Diet Products: Aspartame
 

Hello,

I drink a lot of diet sodas/drinks and I noticed that they all contain Aspartame, some sort of phenylketurics. So my question is:

How bad is this for you?

I drink 1-2 diet drinks a day, 3-4 on a hot day(believe it or not, I prefer the taste, regular is too sweet for me).

Do you get headaches at all?
I feel like I get headaches after I drink diet pepsi.

i got headaches from aspartame drinks years ago. since I don't like the sugar load in regular pop, I have not really drank any of this product. I just can't get a desire to drink coke/pepsi/orange pop/7-up etc. Sometimes (maybe once a year or so) I will have a root beer. But for a soft dirnk i stick to iced tea, water, or the occasional coffee.

Try a pop alternative, you would be surprised at how much you DON'T miss it. If you want the bubbles, soda water is a good option, or fizzy waters like Perrier.

try googling aspartame along with the word danger and you'll have more reading than you'll care for.
I'd do as Janey said and look for an alternative to pop.

There seems to be a strong link between sensitivity to aspartame and sensitivity to MSG; I have both problems. I get headaches and my upper back and shoulders tighten up. If you don't get that, you are probably OK with it.

Aspartame is Satan's sweetner. It's the main ingredient in Devil's Food Cake.

There's lots of anecdotal stuff on the web about it, ripe for the googling. There's also a story about how the Aspartame lobby pushed it through the FDA without proper testing. Don't know how true that is.

Man, don't go anywhere within earshot of my mom and ask how bad aspartame is. She's queen of hatin' some aspertame.

Anyway, why not just drink Splenda? I'm usually not one to jump on the diet bandwagon, but it *is* not some crazy man-made sweetener. Or, gasp, why not just drink water? I like to get a glass of water, squeeze in two lemon slices, and put in two packets of Splenda. Presto! Lemonade! I have also found that when I drink said lemonade when I have a meal, I don't feel bloated afterwards and I also digest faster. Fizzy drinks are (supposedly according to my mother the health nut) bad for you anway- something about the carbonation leeching out minerals and water in your system.

Your mom sounds cool. don't underestimate her. I like your idea about the lemon slices, I'm going to try it. or Lime.

I like the way your mom thinks Sage. Aspartame is not meant to go into the human body, its certainly not there naturally, so why put it in.
And Yes! Splenda rocks. I use it in everything that I would normally put sugar in. I will have to try your form of lemonade, it sounds tasty.
A few years ago, I gave up on pop, it just hurt my stomach too much to bother with drinking it. I don't miss it at all. But that doesn't mean I gave up on gingerale, I love drinking that stuff once in a blue moon. And I mean the real gingerale, not 7up and Sprite, no way.
I am usually found drinking water, sometimes with lemon in it, home-made iced tea, or cranberry juice.
Now, how bad Aspartame is for you? I'd say its not needed in our systems, so its unhealthy, not necessarily bad, just more junk our body has to figure out how to break down. If you google it, you'll find all sorts of info and data from studies on it. :D

Oh boy, I just bought a whole bunch of diet sodas only cause they were on sale
*groan* *smacks forehead*

Normally I drink water, tea, and coffee. That's it. Ocassionally orange juice. Oh and beer too (in moderation, I swear)

I just hate the idea of empty calories and when the diet sodas went on sale I thought hey, cool, I wouldn't mind mixing up my beverage selection.

I don't have headache or other "symptoms" (at least I don't think so) but my spidey-sense started tingling and I was like, wait a minute, could this Aspartame stuff be "bad" for me? Will it make me lose brain cells? Impotent? Memory loss?

It seems most store bought "lite" or diet drinks are made with aspartame. I will look for Splenda or maybe just stick to the ol' routine from before.

Thanks for your replies everyone, I really appreciate it.

Oh, Vincentt, why are you drinking diet anything right now? Your supposed to be gaining weight and bulking up.

*wags finger disapprovingly*

Did you find more food to eat over there? Load up on the teriyaki bowls maybe or teppanyaki. I think it's relatively cheap and pretty filling/higher calorie?

Well, I got 24 more cans to go, but maybe I'll reduce my intake to one-a-day.

Well, they have Diet Rite, which is made with splenda, has no caffeine in it, and comes in 3 flavors, and there's now Diet Coke with splenda in it. So there's two options for ya.

Cool, thanks. I'll be waiting for the next sale! :)

Well, I still don't like the useless cals in soda. I am alright with diet coke, when I need a boost, and need more flavor then water (and no fruity taste).

Splenda is good stuff, my dad used it to make tea.

I tend to drink water all the time now, and also lots of green tea. Green tea really grew on me, and now I really enjoy it. I can't drink my old favorate "sweet tea" anymore.

Btw, I am from the south, we drink ice tea with sugar in it.

I rarely drink anything carbonated but Hansen's makes great sodas, the diet ones are sweetened with Splenda (the rootbeer is fantastic!!); they make a variety of flavors like Kiwi Strawberry, Peach, Tangering Lime, Ginger Ale, Black Cherry . . . good for the ocassional fix. At my Trader Joes's they are normally $1.89/6 pk.

I normally drink water, once you get in the habit it's pretty easy. I drink a large glass first thing in the a.m. (helps to rehydrate the body). I keep a large cup at work and drink a full one in the a.m. and another in the afternoon just to help ensure I'm drinking enough. But I rarely drink with a meal because too much water can throw the digestive enzymes out of whack.

Agreed, there is lots of stuff on the 'net about aspartame; I understand it has been likened to wood alcohol. I have had friends whose ob/gyn's advised strongly against consuming aspartame during pregnancy; that says a lot. I was diagnosed with migraines several years ago and MSG is one of my triggers; I discovered years ago, when aspartame first came out, that my body responds to it the same way. Agreeing with what was said earlier that aspartame has been linked to MSG (digestive problems, headaches, similar effects to our nervous system as MSG, not good).

Caffeine can also contribute to dehydration, so not a good think to drink it on a hot day.

If you drink teas or other bevs you want to sweeten, saccharin (sweet n low) was taken off the cancer hit list. Stevia is another option, it's derived from sugar so it's natural (relatively speaking, of course).

I suggest avoiding aspartame completely.