Aspartame

Hi Again
I just wanted to share with you some research I have been doing about Aspartame - the sweetener in diet, light or Max products - plus used in a lot of food as a flavour enhancer.

Aspartame - know symptoms:
Crosses the blood brain barrier
Distorts and destroys brain cells
Converts to formaldehyde - this attaches to fat cells and will not metabolise out of your body - in fact it just keeps building on to the cells
Masks symptoms such as - Migraine, Lupus, ME, Fibromyalgia etc.
Crosses into the placenta and causes ADD condition, Autism etc
Causes cancers - particularly brain cancer

Here is a section on aspartame from the safe foods website http://www.safefood.org.nz/:
This article is available in .PDF format here 104 Kb
Aspartame - what is it?
It is a controversial artificial sweetener, 951 (L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine-methyl-ester). It is cheaper and about 200 times sweeter than sugar.
It comprises two amino acids — aspartic acid and phenylalanine, bound together with methanol. Occurring in natural form, these are bound up, but in aspartame they are not, breaking down readily to formaldehyde (accumulative and known to cause cancer), formic acid (venom in ant stings) and DKP (known brain tumour agent).
What's it in?
More than 6000 products worldwide: sugar-free and diet products, eg NutraSweet & Equal packs & sachets, chewing gum, sweets e.g. Mentos, Extra & Smints, some Eta potato chips, Yoplait Diet-Lite & Weightwatchers yoghurts; Jarrah, Weight-watchers, Nestle & Ovaltine drinks; sports drinks; dietary supplements e.g. Redoxon, silver top Berocca, Healtheries products incl. chewable children's vitamins; 124 medicines incl. 81 for children e.g. Lemsip, Panadol.
Augmentin, Berocca, Children's Panadol, Claramax rditabls tablet, gastrolyte powder, gaviscon, Lemsip, metamucil, nicotinell, Panadol cold and flu, throat lozenges Healtheries Boost Immunity Vitamin C and Echinacea, effervescent tablets, most chewing gums and some mints.
How can you tell?
Products containing aspartame often don't mention it. They might just have the warning "Phenylketonurics, contains phenylalanine" or its food number, 951. Dietary supplements and medicines don't have to be labelled with their ingredients in NZ.
What does it do to your health?
According to independent (non-industry funded) doctors and researchers, aspartame can cause a range of symptoms ranging from mild and transitory to debilitating and life-threatening, eg headaches, memory loss, vision loss, depression, seizures, coma and cancer. It can worsen or mimic the symptoms of such diseases and conditions as MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It interacts with drugs & MSG, and induces carbohydrate cravings (= weight gain). The methanol in aspartame affects the dopamine system of the brain causing addiction. Methanol, or wood alcohol, is classified as a severe metabolic poison and narcotic.