Does your artificial sweetener have side effects?
By Kowgirl
@Kowgirl (3490)
United States
March 12, 2007 6:30am CST
If you use an artificial sweetener that has aspartame it could cause some bad side effects. It converts to formic acid (a poison found in the sting of fireants)which
causes metabolic acidosis when heated above 86F. Aspartame can cause spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs and/or feet, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, memory loss, blurred vision and much more. I did not know this until I was having numbness and pain in my feet and hands. When I told my doctor about this he recommended that I try Splenda, Altern,(Wal-Mart brand) or Stevia. They cost a little more but it has been worth the extra money to be free of these annoying symptoms. Do you have any of the side effects mentioned above? If so, do you think it could be caused by your artificial sweetener?
Wishing you the best of health
Kowgirl
2 people like this
1 response
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
23 Mar 07
Actually, aspartame does a lot more than that. If you want to know more about what it can do here are a couple of links:
http://www.wnho.net/aspartamenews.htm
http://www.dorway.com
And aspartame is not the only food additive that can cause those problems. Aspartame is made up of THREE chemicals - one is aspartate which is almost identiccal to the glutamate in MSG.
Check out MSG. http://www.msgtruth.org/
My husband is a diabetic and between these two "food additives"; he was unable to control his blood sugar. Three medications twice a day and it still wasn't controlled. We took away all aspartame and greatly reduced his glutamates and now he only needs 1/2 of 1 of his original pills once a day. His blood sugar has been WELL controlled for more than a year now.
@buenavida (9985)
• Sweden
23 Mar 07
Thank you for this information, I want to help my frieds who suffer from diabetes an I keep telling them to not use aspartame, but it is interesting that even other food additives can cause a lot of problems.
Perhaps fruit sugar would be safest in small amounts.
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
24 Mar 07
If your friends have diabetes, the safest sweetner for them to use is stevia, BUT make sure it is either the fresh leaves, dried leaves, or PURE stevia. Because stevia is so concentrated, a lot of companies "cut" it with "maltodextrin". Maltodextrin is 35% glutamate.
For other sources of glutamates see: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
Stevia has been used for centuries in South America by the Natives to "treat" diabetes. It actually improves the body's ability to use the body's insulin.
If they insist on soft drinks, have them use the ones that contain Splenda (7Up and Diet RC lines). Splenda is not 100% safe; but, it is a LOT safer for a diabetic than aspartame!
I found out about all of this when I was researching allergies and sensitivites. The information about aspartame and MSG sounded exactly like some of the problems my husband had been having for several years. The damage these "food additives" did to him is not 100% reversable; but, some of his problems are better and the rest are not getting worse.
I hope this helps.
