# Aspertame
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 22, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206 "2000-06-22T17:24:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/1 "2000-06-22T17:24:46Z")
Is Aspertame harmful? Is there any credence to the stories about it being legitimately implacated in MS, Alzheimer’s, &c.? I have (but can’t post, since it’s not in electronic format) an article by a Nancy Markle entitled “World Environmental Conference and Multiple Sclerosis Foundations is Suing for Collusion with Monsanto” that claims so. I know the title is ungrammatical, and that among other things makes me think it’s the 21st Century version of the P&G being in League with the Devil story.
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### Author:  [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/2 "2000-06-22T17:49:42Z")
Yeah, basically this is 100% bovine feces.
Check [snopes](http://www.snopes.com/toxins/aspartam.htm) for links and previous information on this.
Keep in mind, also, that there is no “Nancy Markle”, but that this name is used to conceal the true identity of Betty Martini, founder of [Mission Possible International](http://www.snopes.com/toxins/aspartam.htm) from people who are tired of her rants.
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### Author:  [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/3 "2000-06-22T18:10:25Z")
I read an article recently that Gulf War Syndrome is being attributed to aspartame. No, I’m not kidding. Apparently, above a certain temperature, aspartame turns into formaldehyde. The soldiers in the Gulf War were supplied liberally with Diet Coke, that would sit on flats in the desert heat for days on end, in +100 degrees temperatures. Can’t remember the name of the article, but I’m pretty sure it appeared in the Toronto version of the Star or the Globe and Mail.
Oh, and I think it gives you cancer. But then again, everything gives you cancer…
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/4 "2000-06-23T00:50:44Z")
**Dante:** I think I’ve heard the “denatured Diet Coke” theory before. I don’t know the chemical structure of aspartame, but it is reasonable to suspect that it might break down with prolonged exposure to heat. Heavy pollution, chemical weapons, exposure to depleted uranium, and overuse of pesticides are all suspects for Gulf War Syndome as well, and the fact that the military is trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug (standard practice for mistakes) doesn’t help resolve the question.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/5 "2000-06-23T00:54:39Z")
That said, I don’t think that there’s any support for the claim that aspartame causes alzheimers, MS, etc.
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### Author:  [@wolfseyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfseyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/6 "2000-06-23T04:25:41Z")
If you suffer from phenylketonuria (PKU) aspertame can be harmful to you.
Aspertame contains phenylalanine which is a protein that phenylketonurics cannot break down.
For more information read [THE CHILD WITH PHENYLKETONURIA](http://web.ukonline.co.uk/nspku/cwp_ext.htm)
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### Author:  [@wolfseyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfseyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/7 "2000-06-23T04:33:55Z")
ohh!
I found it:
[http://www.bahzone.net/nutrasweet.html](http://www.bahzone.net/nutrasweet.html)
> [@](#):
>
> When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME coverts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants). The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis; thus people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is.
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### Author:  [@Hedgemeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedgemeister)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/8 "2000-06-23T04:38:02Z")
I’m pretty sure I recently read or heard that some orginization, possibly the FDA, had just ruled out Aspartame as a carcinogen. That being said, I can’t stand the taste of that stuff, and I avoid it on the principle that if it tastes like poison, it’s probably bad for you. Does anyone remember that announcement about Aspartame?
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### Author:  [@wolfseyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfseyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/9 "2000-06-23T05:07:07Z")
Hedgemeister:
I remember on some sugar free “diet” sodas the label used to say something like “this contains saccharin which is known to cause cancer in in laboratory animals”
see
[http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/600319.html](http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/600319.html)
also:
> [@](#):
>
> A Government advisory group has voted to give a clean bill of health to the artificial sweetener saccharin, which, despite its pink-packeted presence on restaurant tables everywhere, has been classified since 1981 as a suspected cause of cancer.
from [http://www.junkscience.org/dec98/sacchari.htm](http://www.junkscience.org/dec98/sacchari.htm)
Note that this was in Dec of 1998, maybe that’s why I haven’t seen those labels anymore…
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### Author:  [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aspertame/23206/10 "2000-06-23T14:00:38Z")
Yes, it was saccharin! Funny how it got a lot more press coverage when it was declared to cause cancer than it has since it got re-evaluated.
That said, I am one of the people in the world that has an allergic reaction to aspartame. I am not the only one. It really pisses me off that the FDA has declared that it isn’t an allergen.