Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners

This is a follow up to my post about the natural sweetener stevia.

Currently there are two main types of artificial sweeteners being sold on the market, Aspartame (sold as NutraSweet, Equal, and Spoonful) and Splenda.

These sweeteners are unnatural, lab-created concoctions that have been proven to have a multitude of hazardous side effects including seizures, coma and even death.

Aspartame: A dangerous and possibly deadly sweetener

Aspartame has been called the most dangerous food additive on the market today, accounting for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Aspartame is made up of three chemicals:

• aspartic acid
• phenylalanine
• methanol

this combination can be dangerous, even deadly to your body’s nervous system.
Aspartame has been shown to change your brain’s chemistry and destroy your nervous system when taken repeatedly over time. There are over 5,000 products that contain Aspartame and many people are eating and drinking Aspartame all day long, everyday from a variety of products.

Aspartame has been linked to multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease to list a few. When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol coverts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes methanol toxicity, a very serious condition that rapidly destroys the nervous system.

Even more disturbing is the use of Aspartame in a variety of children’s vitamins: Centrum, Jr., Sunkist Multivitamins, Flintstones and Bugs Bunny Chewables.

Splenda: A worldwide public health experiment

Splenda is a synthetic compound that was accidentally created by a British scientist trying to formulate a new pesticide. Splenda’s manufacturer claims that it’s natural and comes from sugar, but that’s only half the truth.

It’s true the Splenda molecule is comprised of sugar (sucrose) but the sugar compound has been modified, and replaced with three chlorine atoms. Not exactly a creation of nature. Many researchers have said Splenda is a closer relative to pesticides than sugar because of its similarity in chlorocarbon bonding.

Splenda is relatively new to the artificial sweetener market and as Aspartame’s dangerous effects took many years to surface, so may be the case with Splenda. Many are consuming a variety of Splenda products on a daily basis, and the compounding effects of this may soon prove to be toxic. More and more food companies are adding Splenda to a wider range of their products everyday.

The future of artificial sweeteners

As more and more negative information surfaces about the chemical cocktail sweeteners known as Aspartame and Splenda, the more people will be looking for a natural, safe alternative. There is a growing natural-lifestyle trend that has people opting for food, drinks and products made 100% from nature, with no chemicals, preservatives or artificial additives.

The FDA is receiving pressure from several human-interest groups to ban the chemical sweeteners from the market, deeming them toxic and unsafe for human consumption. As hundreds of studies are being released about Aspartame and Splenda, each showing severe negative side effects from long-term use, it will be almost impossible for the FDA to continue to condone a continually proven toxin to human health. We can only hope it won’t be long before Aspartame and Splenda are banned, because consumers are demanding safer products for future generations