Aspartame and ADD? | ADHD Information

I just attended a Psychological Conference in which one of the presentations was on Caffine and its effect on memory. During the presentation the point was brought up that aspartame "nutra-sweet" caused memory impairment. I can not take aspartame as I am allergic and it gives me migraines, however, it got me thinking about those who do take it that have ADD/ADHD and how it must affect them. It seems like for those who have memory problems it would greatly aggrevate the memory loss. Just wondering what you guys think?Any experiances?I use aspartame in my coffee and decaf Diet Cokes. I wonder how much you have to consume to have memory problems. I would hate to give it up after giving up caffeine and alcohol. I have long term memory problems, rather than short term. Anyone else? There is nothing wrong with aspartame. I researched the hell out of artificial sweeteners a couple of years ago - I could write my own book on the stuff.

In general, I don't believe for an instant that aspartame aggravates memory loss. I've been drinking the stuff in diet soda since my teens, but it hasn't affected my already-faulty memory at all. I even stopped aspartame once for 6 months, thinking it might help with my headaches, but I felt no different in any way, shape, or form.

Here's a very good article on the subject (if you have the patience to read through it all):

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/cs-ipc/chha-edpcs/e_aspa rtame01.html

This one's shorter, but not nearly as detailed:

http://www.theallineed.com/kitchen/kitchen-034.htm
bcgirl197838469.5780671296

ASPARTAME IS POSION!!!

I am by no means trying to insult anyone, but it has been linked to cancer too many times. Anything that is intended to "trick" your body is not good. I used the stuff at least 3 times per day. After my last child, I needed to loose a lot of weight and so I used it in all my drinks and foods, and my mind became foggy and I started having migraines. (Before ADD diagnosis). I couldnt think I felt like I was walking around with a black cloud over my head.

When I told my brother who is a doctor, the first thing he said was to give up artificial sweeteners, including splenda, which does contain aspartame.

My doctor and psychiatrist have both insisted to stay away from artificial sweeteners, they are particularly bad for ADDers.

My good friend, who is a scientist has done studies on it and it can cause problems. She has actually done the study. My sister inl aw is a pharmacist and she also supports it.

THE TRUTH WILL COME OUT JUST LIKE CIGARETTS!!!

I feel very strongly about this and I feel it has been a detriment to me. I was ok (not perfect) until I started using the stuff. It is pure posion.

So that is my problem! I am diabetic now since the age of 17 and used Aspertane daily through pop or in my coffee. Last year I switched to Splenda better stuff.

bcgirl-

Thanks for the links--I will check them out asap.

Wow---you guys have given me alot of info.--I am in the middle of finals week so, I can't wait till after graduation when I can spend time reading and researching!!!--Thanks.

All of the articles were not from holisticmed.com and exotoxin is on the biology website.

http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/excitotoxin

Happy posting.

I really don't mean to keep this going, and I am by no means trying to insult you, but holisticmed.com is full of paranoid fantasies like this.

The term "excitotoxin" isin't even a medical industry accepted word. It sounds like something completely made up just to sell books written by people who want to capitalize on the public's general ignorance. Yes, there are "doctors" out there who do this.

If my governement tells me that aspartame is safe, I am inclined to believe them. Not to say that governments can't be one of the biggest liars on the face of the earth, but I see no benefit to them to lie about something as insignificant as artificial sweetener. I have also been told by doctors and nutritionists that artificial sweeteners are completely safe.

Just my opinion. Everyone is of course entitled to their own.
Thanks bcgirl for real sugar is bad for me and the bad rap with sweeteners is scarry. I have limited choices.

bcgirl and all others, I dont mean to be confrontational, but this is something I strongly beleive in, aspartame is posion and your research only shows the positive effects of aspartame, but here is the truth. Aspartame is Posion, it caused my ADD to go out of control. Just click on a few. My brother who is a doctor, my own doctor, and my sister in law who is a pharmacist do not use it. I am in nursing school and although I cant recall the make up, I know that anything that designed to trick your body is not good for you.

