I am normally quite skeptical about “X is the root of all evil/disease/behavior” but I’m inclined to agree with the NutraSweet warnings. I’ve always had ADD symptoms and I’ve never used Aspartame products until about a year and a half ago when I started dieting. One Diet Coke would leave me in a depressed fog about thirty minutes after drinking it, unless I ate a high carbohydrate food along with it. It would leave me irritable and edgy and I was prone to spells of cold-sweats, which I attributed to low-blood sugar (see below). I’ve quit drinking them and decided that exercise, balanced diet with smaller portions, and reducing my overall soft drink intake (got to have my caffeine) was the best answer.
Dr. Roberts explains in his book (and has done 30 years of research on Alzheimer’s) that the two amino acids in Aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid without the other amino acids in protein are neurotoxic and go past the blood brain barrier and are deteriorate the neurons of the brain. This is, of course, the cause of Alzheimer’s. He says in his opinion that Aspartame is escalating Alzheimer’s disease, a 20th century disease now the 4th leading cause of death in adults.
This is interesting. I self-diagnosed my dizziness and weak spells this way: I have always drunk lots of soft drinks (mostly Coca-Cola). When I drink a diet drink, my body says, “Hmm, 220 calories of sugar coming in, better step up my insulin production.” All of this insulin gets into my system and doesn’t find any digestible sugars, so my blood sugar drops and I get foggy and weak. I had read about the decreased neuro-transmitters from Aspartame consumption, but the study I had read had one of those, “the equivalent of twelve Diet Cokes in a one hour period” kind of doses. If the biological theories of ADD are correct (decreased neurotransmitters in the frontal lobes) is true, then ADDers might be much more susceptible to the Aspartame reaction.
So, if you don’t want to be fat and depressed and suffer memory loss, ADD, learning disabilities – and a host of other problems – be warned – get off NutraSweet.
As I said before, I’m not drinking anymore and I do believe that Aspartame might be complicating my ADD, but I’m sure it’s not the cause of it and I don’t know if casual consumption of Aspartame by non-ADD adults is likely to cause the same symptoms. I do know that I don’t let my kids anywhere near products containing Aspartame.
BTW, if anyone wonders about the efficacy of TV ads, my four year old daughter sat in a restaurant the other night doing the Cher NutraSweet commercial with the artificial sweetener packets at the table. “This one is saccharine, it doesn’t taste good. This one is NutraSweet and you can pour it in your hand and eat it, because it tastes good.” It was a good opportunity to explain that you can’t believe everything you see on TV.