Nutrasweet

MrFun · February 8, 2003, 01:05

. . . so I'm reading the label of "sugar free" jelly and it says it's sweetened by Nutrasweet.

Ok, so can someone answer my dumb question -- what is Nutrasweet, if it's not sugar?

Asher · February 8, 2003, 01:08

Artificial sweetener.

It's aspartame.

MrFun · February 8, 2003, 01:14

I knew it was artificial sweetner -- but I don't see how artificial sweetner is necessarily more healthy than sugar.

Wouldn't both give you the same risk of cavities, even if Nutrasweet has less calories?

Asher · February 8, 2003, 01:15

It's used primarily because it has less calories, that's why it's in the Diet products.

MrFun · February 8, 2003, 01:18

So the dentists don't feel threatened by Nutrasweet then.

ok

Cyclotron · February 8, 2003, 01:34

Asparitame is carcinogenic. That's the tradeoff: less sugar, more cancer. Works for me.

Asher · February 8, 2003, 01:38

Has that actually been scientifically proven by a respectable study?

I've heard that claims lots, but last I checked there's no real proof of it either way, just suspicions...

Asher · February 8, 2003, 01:40

http://www.nutrition.cornell.edu/nut.../dietcarc.html

Quote:

Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke both contain aspartame, a non-nutritive sweetener which is also present in most diet soft drinks, as well as many other products. Aspartame has been thought by some to be carcinogenic -- this is probably the ingredient people were thinking of when they told you that this drinks can cause cancer. There is no solid evidence that aspartame can cause cancer.

Aspartame is the active sweetening agent in both Equal®, and NutraSweet®, and is 160-220 times sweeter than sucrose. Because it is such a powerful sweetener, much smaller amounts of aspartame than of sugar are needed to produce a sweet taste in a food product. For this reason, aspartame can be used in relatively small amounts to sweeten foods and beverages without increasing the caloric content of the product. Many "light," "lite," or lower calorie foods contain aspartame rather than sucrose, or other less powerful sweeteners.

When you body digests aspartame, it breaks into two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are necessary components of our everyday diets, and into methanol, an alcohol which is also a product of the normal metabolism of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract, and can be found in wines and other fermented products. At high doses, methanol (or rather its metabolic product, formic acid) can be extremely toxic. At the doses present in diet sodas, however, you would have to drink an impossibly huge amount (about 1000 eight ounce glasses) in a single sitting to develop methanol toxicity. To give you a further idea of the relative scales, an eight ounce glass of wine contains ten times the amount of methanol that you would get from digesting the aspartame in an eight ounce glass of diet soda.

In 1981, aspartame was approved for use as a sweetener after extensive safety reviews by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since this approval, it has been evaluated 26 times by the FDA for use in food and beverages. Additionally, the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association has stated that "Available evidence suggests that consumption of aspartame by normal humans is safe and is not associated with serious adverse health effects (1985)."

Despite the FDA's position that aspartame is safe for use in food products, some consumer groups and doctors are concerned that it may be carcinogenic. For example, the Center for Science in the Public Interest flags it as a possible carcinogen, saying that the tests for carcinogenicity need to be repeated. The manufacturer of NutraSweet® maintains that it is the most studied food additive sold, and that critics cause "unwarranted alarm."

The debate about aspartame is likely to continue for a long time without resolution. It is also important to note that countless numbers of food additives have been accused of being carcinogenic by consumer advocacy groups. Right now, what we can tell you is that the FDA, which evaluates all new food products and drugs in the US, has investigated the link between aspartame and cancer, and continues to maintain that the product is safe for use in food.

If you are still concerned, you can review the studies yourself and come to your own conclusions. A discussion that debunks many of the anti-aspartame claims, but which also points to the existing medical literature pro and con, can be found in about.com's urban legends pages. Or you can choose to limit the amount of aspartame you consume by checking food labels and choosing foods sweetened only with nutritive sweeteners (sucrose or fructose, for example) -- aspartame is certainly not a required dietary item! The position of the American Dietetic Association is that "All foods can fit," so even if you are health conscious or dieting you can still plan to incorporate soft-drinks sweetened with nutritive sweeteners into your diet. Remember, everything in moderation, so chose a small or medium soda instead of an extra-large!

