Sour Sweetner?

If you have ever had a diet coke or used an artificial sugar substitute in your coffee. Then chances are good the you've come into contact with Aspartame. This highly dangerous chemical had been linked to a number of serious health problems including; Heart attacks, miscarriage, brain damage, birth defects and Autism. Aspartame is used under a number of brand names. Names like Equal and Nutrasweet. They sound harmless, and delicious, but should be avoided at all cost.

So that, or a version of it, is the usual spiel that comes with the dire warning about the dangers of Aspartame. Linking the artificial sweeter to all kinds of terrible aliments. But it's actually a massive load of BS.

This seems to be one of those memes that was originally started by email chain letter and has now manged to find its way into the popular consciousness. And as with ideas like this. Once it's in there, it's hard to get out. It doesn't help the fact the anything to do with medical pseudo-science usually gets picked up and used as the popular self diagnosis or diagnosis by quack. Aspartame is no exception. Since this piece of miss information made it into the popular consciousness. It has been blamed for all number of specific and nonspecific maladies. The truth is that Aspartame is safe and very useful.

Are there any real concerns over the use of Aspartame? Well yes. If you have the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU), Or you are a pregnant women with hyperphenylalanine (high levels of phenylalanine in blood), you will have a problem with aspartame. This is because you cannot effectively metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, one of aspartame's components. High levels of this amino acid in body fluids can cause brain damage. Therefore, the American FDA has ruled that all products containing aspartame must include a warning to phenylketonurics that the sweetener contains phenylalanine.

So feel free to enjoy your artificially sweetened beverage. Safe in the knowledge that the Aspartame it contains is no more harmful to you than the multitude of other strange ingredients contained their in.