Aspartame - Artificial Sweetner good/bad?

[afanchin]

Hi! I know that drinking a lot of water is a necessity, but I was wondering about the low cal (5 cal per serving) flavored water drinks and mixes. Are they OK to consume instead of water or in addition to water? I assume that the sweetner would cause me to hold more water, but technically (doing some research on aspartame) the artificial sweetner is made of two amino acids. Well, I'm sure someone out there knows much more about its effects on bodybuilding than I do. Have a great day!

Ali - preparing for figure competition

[xl Achilles lx]

Some people claim aspartame gives them headaches, others claim it gives people cancer. I find aspartame to treat me just fine, granted I don't drink gallons upon gallons of it per day. Am I an expert on the effects of aspartame on the human body? Nope. Do I drink crystal light as a refreshing change from water? Yup.

Hope this helps.

[seanb1979]

If you drink enough crystal light each day to get cancer, you're already dead from hyper-hydration (going by studies done on rats consuming aspartame, anyway.)

I use it to mix up my drinking choices and its especially useful when cutting weight.

The strawberry/orange/banana crystal light = ****ing amazing

[KingCrimson]

Why would you assume that it causes you to retain water? I haven't seen any evidence about that. Things that are toxic can make you retain water because your body needs to dilute the toxin but aspartame is only toxic in extremely high levels, like thousands of times what you're consuming, it's very safe to even drink a few liters of diet drinks per day so I can't see there being any water retaining aspects as a result of that. As for its effects on bodybuilding, think about the endless aspartame that most bbers consume from their whey, supplements, diet drinks, diet energy drinks, that they bake into their food etc. It couldn't be that bad for bbing could it?

[seanb1979]

On a side note, how often do your students hit on you?

[jentanne]

I think it is something to stay away from. Crystal light now makes "fitness" water flavoring with no artificial sweetner so I suggest using that. Aspartame gives me severe headaches and since I "got" asthma last year it now brings on asthma attacks. Nasty stuff! I have also seen research about it leading to overeating because even though it is not sugar it makes your body "think" it is sugar because of the sweetness and your body releases too much insulin.... I don't know all the details but due to the fact of it giving me headaches and asthma attacks I stay away from it.

[seanb1979]

Hmm, never had it bring on any asthma... thats a new one for sure lol. I never notice it affect my hunger at all either. There is no link between increased insulin levels and aspartame... I suppose the effect can be 'imagined' though.

Here's a source article:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/5/1011

[bonkerzzz]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...1488524526735#

Phucked up.

[snorkelman]

The FDA has set an Acceptable Daily Intake of aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram (slightly over 22.7 milligrams per pound) of body weight. Under these guidelines, a 150 pound adult could consume about 20 cans of aspartame-sweetened soda or 97 packets of Equal.

I don't know what your intake is specifically, but the average person's consumption of aspartame is about two to three mg/kg, or about four percent of the ADI.