Aspartame – could it be the most dangerous food additive there is?
OK so, unless you’re really into reading food labels, you probably don’t even know what aspartame is. Chances are you’ve either never heard of it before, or if you have you’re a little iffy on what exactly it is, or what products it’s in. You’re more likely to have heard of the various brands aspartame hides in, for example Equal and NutraSweet, or the products it’s a key ingredient in, like diet fizzy drinks, some chewing gums, sugar free jams, jellies and baked goods, even protein powders and health bars!Basically, aspartame is a lot more common than you might think. The “sit up and take notice" statistic is that Aspartame accounts for over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In fact you might want to have a read of this article from one of my favourite websites (Mercola.com), which I sourced a lot of information for this article from.There are over 90 different documented symptoms caused by aspartame including:
- Anxiety attacks
- Breathing difficulties
- Depression
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Headaches/migraines
- Heart palpitations
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Nausea
- Numbness
- Rashes
- Seizures
- Vision problems
- Weight gain
Weight gain is an interesting one because one of the most common things we see as trainers is overweight girls choosing ‘diet’ products over real foods, thinking the ‘no calorie’ sweeteners will help them on their weight loss journey. In fact, the reverse is true. Artificial sweeteners are as bad for you as sugar when it comes to weight gain (potentially worse in the long run), they lead to nasty sugar cravings and are manytimes worse for your health than regular sugar. So what’s in Aspartame? Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: Aspartic acid (40%), Phenylalanine (50%) and Methanol (10%). Now when these are taken in their natural forms, as part of a whole food, they’re not bad. But extractedand added in unnatural amounts to our food, they contribute to many major health issues (we’re talking Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, so no small fish!), as well as common issues such as:
- Poor memory and focus
- Immune system depletion
- Hormonal problems
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Decreased levels of serotonin (the happy chemical) in the brain
- Depression
- Headaches
- Nausea, cramping and bloating
So how can you avoid Aspartame? Aspartame can be found in thousands of products such as:
- Breath mints
- Cereals
- Sugar-free chewing gum
- Frozen desserts
- Juice beverages
- Multivitamins
- Pharmaceuticals and supplements, including over-the-counter medicines
- Shake mixes
- Soft drinks, particularly diet soft drinks (all your favourites, including the one starting with “C”)
- Tabletop sweeteners
- Instant teas and coffees
- Topping mixes
- Yogurt
Avoid it by scrutinising the labels on any packaged foods you purchase, or better yet by avoiding artificial sweeteners altogether (a safe, zero calorie sweetener if you really need one is Stevia) and choosing to eat real, whole foods. Naturally sweet treats like fruit, honey, nuts, cacao, frozen grapes or bananas and natural yoghurt with berries are the best and if you need a treat, it’s OK to have that piece of cake or chocolate every now and again, just make sure you choose to eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible, as often as you can. Rant over! I hope this made you rethink your afternoon trip to the vending machine peeps… hit up the herbal teas instead. When we need a sweet hit, a ginger tea with honey is our go-to treat!