Artificial sweeteners, have they been proven safe yet?

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Soldato
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27 Jul 2005
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I just wondering whether I'm imagining it or not but every time I drink something with Aspertame or Acesulfame K in it is seems to give me a mild head ache, what with the weather being so hot recently a couple of days ago I must have got through about half a litre of double strength squash in a day and it left me with quite a bad migraine for two days, only just recovering, now I'm wondering am I just imaging a link to sweeteners here or is this a classic case of "don't be silly they are perfectly fine" etc?
 
I believe they proved they were actually good for you.

Went something like this:
Sweeteners cause impotence
Impotence reduces sexual encounters
Sexual encounters increase STI transmission
Sweeteners protect from venereal disease = not bad for you.
 
Some people do have sensitivity to aspartame.
Propylene Glycol is another one that is everywhere and a few people have reported mild sensitivity.
In general they are fine, AFAIK, but the same can be said of peanuts, strawberries and all the other stuff with minority allergies.
 
They've actually been tested exhaustively (they're one of the most tested classes of materials going) and found to be safe over and over again. However, I see someone (and without trying to be inflammatory and only stating a fact) - nearly always a "proud but concerned mum" - posting on Facebook at least once a month how (and I quote) "even flies won't eat artificial sweeteners so they MUST cause" cancer/autism/sterility/poor school performance/ADHD/asthma etc etc etc.

My favourite FB exchange with someone like that was when I put in a link, similar to the one above, showing they were fine and had been through huge amounts of clinical testing and was told that I must work for "Big Pharma" as "they're all evil". I replied with "as a matter of fact I do" and the only response was "Corporate Nazi!". :D
 
"Safe" yes - some people are sensitive (or people have varying sensitivities) to certain artificial substances to varying degrees.

Several E numbers in the 100-129 range at higher dosage make me hyper-active and in some cases completely change my personality for short periods - for awhile aspartame would reproducibly cause me some issues (headaches mostly) but I seem to have somewhat built up tolerance to it over time.
 
Last edited:
Pho said:
I'll usually get through ~1.5l of double strength squash a day to no ill effect, maybe you're just sensitive to it for some reason.

They are apparently perfectly fine:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/the-truth-about-aspartame.aspx


edit: I assume you did dilute it? :p
Click to expand...

Do you mean 1.5 l of diluted double strength squash, or actually a bottle of 1.5 l squash which is then diluted?

Guidlines on the bottle are something like 1 part concentrate to 9 parts water, that's 13.5 litres of water you're drinking a day :o
 
Dunks said:
Do you mean 1.5 l of diluted double strength squash, or actually a bottle of 1.5 l squash which is then diluted?

Guidlines on the bottle are something like 1 part concentrate to 9 parts water, that's 13.5 litres of water you're drinking a day :o
Click to expand...

I like it fairly strong, but diluted - so 1.5l of "liquid" :p

I really don't like drinking pure water at all - and my tap water is pretty good quality so it's not that.
 
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