re what are the problems with nutrasweet aspartame in article apr uvm edu hbloom moose uvm edu heather writes nutrasweet is a synthetic sweetener a couple thousand times sweeter than sugar some people are concerned about the chemicals that the body produces when it degrades nutrasweet it is thought to form formaldehyde and known to for methanol in the degredation pathway that the body uses to eliminate substances the real issue is whether the levels of methanol and formaldehyde produced are high enough to cause significant damage as both are toxic to living cells all i can say is that i will not consume it in the september issue of the tufts university diet and nutrition letter there is a three page article about artificial sweeteners what follows are those excerpts which deal specifically with nutrasweet reproduced without permission the controversy over aspartame began six years ago in england where a group of researchers found that aspartame marketed under the tradename nutrasweet appears to stimulate appetite and presumably the eating of more calories in the long run than if a person simply consumed sugar when researchers asked a group of people to drink plain water aspartame sweetened water and sugared water they said that overall they felt hungriest after drinking the artificially sweetened beverage the study received widespread media attention and stirred a good deal of concern among the artificial sweetener using public however its results were questionable at best since the researchers did not go on to measure whether the increase in appetite did actually translate into an increase in eating the two do not necessarily go hand in hand in the years that followed more than a dozen studies examining the effect of aspartame on appetite and eating were conducted and after reviewing every one of them the director of the laboratory of the study of human ingestive behavior at johns hopkins university barbara rolls ph d concluded that consuming aspartame sweetened foods and drinks is not associated with any increase in the amount of food eaten afterward one artificial sweetener that is not typically accused of causing cancer is aspartame but it most certainly has been blamed for a host of other ills since its introduction in the government has received thousands of complaints accusing it of causing everything from headaches to nausea to mood swings to anxiety still years of careful scientific study conducted both before and after the sweetener s entering the market have failed to confirm that it can bring about adverse health effects that s why the centers for disease control the government agency charged with monitoring public health the american medical association s council on scientific affairs and the food and drug administration have given aspartame one of the most studied food additives a clean bill of health granted the fda has set forth an acceptable daily intake of milligrams of aspartame per kilogram of body weight to exceed the limit however a pound kg woman would have to take in milligrams of aspartame the amount in cans of aspartame sweetened soda pop cups of gelatin cups of yogurt or six ounce servings of aspartame containing hot cocoa a pound kg man would have to consume some milligrams of the sweetener the amount in cans of soda pop or cups of yogurt to go over the limit chart with aspartame content of selected foods omitted only one small group of people must be certain to stay away from aspartame those born with a rare metabolic disorder called phenylketonuria or pku the estimated one person in every to who has it is unable to properly metabolize an essential amino acid in aspartame called phenylalanine once a child consumes it it builds up in the body and can ultimately cause such severe problems as mental retardation to help people with pku avoid the substance labels on cans of soda pop and other aspartame sweetened foods must carry the warning phenylketonurics contains phenylalanine rich young these are not kodak s opinions
