If you’re adding those little blue packets to your coffee in order to cut back on calories, you should be aware there are side effects of Aspartame and one of those is weight gain and the potential for obesity. It may even be worse for people with type 2 diabetes who are trying to keep their blood sugar level. Aspartame can increase insulin resistance and increase the negative response to insulin when sugar is introduced. That means sugar free and zero calorie soft drinks can actually cause insulin resistance, which causes weight gain, diabetes and an increased waist circumference.
Is your vision blurry or are you getting migraines?
There’s a connection between dry eyes, blurry vision and aspartame according to the FDA. In a controlled study, it showed that aspartame does cause issues with vision. There are also issues with migraines and headaches for some people. Just like red wine, cheese and chocolate can be a trigger, so can aspartame. If you suffer from cluster headaches or migraines, cutting down on diet soft drinks and coffee sweetened with aspartame may help. They can cause low blood sugar that also can trigger migraines.
Can aspartame make mood disorders worse?
If you’re affected by bouts of depression avoiding aspartame may be a good idea. While there’s no direct link to causing the problem, studies show that consuming aspartame for a minimum of 8 days and longer, had a more negative mood and more irritability than people that avoided aspartame entirely. There are also links to aspartame affecting cognitive functioning, too.
Inflammation is linked to a number of diseases and aspartame may make it worse.
Inflammation is good when it’s fighting bacteria and things that will harm your body, but when it’s chronic, it can cause serious conditions that will leave you in pain and even kill you. Aspartame can cause an inflammatory response that mimics an allergic reaction. You also can be allergic to aspartame and not know it, which can lead to systemic inflammation. There are links between consuming aspartame and rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.
- Besides causing insulin resistance, using aspartame can create inflammation in the gut, that affects the whole body, making weight loss more difficult. Digestive inflammation affects the absorption of nutrients and the hunger/satiety hormones, creating more ghrelin, the hunger hormone.
- Aspartame can cause non-epileptic seizures in the up to 30% of Americans sensitive to it. It may be the methanol aspartame that causes it. It’s especially problematic at high altitudes, which is why the FAA recommends pilots avoid aspartame.
- Digestive issues, like IBS can arise when using aspartame. It also can create a biphasic effect on the appetite. At first, it satisfies hunger, then the person later experiences bouts of uncontrolled hunger.
- There are contradictory results on whether aspartame can be linked to cancer of the blood, colon and intestines. Other studies show it may affect metabolism negatively.
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