Health Advice/Discussion

Diet sodas do work to help you lose weight....by possibly making your brain lighter. Food for thought, but not to drink.

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Aspartame Consumption Again Linked to Degeneration of Brain Neurons
by David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) High intake of the artificial sweetener aspartame may lead to the degeneration of brain cells and various mental disorders, according to a research review conducted by South African scientists from the University of Pretoria and the University of Limpopo and published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"We propose that excessive aspartame ingestion might be involved in the pathogenesis of certain mental disorders, and also in compromised learning and emotional functioning," the researchers concluded.

The review of prior research found that aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Canderal and Tropicana Slim, leads to both direct and indirect changes in the brain when consumed in high quantities. Among these effects, the chemical can disrupt amino acid metabolism and structure, degrade nucleic acids, and interfere with the function of nerve cells and hormonal systems. It also appears to change the concentration of certain neurotransmitters in the brain.

The researchers also noted that aspartame appears to cause excessive signaling of nerve cells, and nerve cell damage or even death. By disrupting the functioning of the cells' mitochondria, or energy source, aspartame leads to a cascade of effects on the whole system.

"The energy systems for certain required enzyme reactions become compromised, thus indirectly leading to the inability of enzymes to function optimally," the researchers wrote.

This directly contradicts a review published in 2007, which concluded that "aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption c no credible evidence was found that aspartame is carcinogenic, neurotoxic, or has any other adverse effect on health."

Aspartame is a widely used artificial sweetener, particularly in food and beverage products marketed as low calorie or "diet." It is used in more than 6,000 products around the world.

The chemical has been controversial since its introduction, with a number of studies linking it to cancer and neurological and behavioral disorders. People have reported experiencing headaches, insomnia and even seizures from aspartame consumption.

The FDA and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), however, continue to insist that the sweetener is safe.

Sources for this story include: foodqualitynews.com.

Tu_triky wrote:

"We propose that excessive aspartame ingestion might be involved in the pathogenesis of certain mental disorders, and also in compromised learning and emotional functioning," the researchers concluded.

Oh goody, that explains a lot. I will send this article to my ex-BF and my therapist and bring it to my appraisal. :victory:

But seriously we should try to either accept the calories in sugar or drink unsweetened (is that a word?) beverages. We obviously canLt have it all. :shamefulcry:

EstherM wrote:
But seriously we should try to either accept the calories in sugar or drink unsweetened (is that a word?) beverages. We obviously canLt have it all. :shamefulcry:

I agree. I used to drink a lot of diet sodas a number of years ago...a WHOLE LOT. Then I started to investigate aspartame and learned of its unhealthy effects so I stopped drinking sodas all together.

As you said, either use real sugar or find a way to enjoy unsweetened beverages. :say_yes:

Tu_triky wrote:

Haha...nah, I take Super EPA/DHA from Life Extension....so it's actually not 4 to 6 grams of Omega-3, rather fish oil, so the actually Omega-3 is a bit less. My mistake! Here's the breakdown per serving:


Serving Size 2 softgel
Servings Per Container 60
Amount Per Serving
Calories 21
Calories from Fat 21
Total Fat 2.3 g
Cholesterol 8 mg
Wild Fish Oil Concentrate 2000 mg
Yielding:
EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) 700 mg
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) 500 mg
Other Omega-3 fatty acids 100 mg
Polyphen-Oil™ Olive (Olea europaea) Fruit Extract 300 mg [std. to 8% total polyphenols (24 mg), 0.7% hydroxytyrosol (2.1 mg) and 0.5% verbascoside (1.5 mg)]

I got Life Extension's magazine for a while.. it's a little suspect, in my opinion - half ads, half "scientific studies" supporting the ads. I'm just saying.. it seems like a conflict of interest. I know they had some peer reviewed articles, but there were some which were far more conjectural.

Oh, and btw.. I do Flax oil rather than fish oil for my "alpha acids" and "Omegas". I also consume copious amounts of flax seed meal. I really enjoy the taste of flax seeds - so I have them in cereal and pancakes and bread as well.

phlargo wrote:

I got Life Extension's magazine for a while.. it's a little suspect, in my opinion - half ads, half "scientific studies" supporting the ads. I'm just saying.. it seems like a conflict of interest. I know they had some peer reviewed articles, but there were some which were far more conjectural.