Master Zen · February 8, 2003, 01:56

Everything supposedly good has something bad within...

Anyway, I'd rather die of a heart attack than of cancer, so no Nutrasweet for me

I've always wondered why nature and science has to punish us with bad-tasting food being the best, and good-tasting food causing all kinds of illness. Why can't spinach taste like chocolate-chip cookies and lettuce taste like steak?

It's a crappy life...

Gatekeeper · February 8, 2003, 02:16

There's a new kind of sweetner out there called SPLENDA. It's actually made from sugar, but in such a fashion that it doesn't affect blood sugar levels when ingested. But I suppose some alarmists will cry foul and say it makes you grow horns or something.

Gatekeeper

Dis · February 8, 2003, 03:40

aspartamene has 0 calories. Sugar has many.

aspartamene makes you forget... um... something

Static Universe · February 8, 2003, 03:53

Don't use aspartame, it'll make you sick. At body temperatures, it breaks down into formic acid, methanol and formaldahyde. Not stuff you want in your body.

Asher · February 8, 2003, 03:54

According to what I've read, the byproducts of aspartame are ingested in much higher volumes on a daily basis by the average person in other foods they eat.

Gatekeeper · February 8, 2003, 03:56

Static23:

The article contained w/i this thread debunks what you said. Besides, if what you said were true, I'd have gone blind and died years ago from using artificial sweetners.

Gatekeeper

Dis · February 8, 2003, 03:59

but I do think it makes you forget stuff.

I quit drinking it anyways because it tastes like ****. I went back to normal soda.

But I had quit drinking normal soda as well. Mainly because I wanted to kick caffeine.

I read somewhere the dangers of sucrose. Pretty funny stuff. But I do imagine sucrose isn't that good for you. I only drink fruit juices that should only have fructose in them. And I don't even drink that much juice. I mostly drink water.

MrFun · February 8, 2003, 04:23

Wow -- thanks for the health info, guys.

Static Universe · February 8, 2003, 04:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
Static23:

The article contained w/i this thread debunks what you said. Besides, if what you said were true, I'd have gone blind and died years ago from using artificial sweetners.

Gatekeeper

I'll never believe it. Who was CEO of the Searle pharmaceutical company during the time aspartame got approved? Donald Rumsfeld! It's true!

Gatekeeper · February 8, 2003, 04:28

Dissident:

Normal soda is pure sugar for the most part, and it really causes your blood sugar levels to spike, which forces your pancreas to work that much harder producing insulin to handle the surge. In time, it can wear it out to the point where you need oral medications to help your body deal with sugar, or any carbohydrate for that matter. It's also known as Type II diabetes.

As for fruit juice, that's mostly processed sugar as well, with a bit of fruit flavoring added in. The thing you have to look for is the percentage of the juice that's actually from fruit. Most drinks are lucky to have 10 percent fruit juice; the rest is flavored sugar.

Water's good for you, though. No danger there.

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper · February 8, 2003, 04:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Static23

I'll never believe it. Who was CEO of the Searle pharmaceutical company during the time aspartame got approved? Donald Rumsfeld! It's true!

Heh. You believe what you want too, then.

Dis · February 8, 2003, 14:01

actually the juice I drink is 100% juice. Perhpas fruit juice isn't the right words.

Anyways I don't drink that cheapo crap you find.

And btw Saccharin is the product that supposedly caused cancer. In fact it did cause cancer in rats in very large doses- hence the warning label.

But both of them taste like crap.

Velociryx · February 8, 2003, 14:05

Nutrasweet has some side effects....but I forget what they are....

-=Vel=-

SpencerH · February 8, 2003, 14:07

Aspartame has been consumed by hundreds of millions (if not a billion people) for billions of times over many years. Unless you happen to be one of the very unlucky people who react to aspartame their are no effects. Its probably safer than processed sugar. I checked this out in scientific journals a while back on a different thread. The potentially lethal by-products are only present in minute quantities. You would need to drink something like 100 cans of coke a day to have any effect.

Gatekeeper · February 8, 2003, 15:19

Unpasturized apple juice rocks (unless you get poisoned from it).