Aspartame isn’t exactly tame as its name suggests. Aspartame dangers and aspartame side effects are reported on a continual basis to the FDA. In fact, aspartame is responsible for more health complaints than any other commonly-used food additive in the United States.
Aspartame products include, first and foremost, diet sodas. Yeah, you know, the stuff that Michael J. Fox used to do commercials for while claiming to drink a half dozen a day. He made some big bucks for doing those ads no doubt, but all the money in the world, and a truckload of stem cells, are unlikely to eradicate his Parkinson’s disease.
What does Parkinson’s disease have to do with Aspartame?? Funny you should ask. Russell Blaylock, M.D., reports that aspartame, as well as chemically-similar flavor enhancer MSG, are excitotoxins. These amino acid derived chemicals penetrate the blood brain barrier and are thought to be capable of directly damaging brain tissue. Sounds healthy doesn’t it?? Good thing the whole world got obsessed with cutting calories to lose weight and began swilling an ocean of diet soda each year. By the way, how’s that battle with weight working out?? Has anyone checked lately?? Did we win?
Aspartame dangers and aspartame side effects on the brain aside, aspartame has an effect that I suspect is even more universal and important. Aspartame, infinitely sweeter than even refined sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, is highly addictive. What does this have to do with anything?
Aspartame products like Equal, Diet Soda, or even supposed ?health foods? like MuscleTech’s ?Nitro Tech? protein powder, have an uncanny ability to spawn addictive eating behavior. Even though aspartame contains no caloric value, it has a strong association with obesity because of its neurological impact. Basically, it causes sugar cravings, and sugar, because of its unique chemical properties as well as its addictive nature, is the primary cause of weight gain and the related health conditions that accompany it.
Seth Roberts, a psychologist, has noted that the body has a very distinct response to sweet tastes. The more powerfully sweet a substance is, especially when combined with calorie-dense foods (such as the meal you’re having your diet Coke with), the more fattening it becomes. He calls this the flavor-calorie association, and has built an entire weight loss sensation around this powerful tongue-brain-body phenomenon.
Others argue that the very sweet taste of aspartame is enough to invoke an insulin response, storing fat if consumed with other foods, or causing a dive in blood sugar and radical hunger if consumed without calories. Either way, it’s a lose-lose for anyone looking for better health – especially someone trying to lose weight.
It has even been reported that switching from diet sodas to regular sodas reliably causes weight to be lost!? This raises some serious eyebrows about the potential negative consequences that aspartame inflicts upon the human metabolism.
Last, but not least, aspartame dangers include, simply, being poisoned by methanol. This is one of the essential components of aspartame, is known to be toxic to humans, and is being consumed in massive quantities in the form of aspartame products. The list of health problems associated with methanol are quite lengthy. And methanol is just one of the toxic by-products of this infamous sweetener.
And to think that all this Aspartame is being consumed by the public in a feeble attempt to improve health – to follow the typical health mantra to take in fewer calories (which has never been associated with overall health or having excess body fat).
Well, you won’t be led astray at 180DegreeHealth by such bogus and harmful attempts to live the vibrant and healthy life we all seek. In fact, at 180DegreeHealth you might even have those ideas bitch-slapped right out of your head by a combination of real science and that long-since forgotten thing called logic. So join the party!