The Sweet N Down Low Of Aspartame

I really want to educate you, my readers, on the dangers of aspartame. I have been doing research and I am still finding new disturbing information. I thought I would be able to write everything in one post but that is not going to be possible.

Aspartame has a sketchy background, a 22 year study done by Harvard, is in over 6,000 products and is owned by the biggest company in the world that loves to push GMOs (another day, another blog).

Aspartame is made of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. That is two amino acids and wood alcohol. 

Let’s start at the beginning.

Aspartame was accidentally discovered in 1965 by a chemist, James Schlatter, of G.D. Searle Company. He was trying to make an anti-ulcer drug. Apparently, some of the chemical was on his fingers and he tasted the sweetness and realized he could use this in foods as an artificial sweetener.

Originally, aspartame was supposed to be in dry goods in 1974 but  Dr. John W. Olney, neuroscience researcher, put the brakes on the approval. Objections were filed and investigations were led into G.D. Searle’s research practices causing the FDA to say “not now”. So it finally was approved and in 1985, guess who bought G.D. Searle? MONSANTO.

Monsanto divided the company and made a pharmaceutical company and The NutraSweet Company.

Right before Monsanto got its grubby hands in the company, aspartame was approved for dry foods in 1983 and in 1986 made its debut in diet sodas. Believe or not, Diet Coke was all the rage. I remember my oldest sister, (shout out) Susie, making the switch to Diet Coke.

Today, the artificial sweetener, aspartame has many names and is consumed by over 200 million people worldwide. Products that have aspartame include carbonated soft drinks, chewing gum, gelatin, frozen desserts, yogurt, tabletop sweeteners and flavoring in medicines.

Side effects from drinking aspartame include (however, there are more):

• Headaches/migraines
• Seizures         
• Nausea
• Numbness
• Muscle spasms          
• Weight gain   
• Rashes
• Depression   
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Heart palpitations      
• Breathing difficulties
• Loss of taste
• Tinnitus         
• Memory loss
• Joint pain      

I had made a list of my ailments in 2014 that showed so many of these side effects and more. That was when I decided I needed to make a change. It was not easy but it got better. My duty to you is to explore each of the components that make up aspartame and its effect on the body. So stay tuned for the next few blogs and learn more about aspartame. Even if the information is not relevant to you, it may be for a friend or relative or it just could come in handy the next time you play trivia.