❌ "Did you know that aspartame was originally developed as a combat neurotoxicant to influence the mindset of the enemy on the battlefield by drinking contaminated water?"
▶️ Unfortunately, it is not surprising that this HOAX is so widespread when the world famous charlatan Dr Mercola is behind its spread. What is the truth behind aspartame?
✅ Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by accident while searching for a cure for stomach ulcers, aspartame consists of two biogenic amino acids - phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are commonly found in nature and in the human body.
✅ There is no evidence that aspartame has ever been on any list of warfare agents, this information is taken from each other and published by conspiracy websites without any evidence.
✅ The use of aspartame in food is approved in more than 90 countries around the world, and it is one of the most tested food additives in history, and its safety has been tested on various subpopulations such as diabetics, children and even breastfeeding women.
✅ Some charlatans like to point out that aspartame is metabolised in the human body into small amounts of toxic methanol. But this is produced naturally in all of us, even after drinking fruit juice or tomato juice, and often in higher quantities than after consuming a drink containing the artificial sweetener aspartame. For comparison, drinking one glass of tomato juice produces approximately 6 times more methanol in the body and drinking one glass of orange juice produces approximately 3 times more methanol than drinking one glass of Diet Coke.
✅ And when it comes to aspartame's other metabolites - aspartic acid and phenylalanine - each egg eaten contains 13 times more aspartic acid and each 100g of meat eaten approximately 25 times more phenylalanine than a glass of Diet Coke containing aspartame.
▶️ I would like to strongly emphasize that it is not recommended to drink several litres of diet drinks with artificial sweeteners every day, as excessive intake of artificial sweeteners can have a negative impact on the function of the gut microbiome, for example. If you are concerned about an overall healthy lifestyle, you should definitely prefer to eat as few processed foods as possible (which usually do not contain artificial sweeteners) and to drink plain water or other unsweetened beverages such as green tea or good quality coffee. Yet the black and white and false demonisation of artificial sweeteners and aspartame is not misplaced. If you have a problem with overweight and obesity and you cannot deny yourself a sweet taste in your diet, you can occasionally reach for a product with aspartame without too much remorse, thus conveniently reducing the overall calorie content of your diet. Whether we like it or not, in normal doses, aspartame is safe and proven safe for healthy people and is not a "poison", carcinogen, or a combat neurotoxic substance affecting our behaviour.
Literature
Beck, B., Burlet, A., Max, J.-P., & Stricker-Krongrad, A. (2002). Effects of long-term ingestion of aspartame on hypothalamic neuropeptide Y, plasma leptin and body weight gain and composition. Physiology & Behavior, 75(1-2), 41–47.
BUTCHKO, Harriett H., et al. Aspartame: review of safety. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2002, 35.2: S1-S93.
LIM, Unhee, et al. „Consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and incidence of hematopoietic and brain malignancies.“ Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers 15.9 (2006): 1654-1659.
TANDEL, Kirtida R. Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits. Journal of pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics, 2011, 2.4: 236.
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