Avoiding Aspartame? Read the Label!

I know I do go on about artificial sweeteners, but they carry health risks and as long as you are aware that you are taking them that is your choice. Artificial sweeteners do have a significant effect on the body’s reaction to other food according to a study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. They found they may cause metabolic changes in how the body reacts to real sugar.

If you have decided to avoid aspartame you need to know that those clever marketing chaps have rebranded it and given it a new name – could be all that negative publicity is paying off?

AminoSweet sounds quite healthy doesn’t it with the link to amino acids, vital things that they are, and sweet which of course what we all want from our diet in some form or other.

Their website at www.aminosweet.info tells you that it is a low calorie sweetener that tastes exactly like sugar. True enough, and they reinforce the healthy image by mentioning that it is made from two building blocks of protein just like those found naturally in many everyday foods such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk.

I think this is called health by association, but what they don’t mention is that AminoSweet is aspartame under another name. In case you haven’t heard my rants before, could I remind you that a 2008 study found that aspartame disturbed amino acid metabolism, as well as protein structure and metabolism and neuronal function in the brain. The authors wrote: “Aspartame and its breakdown products cause nerves to fire excessively, which indirectly causes a very high rate of neuron depolarization.”

Another study three years earlier stated even more strongly that aspartame is a multi-potential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, which is much less than the current acceptable daily intake.

Giving up sugar and replacing it with sweeteners is not a healthy option, yes it has few calories but a lot more chemicals so use the sweet options from nature like honey, maple syrup and sugar, just use less of them.