Aspartame in Diet Soda
-
-
October 29, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I received this email from a friend that knows I drink diet soda…just wondering if anyone else has come across more info on this.
Makes me think about my CIDP!Rhonda:confused:
SWEET POISON* A MUST READ
In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. *Walking was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain.
By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies and was on 24 various prescription medications. *The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain, and so sick. she just knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc.,*in her oldest daughter’s name, and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.
She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip to Florida (basically in a *wheelchair) for March 22 nd .
On March 19 I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she said they didn’t find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS.
I recalled an article a friend of mine e-mailed to me and I asked my sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. *As a matter of *fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment.
I told her not to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda!
I e-mailed her the article my friend, a lawyer, had sent.
My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk! *The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn’t feel 100% but she sure felt a lot better. She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would call me when she got home.
Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed! He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind.
In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet soda…and literally dying a slow and miserable death.
When she got to Florida March 22, all she had to take was one pill, and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery.
And she is walking! No wheelchair! This article saved her life.
If it says ‘SUGAR FREE’ on the label; DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on ‘ASPARTAME,’ marketed as ‘NutraSweet,’ ‘Equal,’ and ‘Spoonful.’
In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant.
I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject.
I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous: When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts 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, among other conditions, multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error. *Although multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is!
Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. *The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit. He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening condition.
We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas.
In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the symptoms disappear. We’ve seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly.
This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia.
During a lecture, I said, ‘If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, *headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!’
People were jumping up during the lecture saying, ‘I have some of these symptoms. Is it reversible?’
Yes! Yes! Yes! STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it! *This is a serious problem.
Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence!
Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. *It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight!
These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. *Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve ’tissue specimens.’ Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!
Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the ‘diet products’ and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.
Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics.
We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame.
The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the other amino acids necessary for a good balance.
Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE. Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain; causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage.
Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well.
Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior when these *chemicals have been removed from their diet. So called ‘behavior modification prescription drugs’ (Ritalin and others) *are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place! *Most of these children were being ‘poisoned’ on a daily basis with the very foods that were ‘better for them than sugar.’
It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.
Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy.
Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should NEVER be given artificial sweeteners. *There are many different case histories to relate of children suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the use of this deadly poison.’
Herein lies the problem:
There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included 100 different products and strong objection was made concerning its use. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, and still nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets.
Sadly, MONSANTO’S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!
There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. *Everybody wants a ‘piece of the Aspartame pie.’ I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is.
And isn’t it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American Diabetes * Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians?
This has been recently exposed in the New York Times.
These [organizations] cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.
Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially regarding pregnant women, children and infants. *The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioral symptoms.
The bill was killed.
It is known that the powerful drug and chemical lobbies are responsible for this, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting and uninformed public. Well, you’re Informed now! YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO *KNOW! -
October 29, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I believe this is an internet urban legend. Here is a link explaining it – scroll down for a bit to find the article on Aspartame: (copy & paste) [url]http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/cgi-bin/mfs/www/hoaxbusters/archive?link=http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBUrbanMyths.shtml&file=/www/hoaxbusters/HBUrbanMyths.shtml&line=62#mfs[/url]
This is a small portion of the text:
Aspartame Hoax
March 2001
If you search the web for “aspartame” (also called NutraSweet) you will find dozens of websites devoted to the perceived horrors of this sugar substitute (Actually, you have to search for the misspelling, “asparatame” to find most of them). All of this seems to go back to a study done in 1996 where the increase in brain tumors was found to correlate with the increase in aspartame use. That study did not show any causal link, only that both brain tumors and aspartame use seemed to both be increasing at the same time. That correlation has since been broken as brain tumor rates have leveled off and aspartame use has continued to increase.
Around December of 1999, a letter started making the rounds of the Internet that claims that almost every ailment known to man is caused by aspartame. It was supposedly written by a Betty Martini who was supposedly lecturing at the World Environmental Conference. A second version of the letter is identical to the first but the author has been changed to a Nancy Markle. In this letter, aspartame is blamed for hundreds of aliment including multiple sclerosis. The title of the article claims that the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and others are suing the makers of aspartame. However, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation has disavowed any knowledge of a problem with aspartame and any relationship with the author. The letter also claims that it causes “memory loss, confusion, and severe vision loss” among diabetics but that has been debunked by the American Diabetes Association.
