http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/suffer.faq
there are tons of sites on the internet with the same info. Has anyone else heard of this? this is news to me.
Wesley Clark: the site to which you linked is a “holistic” site; holistic “medicine” (and any other under the “alternative medicine” umbrella) is junk or pseudoscience. The practioners of alternative medicine are quacks (although some really do believe in what they are doing) whose methods do not follow the scientific one.
Trusting an alternative medicine site is a risky thing to do.
That said, check out this page concerning the aspartame scare:
Well, I won’t argue whether or not holistic medicine is quackery. I will say that my reaction to aspartame is pretty consistent with most of the more minor reactions listed on the site Wesley linked: tunnel vision, headache, nausea and diarrhea.
It took me over a year to narrow down the cause of the symptoms, with the help of an actual internist (i.e. not a holistic medicine guy) and I have not experienced any similar symptoms since I stopped using aspartame.
I won’t debate the “holistic/traditional” thing here, but I have a very bad aspartame allergy.
Headaches, tunnel vision, and diarrhea with me. It’s hard because all cadolphin seems to drink are diet sodas, so I have to buy both diet and regular sodas.
I’ve been drinking pop for a long time, and I’ve never had a problem. I’ve seen stories come over the net that are so horrific, yet so untrue about how it affects people. The best one was about how the soldiers drank diet coke after it heated up (desert storm), and all got sick. I could be wrong, but if you’re in a desert, I wouldn’t imagine soldiers are given diet coke, or any coke to cure their thirst. Then I did research after this story came out, and couldn’t find any concrete evidence of it’s ‘badness’, except from my aunt who wants to sell me some vitamins.
I heard from an MD friend of mine that aspartame supposedly disrupts the Calcium/Phosphorus balance in your body. Not sure which way it goes with aspartame, but I do know that for some chemical reason too much Calcium can screw up your Phosphorus levels and vice versa. Knowing this doesn’t prevent me from drinking 3-4 diet cokes a day, though.
It’s the phosphorous used in the carbonation process that leaches the calcium out of your bones. Phosphorous is a much softer element, so when it replaces the calcium in your bones, you could have problems somewhere down the road. Many people I know drink staggering amounts of carbonated beverages. Why doesn’t it dawn on them that ALL that sugar, carbonation, and,in some, artificial sweeteners, MIGHT be a bad thing? Moderation folks, ever hear of it?
Hey, my Hubby’s uncle swears that aspartame caused the toenail on his big toe to turn black and fall off.
Seriously.
Cecil, on aspartame. Go to the source, Mr. Clark.
It’s pretty reasonable that aspartame (or any other artificial sweetner) could cause diarrhea because it’s a chemical compound made not to be absorbed by the body–kind of like Olestra?
Some people have a bad reaction to it. Others don’t. I don’t understand why the former group tries to stop the latter group from consuming it.
Don’t forget Snopes.