Tuesday 22 March 2016

24. The Hidden Danger in your Diet Soda

   



     A look at your local supermarket shelves stocked with row upon row of diet sodas and special offers will show you that you are invited to believe that a diet soda with artificial sweeteners is a ‘healthier’ option for you and your children than one packed with sugar.
     Far too many recent research studies have shown that artificial sweeteners are very, very dangerous for your health. This doesn’t make sugary sodas better, it only means you are choosing from two evils, neither of which are good.
     Non-caloric artificial sweeteners are one of the most commonly used food additives.  Although numerous studies have given rise to concern about these, many people still steadfastly believe that artificial sweeteners are safe to consume.  Recent studies in 2015 have found however that their consumption can lead to multiple health ailments, including, surprisingly, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, gout, diabetes, and cancer, (particularly lymphomas and leukaemia).
     Almost all diet sodas today use aspartame, which is sold under brand names such as Equal or Nutrasweet. Aspartame is made up of not one, but three chemicals: methanol, aspartic acid, and phenylalanine. Cancer cells love an acidic environment where the cells are not getting sufficient oxygen or nutrients. Aspartame does all this and more.  As well as being a possible cancer conduit, it has been shown to cause birth defects, brain damage and mood disorders. It can lead to serious changes in your serotonin levels, which leads to depression, behavioural and other emotional problems.
    Speaking of brain damage, methanol, one of the main ingredients in aspartame, turns into formaldehyde, which is used to embalm deceased persons and preserve organs and species for clinical studies. This collects in certain parts of the brain, causing degenerative diseases such as ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimers.
     Adult Studies have shown that drinking three or more diet sodas a day is potentially more dangerous than smoking one pack of cigarettes per day. There appear to be no similar child studies. But it is surely reasonable to conclude that a smaller daily intake of diet ‘fizzies’ by a child will be equally as dangerous.
     Diet sodas have far fewer chemicals than cigarettes, but over indulgence in aspartame-filled diet sodas will literally choke your cells, mutate your DNA, and possibly cause cancerous tumours in you and your child.
     So when you buy a diet soda check the small print and find one that doesn’t contain aspartame. And while you are about it, check the ingredients listing of packaged deserts, ice cream and frozen fruit pops, hard candy and chewing gum, ketchup and jellies for aspartame used by the manufacturer as a sugar substitute. With governmental pressure on soda manufacturers to reduce sugar content by taxing it, the list of products containing aspartame as an alternative sweetener will grow - until it is outlawed as a food additive.

Further Reading
Natural Health News    The danger of aspartame
Livestrong  A list of foods containing aspartame
Health   10 reasons why you should give up Diet Soda



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