Have you heard about aspartame? Yes, this is the component that have those “light” sodas or some food supplement for sugar cane…. Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener, and is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar.

In more than 100 countries aspartame is used to generate food with “fewer calories” or “zero calories”… Does it sound familiar to you? Well, not everything about this component is as good as it sounds, because the damage it does is more than the benefit granted.

5 Things you din’t know about aspartame

1) Aspartame is transformed into formaldehyde in the human body

This component has only 3 unique compounds: phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol; and is a chemical synergistically. This means that the sum of its parts is exponentially more toxic than their individual components.

Methanol in aspartame is especially toxic, as it’s not accompanied by ethanol (that protects us from methanol poisoning), therefore once the body converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, damaging our tissues with a potential risk to cancer (leukemia or lymphoma)

2) It produces obesity and metabolic syndrome

It’s common to associate artificial sweeteners as part of a “healthy diet” as is avoiding sugar consumption.This is completely wrong! Aspartame can cause weight gain and metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

Just some of this artificial sweetener is enough to gain weight, and has the opposite effects of someone who wants to have a healthier life. Aspartame changes the natural production of hormones, increases appetite and sugar cravings … Just what you do not need when you’re trying to lose weight.

3) Causes severe damage to our health

Scientists working on a drug for ulcers discovered aspartame by accident in 1985, and when they find out it was sweet, they took it to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for approval.

It’s important to know that the first studies to test the safety of aspartame were a failure, as the creators could see as caused great ills and death in laboratory monkeys. After a new commissioner at the FDA approved aspartame as a “safe” artificial sweetener

4) Aspartame is made from genetically modified bacterial debris

One of the most impressive things is that in the process to create and produce aspartame genetically modified E.coli bacteria are used, which produces high levels of a particular enzyme that produces phenylalanine.

5) Its consumption could cause permanent brain damage

Aspartame is composed by 40% of aspartic acid, an amino acid which can freely cross the brain-blood tissue. When we consume too much aspartame our brain is saturated with calcium, so can some neurons die, occur at some neuronal damage or even lead to severe brain damage.

Excessive consumption could also reach extreme cases of brain conditions such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.