still don't have much to lose by stopping eating anything with aspartame and see what happens. it may be why i have headaches almost every day. then again nothing may change. we'll see.

I chew sugar free gum like a beast. I'm sure if there was a glow in the dark meter of aspartame in one's body, you'd need sunglasses to look at me.

I started chewing the gum to curb the intense burning/pain of burning mouth syndrome that I have. I never drank large quantities of sugar free cola (drank the sugary stuff), though as it's been pointed out, aspartame, MSG, etc are in virtually everything these days.

mrsD, as you know I'm also a label reader. It's great to be conscious of what we're ingesting.

With all said, I don't know if aspartame causes me headache. I think I just am prone to headaches (before the chewing gum, I was getting headaches regularly anyways, think it's safe to say I can't avoid them easily). I do know of 1 type of gum in particular that happens to be sugar free (aspartame) that eases the burning in my mouth, so I stick with what works - relieving the burning for me is more important than worrying about the aspartame!

I am also pro-eliminate something in your diet that's unnecessary to see if it works, so have at it with trying to avoid the aspartame and good luck! I'm on a current campaign to avoid trans fats entirely (and I can only go by the amount that's disclosed on labels - I'm aware below a certain % they don't need to mention it). I found food in the USA at grocery stores (which differs slightly in some cases, entirely in others from our food selection in Canada) had zero trans fats for the most part (at least the foods I was looking at). Canada doesn't seem to have cracked down as much on Trans (!). Some things I look at the label on, shake my head, "Why is it that this HAD to contain trans? Surely they could have avoided the Trans by removing something!".

Good luck again!

I found this little comment many years ago somewhere on the Internet.

"After ingestion, aspartame is broken down into aspartic acid,
phenylalanine, and methanol.

Methanol is oxidized into formaldehyde and then to
formic acid, which is considered responsible
for the toxic effects of methanol.

Despite arguments that aspartame intake should not affect
blood methanol concentrations, animal studies have
reported the accumulation of formaldehyde adducts derived
from aspartame in tissue components.

This might be one explaining factor for reports on headaches
linked to the intake of aspartame."

jackD


p.s. The phenylalanine might be good for MS folks - I am still looking into this.

it takes about 5 minutes, and then I get a drunken feeling like I am confused and off balance and that lets me know I had some. 5 minutes later my head is banging! its an awful headache and it sends me to bed. it takes me at least a day to recover.

I found Aspertame in my COLD PILLS! its the chewable benedryl stuff that melts instantly. Yep, there it is. Aspertame. No wonder benedryl gives me a headache!

I have become such a staunch label reader. I cant do MSG nor artificial sweetners. Splenda, aspertame, equal its all the same to me. Almost instant day blowing headache followed by that washed out feeling for most of the next day. The same as if I was poisoned. ICK!

thank you everyone for your responses. as of right now i am no longer giving my children the sugar free drinks or any other products with aspartame. as for me i will make the changes a little more slowly to adjust to less sweetness. i can't use much real sugar do to diabetes.

TRy Stevia or Truvia its made from a natural plant and offers nice sweetness with no headache! Good reviews on it.

Until 2009 it was banned by the FDA as a food additive because of possible infertility and cancer side effects.

The FDA semi reversed this and now allows Rebiana (an extract of Stevia) as a safe food additive. This is used by Truvia.

So, although the whole jury is still out on this, it seems that Rebians/Truvia is relatively safe.

I would still stay away from it if I were of child giving/bearing years...both sexes!!

The headache complaint from aspartame has been around for a LONG time. It affects many people. I think it is real.

Aspartic acid is a neuroexcitatory amino acid. It and glutamate, both stimulate NMDA receptors which are pain receptors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Methyl-D-aspartic_acid

http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/567856
This is an excellent paper and if you don't belong to Medscape, you can join for free easily. It is worth it for this paper.

Magnesium is an antagonist to the NMDA receptor. That is why fixing low magnesium levels improves pain for many people.