Since sugar is bad and high fructose corn syrup is worse, why not switch to diet colas and artificially sweetened food?  Just Google “aspartame” and you’ll see why that isn’t such a hot idea.

Thousands of hits pop up with this search.  You’ll find official-sounding studies and claims of conspiracy and fraud — both by the makers of aspartame and the opponents.  How do we make sense of this mountain of accusations and justification?

First, let’s take a look at what aspartame actually is.  It is made up of three ingredients: two amino acids,  phenylalanine and aspartic acid, hooked together with a methyl ester bond.  Yes, I know, chemistry is the stuff of headaches, but hold on to your brain and let’s take a quick look at this stuff.  It’s in more than 6,000 products — some of which may surprise you — and you should know what you are eating, especially since there are thousands of claims that it causes damage to your brain.

The two amino acids are found naturally in foods and are safe, but the question is one of percentage.  In proteins like meat, fish or eggs, the two amino acids make up about 4% to 5% each of the total amino acids. However, in aspartame, the ratio is 50% to 40% with 10% being the “glue” that holds them together.  That’s a lot more than your body will ever encounter in actual food and the anti-aspartame force claims this unnatural “chemical cocktail” is more than your system can handle.  They claim  it causes damage to your neurological system.  There are lots of studies available online that explain it in more detail, but you didn’t sign up to read a book here on my blog, so I’ll just say this is the conclusion of the studies. If you want to know more details, I encourage you to look it up.

The other chemical problem is the bonding agent.  The methyl ester bond turns into two different substances when metabolized by your body: wood alcohol and formaldehyde.  Wood alcohol is a known poison and carcinogen and formaldehyde  — well, it embalms you.  Not a good thing.

If it is so poisonous, how did it ever get approved for use?  Again, an online check reveals lots of accusations and claims of flawed studies and payoffs. I’m not an investigative reporter, though, and not every source on the Internet is reliable. You can check it out yourself.

If you are already a diet soda drinker, I would recommend this test:  Lay off the soda and drink something else for a month.  Take note of how you feel before you stopped the diet soda habit.  How is your sleeping?  Your memory?  Your general feeling of well-being?  Aches and pains?  Energy level?  If you have been drinking two or more sodas a day, you will probably go through a spell of detoxing where you will feel worse, but stick with it and you may be surprised at how much better you feel.  Let me know what you find.  What’s the worst thing that could happen?  You will have to worry about how to spend the money you saved by NOT buying all that Diet Coke.

And read the labels of your food.  You’ll find aspartame in many places under different names.  NutraSweet, Equal, Equal Measure, AminoSweet, and Benevia are just a few of them.  It turns up in yogurt, children’s vitamins, and almost everything labeled “sugar free.”

I’m no scientist, but if something is not natural and hundreds of thousands of people claim it has caused side effects from headaches to fibromyalgia symptoms, tremors, and brain tumors — well, maybe I can do without it!  Check it out and decide for yourself.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown