CactusHugger wrote:From salami to soda pop: what does “toxic” really mean?
The section on aspartame (called "Sweeter Than Sin") breaks down the chemistry of aspartame. The only toxic substance released by aspartame is methanol and you'll get more methanol from drinking fruit juice than you will from a soda sweetened with aspartame.Unless you are consuming a very large amount of aspartame, the quantities of methanol involved aren’t large enough for concentrations in your bloodstream to reach dangerous levels, and your body will break it down. If you have about 555 milligrams per liter of aspartame in a flavored beverage, that equates to about 55 milligrams of methanol per liter of soda, give or take. You can actually get more methanol by drinking fruit juice. Likewise, the methanol from 500 mg of aspartame is about equivalent to the methanol from 8 ounces of vegetable juice, and there’s even more methanol in gin.
LINK: http://puffthemutantdragon.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/from-salami-to-soda-pop-what-does-toxic-really-mean/
Thanks. I was trying to review your article. Are you aware that it was written by someone that goes by the name of Puff The Mutant Dragon?
Here are some highlights from an article by Dr. Mecrola refuting claims made by Puff and others.
Link: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... ancer.aspx
Many have indeed been injured by aspartame — there are more adverse reports to the FDA on aspartame than all other food additives combined. It's also widely known how massive industry and government collusion at the FDA was ultimately responsible for its approval after it failed to be approved for many years.
Aspartame is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol. This is in sharp contrast to naturally-occurring methanol found in certain fruits and vegetables, where it is firmly bonded to pectin, allowing the methanol to be safely passed through your digestive tract.
Saccharin and Aspartame Cause Greater Weight Gain than Sugar
In related news, a study published on October 19 in the journal Appetite7, found that compared with sucrose (regular table sugar), saccharin and aspartame caused greater weight gain in adult rats, and this weight gain was unrelated to caloric intake. The underlying mechanism was not determined. (lots more on this in the article)