Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine

This is the artificial sugar present in all diet sodas, and soooo many "health" foods all over America.

I am currently terrified to consume it! I have heard it causes cancer, or helps it grow, and causes the death of your brain cells! While these could just be rumors I still stray away from eating it.

The way I see it is, if there was NO known danger to the product then why is it in it's own category? "Phenylketonurics"

I don't consume it either, I can't believe the foods you can now find artificial sweeteners in.
Like flavoured water, even Nacho chips for crying out loud, even peanuts!

I am a label reading addict, I read ingredient labels twice, just to make sure their are no artificial sweeteners in what I buy.

It's getting hard to avoid the stuff.

I wonder how it will affect consumers of the 'poison' 10-20 or 30 years down the road, perhaps white cane stocks will go up.

PS, yeah, it's the white cane corporations! Retinal detachment = happy stock holders!
Yeah...that's it

reply to post by blowfishdl



en.wikipedia.org...

Unless you have Phenylketonuria, you're not at significant risk for health issues. Sodium Saccharine has far more health risks, and then in high dosages. The thing you have to look at is the dosage when talking toxicity.
Everything is toxic at some dose, but below certain threshholds something can be harmless.

If you live your life trying to avoid anything that will kill you, you will eventually fail.

I use Stevia for sweetener in teas etc. en.wikipedia.org...

Artificial sweeteners are something I have always avoided. I smile when I see people drinking a case of 'diet' soda every day while they think they are doing their bodies a favor. Sugar, even Corn Syrup, has GOT to be better than the artificial sweeteners..

gatorade doesnt have any bad artificial sweeteners in it Maltodextrin, fructose, and dextrose are the only ones in there I believe.... so if you want to drink something like soda, but really not then drink Gatorade. Its not the same for Powerade though, that's full of high fructose corn syrup.

Originally posted by blowfishdl
This is the artificial sugar present in all diet sodas, and soooo many "health" foods all over America.

I am currently terrified to consume it! I have heard it causes cancer, or helps it grow, and causes the death of your brain cells! While these could just be rumors I still stray away from eating it.

The way I see it is, if there was NO known danger to the product then why is it in it's own category? "Phenylketonurics"

I think you may be misinterpreting it. It isn't a product called a "phenylketonuric", a phenylketonuric is a person lacking an enzyme which normally converts phenylalanine to tyrosine. You may have heard of it as someone with PKU.

Phenylalanine and tyrosine are amino acids, and you make proteins from them.

PKU is caused by a genetic defect. Instead of making tyrosine out of the phenylalanine they don't need, they make two other chemicals, phenylpyruvic acid, and phenylacetic acid. Those are neurotoxins, as is the unused phenylalanine if it builds up too much.

You need phenylalanine the way you need vitamin C. You can't make it, you have to get it from food. But most any protein food has all you need. The parts you don't need, you convert to tyrosine, if you don't need the tyrosine, you dispose of it in urine and feces.

But in a phenylketonuric, they can't make tyrosine, and can't dispose of excess phenylalanine. So it builds up in their blood, and partially turns into the two incorrect metabolites PPA and PAA. So they die of mental retardation and brain damage as kids.

The only thing you can do to prevent it is to not eat phenylalanine. They can eat sugary stuff, and starches, but their proteins have to come from this really nasty protein powder that's made in a lab, and omits phenylalanine. They get all the phenylalanine they need from trace amounts in the food they do eat. And they have to take tyrosine supplements because they can't make tyrosine the way you can.

But for someone without PKU, you have all the enzyme you need to convert just about any amount of phenylalanine you could stomach eating.

Me, personally, I avoid aspartame because it just tastes funky. I don't drink a lot of soft drinks anyway, give me unsweetened iced tea or black coffee and I'm a happy guy.

[edit on 15-10-2007 by Tom Bedlam]