Why do you think that the soda companies are introducing coke and pepsi with less aspartame? http://www.lightparty.com/Health/DietCokeAspartame.html

Aspartame account for over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It consists of 40% Aspartic Acid which can overexcite nerve cells in the brain until they die. 50% Phenylalanine. Excessive amounts of Phenylalanine cause the levels of seratonin in the brain to decrease leading to emotional disorders such as depression. 10% Methanol (wood alcohol) which can cause blindness, death, DNA damages etc. Diketopiperazine (DKP) is a by-product of aspartame metabolism and can cause brain tumors. It is supposed to be a safe mix according to authorities like FDA of all these toxic ingredients, but is not according to many scientists that you can read about in the literature and links mentioned below.

Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names: NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful and Equal Measure. It can be found as food additive in instant breakfasts, breath mints, cereals, sugar free chewing gum, cocoa mixes, coffee beverages, frozen desserts, ice cream, gelatin desserts, juice beverages, laxatives, multivitamins, milk drinks, pharmaceuticals and supplements, shake mixes, soft drinks like diet Coke, diet Pepsi, Crystal Light and Kool Aid, tabletop sweeteners, tea beverages, instant teas and coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers and yogurt. Aspartame and other sweeteners can now be added to Regular and Diet Drinks everywhere, at least in USA, but other countries often follow with the same laws. Sometimes laws are ignored

If you don't believe in it and have frequent Headaches and other health problems mentioned above among symptoms take a 60 days no Aspartame test. Avoid anything that you think could have the ingredients Aspartame even if it does not explicitly say so on the labels. Avoid Diet drinks. There are plenty of other sweeteners possible to use like Stevia and Honey. Even refined sugar, granulated cane sugar, barley malt, Molasses, Date sugar, Maple syrup, Fruit Juice, Fructose, Licorice root in small amounts, Amazake (from brown rice) can be used. Avoid Aspartame, Sucralose, Cyclamates and Saccharine. If you want to use normal sugar try to get hold of original sugar that is not refined since minerals and other important good ingredients are completely lost after refining the sugar. Be especially careful of taking Aspartame together with coffee or other drinks containing Caffeine.

http://www.aspartame.com/

http://www.holistichttp://www.aspartame.com/

http://www.321recipes.com/aspartame.html

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/

http://www.dorway.com/

http://presidiotex.com/aspartame/

http://www.sweetpoison.com/

http://www.curezone.com/foods/aspartame.html

http://www.aspartame.ca/ canadian site

http://www.wnho.net/aspartamenews.htm

Return to: Aspartame ( NutraSweet ) Toxicity Information Center Main Page.

Analysis Shows Nearly 100% of Independent Research Finds Problems With Aspartame

October 17, 1996

An analysis of peer reviewed medical literature using MEDLINE and other databases was conducted by Ralph G. Walton, MD, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Dr. Walton analyzed 164 studies which were felt to have relevance to human safety questions. Of those studies, 74 studies had aspartame industry-related sponsorship and 90 were funded without any industry money.

Of the 90 non-industry-sponsored studies, 83 (92%) identified one or more problems with aspartame. Of the 7 studies which did not find a problems, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA. Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research.

Of the 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies, all 74 (100%) claimed that no problems were found with aspartame. This is reminiscent of tobacco industry research where it is primarily the tobacco research which never finds problems with the product, but nearly all of the independent studies do find problems.

The 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies are those which one inveriably sees cited in PR/news reports and reported by organizations funded by Monsanto/Benevia/NutraSweet (e.g., IFIC, ADA). These studies have severe design deficiencies which help to guarantee the "desired" outcomes. These design deficiencies may not be apparent to the inexperienced scientist. Healthcare practitioners and scientists should print out the all of the documents on the Monsanto/NutraSweet Scientific Abuse web page, the Scientific FAQs web page and the Aspartame Toxicity Reaction Report Samples. Please refer scientific questions to mgold@holisticmed.com.

