Aspartame Poisoning - My Story

[Nicki B]

Re: Do you have....

I just checked the fruit Shoots and regular contains 23% sugar the equivalent of five teaspoons of sugar in a 200ml bottle, the No sugar variety contains aspartame and another sweetener and other additives. We don't have the No sugar one and considering the amount of sugar in the other week won't be having that one either, that's a huge amount of sugar for a small child to consume it's no wonder they are hyperactive!!

 

[Rochelle1]

Just checked my squash, its sainsburys basics double strength summer fruits squash and it doesn't contain aspartame, it says all their squashes are sweetened with sucralose, so if anyones wanting an aspartame free juice this is the one x

 

[celtic-chick]

Wow.Thank you so much for sharing your story.I never realised how bad this stuff could be for you.I'm glad to see your feeling better now.When I get home tonight I'm going through my cupboards.Get rid of anything containing aspartame

 

[jen3]

I'm another thats glad you shared your story - I'm aware of the dangers of aspartame and also that other sweeteners arent good for you but have been turning a bit of a blind eye to it recently! I'm certainly thinking about it now! I've cut out all added sugar (including cakes/biscuits etc as sugar is hugely addictive) also. The sweet craving can definitely be dealt with - its just hard for the first few days - am eating a fair bit of fruit to compensate!

 

[hexe]

Just checked my squash, its sainsburys basics double strength summer fruits squash and it doesn't contain aspartame, it says all their squashes are sweetened with sucralose, so if anyones wanting an aspartame free juice this is the one x

Although not as "harsh" as aspartame, sucralose isn't all that either
Dangers Of Sucralose | LIVESTRONG.COM

I really think that ingesting either, within reason, should be ok. But litres of the stuff per day just cannot be good. I sometimes use xylitol, as I don't mind the taste of it. It's considered safe (so they say) for human consumption, just be careful not to give it to your pets xx

 

[jen3]

I very rarely drink fizzy pop anyway as its never good for you (seemingly the stuff that makes it fizz is really bad for your bone density). I admit that when I go out my drink of choice is vodka and diet coke but thats not even every week.

 

[minxie_minx]

With the pepsi I take 1 mouthful then another right away. In the time my boyfriend drinks 1 can I drink 3 easy. I just find it so addictive. Tomorrow will be the start of no more pepsi etc! Sorry for hijacking your thread

Been there done that, yeah it is so easy & that's why it's so dangerous too! Well done though on cutting it out. It is hard & you DO miss it but it CAN be done!!

I just checked the fruit Shoots and regular contains 23% sugar the equivalent of five teaspoons of sugar in a 200ml bottle, the No sugar variety contains aspartame and another sweetener and other additives. We don't have the No sugar one and considering the amount of sugar in the other week won't be having that one either, that's a huge amount of sugar for a small child to consume it's no wonder they are hyperactive!!

That's crazy. I'll be telling my mum right away to stop giving them to my niece. If anyone could recommend a similar drink with no sugar that would be great! It annoys me SO much these companies put pictures of fruits on the front of these bottles and make them 'look' healthy when they aren't! Grrrr!! x

Just checked my squash, its sainsburys basics double strength summer fruits squash and it doesn't contain aspartame, it says all their squashes are sweetened with sucralose, so if anyones wanting an aspartame free juice this is the one x

Great for people avoiding aspartame, but I'm avoiding all artificial sweeteners & Sucrolose is also on the list! There are still down sides to Sucralose (Splenda) if you read up on it - although it IS considered 'better' than aspartame, thanks for the mention though!

Wow.Thank you so much for sharing your story.I never realised how bad this stuff could be for you.I'm glad to see your feeling better now.When I get home tonight I'm going through my cupboards.Get rid of anything containing aspartame

A lot of people don't realise how bad it CAN be. You'll be surprised the amount of stuff it's in! That's why it's so hard to avoid it sometimes!! x

 

[minxie_minx]

I'm another thats glad you shared your story - I'm aware of the dangers of aspartame and also that other sweeteners arent good for you but have been turning a bit of a blind eye to it recently! I'm certainly thinking about it now! I've cut out all added sugar (including cakes/biscuits etc as sugar is hugely addictive) also. The sweet craving can definitely be dealt with - its just hard for the first few days - am eating a fair bit of fruit to compensate!

