 |
| |
|
|
Asher
|
 |
Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:25
|
|
http://www.nutrition.cornell.edu/nu...9/dietcarc.html
quote:
Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke both contain aspartame, a non-nutritive sweetener which is also present in most diet soft drinks, as well as many other products. Aspartame has been thought by some to be carcinogenic -- this is probably the ingredient people were thinking of when they told you that this drinks can cause cancer. There is no solid evidence that aspartame can cause cancer.
Aspartame is the active sweetening agent in both Equal®, and NutraSweet®, and is 160-220 times sweeter than sucrose. Because it is such a powerful sweetener, much smaller amounts of aspartame than of sugar are needed to produce a sweet taste in a food product. For this reason, aspartame can be used in relatively small amounts to sweeten foods and beverages without increasing the caloric content of the product. Many "light," "lite," or lower calorie foods contain aspartame rather than sucrose, or other less powerful sweeteners.
When you body digests aspartame, it breaks into two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are necessary components of our everyday diets, and into methanol, an alcohol which is also a product of the normal metabolism of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract, and can be found in wines and other fermented products. At high doses, methanol (or rather its metabolic product, formic acid) can be extremely toxic. At the doses present in diet sodas, however, you would have to drink an impossibly huge amount (about 1000 eight ounce glasses) in a single sitting to develop methanol toxicity. To give you a further idea of the relative scales, an eight ounce glass of wine contains ten times the amount of methanol that you would get from digesting the aspartame in an eight ounce glass of diet soda.
In 1981, aspartame was approved for use as a sweetener after extensive safety reviews by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since this approval, it has been evaluated 26 times by the FDA for use in food and beverages. Additionally, the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association has stated that "Available evidence suggests that consumption of aspartame by normal humans is safe and is not associated with serious adverse health effects (1985)."
Despite the FDA's position that aspartame is safe for use in food products, some consumer groups and doctors are concerned that it may be carcinogenic. For example, the Center for Science in the Public Interest flags it as a possible carcinogen, saying that the tests for carcinogenicity need to be repeated. The manufacturer of NutraSweet® maintains that it is the most studied food additive sold, and that critics cause "unwarranted alarm."
The debate about aspartame is likely to continue for a long time without resolution. It is also important to note that countless numbers of food additives have been accused of being carcinogenic by consumer advocacy groups. Right now, what we can tell you is that the FDA, which evaluates all new food products and drugs in the US, has investigated the link between aspartame and cancer, and continues to maintain that the product is safe for use in food.
If you are still concerned, you can review the studies yourself and come to your own conclusions. A discussion that debunks many of the anti-aspartame claims, but which also points to the existing medical literature pro and con, can be found in about.com's urban legends pages. Or you can choose to limit the amount of aspartame you consume by checking food labels and choosing foods sweetened only with nutritive sweeteners (sucrose or fructose, for example) -- aspartame is certainly not a required dietary item! The position of the American Dietetic Association is that "All foods can fit," so even if you are health conscious or dieting you can still plan to incorporate soft-drinks sweetened with nutritive sweeteners into your diet. Remember, everything in moderation, so chose a small or medium soda instead of an extra-large! |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Static Universe
|
|
Don't use aspartame, it'll make you sick. At body temperatures, it breaks down into formic acid, methanol and formaldahyde. Not stuff you want in your body.
|
|
| |
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:25.
Apolyton Time is 00:25. |
top of page
|
| archivepost |
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
08-02-2003 10:05
|