Aspartame
Aspartame is an E951 food additive, a sugar substitute, a sweetener for products.
As a chemical element, aspartame is a dipeptide methyl ester, which includes amino acids: phenylalanine and aspartic acid.
In terms of taste, the E951 additive is many times superior to sugar, its sweet taste is felt longer, but manifests itself more slowly than that of sugar.
The E951 additive is destroyed at a temperature of 30 ° C, so the use of aspartame is possible only in the production of those products that do not need to be heat treated.
Aspartame is odorless and soluble in water.
The use of aspartame in the food industry
The main purpose of aspartame E951 is the production of soft, carbonated and non-carbonated sweet drinks, sugar substitutes.
Diet drinks are made with aspartame, due to its low calorie content, and products for diabetics. You can meet the E951 additive in the composition of confectionery, chewing gum, lollipops.
In Russia, aspartame as a sugar substitute can be sold under the following trademarks: "Enzimologa", "NutraSweet", "Ajinomoto", "Aspamiks", "Miwon".
Harm of aspartame
The harm of aspartame is that after it enters the human body, it breaks down, as a result of which not only amino acids are released, but also methanol, which is already a harmful toxic substance. Naturally, the dosage of aspartame is of great importance. In Russia, the norm is 50 mg per kilogram of a person's weight per day. In European countries, this rate is less - 40 mg per kilogram of human weight per day.
The peculiarity of the use of aspartame E951, which makes it possible to lead to its overdose, is that the drinks containing this additive have an unpleasant aftertaste, which makes you drink it again and again with sweet water. At the same time, it is noted that water sweetened with aspartame does not quench thirst, which also makes consumers drink a lot of drinks containing E951.
It has been proven that the use of low-calorie drinks and foods that contain the substitute aspartame instead of sugar can still lead to weight gain.
Aspartame can harm those who suffer from phenylketonuria - a disease associated with a violation of the metabolism of amino acids, in particular phenylalanine, which, as already mentioned, is included in the chemical formula of aspartame.
If abused, aspartame can cause side effects: headaches, incl. migraine, ringing in the ears, depression, insomnia, allergies, cramps, joint pain, leg numbness, memory loss, dizziness, cramps, causeless anxiety. In total, there are about 90 symptoms that E951 supplementation can cause, and most of them are neurological.
Long-term consumption of drinks and foods containing aspartame can cause symptoms of multiple sclerosis. These side effects of aspartame are reversible, but the main thing is to identify the cause of the painful condition in time and stop using the dietary supplement. There are cases when, after limiting the amount of E951 supplements, patients with multiple sclerosis regained vision, hearing, and ringing in the ears disappeared.
It is also believed that an overdose of aspartame can cause the development of systemic lupus erythematosus.
Pregnant women should not abuse aspartame as it has been proven to cause fetal malformations.
Despite such serious side effects, aspartame is within normal limits allowed for use as a dietary supplement in Russia.
Those people who feel the symptoms described above and can say that this is happening against the background of the use of sugary carbonated drinks and foods sweetened with aspartame, it is recommended to inform their doctor about this and to check the diagnosis to exclude such foods from their menu.
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