Aspartame

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

Footyslayer

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Hi all,

I have been drinking a Berocca Mon-Fri for some time now. I must say that I does seem to help me and I rarely end up feeling ill, used to get run down quite often.

However recently I found out an ingredient is aspartame. This concerns me as I have read many contradicting reports about it.

One of my concerns is weight gain which isn't spoken about as much as the bigger side effects, what are peoples thoughts on aspartame and can it hinder you losing weight?
 
There's no good science to support all these scaremongering stories. Nearly every scientific report has come back it's safe. The ones which have come back bad aren't even on humans. But feeding rats considerable body weight percentages, far more than you could consume.
Like anything though imo, moderation.

You can search on pub med for studies. But you do need to understand what they are actually testing in a lot of cases and how that applies to what you want to know.

One search review of studies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12180494
Over 20 years have elapsed since aspartame was approved by regulatory agencies as a sweetener and flavor enhancer. The safety of aspartame and its metabolic constituents was established through extensive toxicology studies in laboratory animals, using much greater doses than people could possibly consume. Its safety was further confirmed through studies in several human subpopulations, including healthy infants, children, adolescents, and adults; obese individuals; diabetics; lactating women; and individuals heterozygous (PKUH) for the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) who have a decreased ability to metabolize the essential amino acid, phenylalanine. Several scientific issues continued to be raised after approval, largely as a concern for theoretical toxicity from its metabolic components--the amino acids, aspartate and phenylalanine, and methanol--even though dietary exposure to these components is much greater than from aspartame. Nonetheless, additional research, including evaluations of possible associations between aspartame and headaches, seizures, behavior, cognition, and mood as well as allergic-type reactions and use by potentially sensitive subpopulations, has continued after approval. These findings are reviewed here. The safety testing of aspartame has gone well beyond that required to evaluate the safety of a food additive. When all the research on aspartame, including evaluations in both the premarketing and postmarketing periods, is examined as a whole, it is clear that aspartame is safe, and there are no unresolved questions regarding its safety under conditions of intended use.
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As above.

There's also a train of thought that eating sweeteners can be detrimental as it conditions your body to accept more and more sweet tasting foods as "normal", removing your natural tendency to limit intake - but afaik this is still being tested
 
It might be safe, it might not be. One way to make sure is to avoid it completely. It's not difficult as it's only in processed crap.

Eat and drink natural food and drinks and forget all about it.
 
Tis great stuff - I'm partial to the odd can of Coke/Pepsi but don't like wasting my carb intake on the sugars from them, so Max/Zero let me indulge now and then with zero caloric consequence. I usually just drink water / black coffee though but hey.
 
I'd stop drinking berokka all together we are hardly deprived of all the intake we need and most of it is placebo or pee'd down the drain.
 
Yeah I know most of Berocca gets flushed out, my urine looks nuclear :D

But it generally has helped me with feeling fitter and healthier, illnesses are rare nowadays. It's not a placebo in my opinion.

As for aspartame it has me slightly worried but I think my mind is a little more at ease now :)
 
Glaucus said:
There's no good science to support all these scaremongering stories. Nearly every scientific report has come back it's safe.
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Who funded the research?

The reason I ask is I have been reading an exceptional book lately about this stuff and panels of 'experts' and research findings. The one thing that comes up time and time again is follow the money. How often these findings then have been funded by a company with the most to gain. For example any reaseach that has been done into 'sports' drinks has been funded by Gatorade Lucozade etc.

The whole point of the book is how often people will (myself included) pedal out statements like you did without ever knowing who paid for the research. An eye opening read tbh.

Thats why I said in the book thread I thought it would be a read you would like. :)
 
i go against a lot of current preference with regards addatives and chemical ingredients, i did have a better reference but cant find it at the moment but as an idea of a breakdown of natural food

http://io9.com/what-if-natural-products-came-with-a-list-of-ingredient-1503320184

i am all for GM foods if they make foods easier to produce and offer less waste, a lot of foodies are all for molecular gastonomy (myself included) but then they walk out of a restaurant and demand organic produce, like how stuff was produced 'in the good old days' before advances in chemistry allowing us to preserve food and maximise its growth.
 
In the larger proportion of the population Aspartame appears to have negligible effect however I don't buy that it isn't responsible for some side effects in a limited number of the population.

I narrowed down headaches I was having to Aspartame via elimination testing long before I'd even heard of it or knew of the stories surrounding it - doesn't really suprise me as I've allergic reaction to several E numbers in the 100-129 range like Tartrazine (medically diagnosed).
 
dannyjo22 said:
Who funded the research?

The reason I ask is I have been reading an exceptional book lately about this stuff and panels of 'experts' and research findings. The one thing that comes up time and time again is follow the money. How often these findings then have been funded by a company with the most to gain. For example any reaseach that has been done into 'sports' drinks has been funded by Gatorade Lucozade etc.

The whole point of the book is how often people will (myself included) pedal out statements like you did without ever knowing who paid for the research. An eye opening read tbh.

Thats why I said in the book thread I thought it would be a read you would like. :)
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Every man and his dog.from both sides of the fence the only one that showed any issue was astronomical amounts in mice.
 
If in any doubt just stay away from it. Ultimately it's another artificial sweetener and, like many others, I just think products taste horrible when they've got it in.
 
I wouldn't touch Berocca with a barge pole. Like anything - sugar and alcohol as good examples - our bodies build up a tolerance to what we consume. Taking vitamin supplements unless you genuinely have a deficiency has very little benefit as most just comes out the other end, and yet the potential effect is that your body will be so used to taking 1000% of everything day-in, day-out, that you may start to reject or require supplements on a permanent basis.

I learnt all this from a Panorama episode, so unsure if the research is still current, but it follows suit with any general diet advice - everything in moderation. 1000% of everything every day is not moderation.
 
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