on the authorities to turn a blind eye to this issue is high. Ultimately you are responsible for your health, so just stop consuming products containing artificial sweeteners as a precaution.

If you have got a sweet tooth like I do, use brown sugar or honey in a moderate amount as a sweetener. It is a natural substance, tastes lovely and does not do you any harm. And do you know that pure water as a replacement of diet sodas is most beneficial to your health by hydrating your body and flushing out toxins? I'm sure you do! Then I need to say no more.

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