'Have your views on aspartame changed? DO you use it?"

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 4, 2003

I never really thought about aspartame one way or the other for most of my life. Actually, I never really consumed it because I would rather have the "real thing", if at all. Then I met my husband, who worked at Montsano (sp?) with the scientists who helped to create aspartame and a myriad of other chemical substances consumed daily. He told me how the scientists there won't touch the stuff because they believe it to be dangerous. I asked him if they had a problem with it being consumed by millions of people and his response was that money changes a lot of minds.

I personally don't use the stuff and refuse to give it to the kids. We don't eat a lot of sugar anyways and prefer to eat the real thing when having something sweet. I see people loading up their grocery carts and about 75% of the items in there contain aspartame. I don't think a Diet Coke now and then is going to kill you, but I wonder about the additive effect when someone is consuming a ton of products that have aspartame in them.

My husband won't touch aspartame, but he doesn't chide others for consuming it. It's a personal decision for each individual to make. I don't think we will ever know the "real dangers" of aspartame because of all the money involved.

Lida RN · Dec 5, 2003

Another anectdote for you to consider. My Mom was using aspertame rather excessivly a few years back. She would put 4 or five packages into her beverages several times a day. After a while she started to think she was getting senile and her vision becoame so bad that even prescription lenses wouldn't help. After discusssion with her inernist who was agast that she was using so much of the stuff, she gave it up completely and after several months her vision returned to normal and she got her short term memory back. I use it occasionally in a diet soda and have no problems, but I won't let my children use it at all. Most likely some individuals are just more sensitive to it and can't tolerate excessive use.

vwgirl · Dec 6, 2003

I guess if aspartame is proven to cause cancer, I should just dig a hole and jump in. I drink at least two liters of Diet Pepsi a day; yeah, I know it is bad for me, but it used to be two liters of regular Pepsi. I try to buy Diet Rite which has Splenda in it but it is not widely available around here. And I use Splenda in my coffee, too.