Aspartame is so lame

I just got an big anti-aspartame email from someone and thought back to a post I did a couple years ago on a different blog. Instead of cutting and pasting the email information (like some bloggers do) and potentially take credit for the writing myself (yuck!), here is a post from the past.

And if you're super into being an anti-aspartamer, here's a link to a 90 minute video that will fuel the fire of your fake sugar fight. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6551291488524526735&hl=en#

Aspartame is so lame
A couple weeks ago a study out of Purdue University was released providing yet another reason to avoid aspartame.
Scientists fed one group of rats food ladened with real sugar and another group food sweetened with aspartame. The rats who had aspartame ended up gaining more weight during the study then the rats who had the real sugar.

So unless you actually like the taste of aspartame why are you still consuming it?

Based on the Purdue Uni study, we are more likely to eat more the more aspartame we consume. Why? I'll try to explain.

The rats who had the aspartame ended up eating more calories overall then the rats who had real sugar. The scientists aren't completely clear as to what drove the rats to eat more than their sugar fed counterparts but it is believed that when the rats tasted the sugary food and then weren't delivered any subsequent calories, their metabolisms were revved up. When no sugar was delivered to be processed, their brain chemistry was altered somehow and drove them to find the calories they had thought were coming signaled by their taste buds.

There is also the possibility that consuming aspartame triggers the insulin response system. We taste sugar and our bodies release insulin to help us process sugar. No sugar comes and then we're stuck with all this extra insulin. So not only could regularly consuming aspartame make us gain weight. It could also contribute to insulin resistance, a precursor to a diabetic state.

We all know that there has been loads of studies and debate about the potential health risks of aspartame. Here is a link to a site that provides some info (in a rather extreme fashion) regarding aspartame. http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=17

I suggest that you do your own research. Next time you're at the grocery store, in line at the movies or at a restaurant, check out who's buying or ordering the diet soda. Do they look like choosing sugar free aspartame loaded drinks actually helps them lose weight?

Need I say more than, aspartame is so lame.