Oh, and btw.. I do Flax oil rather than fish oil for my "alpha acids" and "Omegas". I also consume copious amounts of flax seed meal. I really enjoy the taste of flax seeds - so I have them in cereal and pancakes and bread as well.

I just peruse their website on occassion but I like the fact that do have citations in many of their articles so at least you can go to the source...it's not something you have to take on faith, you know. But yeah, I don't take any one resource as gospel.

I eat flax in my cereal and I used to supplement with the the oil but flax, as you know, doesn't have EPA or DHA, just Alpha-linoleic Acid. The body has to convert the ALA to EPA & DHA and the conversion rate is not very efficient in the body that's why we need to eat or supplement our diets with foods rich in EPA & DHA.

Although another great nutrient available in Flax are the lignans...the Super EPA/DHA I take has them from sesame seeds. :victory:

Tu_triky wrote:Aspartame Consumption Again Linked to Degeneration of Brain Neurons

Not surprised in the least...


Green tea rules!!!! :victory: :woot: :dancing: :applaud:

bmwracer wrote:
Not surprised in the least...
Green tea rules!!!! :victory: :woot: :dancing: :applaud:

Which reminds me, I need to stock up on the Oi~Ocha, I gots none left.

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Tu_triky wrote:Which reminds me, I need to stock up on the Oi~Ocha, I gots none left.

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Anything special about it, aside from convenience?

I just drop a teabag in a cup and add boiling water. :)

bmwracer wrote:
Anything special about it, aside from convenience?

I just drop a teabag in a cup and add boiling water. :)

No, nothing special, it just suits my preference for cold drinks...I dunno, I rarely, rarely drink warm or hot drinks. Your way is just as good, if not better (and more economical). I would say 90 percent of the time I just drink bottled water. If not that, alcohol.

When that happens this :drink: turns to this :beaten:

Tu_triky wrote:No, nothing special, it just suits my preference for cold drinks...I dunno, I rarely, rarely drink warm or hot drinks. Your way is just as good, if not better (and more economical). I would say 90 percent of the time I just drink bottled water. If not that, alcohol.

When that happens this :drink: turns to this :beaten:

It's all good if you're not behind the wheel. :victory: :mrgreen:

bmwracer wrote:
It's all good if you're not behind the wheel. :victory: :mrgreen:

Indeed. You speak truth to power.

But I try to chill out on the drank these days...trying get healthier and stay that way has been a loooong process for me.

Green tea though, yeah it rocks. As we've discussed numerous times, it has to be one of the key factors contributing to the overall health of the Japanese despite the fact that, at least among men, they still smoke like crazy over there, drink like sailors, and work their asses off on the job. Yet they live longer and have less incidences of degenerative disease scompared to other industrialized nations.

Tu_triky wrote:

Indeed. You speak truth to power.

But I try to chill out on the drank these days...trying get healthier and stay that way has been a loooong process for me.

Green tea though, yeah it rocks. As we've discussed numerous times, it has to be one of the key factors contributing to the overall health of the Japanese despite the fact that, at least among men, they still smoke like crazy over there, drink like sailors, and work their asses off on the job. Yet they live longer and have less incidences of degenerative disease scompared to other industrialized nations.

Question to that, I read somewhere that albeit green tea is beneficial, it is also crucial to drink it from young age. Logic but how beneficial is it when you start in your 30ties?

EstherM wrote:

Question to that, I read somewhere that albeit green tea is beneficial, it is also crucial to drink it from young age. Logic but how beneficial is it when you start in your 30ties?

