Aspartame Part 2: Prosecution

Please visit Aspartame Part 1: Defense for the up side of aspartame. In this post I'll be sharing the down side with the information I've found on the internet. On the site Dorway to Discovery they suggest Which Sweeteners to Use:

Acceptable choices
The following are healthy choices:

• Sugar – granulated, confectioner’s, or brown
• Cane sugar crystals
• Turbinado and various raw sugars
• Honey, Molasses, Pure maple syrup
• Rice syrup and similar syrups
• Stevia (an herbal no-calorie sweetener found in the supplements section of your supermarket or a health food store)

Acceptable, but don’t overdo
When a sugar name ends in “ol” that means it is an alcohol sugar. Too much has a laxative effect.

• Sorbitol
• Mannitol
• Xylitol
• Hydrogenated starches

Less desirable

• Corn syrup, corn sweeteners, dextrose
• High fructose corn syrup

Questionable

• Acesulfame-k (Sunett, Sweet One)
• D-tagatose (Naturlose)

Do not use

• Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)
  • Neotame
  • Alitame
• Cyclamate
• Saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low),
• Sucralose (Splenda)

Yup, that's good ole aspartame at the top of the "do not use" list. Aspartame: One Man's Profit Another Man's Poison is an extensive look into the history of aspartame. Janet Starr Hull has a great website full of information including the side effects of aspartame as well as a detox program. The side effects she lists are for eyes, ears, neurologic, psychological/psychiatric, chest, gastrointestinal, skin and allergies, endocrine and metabolic. Some of the scariest side effects listed are: Additional Symptoms of Aspartame Toxicity include the most critical symptoms of all death irreversible brain damage birth defects, including mental retardation peptic ulcers aspartame addiction and increased craving for sweets hyperactivity in children severe depression aggressive behavior suicidal tendencies Below are the steps that Janet suggests for people who suffer some of the above symptoms to live a healthier and aspartame free lifestyle:

Steps:

1. Remove all sugar-free products with aspartame from your diet.
2. Learn to 'read' your body. Begin recording any health changes.
3. Get a hair analysis.
4. Be happy with yourself.
5. Detoxify.
6. Restore depleted nutrients.
7. Exercise and get plenty of rest.
8. Eat 75% raw foods at every meal.
9. Drink water, water, water.
10. Get control of your life.

Click here to see the list of symptoms people have sent in the the FDA. Here are more links for you to do your own reading:

Aspartame: What you don't know can hurt you

321Recipes.com

FDA Should Reconsider Aspartame Cancer Risk, Say Experts

I know this was a lot of copy, paste, and links but I thought it was more important for you to read and form your own opinion than for me to try to summarize it and form my own opinion. I implore you to read both this and my Aspartame Part 1: Defense posts and see what you think. Feel free to leave your comments below.