Stuff like this article about the sharp rise in cases of Brain Cancer starting in 1983 – the year we started injesting Aspartame – make me glad that the diet Monster I’m drinking uses Sucralose.
Not that any fake sugar makes me feel great, frankly.
The effects of aspartame can be varied, but the majority of the issues are neurological and relating to the brain.
Why does aspartame have this effect?Scientists think that it is because 10% of the chemical substance, after congestion, becomes free methyl alcohol (wood alcohol), a poison. As one scientist in the film states, it is a “real poison.” Another says, “the poisonous effect of methyl alcohol and its methyl esters are well-known.” Even small amounts of this poison can lead to blindness and death. The “miniscule” amounts in our common foods and drinks seem to lead to cancer.
The site (and article) are a little too “editorial” and don’t have enough direct links for my satisfaction, but I’ve been seeing articles about new medical studies linking aspartame to significant rises in cancer for about a month now.
While it’s true that lots of things we are exposed to increase our chances for cancer, few cancers (even the aggressive ones) are as frightening to me as brain cancer. I need that thing!
EDIT:
It’s a comspiracy, I tell ya.
Did the article mean to use ingestion in place of congestion?
In any case it was never the National Cancer Institute. Here’s their position on aspartame:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/aspartame
The NCI did show that there has been a rise in brain cancer and that is where this “study” got it’s cancer data but the NCI didn’t link it to aspartame. Further more the rise in brain cancer rates started climbing in 1973. Well before aspartame hit the market.
Re: It’s a comspiracy, I tell ya.
Well that’s a really interesting link! I had heard about the animal study they are refuting, but I had not heard of the human study.
Wow. Food for thought (so to speak). Thanks for commenting!
Regardless of whether it’s been definitively linked to cancer, I think it’s important to take a step back and look at the amount of chemicals we’re putting in our body. It can’t be good. Maybe aspartame doesn’t directly cause cancer, but mix it with all the other preservatives and stuff we’re pushing through our system and who knows what we’re doing to ourselves?
As an aside: a few years back Nick was having problems with his nerves in his hands and feet as a result of his diabetes. he asked his doctor if anything could be done to improve the situation. The first thing the doctor asked him was if he drank diet soda with aspartame and how much? Nick used to drink a few cans of Diet Coke a day; the doctor told him to cut it completely out of his diet and said that aspartame was horrible for diabetics. His symptoms abated very rapidly after that and he has zero nerve problems since he stopped drinking the Diet Coke.
You can’t tell me that there’s nothing wrong with aspartame.
The problem really lies with the original study of aspartame in mice. They injected mice with 100’s of times the normal dose of aspartame – something like drinking your weight in diet soda every day – and then proceed to be surprised when they got cancer.
I’m not arguing for aspartame, mind – there are other studies, much more reliable, that say that aspartame screws with metabolism in some interesting and complicated ways, including changing leptin production and affecting what caloric intake levels will make you feel full. But it really looks as if cancer’s not the problem for the average human.
Hmmm. This is interesting. Do all artificial sweeteners have this issue or is it aspartame in particular?
The study I’m referring to said it was aspartame in particular. Evidently one of the breakdown products has the same conformation as the breakdown products of normal sugar.