Read Adam's article on Aspartame.

Read Adam's article on Aspartame.

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The Dangers of Aspartame

Many people don’t realize that aspartame is very well documented as an excitotoxin, meaning that it overexcites nerve cells, causing permanent damage. According to researchers, aspartame causes brain lesions, blindness, migraine headaches, mental confusion, reproductive disorders, Alzheimer's disease and many other nervous system disorders. Over the years, there have been numerous documented cases of the harmful and sometimes deadly affects of aspartame.

Part of this is probably due to the fact that aspartame, when consumed, breaks down into several chemicals, and one of those chemicals is formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, of course, is a potent nerve toxin and has no place in the human body, yet people are effectively "drinking formaldehyde" every time they pick up a diet soft drink or "diet" food item sweetened with aspartame.

The next time you pop open a can of diet soda, think for a moment to consider what exactly you're drinking. As the aspartame gets broken down in your digestive tract, a metabolic by-product called DKP appears. According to researchers, when your stomach processes DKP, it produces a compound very similar to N-nitrosourea, a powerful brain tumour-causing chemical. In addition, aspartame contains methanol, which the body breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is one of the main substances pumped into a dead body during the embalming process. That’s right, dead bodies.

Now, when I'm dead, the morticians can pump formaldehyde into my body. Before then, however, I don't want to be pumped full of any chemical used in the embalming process, and I'm sure you don't, either. According to Dr. Blaylock, formaldehyde accumulates near DNA and causes serious damage. He states that "Drinking even one diet cola a day can cause formaldehyde build up in cells, so that the amount of the toxin increases daily".

In my opinion, aspartame should be immediately banned from the human food supply. It is a highly toxic ingredient that has been clearly shown to be extremely dangerous to humans. It only remains legal because the FDA wants to protect the profits of private industry rather than protect the public health and Canada is no different. There's also the added benefit (to the drug industry) that since aspartame makes people sick, those people will need prescription drugs to mask the symptoms caused by aspartame. So, in effect, aspartame is a revenue generator for the pharmaceutical industry, and the FDA no doubt realizes this.

A much safer sweetener would be stevia, an herbal sweetener that remains illegal to use in foods in the United States even though it is used around the world by hundreds of millions of people each year with no negative side effects. The FDA refuses to recognize stevia as a safe food ingredient in the United States, so you can only purchase it as a nutritional supplement. Make no mistake: the FDA will resist legalizing stevia for as along as possible, making sure the profits for aspartame keep flowing in.

Despite all of the information about the health dangers of aspartame I find it ironic that consumers often turn to “no-calorie” diet products because of concern for their health, particularly in regard to obesity. The aspartame industry promises consumers a reduction in calories without having to drastically change their diet. Unfortunately, misinformed consumers believe this.

I have mentioned before in previous articles, the emphatic need to take the responsibility to educate yourself about health and the world we live in. Empower yourself by gaining the knowledge to make the right choices for you and your family. An excellent movie that really exposes the truth about aspartame is “Sweet Misery”.