About Aspartame Side Effects
by Ask a Healer
Suggested reading:
What is an Excitotoxin?
I started out this series on hidden sources of monosodium glutamate in foods, but then expanded to include other excitotoxins including aspartame. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener added to a wide range of foods today. Sometimes, this ingredient is called Equal or phenylalanine on labels. If you use aspartame, you may want to read about the impact of excitotoxins in your food supply.
Aspartame is also an excitotoxin and is at the heart of a health controversy. Studies have been done which link the use of this sweetener with weight gain. For example, a report published by Purdue University showed significant weight gain in rats fed aspartame over rats given foods that did not contain it but a natural sweetener instead.
A lot of the evidence against aspartame is ancedotal, which means people using it noticed an adverse affect and reported it or documented it in some way. Among the toxicity symptoms reported by users of aspertame, the most common symptom is a dull, aching headache.
Additional User-Reported Symptoms from Aspartame:
Dizziness
Swelling
Numbness
Tingling
Hives
Sleep Problems
Seizures
Breathing Problems
Fatique
Itching
Heart Rate Changes, such as tachycardia or heart palpitations
More info on What Causes Heart Palpitations
This is just a partial list of potential aspartame side effects. There are almost a hundred that have been recorded so far, some far more serious than others. Please research further for the long, long, long list of aspartame-related complaints reported on various websites online.
Is Aspartame Safe? Many people use aspartame as a sugar substitute, including those who want to lose weight and those with blood sugar issues or diabetes, but is aspartame a safe option? Well, let me ask this another way ... is poison safe? For me, the only way a known poison is safe is at homeopathic dosages.
By the way, Aspartame is not the only "natural sweetener" that affects me. In fact, both xylitol and sorbitol wreak more havoc in my body than even MSG (monosodium glutamate). If you notice unexplained, very uncomfortable intestinal distress, think back about 45 minutes to what you ate. It may well have contained a sugar alcohol (any one of the -tols) or MSG or both. My rule is that if an integredients ends with the letters "tol", I leave it alone.
Monosodium Glutamate in Fast Foods: Bojangles foods have MSG
Health Care Disclaimer: Healthy options for sweetening your foods include stevia and my personal favorite, which is organic agave nectar. The FDA still maintains that consumption of aspartame does not present a health threat. Do your homework and see what you think.
