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Carbonated Beverages/Artificial Sweeteners

I love soft drinks -- in particular, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Sprite, and Fresca (a diet grapefruit-flavored drink). I also drink Diet Coke, on occasion, but only from the fountain at certain restaurants, as it tastes better. I am aware that Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke have caffeine, and thus, when taking a remedy, I do not drink them. That being said, what about the non-caffeinated soft drink beverages, such as Diet Sprite or Fresca or 7-Up or decaffeinated Diet Dr. Pepper or decaf Diet Coke?

Just for the record, the amount of caffeine in soft drinks is a quarter of what it is in coffee. Diet Dr. Pepper, for instance, has 41mg per 12 oz. Average brewed coffee has 145mg per 8 oz. Expresso has 100mg per 2 oz. Does the amount/strength of the caffeine matter? What about hot chocolate, which has just 14mg per 8oz?

Secondly, is the caffeine the only thing I need to worry about? What about the carbonation? Do carbonated beverages -- even without caffeine, such as seltzer water -- have negative impacts on remedies?

Third, what about the ingestion of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or Splenda or saccharin? Do they interfere with the potential force of a remedy?
 
  salsaboy on 2005-10-24
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
Aspartame is a posion. They use it to embalm bodies. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. It was discovered by accident in 1965 when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company, was testing an anti-ulcer drug.

Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr John W. Olney and Consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 as well as investigations of G.D. Searle's research practices caused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold (December 5, 1974). In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.

Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.

According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame:(2) Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes.

Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol.
Aspartate and glutamate act as neurotransmitters in the brain by facilitating the transmission of information from neuron to neuron. Too much aspartate or glutamate in the brain kills certain neurons by allowing the influx of too much calcium into the cells. This influx triggers excessive amounts of free radicals, which kill the cells. The neural cell damage that can be caused by excessive aspartate and glutamate is why they are referred to as "excitotoxins." They "excite" or stimulate the neural cells to death.

Aspartic acid is an amino acid. Taken in its free form (unbound to proteins) it significantly raises the blood plasma level of aspartate and glutamate. The excess aspartate and glutamate in the blood plasma shortly after ingesting aspartame or products with free glutamic acid (glutamate precursor) leads to a high level of those neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain.

The blood brain barrier (BBB), which normally protects the brain from excess glutamate and aspartate as well as toxins, 1) is not fully developed during childhood, 2) does not fully protect all areas of the brain, 3) is damaged by numerous chronic and acute conditions, and 4) allows seepage of excess glutamate and aspartate into the brain even when intact.

The excess glutamate and aspartate slowly begin to destroy neurons. The large majority (75 percent or more) of neural cells in a particular area of the brain are killed before any clinical symptoms of a chronic illness are noticed. A few of the many chronic illnesses that have been shown to be contributed to by long-term exposure to excitatory amino acid damage include:

Multiple sclerosis (MS)
ALS
Memory loss
Hormonal problems
Hearing loss
Epilepsy
Alzheimer's disease
Parkinson's disease
Hypoglycemia
AIDS
Dementia
Brain lesions
Neuroendocrine disorders
The risk to infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and persons with certain chronic health problems from excitotoxins are great. Even the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), which usually understates problems and mimics the FDA party-line, recently stated in a review that:

"It is prudent to avoid the use of dietary supplements of L-glutamic acid by pregnant women, infants, and children. The existence of evidence of potential endocrine responses, i.e., elevated cortisol and prolactin, and differential responses between males and females, would also suggest a neuroendocrine link and that supplemental L-glutamic acid should be avoided by women of childbearing age and individuals with affective disorders."(4)

Aspartic acid from aspartame has the same deleterious effects on the body as glutamic acid.

The exact mechanism of acute reactions to excess free glutamate and aspartate is currently being debated. As reported to the FDA, those reactions include:(5)

Headaches/migraines
Nausea
Abdominal pains
Fatigue (blocks sufficient glucose entry into brain)
Sleep problems
Vision problems
Anxiety attacks
Depression
Asthma/chest tightness.
One common complaint of persons suffering from the effect of aspartame is memory loss. Ironically, in 1987, G.D. Searle, the manufacturer of aspartame, undertook a search for a drug to combat memory loss caused by excitatory amino acid damage. Blaylock is one of many scientists and physicians who are concerned about excitatory amino acid damage caused by ingestion of aspartame and MSG.

Methanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison. Some people may remember methanol as the poison that has caused some "skid row" alcoholics to end up blind or dead. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounter the enzyme chymotrypsin.

The absorption of methanol into the body is sped up considerably when free methanol is ingested. Free methanol is created from aspartame when it is heated to above 86 Fahrenheit (30 Centigrade). This would occur when aspartame-containing product is improperly stored or when it is heated (e.g., as part of a "food" product such as Jello).

Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in the body. Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. An EPA assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic." They recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. A one-liter (approx. 1 quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing products consume as much as 250 mg of methanol daily or 32 times the EPA limit.(9)

Symptoms from methanol poisoning include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral disturbances, and neuritis. The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems including misty vision, progressive contraction of visual fields, blurring of vision, obscuration of vision, retinal damage, and blindness. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and causes birth defects.
It has been pointed out that some fruit juices and alcoholic beverages contain small amounts of methanol. It is important to remember, however, that methanol never appears alone. In every case, ethanol is present, usually in much higher amounts. Ethanol is an antidote for methanol toxicity in humans.(9) The troops of Desert Storm were "treated" to large amounts of aspartame-sweetened beverages, which had been heated to over 86 degrees F in the Saudi Arabian sun. Many of them returned home with numerous disorders similar to what has been seen in persons who have been chemically poisoned by formaldehyde. The free methanol in the beverages may have been a contributing factor in these illnesses. Other breakdown products of aspartame such as DKP (discussed below) may also have been a factor.
 
tweetystone last decade
Thank you for posting research on artificial sweeteners. It did not, however, answer any of my posted questions about the effects, if any, of those sweetners, small amounts of caffeine in "decaffeinated" products, and carbonated beverages. Does anybody have any experience with the antidotal effects, if any, that such ingestion may cause?
 
salsaboy last decade
Joe De Livera might be able to tell if Artificial sweetners affects taking nat phos 6x the same way as soft drinks and coffee.This could be the reason that nat phos6x did not work on me as I kept on thinking that I am doing such a great job by not taking sugar.

Please suggest which brand is safer?
Thanks
 
karishma last decade
Many of you who post on this forum may be aware that I live in Sri Lanka. I have often wondered why the majority who live in the developed countries especially in the US usually drink liquids from cans or bottles and of course drink the ubiquitous coffee.

It is very rarely that I have seen them drink water from the tap at home and they do not also buy bottled water which is available in all supermarkets. Water from the house tap is very rarely drunk as it is reckoned to be chemically unsafe. All supermarkets however stock Spring water which however is not as popular as canned drinks or coffee which I noticed is drunk in gallons in the home, in office or wherever.

It has been accepted that the minimum liquid that one must drink is not under 4 liters or 1 US gallon per day . I wonder how much of liquid is drunk by the average citizen in these developed countries. It is possible that one reason for the obesity of the population which is officially accepted at 65% of the population in the US, may be due to an insufficient liquid intake.

I believe that it is just the culture where liquids that are drunk are from cans which as we know contain stimulants like cocaine or caffeine and of course sugar while in the case of the diet variety the sweetening agent is usually the poison Aspartame and various other chemicals which are used as artificial sweeteners which are dangerous to the human body.

My message to all who read this post is to stop drinking from cans and to drink bottled water if you feel that boiled tap water is not suitable to maintain your liquid input. You will not regret it.

I notice that Karishma has inquired if Nat Phos 6x which is now accepted as a very safe method of losing weight will work if canned drinks of the diet variety are also used. My answer is NO.

Nat Phos works by accelerating the passage of food through the gut thereby preventing its complete absorption into the blood. I have observed that it does not create any negative after effects like tiredness which can indicate that it deprives the body of the essential nutrients for life. No extra output of urine is noticed. I have also discovered that the stools of those who use it for weight reduction, 2 tablets after lunch and dinner, are relatively soft which will also adds to the theory that Nat Phos 6x works in the manner that I have suggested by accelerating the passage of food safely through the gut thereby promoting the loss of weight by about 1-2 pounds per week.

All canned drinks, foods containing saltpeter and coffee antidote this amazing remedy and it just depends on the user to evaluate whether or not the small sacrifice that has to be made by avoiding these antidoting substances to achieve weight loss is worth while if Nat Phos 6x is used.
 
Joe De Livera last decade

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