Thanks! I knew it was bad when I was doing it, that's the thing but I carried on because I was SO addicted. I'm still battling it now, whenever I see someone with sugar free gum I crave it, or walking down the drinks isle, I crave a pepsi max.. but I know it's just my brain craving the drug it's missing! It can be avoided, I'm living proof haha. I just eat a lot more rasperries which I'm addicted to (which is fine because they are SS)! xx

Although not as "harsh" as aspartame, sucralose isn't all that either
Dangers Of Sucralose | LIVESTRONG.COM

I really think that ingesting either, within reason, should be ok. But litres of the stuff per day just cannot be good. I sometimes use xylitol, as I don't mind the taste of it. It's considered safe (so they say) for human consumption, just be careful not to give it to your pets xx

Yeah I mentioned this.. I'm avoiding ALL artificial sweetener & sticking to mother nature's natural sweetener - honey. It's a couple or more syns a day but it's worth it for my health! I don't ever use up all my syns anyway, daily I use under 10 ( 5 of which is usually honey all day in my tea/yoghurts) so that's ok!

I very rarely drink fizzy pop anyway as its never good for you (seemingly the stuff that makes it fizz is really bad for your bone density). I admit that when I go out my drink of choice is vodka and diet coke but thats not even every week.

Yeah, like I said I don't mean to scare people who are only taking it in little amounts - because like I said it is in almost everything these days! Just wanted people to be aware of the danger! x

 

[hexe]

This is just the summer fruit one, they all have glucose syrup in them and sugar is third on the list so it's quite high. Dextrose is also artificial and just another name for glucose. Glycerol is also a sweetener.

Sorry, but I have to correct you. Dextrose is "grape sugar", a monosaccharide found in plants (high concentration in grapes) and no artificial sweetener.
Also, Glycerol is not a sweetener, it's a polyol, which is a kind of alcohol, forms part of lipids and happens to be sweet tasting xx

 

[vikstar]

Just checked Sprite (normal one!) and they don't have aspartame in combined with sugar. It's actually Stevia and Sugar combined. Stevia is a natural plant extract which has been used for ads to sweeten things! Apparently! Who knows!? Everything is bad for us it seems

 

[hexe]

hopefully it's not too bad then, glucose syrup is still bad and personally I try to avoid it, that's in everything again xx

I didn't want to come across patronising or lecturing Glad you didn't see it that way xx
It's so difficult trying to eat the natural way and healthily as our society appears to be inundated with processed foods.
I stick to a lot of (organic or straight from the farmer) fruit and veg, but every now and then the craving for an Alpen bar (for example) just gets too strong and I cave in. Trying to keep it to a bare minimum. And, as I mentioned before, I use Agave nectar for hot beverages, not syn-free but natural and it does taste like sugar xx

 

[purple cavy]

All ive drank today is water. Went diwn the drinks aisle in tesco and my mouth was watering!

 

[minxie_minx]

Hun by having Allen light bars you're not avoiding all artificial sweeteners-
Cereals (39%) (Rice, Whole Oats, Whole Wheat),Prebiotic Oligofructose Syrup (30%) ,Sugar ,Dried Apple Pieces (5.3%) (with Preservative: Sulphur Dioxide) ,Humectant: Glycerol ,Dextrose ,Fruit Juice Concentrates (Grape (2.6%), Strawberry (0.6%), Raspberry (0.4%)) ,Glucose Syrup ,Vegetable Oil ,Sweetened Cranberries (1.7%) (Cranberries, Sugar) ,Wheat Gluten ,Freeze Dried Raspberries (1.1%) ,Maize Starch ,Milk Lactose ,Milk Yogurt Powder ,Skimmed Milk Powder ,Malted Barley Extract ,Flavourings ,Defatted Wheat Germ ,Salt ,Citric Acid ,Natural Colouring: Elderberry Juice Extract ,Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin ,Acidity Regulator: Malic Acid ,Antioxidant: Tocopherols

This is just the summer fruit one, they all have glucose syrup in them and sugar is third on the list so it's quite high. Dextrose is also artificial and just another name for glucose. Glycerol is also a sweetener.

Panicked for a slight second when I saw your message pop up! But I got my OH to check & he basically told me what Hexe says below! Thanks for the concern though!

Sorry, but I have to correct you. Dextrose is "grape sugar", a monosaccharide found in plants (high concentration in grapes) and no artificial sweetener.
Also, Glycerol is not a sweetener, it's a polyol, which is a kind of alcohol, forms part of lipids and happens to be sweet tasting xx

Thanks Hexe, haha, I did panic for a minute though thinking I'd missed something!

hopefully it's not too bad then, glucose syrup is still bad and personally I try to avoid it, that's in everything again xx

No it's not as bad in little amounts! I ONLY have one a day (if that) as a treat anyway! I store them in a biscuit tin and treat them as 'treats'! Sad I know.. haha x

Just checked Sprite (normal one!) and they don't have aspartame in combined with sugar. It's actually Stevia and Sugar combined. Stevia is a natural plant extract which has been used for ads to sweeten things! Apparently! Who knows!? Everything is bad for us it seems

Yeah they've started to use this Stevia in everything now.. I did my research though & to be honest, that isn't all it seems.. a quick google search with the words 'Stevia & danger' brings up a few things.. the impression I get is to buy it as 'pure as possible' and to avoid the 'popular brands' (is truvia one of them)? I don't know?! Sticking to my honey though & when Ireach my GW I will be having real sugar when I want it (in moderation)!!

