Aspartame

I have heard, and can well believe it, that the sugar producers have been behind the campaign of misinformation about aspartame from the start. They were also behind the suppression of Yudkin's warnings about the dangers of sugar in the 1960s. His book 'Pure, White and Deadly' was the precursor of our modern low carb diets. I followed his advice in the late 60s and managed to control my weight to fit my rather nice wedding dress.

Aspartame FACTS from NHS website

Lots of fake news on Facebook

Aspartame gives my DD a blinding migraine,

If that’s true Wolwol, I’ll tell DH to watch out. He has cirrhosis.

Think aspartame contains wood alcohol, which the liver has to process?

no doctored items such as gluten free.
Gluten free items are not doctored.

You can purchase all kinds of flour which are gluten free and good for different kinds of cooking and baking.
In fact, you could say that modern wheat has been doctored more than some of the grains used in GF flour.

Xantham gum is produced by fermentation from, for example, corn.
Agar agar is produced from algae.
No different than using yeast.

esspee ^ no doctored items such as gluten free^

Things can be gluten-free without being ‘doctored’. You just have to leave out anything with wheat.
A friend came to stay with me who is gluten and lactose intolerant.
I made a Yotam Ottolenghi cake for dessert using olive oil instead of butter, and ground almonds instead of the flour. It worked very well & nothing artificial at all.

Thank you all for your interesting comments, we really are a group of mostly sensible minds

I have avoided talc since the 70s when my geology studies alerted me to how close talc is to asbestos in structure so likely to have the same effect on lungs. (Talc has mostly been removed from "dusting powder" but we still call it talc - check the labels)
I also refuse to light candles inside because of the toxicity. If someone gives me a pretty candle I either use it as decoration or pass it on to a charity shop.

I simply avoid anything artificial to eat. So no sweeteners apart from sugar, honey or natural syrups. No artificial butter/cream e.g margarine, Elmlea etc., no processed rubbish masquerading as milk e.g. Oat "milk", soya "milk" and no doctored items such as gluten free.

TwiceAsNice I am not diabetic but I sometimes use butternut squash in baking - if you roast it first ( in the skin) it tastes very sweet. Especially good in scones and I am sure would work in biscuits too.

My reaction is headache plus....from any "source of Phenylalanine"
A big problem is drinks while out. I can drink wine with no ill effects but a lemonade is a big no no.
Alcoholic drinks do not have the ingredients listed.

Re the "fake news" comments, all I know about aspartame is that ingesting it causes me to get a headache...

My daughter is really annoyed because there is no sweeteners in sugar versions of drinks as well. Grandchildren only have very occasional fizzy drinks as a treat but now these gave sweeteners in there's very little they can have she had said she would very willingly pay a sugar tax.

I am type 2 diabetic and usually drink sparkling water as a sit drink but do like a splash of low sugar squash sometimes I don't have a choice as can't have full sugar versions anyway but am confused about which sugar substitute to use in cooking so hardly ever have any kind of "treat" which is a shame. Any other diabetics have any helpful comments?

starbird The manufacturers appear to just cynically produce what sells and to hell with the consequences for long term health.
You might be interested in this book by Robert Lustig, Professor of Endocrinolgy at UCLA.
One of the things he explains in it is how food manufacturers have added more and more sugar and sweeteners to foods (not just things that we think of as sweet either) because they know that it produces the desire for more of the same.
There's a lot more in the book than that. He also discusses the neural reward pathways involved when people become addicted to their smartphones, for example.

Hacking the American Mind

morethan2 I think it has been proved that some air fresheners are carcinogenic. I strongly dislike the smell of them, especially in cars!

This aspartame thing has been going on for decades and, unless something new has come out in the last few months, has been disproved over and over again. Every couple of years it comes up on a R4 consumer programme and each time they say it is harmless. However, if you don't like the taste, I don't, have the sugar version.

I actively avoided sweeteners in anything I gave to the children after reading an article on sweeteners stunting the growth of internal organs. This may have been disproved since and I don’t remember which sweetener it was referring to, possibly saccharine. Neither of our children have ever had weight or dental problems, daughter has one filling, son has none. Moderation is key.
But, much more recently, there was a programme in which one group of people drank sugared cola and another drank diet cola. It found that in the sweetener group, the taste fooled the body into releasing insulin, preparing for a boost of sugar which never came and made the group feel hungrier than the ‘sugar drink ‘ group. During the buffet which followed, the diet drink group consumed more calories. How ironic.

I have been avoiding aspartame for years. I think for a long term solution the govenment’s aim should be to reduce the craving for sweet (and salty) things not just for decreasing sugar use - so often I am tempted by some treat remembered from childhood only to find it too sickly sweet to eat. OK my taste has certainly changed but also the sugar/sweetener content of many things such as ready made custard, rice pudding, coffee sachets, breakfast cereals etc is far too high.. The manufacturers appear to just cynically produce what sells and to hell with the consequences for long term health.

When I was on a work trip to the USA a few years ago for the NHS we were told that they try to discourage adults with arthritis from drinking cola as aspartame had been found in knee joints on post mortem.

Years ago I used to tell my family to look at the contents of drinks and told them to watch out for this " poisonous " stuff.

It's a really bad idea to get irrational or emotional aversions to any particular food because that only means you choose other things to eat that may be no better. Obviously if you react badly to any product you stop using it, in the case of sweetener most manufactured products use that or sugar, the only way you are going to avoid that is to make all your own food from the basic ingredients.
I'm lucky I don't have food alergies but I do cook with mostly basics, it's no big deal, I get organized a make the effort on most Sunday mornings cooking lunch and baking at the same time. Leftovers go into a curry or pasta mid week (no bought sauces), round off the week with salads in summer, casseroles in winter or fish.
Basics in any supermarket or farm shop if you are lucky, enable most unnatural ingredients to be avoided, if either of us had an allergy I certainly would not rely others, buying sandwiches from Pret a Manger or Subway pretty much guarantees that the staff won't have a clue what's in it..

We were in a queue in a M&S cafe on Sunday.
DGS wanted a coke.
I normally wouldn’t buy him one but was worn down with getting out of Smyths without buying anything.
Readers I said yes and put it on the tray. The young lady in front pointed out the low sugar version. I responded by pointing out that they could be worse than sugar and was backed up by the person behind me. An interesting conversation was had but DGS got his coke.
He drank about two inches of the stuff(it was in a glass bottle) so although it was a waste of money it means that I now have a good excuse for never buying another one!
He normally drinks water.

Drinks with sweeteners make me feel ill and leave a horrible coating in my mouth. Even the Mumsnetters agree that if you have to give your child fizzy drinks they should have a small amount of the full sugar versions rather than lots of sweeteners and additives.
I don't often drink pop but when I do I would be happy to pay the sugar tax if I could find a full sugar version!

Minimoon I don’t think it’s fake news.
Aspartame doesn’t just break down into phenylalanine - it produces methanol and aspartic acid as well.
Just because something is approved doesn’t mean it’s safe in all circumstances and for everyone. It depends on dosage and how a person responds to it.
Penicillin is approved, but for many people who are allergic to it, it’s a dangerous drug.