The FDA has attested to the safety of the chemical and if you check the scholarly studies listed at the following site [url]http://www.aspartame.org/[/url] you will not find any showing significant problems with its use. The worst that has been found are occasional headaches. The “research” on the Aspartame Horror sites is, for the most part, anecdotal. The UrbanLegends.com website does a really good job debunking this warning and the supposed facts it contains. It is also debunked at the Junk Science website.
Following is the Betty Martini version of the warning. The Nancy Markle version is identical but with Nancy Markle inserted as the author and the contact information is missing from the end. It is LONG but well worth the reading!
*****************************I want to note that I try to stay away from Aspartame. I just think that natural sugar has to be healthier than anything man made with chemicals & such.
Kelly
-
October 29, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Rhonda,
Thank you for posting that warning. Only this morning a friend told me that she had a headache for two days. When I asked what she had imbibed, she said the only thing different was that she used the little blue packets instead of sugar. I looked Equal up and it has aspartame. I told her to NEVER take that again. Many of my friends get bad headaches from it. If I am mistakenly given a diet soda, I have a headache in a matter of minutes. A friend was working out in the heat and guzzled down what someone gave him -diet lemonade. He lost his vision temporarily. I am meticulous in reading the labels so I don’t buy it. I will not willingly put it into my body. It would make sense that people who use it regularly could come down with illnesses that mimic diseases such as MS. I think the big companies might try and label it an urban legend; look at what they have to lose if people believe how dangerous it is. I’d rather be safe than sorry! -
October 29, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Urban legend not!! With in minutes my daughter-in-luv looses her ability to speak clearly. I get terrible headaches. Just because the FDA deems it “safe” does not make it so 😮 At one time commercial pilots were not allowed to fly within 8 hours of drinking a diet anything – because of a risk of seizure. Oh, it may be a minimal risk but so what ~ I will not take a flu shot either.
Question ~ how many people have residuals from GBS that are told that it can’t be so because someone “in the know” says it can’t be???
-
October 29, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Asp…….fake sugar is just that-FAKE, meaning made up of something NOT real! Like others have said, its just made of chemicals, and eventually those chemicals build up in your tissues and low and behold you have health problems or worse. If your look at embalming fluid you might find the same ingredients. I don’t drink carbonated drinks so I don’t really have a problem. Just be aware asp…. is in other things that you may not realize.
-
October 30, 2007 at 4:18 am
My father and I have a long standing friendly argument about “fake” sugar. I am very opposed to it, but Dad is a chemist, a diabetic, uses them and feels they are safe. I am a biologist and feel you shouldn’t try to fool your body. Your taste buds tell your body that it’s getting something sweet so your body anticipates the energy it would get from sugar, when it doesn’t get that you crave the calories and usually end up eating something sweet to compensate for what your body expects to get. About 60% of the people I know who drink diet soda are 1) addicted, can’t go several hours without a diet coke, whereas I only drink one cup of coffee per day; 2) drink diet soda with food, usually something sweet; 3) ended up gaining weight on diet sodas but lost it again when they switched to regular sodas. I don’t know whether sugar substitutes are bad for you or not but I don’t think it’s a good idea to play tricks on your body.
On another note, MSG has been an additive to many foods since my parents were eating canned soup as children. Monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer derived from seaweed and therefore frequently called “natural” and a “spice”. However, MSG ends up being a pretty nasty character in the food war and a portion of the population have significant reactions to MSG (me being one of them). Worse, MSG is a neurotoxin. For most of my life I’ve been having reactions to MSG, depending on how much is in the food it ranges from a headache to difficulty breathing. I spend quite a lot of time reading labels and trying to decide if they really mean spices or if that is a euphamism for fake flavor. Interestingly though, I find that I don’t react quite as much to MSG as I used to before I got CIDP, either that or Campbell’s Soup has cut back on their levels of MSG. 😉
Here is a wikipedia article about MSG.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate[/url]
To repeat myself – I don’t think it’s a good idea to fool your body with fake flavor or fake sweetners – some people will tolerate it with no problems, others will not.
-
October 30, 2007 at 9:22 am
I have seen this email floating around the internet since 2005.
I look up urban legends on Break the Chain.org This is what they said. “The story of this anonymous author’s sister is, at best, apocryphal. There is no identifying information, and the claim that simply cutting out diet pop saved this woman’s life in just days is too incredible to believe from such an anonymous and uncheckable source. [COLOR=”Blue”][/COLOR]Break the Chain.org” There is more written about this on there website.