I didn't want to come across patronising or lecturing Glad you didn't see it that way xx
It's so difficult trying to eat the natural way and healthily as our society appears to be inundated with processed foods.
I stick to a lot of (organic or straight from the farmer) fruit and veg, but every now and then the craving for an Alpen bar (for example) just gets too strong and I cave in. Trying to keep it to a bare minimum. And, as I mentioned before, I use Agave nectar for hot beverages, not syn-free but natural and it does taste like sugar xx

It is hard, especially for us avoiding sweeteners!! Grrr!! I do stick with organic stuff now, local new potatoes, veggies off my mum, she also has ducks/chickens so I get my eggs there, handy, haha! It's hard to come across as non-preachy in here sometimes isn't it!? x

All ive drank today is water. Went diwn the drinks aisle in tesco and my mouth was watering!

Keep going! Might be some side effects on the crap leaving your system but trust me it's worth it. Don't even get near what I was like. It was awful.

No I don't see it like that, it's just what I read online! Xx
i think with things like processed food we have to have a balance cause although its easy for people to say you don't need it and we can live without it there is always the bodies craving for fat, salt and sugar so we work against ourselves! I don't keep a lot of processed stuff in the house cause I can't really eat it in moderation I always want to eat it so its gone but then get more so just a cycle! When I go out or order food though I feel like a child sometimes looking at the dessert menu first! Then I just crave it more and crave fresh food less.

I went through a phase of eating ready meals etc (I was a student haha) - & to be honest, I found I didn't crave it ALL the time, only sometimes. I personally (obviously not going to be the same as everyone else) think that what I ate growing up helped! Maybe it's where I live, here in Anglesey, Wales - but I grew up on lots of fish (fresh mackerel/haddock etc) & local veggies (like new potatoes - they sell them on the corner of the road & I always get a bag every couple of days when they're in season before the tourists steal them)! I ate a lot of homemade ''lobsgows'' which is a welsh stew (potatoes, carrots, swede, onions and stewing beef), bolognese made with chopped tomatoes rather than jarred etc etc.. You get the point. Just home-cooked food. I also went online to download recipes for my favorite 'ready meals' like spaghetti carbonara (which is surprisingly easy to make) & much healthier/nicer than the ready meals! It's just changing the way you live. At the end of the day I guess everyone is different, sometimes there's no time to be all la-dee-da in the kitchen making a meal so it IS easier to grab those meals but after living off those asda spaghetti carbonaras & seeing how much weight I put on, I don't think I'll go back!! Not worth it.

That's not to say I'll never have one again, don't get me wrong - but I won't ever go back to having one a day like I was!! I'm still lazy on this diet sometimes. A tin of Heinz Spaghetti Bolognese is something like 3 or 4 syns..? I have a stash of them for my lazy days haha xx

 

[gazter]

Its allowed because it is completely safe in normal doses. Like any substance, some people will have an intolerance.

Aspartame is the single most tested food additive in modern times. There is no evidence that in normal doses it is harmful.

The OP was not having normal doses, as she explained.

 

[gazter]

Just checked Sprite (normal one!) and they don't have aspartame in combined with sugar. It's actually Stevia and Sugar combined. Stevia is a natural plant extract which has been used for ads to sweeten things! Apparently! Who knows!? Everything is bad for us it seems

Almost anything can be considered an 'extract'. Just because it is natural doesnt make it good, just because it is artificial doesnt make it bad.

 

[gazter]

Just checked, you would need to drink 7 litres of diet coke a day to exceed the acceptable intake level of aspartame, and that assumes you are of average weight.

Its 40mg of aspartame for every kg of body weight. A diet coke can contains between 120mg and 180mg depending on different reports. I could drink about 17 to 25 cans of it every day.

 

[Pinknails2012]

Just checked, you would need to drink 7 litres of diet coke a day to exceed the acceptable intake level of aspartame, and that assumes you are of average weight.

Its 40mg of aspartame for every kg of body weight. A diet coke can contains between 120mg and 180mg depending on different reports. I could drink about 17 to 25 cans of it every day.

wow thats alot of cans, i once drunk 2 liters of pepsi max in half a day and thought that was alot

 

[gazter]

wow thats alot of cans, i once drunk 2 liters of pepsi max in half a day and thought that was alot

I wasnt meaning that i did drink that... Just from an acceptable intake of aspartame level, i could....

 

[Pinknails2012]

I wasnt meaning that i did drink that... Just from an acceptable intake of aspartame level, i could....

Ohh sorry lol i get you now

 

[OoAmandaoO]

Wow! Im so glad I read your story... the thought of this never crossed my mind, so thank you and I am glad your free from it and healthy again xx