Artificial Sweetener - Aspartame

There is a warning label in this advertisement - “Contains Aspartame [Artificial sweetener], not recommended for children and Phenylketonurics”

Aspartame:
Aspartame (or APM) is the name for an artificial sweetener. Artificial sweeteners are also called sugar substitutes. Aspartame is also one of the sugar substitutes used by people with diabetes.

They are substances that are used instead of sucrose (table sugar) to sweeten foods and beverages. Because artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than table sugar, smaller amounts are needed to create the same level of sweetness.

Aspartame, has a caloric value of 4 kilocalories (17 kilojoules) per gram, the quantity of aspartame needed to produce a sweet taste is so small that its caloric contribution is negligible, which makes it a popular sweetener for those trying to avoid calories from sugar. The sweetness of aspartame has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar.

This sweetener is marketed under a number of trademark names, including Tropicana Slim, Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, Aspartame is currently the most popular sweetener in the US food industry.

It is an ingredient of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide. It is commonly used in diet soft drinks, and is often provided as a table condiment. It is also used in some brands of chewable vitamin supplements and common in many sugar-free chewing gums.

According to researchers in the US, artificial sweeteners used in low-calorie drinks, can make you put on weight. They say the sweeteners used in these drinks trick the body into thinking it is about to get a huge surge of calories and when it does not you get hungry and over-eat.

In the United States, five intensely-sweet sugar substitutes have been approved for use. They are saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, neotame and acesulfame potassium.

There is some ongoing controversy over whether artificial sweeteners are health risks. Scientifically-controlled peer-reviewed studies have consistently failed to produce evidence of adverse effects caused by consumption of these products.

More information about aspartame can be found in the FDA Statement on Aspartame, which is available at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/tpaspart.html on the Internet.

Phenylketonurics:
"Phenylketonurics" is the term used to refer to people that have the metabolic disorder Phenylketonuria, or PKU in short. People that have the disorder PKU cannot consume any product that contains aspartame.

Phenylketonuria is a genetic disorder that makes it impossible for these people to metabolize phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is found in aspartame. Aspartame is an ester of methanol and the aspartic acid/phenylalanine peptide. In your body, the ester is hydrolyzed to phenylalanine and methanol. So Phenylalanine is stored, in the bodies of people who have this disorder PKU, particularly in the brain. It causes mental problems and can produce profound retardation in children.