Aspartame Sensitivity Study to Take Place
This should clear up any lingering questions about Aspartame…
Expert advice is that aspartame – found in more than 4,000 products – is safe to consume.
However, a number of people have reported sensitivity to the product including headaches, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue.
…Professor Stephen Atkin, who will lead the new research, said: “This study is not to determine whether aspartame can be consumed safely; this has already been established, but rather to see whether certain people are sensitive to it.”
The Hull team hope their work will lead to a larger international study to pin down the issue once and for all.
…Andrew Wadge, Chief Scientist at the Food Standards Agency said: “The study will address consumer concerns, including anecdotal reports that have linked a range of conditions to aspartame.
Personally, I’ve never had any problems with aspartame, nor have I known anyone who has. It’s certainly not hard to find reports of adverse effects, however. It will be interesting to see if there are genuine chemical sensitivities behind these reactions.
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JLowe on 26 Sep 2009 at 4:54 am #
Interesting perspective on how you define “safe”; the conventional definition would be “it won’t harm anyone under any circumstances”, but truthfully, there will invariably be a small fraction of sensitive individuals who might experience adverse effects with typical use. In general, we need to adjust our expectations and not demand that safe equates to “free from risk”, which is impossible to attain.
Makster on 26 Sep 2009 at 9:21 am #
There is so much controvery on this product, it baffles me. So many studies say it is safe but some people claim it isn’t.
It’s nice to see they say it is and will do these studies. I know of no one that has any bad reactions to it. I do know a lot that avoid it like the plague, saying it isn’t healthy.
Elissa on 26 Sep 2009 at 5:11 pm #
Part of the controversy lies in the “artificial” aspect: for example, various wannabe health guru-types have it in for ALL artificial sweeteners, and there will never be a sufficient number of studies to convince them. If 10 studies show something is safe, the goalposts will be moved to 15. If 15 are done, the new magic number will be 20. And if 20 is reached… well, they were done by the people in the pocket of the industry, who put their own profits ahead of people’s health, etc., etc.
So there really is no way to win, with some people.
Nonetheless, as JLowe points out, nothing is perfectly safe. For example, some people are allergic to food dyes like tartrazine, others to sulfites. So it’s certainly not inconceivable that there may be those who react badly to aspartame… just off the top of my head, I’d say it’s a fair bet.
For the record, I don’t avoid the stuff, but I don’t go out of my way to consume it, either. If it happens to be in a product I’m trialing, then whatever. But I don’t make a habit of using it, since a) there are alternatives; and b) most of the food products its used in are crap anyway: stuff like diet sodas, diet Jello, Crystal Light, etc. Ultimately, I think artificial sweeteners should be avoided – not because they’re “artificial”, but because they perpetuate a taste for sweetened foods. In other words, it’s like trading a heroin addiction for a methadone one. If you can’t tolerate the taste of most unsweetened foods/beverages, then you have a problem – despite the fact that there’s no caloric “damage.”
Elissa on 26 Sep 2009 at 5:19 pm #
@JLowe: I think we also need to define what terms like “safe”, “harm” and “risk” mean – if for no other reason than to make some distinctions between adverse effects that are potentially life-threatening and those that aren’t. There is a world of difference between an acute exposure that triggers a headache, and chronic exposure that may (eventually) cause cancer.
dennis on 28 Sep 2009 at 4:49 am #
i would be willing to do this study. i know from first hand how synthetic sweeteners affect me. while they don’t cause problems directly for me, they do allow a path for trouble. with sweeteners, my problems include headaches and reduced sleep quality. while they are not direct causation, they do enhance the chance of me having certain problems. if i am under a stressful situation, i would most likely not get a headache with how my diet is structured now, but if i have some aspartame (or splenda, stevia) in my system it is very likely that i will develop a headache with a certain amount of stress. and when it comes to sleep, i can just tell that i do not go as deep as normal or i would just have outright insomnia. when i got off of sweeteners for a couple days, things begin to return to normal for me. i have no “scientific” data to corroborate any of this but this has been my experience. in a way, aspartame is not harmful in that i don’t bleed out of my eyes, my heart does not stop, legs don’t fall off but the effects are less obvious. i would be using this stuff more often if i could get away with it.
Rob on 29 Sep 2009 at 8:08 pm #
Elissa, I have curtailed the use of it as much as possible because of the “what if” factor I keep hearing and reading everywhere.
I have never suffered any side effects from aspartame, but for that matter I have eaten blue hamburger can easily swallow listerine and could probably drink gasoline and just get a little “gas”.
I don’t feel deprived about giving aspartame up, but I would sure like to know for sure if it is or has done damage that will bring me down later with cancer.
Our own Doc (ERP7E) in the BBR forums has said he is a very close personal friend with a someone who helped develop aspartame (Splenda) and Doc won’t use it at all after learning of how it was made. Doc is not one to overpostulate or promote hysteria about anything, in fact he is quite the opposite. However, if it ain’t OK for Doc it ain’t OK with me.
Elissa on 29 Sep 2009 at 8:34 pm #
I saw what he wrote, and I hate to say this, but I completely disagree with it. Unsourced innuendo is unsourced innuendo – I don’t care who says it. No one’s word – including MINE – should ever be regarded as final, particularly if they cannot/will not provide the kind of information needed to support whatever claims they make.
I wouldn’t lie awake at night wondering about whether or not you might develop cancer “someday” because of past exposure to aspartame. That way lies madness.