My wife and I have used Nutrasweet for years without any ill effects. Sweet and low is said to cause cancer in laboratory rats. I guess its just a personal preference and you just have to go with your gut.:o
Beags -
October 30, 2007 at 5:00 pm
My neuro recently told me it is the brown [B]dye in sodas [/B]that is so bad for us. I have cut way back on sodas and if I do drink one, it is clear (except sometimes I gotta have my vanilla coke from Sonic).
-
October 30, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Chrissy,
Do you know why the brown dyes are bad for us? Is this dye bad for everyone or for those with nerve disorders?
I am curious about this…I drink diet pop and now have CIDP.
Is the pop causing the CIDP? Or contributing to it and the pain?Rhonda
-
October 30, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Rhonda,
Just wondering…are you go to continue to drink diet sodas now that you have some info on it? It might be interesting to stop it for a few weeks and see if it affects your health. I have a friend whose doctor told he rnot to drink dark sodas but he told all of fhis patients that. I think the aspartame is much worse than dark colas. There are some people out there that can tolerate aspartame. I would hope that someone would do a study on them to see how they are different than the rest of us who get side effects. -
October 31, 2007 at 10:44 am
The way my neuro put it (and my niece did too) is that in general sodas are bad for you especially the dark ones. So I think this means bad for everyone. Think clear if you are going to drink a soda!
-
October 31, 2007 at 12:23 pm
not to mention, diet sodas just plain old taste like $HIT!
-
October 31, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Thanks to all of you
YES, I have quit the pop! There is no more soda in our house! You should have seen the look on my hubby and 14 yeay old son’s face!
What no pop?!
Instead they found apple juice, orange juice and mixed berry juice.
They are not impressed but in the long run we should all feel better.
I’ll keep you posted!
Rhonda
-
November 6, 2007 at 12:14 am
:confused: I’m a Pepsi Diet drinker 2 liters a day. And what I just read makes me more aware of substances. I’m going to try to stop drinking less and see for my self any changes. I see blurred sometimes and have slight headaches and low ring tones on my ears.
-
December 3, 2007 at 7:55 pm
yep, i believe hat. i was told that drinkin sodas could of contributed to my gbs as aspartame damages nerves 😡
-
December 3, 2007 at 9:51 pm
and any carbonated beverage sucks calcium from your bones. take care. be well.
gene gbs 8-99
in numbers there is strength -
April 1, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[SIZE=”4″][/SIZE]
Ronda, et al.
Before my CIDP “onset” I , due to some pretty severe fatigue issues, cut out smoking, 9 years ago, alcohol (mostly) 8 years ago, even white bread! I saw that “sweet killer” thing (I drink Double Gulp refils of Diet Coke/Pepsi- I metioned it ti my MD and later to my Neuro- both referred me to snopes.com and mythbusters, etc. All of which say the NutraSweet scare is, just that, a scare.
But, prior to my CIDP diagnosis, I cut out Diet Soda, completely, and sunstituted Green Tea/Honey, to combat the fatigue. The CIDP continued to mout, after 2 months, cold turkey, the I was tested and diagnsed.
All of this is anectotal, in my opinion, but, seems to me if you drink, eat ANYTHING, chemical, regularly. the rrisk of reaction is ncreased.
EVERY CIDP GBS suferer I’ve met, was from a vacine reaction (or had one, just before their onset) In my case it ws a tetanus booster.
WHY DO DOCTORS DENY THE CORRELATION? (Obvious, litigation! But, maybe nutrasweet is the same fear?) How can we get straight talk?
Eric
-
April 2, 2008 at 3:45 am
Granted, I tend to be more sensitive to foods, chemicals, medications, etc. than the average person, but I will say that cutting out artificial sweeteners definitely helped the way I felt on a day-to-day basis (and this was way pre-GBS).
Then I later cut out sodas altogether, and again, I felt a lot better and more energetic than I did when I was drinking sodas all the time. Now I usually just drink water, or when I want a treat I’ll drink one of those berry-flavored carbonated waters or something. I don’t miss it at all. Same thing for cutting out preservatives and pesticides as much as possible.
It’s a fact that aspartame converts to formaldehyde above a certain temperature, which being in your body raises it to. Whether anything’s been “proven” or not, I just don’t see how in the world that could be good for you!
I have been wary of dosing myself with chemicals through my diet for quite some time, but now after GBS, I am especially careful. My sensitivities seem to have increased dramatically in the past year. Urban legend or not, I think reducing your consumption of artificial anything is probably a good idea, in my personal opinion! It certainly isn’t going to hurt you!
-
