Saturday, February 13, 2010

I'LL HAVE A DIET COKE WITH A LITTLE CONTROVERSY ON THE SIDE




There is a growing number of researchers and holistic advocates  that are convinced that these toxins are the cause of a number of diseases and Fibromyalgia is one of them. Excitotoxins  are chemicals,  amino acids or food additives that over-excite the brains neurons and may cause them to burn out. They react with specialized receptors and cause their destruction and, according to several articles I read,  these toxins are present in almost all processed food. 

It seems that the liquid form of these toxins are giving scientists the most concern because the toxins reach your bloodstream quickly. The most common form is in diet sodas. Since the average person drinks of 43 gallons of diet drinks a year, if this is true, we could be drinking a lot of poison. As a Diet Coke or Pepsi  (I like both) junkie, I decided to investigate.

I've read the emails that went around. I got them all. I carry Diet Coke's everywhere. I'm partial to fountain drinks and enjoy them so my friends made sure that I was aware that I was drinking something that could clean batteries and at the same time eat up my insides. I used to say that I had it running through my veins.

While I'm sure it's probably not the best for you I'm not ready to buy into the aspartame controversy yet. I know that there will always be people that are hyper-sensitive to aspartame. There may be severe allergic reactions as well.  I know it's not a "natural" sweetener and I'm fine with that.  

The makers of Nutrasweet have also developed a sweetener called Neotame was approved in 2002 but it is not widely used in foods at this time. Neotame is heat stable and does not break down into phenylalanine. Phenylalanine, rather than being a dangerous chemical,  is actually one of the essential amino acids. From what I've read, the reason labels declare it on the label is for those with a sensitivity to it. There's controversy about that also.

So, while there is a ton of controversy floating around, there is also enough evidence to refute the claims. I personally don't think there is a conspiracy in regards to aspartame and will continue to read articles on both sides of the fence. 




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