Did
you know that Aspartame has been proven to cause brain damage by
leaving traces of Methanol in the blood? It makes you wonder why
Aspartame has been approved as “safe” and is found in thousands of food
products. Currently more than 90 countries have given the artificial
sweetener the “OK” to be used in foods.“Multiple Sclerosis is often misdiagnosed, and that it could be aspartame poisoning” – Montel Williams
Given that Aspartame is 200 times
sweeter than sugar, manufacturers are able to produce their sweet foods
and market them as “low calorie” so they can market and appeal to
millions of people on “diets.” There is no doubt that the less sugar you
have in your diet, the better. But replacing sugar with aspartame is
not the solution, and in fact is likely to be even worse for your health.
In my personal experience, Aspartame has
always made my head feel very odd when I consumed it. Headaches, light
headedness and overall nausea, are all symptoms I personally feel from
consuming Aspartame. But that isn’t even the bad part when you look at
what all of the research is suggesting. So I question, and everyone
should be asking the same: With all of the research about Aspartame and
its dangerous effects, even in small quantities, why is it still
approved by the FDA and other health agencies as being safe for human
consumption?
Let’s take a look at some research.
What is this lovely substance (Aspartame) made of?
An Aspartame molecule is essentially
made up of 3 different substances. 90% of it is made of two natural
amino acids, 1 being aspartic acid and the other being phenylalanine.
The other 10% of the molecule is made up of a methyl ester bond
(includes Methanol). The methanol is released from the aspartame within
hours of consumption and begins traveling through the body via the
blood. Once the methyl ester bond is broken, is separtes into methyl
alcohol and methanol (wood alcohol). The big problem with methanol is
that it easily passes into your blood-brain barrier and once there, is
converted into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is what is causing the brain
damage. While animals are able to detoxify methanol in the
body, humans do not have this capability. It doesn’t really take a
rocket scientist to realize that accumulating formaldehyde in the brain
is not a good thing.
What’s the deal with Methanol?
As mentioned above, Methanol is the key
issue here as it is what converts into formaldehyde. While it is often
believed that formic acid is the issue with Aspartame, it is actually
formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a serious neurotoxin and carcinogen.
According to the EPA, Methanol is considered a cumulative poison which
means is accumulates in the body and very little is excreted each time
it is consumed.
Methanol is a toxin that destroys the myelin tissue in your body, which is the insulating material around your nerves that allows nerve signals to travel properly. Once injured, one can have what are called demyelinating symptoms that are commonly seen in diseases like MS and also migraines that can include bizarre and inconsistent visual field disruptions.
But it must be safe in small doses!
While having NO methanol in the body
makes most sense, the EPA has accepted that a limit of consumption of
7.8 mg/day is still OK. Why we accept even small amounts of toxic stuff
in our body is beyond me, but some feel we can still consume this stuff
in small doses. According to Woodrow Monte, Ph.D, R.D., director of the
Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory at Arizona State University:
“When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative toxin.”
Further, he states that due to the lack
of a couple of key enzymes, humans are many times more sensitive to the
toxic effects of methanol than animals. Therefore, tests of aspartame or
methanol on animals do not accurately reflect the danger for humans.
“There are no human or mammalian studies to evaluate the possible mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic effects of chronic administration of methyl alcohol,” he said.
How can you know you are getting too
much Methanol? You may experience headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness,
nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory
lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral
disturbances, and neuritis. Another very well known sign of methanol
poisoning is vision problems.
Adding to the problem, one of the amino
acids in aspartame, aspartic acid is capable of crossing your
blood-brain barrier. There it attacks your brain cells, creating a form
of cellular overstimulation called excitotoxicity, which can lead to
cell death.
Your blood-brain barrier, which normally
protects your brain from excess aspartate, as well as toxins, is not
able to adequately protect you against the effects of aspartame
consumption because it:
- Is not fully developed during childhood
- Does not fully protect all areas of the brain
- Is damaged by numerous chronic and acute conditions
- Allows seepage of excess aspartate into the brain even when intact
That excess aspartate slowly begins to
destroy neurons, and the large majority (75 percent or more) of neural
cells in a particular area of the brain are killed before any clinical
symptoms of a chronic illness are noticed. Then, when they do occur,
they may or may not be associated with aspartame consumption, even
though examples of chronic illnesses that are made worse by long-term
exposure to excitatory amino acid damage include: Multiple sclerosis
(MS), ALS, hormonal problems, memory loss, epilepsy, hearing loss,
Alzheimers, dementia, brain lesions, and Neuroendocrine disorders.
It can be easy for us to make the
argument that this stuff is OK in small doses, and it hasn’t killed us
yet so it can’t be that bad. But it almost seems there is something more
to it why we use this reasoning. Are we just addicted to these
substances? Afraid to admit we have been poisoning ourselves? Unable to
accept that the FDA and health agencies have lied to us? Like to brush
these truths off as conspiracies? No matter what the reason is, there
comes a point where we must see what is staring us in the face and start
looking at how we can begin making new choices. Returning to something
that is healthier and more in line with our bodies. We are really
damaging ourselves here and becoming quite numb to life. It is
susbstances like Aspartame and Fluoride that
are causing these issues and the difference it makes to avoid these
substances is monumental for our quality of life and consciousness.
Sources: http://www.uabmedicine.org/news/Food+%28sugar+substitutes%29http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_methanol_and_public_health.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22385158
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