Return to: Aspartame ( NutraSweet ) Toxicity Information Center Main Page.

DONALD RUMSFELD AND ASPARTAME

Aspartame is an additive found in diet soft drinks and over 5,000 foods, drugs and medicine. It was approved in 1983 for use in carbonated beverages. However, there may be more sour than sweet when it comes to aspartame.

In reality, aspartame is a drug, not an additive in the sense many people associate with that word. It interacts with other drugs, has a synergistic and additive effect with MSG, and is a chemical hyper-sensitization agent. Dr. John Olney, who founded the field of neuoscience called excitotoxicity, attempted to stop the approval of aspartame with Attorney James Turner back in 1996. The FDA's own toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross told Congress that without a shadow of a doubt, aspartame can cause brain tumors and brain cancer and violated the Delaney Amendment which forbids putting anything in food that is known to cause Cancer. Detailed information on this can be found in the Bressler Report (FDA report on Searle).

Dr. Olney isn't alone in attempting to reach out to the medical community and warn the American people about this drug. Dr. Ralph Walton, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine has written of the behavioral and psychiatric problems triggered by aspartame-caused depletion of serotonin.

According to the top doctors and researchers on this issue, aspartame causes headache, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma and cancer. It worsens or mimics the symptoms of such diseases and conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue and depression. Further dangers highlighted is that aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol. The resulting chronic methanol poisoning affects the dopamine system of the brain causing addiction. Methanol, or wood alcohol, constitutes one third of the aspartame molecule and is classified as a severe metabolic poison and narcotic.

Dr. Woodrow Monte in the peer reviewed journal, Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health, wrote: "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 poison."

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, author of "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills," wrote about the relationship between aspartame and macular degeneration, diabetic blindness and glaucoma (all known to result from excitotoxin accumulation in the retina).

The medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by Dr. H. J. Roberts is 1038 pages of symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin. The claim is made that aspartame has even caused the epidemic of obesity because it makes you crave carbohydrates so you gain weight, and the formaldehyde accumulates in the adipose tissue (fat cells) according to the Trocho Study. Further accusations are that aspartame is also responsible for the epidemic of diabetes as it not only can precipitate diabetes but simulates and aggravates diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy, can cause diabetics to go into convulsions and interacts with insulin.

The effects of aspartame are documented by the FDA's own data. In 1995 the agency was forced, under the Freedom of Information Act, to release a list of ninety-two aspartame symptoms reported by thousands of victims. It appears this is only the tip of the iceberg. H. J. Roberts, MD, published the medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" -- 1,000 pages of symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin including the sordid history of its approval.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

When it first came out it would make me throw up 8( And occasional headaches if I overdo it. For now I only trust Splenda. Lee03, read the article I posted in my first link above. Aspartame is not a chemical - it is made from two amino acids NATURALLY found in protein. Digesting aspartame creates a by-product of methanol, but the amount is easily digested by the human body. Methanol is found naturally in many fruits and vegetables - a cup of tomato juice contains more methanol than SIX cans of diet soda. There has been no quantifiable evidence to support that aspartame is linked to cancer. It is all heresay and urban legend.

Splenda is made from real sugar - it contains NO aspartame. Chlorine is used in the process, but the amount is too trace to cause any concern. Chlorine as you know is found in regular tap water, as well as your local swimming pool.

Sodium cyclamate (I believe it is marketed as Sweet-and-Low) IS a known carcinogen, but you would have to consume a ridiculous amount of it to actually be at risk. Nonetheless, there is actually a warning on the packet that says it should only be used on the advice of a doctor. So if the government was trying to hide something, why would they require a warning on one, and not the others?

Aspartame has been subjected to more tests than any other artifical sweetener out there. NONE have found it to be harmful. Cigarettes came out in a time when products weren't as rigorously tested as they are today.

It is always a personal choice as to whether or not to use these products, but personally I think they're great.

Just my two cents.
bcgirl197838470.4626736111