About a year ago I stopped drinking/eating anything with NutraSweet. This was truly amazing, because I practically lived on Diet Coke. I have noticed a marked difference in my mental abilities since giving up the NutraSweet.
I made the decision after reading a newsletter from a group that was trying to inform the public about the dangers of NutraSweet. I can’t find the publication now, or the name of the group, but I can tell you what some of their issues were.
They claimed that NutraSweet only barely passed the FDA approval process, and if it were not for appointing an additional researcher to the panel that was approving/or not NutraSweet it never would have been approved.
They claimed that in experimental animal studies, NutraSweet caused holes in the brains of animals given the product. If I remember correctly, this was not massive doses that caused this damage.
Also, this group claimed that studies showed that one of the metabolites of NutraSweet (what the product brakes down into in the body) is formaldehyde!!!! Just what I want running through my body!!!
As far as helping you lose weight, they claim it fails here too. This is what they claim happens. When you eat sugar, the brain detects the sugar and produces substances to metabolize it. When your body doesn’t do this, it results in serious medical problems because of the imbalance. When you consume something super sweet as NutraSweet, your body is tricked into producing the same substance to metabolize the sugar it thinks you consumed. This creates an imbalance in the body.
Your body uses cravings to help you to correct this problem. You end up craving sweets, and most likely you will end up consuming them one way or another. So the benefit from drinking diet sodas is negated!
Anyway, I have sworn red off the stuff, and think I am better off for it. I used to have the “Lyme brain fog” when out and about running errands. I would go crazy looking for a diet caffeinated drink to help “clear my head”. It was only making it worse.
I tested this on myself by not consuming NutraSweet for about a week or so, and then drank a diet soda or two during the day. The increased confusion and brain fog was so marked, it convinced me to stop using NutraSweet. Now if I have 1 every once in a while it doesn’t affect me, but if I have more than one, I’m feeling pretty bad. I noticed this one day when I was eating a birthday cake made without sugar and only NutraSweet. I did not know this at the time I was eating it, but I got very sick afterwards. Later, I heard the woman who made the cake boasting how it contained no sugar and was made with tons on the “blue stuff”.