Objective science proves aspartame consumption is not safe. Subjective “science” proves that aspartame consumption is safe. If symptoms develop after one begins consuming products containing aspartame-and reverse only after aspartame consumption has been discontinued-then what more proof does one need to determine whether or not aspartame is safe to consume?
After years of experience as a mother and a teacher, I truly believe that all schools should be deeply concerned about their students’ consumption of aspartame, an artificial sweetener unfortunately found in a multitude of products.
Aspartame is found in many brands of diet soda and other diet drinks, gum, candy, flavored fizzy water and many diabetic foods. It is even in health drinks, yogurt, gelatins, puddings, wine coolers, cereals, breath strips and mints; some medicines and chewable children’s vitamins also contain aspartame.
Most students realize that illegal drugs and smoking are bad for them, but many don’t know anything about the hazards of aspartame. With all the media attention on obesity these days, students will start using even more “diet” products.
Obviously, obesity is a serious problem! However, turning to artificial sweeteners in an attempt to lose weight or prevent weight gain is not the answer. In fact, artificial sweeteners have been proven to contribute to weight gain. And, artificial sweeteners can definitely harm the health of students in many ways.
Some people react quickly to aspartame consumption and others don’t realize they have a problem for years. Other people recognize problems, but they have no idea that aspartame is the cause.
It is important for schools to learn about the dangers of aspartame to protect the students. My own daughter’s life was nearly destroyed by diet soda 18 years ago. She was a truly bright student whose college tuition was entirely funded by scholarships. She even won a Telluride Association Scholarship in competition with more than one million students from the entire United States. Aspartame caused in her an obvious intellectual deterioration.
After drinking only one can a day for a year, my daughter started having epileptic-type seizures, severe depression, problems with cognitive functioning and she began to lose her vision in both eyes. She was studying for her master’s degree and she herself realized that she was experiencing bizarre symptoms that were quite alarming.
Aspartame gives me immediate migraines, so that is why I suspected aspartame was harming my daughter. We live in New Jersey, but to follow up, we took her to Boston for special studies on her brain and the doctors confirmed that it was the NutraSweet (aspartame) that had made her so sick.
She finally stopped drinking sodas containing aspartame and she experienced a complete recovery. My daughter is now doing very well in her intellectually-demanding professional capacity as a computer programmer and financial analyst.
The clinical neuropsychologist who examined and tested my daughter in Boston luckily knew about aspartame and already had some preliminary evidence, from tests he had done, that the use of aspartame over a period of time might affect intellectual functioning in normal users. He said, “We are wondering whether, in fact, this substance may be capable of having a subtle effect on cognitive functioning that people may not necessarily be aware of. Think of the implications, for example, on an average college student who starts consuming a liter of this stuff during examination period and how it may, in fact, be interfering with his concentration and attention skills.”
He said, “This kind of neuropsychological cognitive examination has never been used to investigate the effects of new drugs of any kind. Now we have food additives that are more like drugs than foods being introduced into the dietary chain but have direct effects on the brain’s neurotransmitter system. But because the chemical industry is 20 years ahead of the regulators, thus far no one has attempted to apply more sophisticated methods of testing brain functions to these problems.”
My daughter saw many physicians when she first became ill. She first went to a neurologist who decided that she had temporal lobe epilepsy and treated her for it-without success – because she didn’t have temporal lobe epilepsy. She had to see an opthalmologist because she was losing her vision. She saw a second neurologist. She even went to a psychologist up in Boston. What an awful waste of time and money-from something as avoidable as diet soda.
Why did it take so long to find the cause of my daughter’s deteriorating brain function? Simple: Most physicians and their patients are clueless when it comes to connecting the myriad of bizarre symptoms of aspartame poisoning with the consumption of what is supposedly a safe, government-approved substance. Since the FDA says aspartame is “safe,” doctors don’t notice aspartame-induced “side-effects” when they are staring them in the eye.
Please understand that aspartame is addictive. Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol which is not only illegal, but causes chronic methanol poisoning. This affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes the addiction. Methanol is classified as a narcotic.
Nearly one in 10 American teenagers (approximately 2.2 million) experienced major depression last year, according to government statistics released recently that also showed that depressed youths were more likely to smoke, drink alcohol or abuse drugs. Aspartame greatly lowers serotonin levels in the brain. Decreased brain serotonin has been associated with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal attempts, hostility and psychopathic states, as well as hallucinations and insomnia. I can assure you that the epidemic numbers of depression among teenagers is linked to the huge amounts of diet sodas today’s teens are drinking.
