Aspartame. The word sends many people into an outrage and a massive debate ensues.
Aspartame is the most common artificial sweetener, and it is not a toxin*** (more on this)
IT is a combination of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Doesn’t that sound scary? Well it’s not (unless you have the generic condition PKU).
Aspartic Acid and Phenyalalnine are two amino acids – two of the same amino acids that are found in EVERYTHING ELSE that contains protein.
Now, anything can technically be toxic when the dose is big enough – even water can kill you if you have too much. This is where the scary studies come in. I was sent this particular article last night by a client – http://www.businessinsider.com/aspartame-sugar-artificial-sweeteners-bad-for-boy-2018-5?r=UK&IR=T
It is a total fear mongering, clickbait and irresponsible titled garbage – harsh, I know…
I, however, am sick of seeing these lay media sites publish fake news quality information without the science to back it up OR even a simple link to the science to back it up, or a further disclaimer that these studies are not scaled for humans…
Since the article doesn’t even cite the actual study done, I’m going to have to make some assumptions.
Let’s say your average rat is 8 oz. and some average guy is 200 pounds. Thats a 400x difference… One can of diet coke has 180mg of Aspartame in it. Since the author doesn’t even say what the “toxic” level of ASP is, I went to the most stingy source – the European Food Safety Authority. They are often more strict than our own FDA.
The EFSA says: “the acceptable daily limit for aspartame is 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight”. So our 200 pound man (90.9kg) x 40 = 3636 mg/180mg per can = 20 cans of diet coke PER DAY would be DANGEROUS! No kidding!
Look, I’m not saying you should go out and consume artificial sweeteners at will, I would recommend the opposite. Limit them to as little as possible. 90%-100% of your fluid intake should be water in my opinion.
What I am saying is that your daily diet coke is VERY VERY unlikely the cause of your issues to lose weight.
What about the “small study of 12 women who drank artificial sweeteners and didn’t feel satisfied”?!?! Well, there are ZERO calories in diet drinks, so it makes perfect sense that they were not satisfied. They probably were hypoglycemic and hungry – and when you ingest zero calories that won’t fix your problem – shocking!
Here is your life hack – if you are hungry, don’t reach for a sugary drink or a diet drink – eat real food! – I know, your mind has been blown.
Sorry for all the sarcasm today, but I’m just tired of seeing these “articles” making the rounds.
Don’t fall prey to these scary articles that don’t even come close to credible – eat how you know you should eat, don’t drink 20 diet cokes per day, and move your body more…simple.
Stay healthy my friends,
Mike
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