aspartame - friend or foe?

[gracie]

Here's another subject for discussion. What do you all think of the sugar substitutes out there? Considering the stories and lawsuits pertaining to "aspartame disease" and such.

Outside of weight control, should we even allow them in our bodies for optimum health? Or do you think they are harmless? I haven't heard anything about Splenda yet so it may be completely harmless but doesn't make things taste as good as aspartame.

If you have any links to articles to read to support your view, that would be very helpful.

Thanks!

[selah]

I haven't really looked into or studied sugar substitutes, aside from the occasional article read about their potentially negative effects or benefits. I personally feel that it's very hard for us to know just what effect all these food colorings, preservatives, and addatives are going to have on us in the future. Cancer rates are springing through the roof, and I wonder if it's any coincidence that the rise in consuming unnatural things coincides with that. We don't really have any historical event to look back on, because the use of these additives has only begun recently, so I think we should proceed with extreme caution.

I used to make much more of an effort to avoid diet sodas, children's cereals with food colorings, and packaged food with preservatives. I've been slipping in that, but nonetheless I'd encourage everyone to try to eat as naturally (organically) as possible. I think it would just protect us from a danger we don't fully understand. Plus, wouldn't it be better to be eating what God created instead of what man created? :biggrin:

[Multimom]

I have to admit, I have used them alot and I try to use drinks with substitutes alot especially with my children to help limit some of the onslaught of tooth decay.

[bigkat]

Most of my family drinks diet soda, but they all have diabetes and aren't supposed to drink regular soda. So now we have diet soda in our house in case any of them come to visit. I started drinking it because I'm supposed to get a certain amount of caffeine at a particular time of the day to help with my headaches and I don't always want to have a sugary soda. My grandma drinks a lot of diet soda now. She used to drink just water, but then she had heart attacks and the doctor made her limit her sodium which meant no soy sauce (apparently a very hard thing for an 80+ year old Japanese woman to cut out) so to have some flavor in her life, she started drinking diet soda instead of water. My aunt says she probably drinks at least a case a day. But I guess it's better than when she refused to change her diet and had more heart attacks.

[selah]

Sorry to take this off the topic, but I wanted to ask, Bigkat, do you drink tea? Green and Black teas have caffeine in them and also have a lof of helpful nutrients and antioxidants. It's just something to consider if you need a shot of caffeine!

[Nicole]

I'm leary of aspartame - though admittedly due more to the fact that my mom was leary of it than any research on my own.


I would most likely never give it to a small child. (under 4 years old).


I'll consume aspartame every once in a while if I get the low fat icecream or whatever - but it's not a common occurance.


for artificial sweetener at home I use splenda.

[bigkat]

Originally posted by kipepeo
Sorry to take this off the topic, but I wanted to ask, Bigkat, do you drink tea? Green and Black teas have caffeine in them and also have a lof of helpful nutrients and antioxidants. It's just something to consider if you need a shot of caffeine!

I was going to say no I don't drink tea (I don't drink hot drinks in general), but I realized that I do like to drink iced tea, so maybe I can start trying that out! Thanks for the good idea!

ok, back to aspartame!

[gracie]

I use Splenda as well, but the drinks and frozen desserts just arent that good with Splenda for some reason. It has more of an aftertaste to me. So I guess I use some of both but have been trying to stay away from sugar because of weight issues.

I love green tea! I get the Lipton brand that has Lemon in it. Very good and I don't even sweeten it. Of course, I have always liked tea unsweetened so I'm weird. :D

[selah]

I have always liked tea unsweetened so I'm weird.


Me too :biggrin:

If someone gives me sweetened tea, I have to practically choke it down and I'll only drink about half of it (the amount that it's polite to stop at when you've been offered tea haha!) I've never been a big "sweet" fan anyway, in terms of dominant tastes in food. It's a rare occurrence that I just crave something sweet. This, I consider a blessing! :)

[Nicole]

and I have to choke down unsweetened tea! :D


I think it's more of a cultural acquired tast thing...at leat that's part of it.

[butterfly]

So you're the reason why I can't get sweetened tea in Washington.

:stinkeye:

[selah]

:angel: