Beware: Sugar-free
We don’t have to look far to see “No Sugar”, “Sugar-free” on labels of everything from biscuits to soft-drinks. Before heeding the call to consume sugar free products, consider the following information:
Regardless of manufacturer, the terms Diet, Light or Zero on food and drinks all mean the same: they contain artificial sweeteners. The latest marketing ploy seems to be NO SUGAR but at what cost?
Next time you feel tempted to try products touting great taste with no sugar, consider these side affects:
The above ingredients are not only contained in soft drinks. Most products which are “sugar free” contain artificial sweetener. Learn to read the ingredients before purchasing items for consumption by you and your family. There is no safe artificial sweetener. The only truly natural sugar replacement is made from the plant called Stevia or Xylitol – both of which are safe to consume.
The above was taken from The Chemical Maze: your guide to food additives and cosmetic ingredients, 2nd edition, by Bill Statham, ISBN 0-9578535-2-1. www.thechemicalmaze.com
| * Contained in most soft drinks |
Inside Hollywood
There has been much speculation about the cause of the Parkinson’s Disease suffered by Michael J Fox, but the star’s addiction to Diet Pepsi (which contains aspartame) is no secret.
One cast member who worked with Fox said he drank at least 12 cans a day. I have no way of knowing of this is true since I have not spoken personally with him. I do know, however, from my own Hollywood days, that whenever a celebrity endorses a product, he or she is provided with an unlimited supply and if there is a movie or TV show involved, cases are sent each week.
Given Michael’s long-standing commercial endorsement of Diet Pepsi, it’s hardly surprising that not only is he himself now a victim of the neurological disease but that several crew members who worked with him have also been reported as suffering the same terrible affliction.
Source: Excitotoxins – The taste that kills, Russell Blaylock MD (US Neurosurgeon)
Aspartame
Besides being used as a sweetener in virtually all diet foods and soft drinks and numerous commercial foods, drinks and medicines, aspartame is also marketed to consumers as a sugar substitute under many different names such as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Crystal Light, Sucralose, Splenda, Additive 951. The newer version, Neotame is more dangerous than aspartame.
When diet sodas and soft drinks sweetened with aspartame are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative toxin.
Source: Woodrow C Monte, PhD, Professor of Food Science at University of Arizona: Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol 36, No 1, 1984
The symptoms of “aspartame disease” are amazingly varied including: blindness, tinnitus, numbness in the extremities, muscle spasms, slurred speech, blurred vision, joint pain, headaches, anxiety, vertigo, memory loss, brain tumours, neurosis, MS and Alzheimer’s disease. In one hospital alone there are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame, from coma to death. The majority of them are neurological because aspartame destroys the nervous system.
H.J. Roberts, MD states: Consuming aspartame can cause birth defects. The maternal transmission of damaged DNA can occur for the rest of a woman’s reproductive years and may directly affect both her children and grandchildren as well as becoming a persistently transmitted genetic woman’s problem. Teach your daughters to be afraid of artificial sweeteners!
Some people have suffered aspartame-related disorders with doses as small as that contained in a single stick of chewing gum. Imagine the outrage when in 1999 the Gold Coast Bulletin reported that Wrigley’s was donating their sugar-free diet gum (which contains aspartame) to a school on the Coast. Some scientists assert that aspartame in chewing gum poses a greater risk that diet drinks as it acts like nitro-glycerine under the tongue and goes straight to the brain. The younger the child, the more dangerous the effect.
For further evidence about this deadly neurotoxin go to: www.dorway.com, www.aspartame.com
More recent research has revealed that artificial sweeteners are causing weight gain. This is due to a biochemical reaction that occurs in our brains, triggered by the artificial sweetener, which increases appetite for up to 90 minutes after consuming ’sugar free’ foods.
If you or your children regularly consume soft drinks, the article by Dr Mercola is essential reading: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/1/19/what-happens-to-your-body-within-an-hour-of-drinking-a-coke.aspx
Artificial sweeteners have been blamed for the continuing weight gain plaguing out population over recent decades. While the biochemistry involved is complex, the end result is simple: artificial sweeteners create an urge to eat more food within 90 minutes after their consumption. Considering that artificial sweeteners are found in soft drinks, cordials, chewing gum, taken in beverages and consumed in many other forms, this enhanced appetite leads to increased food intake and weight gain.
Aspartame breaks down to substances which are stimulants for specific tissue – these include nerves, reproductive organs and breasts. The constant stimulation of breast glands without the other factors associated with pregnancy has been implicated in the rise in the rate of breast cancer in women. The list of side-effects of aspartame is long and also includes cancer formation in the brain. One more action worthy of nots is the over stimulation caused in children which may lead to use of harder drugs when they reach school age.
Source: The Body’s Many Cries for Water, pp104-111; F. Batmanghelidj, MD.