tastes like burning

[lauralh]

I read this last night and am feeling slightly out of focus. Although it's one of those things that I think is bullshit because the rate of seizures or whatever can't be that high, and I for one have never had a seizure. And I was more depressed before I started using Nutrasweet. Nonetheless for the rest of the week I'm going to monitor my intake.

Comments

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

My mother has a friend who always thought she had some form of epilepsy. She would have the occasional siezures, sometimes very strong ones, approaching grand mal severity. The doctors told her that she didn't have actual epilepsy, and that they didn't know the cause of her siezures, but she always just assumed it had something to do with the disease. Until aaround 1988, when she stopped drinking diet pepsi. They found that she had a violent allergic reaction to aspartame, and after that she started making sure that nothing in her food contained nutrisweet, she hasn't had a siezure since.

[geah.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Some people are allergic to peanuts. That doesn't mean peanuts are evil.

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

Aspartame isn't an organic product like peanuts. It's a chemical, and a lot of people have reactions to it. It's nice that you don't, but then, you haven't been using it long term, have you?

[geah.livejournal.com]

What percentage of the millions of people who consume aspartame daily have the reaction you described?

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

I dunno, haven't looked it up. But I wouldn't call that article whacked until reading it in full and seeing what percentage they put forth. I'd almost be willing to bet that the percentage of adverse reactions is a lot higher han peanut allergies.

[geah.livejournal.com]

The entire site is a joke and not to be taken seriously by serious people.

3 million Americans are allergic to peanuts.

Do you seriously think 3 million Americans have seizures due to aspartame?

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

I seriously think that that number of people are very likely to have suffered adverse affects from aspartame. All the effects don't equal grand mal siezures, but the arguments against the chemical are very good. That isn't the only website out there discussing those negative effects, and the only people denying that they exist are the companies producing it and the FDA, who has failed to properly test it.

[geah.livejournal.com]

You are seriously underinformed.

There's big money in finding aspartame to be dangerous. The problem is, it's not.

Here's a totally biased source. That should make it easy for you to prove it's wrong:

http://allergies.about.com/cs/aspartame/a/bluc_bhubrich.htm

[strukcher.livejournal.com]

your comments made me click around a bit and change my opinion -- most of the information i was operating under is indeed pretty crack-potty.

would it be harder to establish the causal roll of aspartame in health problems compared to something like peanuts?

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

"From a double-blind study with a cross-over design in 13 depressed patients, Walton et al. (1993) concluded that aspartame (30 mg/kg bw/day for 7 days) increased the frequency and severity of adverse experiences in these individuals. These authors concluded that the use of aspartame in individuals with mood disorder should be discouraged." (http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/out155_en.pdf)

[strukcher.livejournal.com]

i can't believe i typed "causal roll".

the internet is ruining my life.

[geah.livejournal.com]

Center for Behavioral Medicine in Youngstown, Ohio? Never heard of it. They're located on Gypsy Lane, which I do find amusing.

Was his study published? Peer reviewed?

It says his "institution had to stop the study as some subjects complained of being poisoned, one sustained a retinal detachment, and one suffered conjunctival bleeding."

Do you really think aspartame does this in the kind of numbers this guy is claiming?

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

There's money in proving aspartame dangerous? Funny, I'd think there'd be more money in keeping it available, soda companies wouldn't have to change their ingredients.

I'm sorry if I'm just not likely to completely trust the FDA, they have been known to approve things that are dangerous, and hold back things that are beneficial in the past, and continue to do so.

[geah.livejournal.com]

Yep, there's big money in keeping aspartame on the market. There was big money in keeping Fen-Phen on the market. However, PI lawyers will shoot you down in a second if they think they can make a buck off your product.

You're free to not trust the FDA and trust some crackpot website. That's what makes America great!

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

And I'm free to not use Aspartame because I think that the arguments against it have some merit. Why are you trying so hard to change my mind?

[geah.livejournal.com]

I don't care if you use it or not.

However, when I see someone spreading bad information on the Web, I'm going to counter it.

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

I didn't spread bad information, I related an experience.

[chris.livejournal.com]

yeah, cause the FDA is completely impartial, not influenced in any way politically, and truly has your best interests at heart.