….. but occasionally enjoy a ‘full fat’ coke.
A chance conversation with a lady struggling to sleep lead me to this blog.
When she informed me her evening beverage of choice was Coke Zero I wondered could this be the issue?
Much has been written about artificial sweeteners and the associated health issues and worryingly people are assuming that replacing sugar with a sweetener is a better choice. Not so.
Aspartame, one of the ingredients in Coke Zero, is the number one source of side effect complaints to the FDA. It was actually denied approval for over 2o years because of flawed data, brain tumour findings in animal studies and lack of human studies proving its long term safety.
Over 91 symptoms have been documented associated with its consumption, including –
- Migraines
- Irritability
- Weight gain
- Insomnia
- Vertigo
- Depression
- Numbness
- Fatigue
- Seizures
- Vision problems
- Tinnitus
Aspartame has also been known to trigger or worsen health conditions such as –
- MS
- Epilepsy
- Chronic fatigue
- Alzheimer’s
- Brain tumours
- Fibromyalgia
- Parkinson’s disease
- Lymphoma
Women who consume artificial sweeteners are more likely to gain weight. Unlike sugar, which signals to the body you have received enough calories, aspartame can actually leave you hungry and craving more.
Most worryingly are the health concerns raised by airline pilots who suffered seizures in the cockpit.
So if artificial sweeteners are neurotoxins, should we be drinking them?
I certainly won’t, and avoid all drinks and foods with any artificial sweeteners.
Look after your children – sugar free diluting juices, low sugar yoghurts, flavoured crisps, jelly, chewing gum, suspect all of these until you know otherwise. Developing brains are particularly susceptible to aspartame.
Also look out for acesulfame potassium, neotame, saccharin and sucralose.