Interesting, I hadn't heard that before...but I can not imagine that even if you started to drink it later on in life that you would not benefit. I'm sure even a person who starts drinking green tea in your 30ties would still reap many of the benefits. :)

Tu_triky wrote:Interesting, I hadn't heard that before...but I can not imagine that even if you started to drink it later on in life that you would not benefit. I'm sure even a person started to drink green tea in your 30ties you would still reap many of the benefits. :)

Right... I don't think it's ever too late to start. :victory:

bmwracer wrote:
Right... I don't think it's ever too late to start. :victory:

Yup. I think the body has an amazing capacity for healing provided you give the proper raw materials (proper food, clean water, sunlight, supplements. ;) Problem is we continue to shovel sh*t into ourselves and then expect some synthetic chemicals (i.e. phramaceutical drugs) to correct what is often times is essentially a nutritional deficiency.

We are the most overfed, malnourished fools on the planet.

^ very true!

Although I am not too keen on supplements unless really really necessary. That's of course the central European housewife approach (aka my mum's): why taking vitamin C tablets if you can eat an orange?

About green tea, I agree it's never too late :mrgreen:

EstherM wrote:^ very true!

Although I am not too keen on supplements unless really really necessary. That's of course the central European housewife approach (aka my mum's): why taking vitamin C tablets if you can eat an orange?

That's true it's always best to get your nutrition from whole foods, but having said that I take lots of supplements too :P

About green tea, I agree it's never too late :mrgreen:

Yes! All this green tea talk, I'm going to go buy some Oi-Ocha this afternoon!

New Findings Show Astounding Cancer Prevention Effects of Black Raspberries, Blueberries, Olive Leaves and Green Tea


Three studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Philadelphia have demonstrated the powerful cancer-fighting benefits of dark berries, green tea and olive leaves, and suggest that gels and beverages may some day be used to prevent against cancer and tumor growth.

In the first study, researchers from Ohio State University discovered that a gel based on freeze-dried black raspberries helps prevent precancerous mouth tumors (lesions) from becoming malignant.

"This gel appears to be a valid means of delivering anthocyanins and other cancer-preventing compounds directly to precancerous cells, since it slowed or reduced lesion progression in about two-thirds of study participants," said researcher Susan Mallery.

According to the American Cancer Society, oral squamous cell carcinoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, causing 7,500 deaths each year in the United States. Because no chemopreventive agent or treatment method other than radical mouth surgery exists, even those who survive the cancer often emerge significantly disfigured. And even in many cases where tumors are fully removed, they still recur.

"Oral cancer is a debilitating disease and there is a desperate need for early detection and management of precancerous lesions," said Mallery.

Most mouth cancer begins as small, noncancerous lesions in the mouth that are difficult to detect. It was these lesions that were treated in the Ohio State University study.

Researchers carried out the study on 20 participants who had identifiable precancerous mouth lesions and 10 who were healthy to constitute a control group. Both groups were instructed to dry the sites of their lesions gently, or to dry a predetermined site in the control group. The black raspberry gel was then rubbed into the area after each meal and before bed, for a total of four applications daily.

The gel, made of 10 percent freeze-dried black raspberries, looks like jam, but does not contain the sugars that give berries their sweet taste.

After six weeks, a microscopic diagnosis of the lesions in the precancerous patients showed that 35 percent had improved, 45 percent had stabilized and 20 percent had worsened. No side effects were observed in either the experimental or control group.

Researchers also collected cell samples from participants' mouth lesions both before and after treatment. Before the treatment, the lesions showed elevated levels of two proteins, COX-2 and iNOS, that have been associated with increased inflammation and risk of malignancy. After treatment, the levels of these proteins decreased significantly.

In addition, many cells exhibited a genetic condition before treatment known as "loss of heterozygosity," in which a cell has lost one copy of a tumor-suppressing gene, leaving it with only one remaining copy. This condition greatly increases the chance that a cell will become cancerous, should the last copy of the tumor-suppressing gene be turned off for some reason or lost through mutation. After the treatment, however, many of the cells in the lesion sites were found to have regained a second copy of the gene.

"We speculate that the chemopreventive compounds in black raspberries assist in modulating cell growth by promoting programmed cell death or terminal differentiation, two mechanisms that help "reeducate" precancerous cells," Mallery said.

The researchers believe that much of the cancer-preventive effect of black raspberries can be attributed to naturally occurring plant chemicals called anthocyanins.

"Black raspberries are full of anthocyanins, potent antioxidants that give the berries their rich, dark color, and our findings show these compounds have a role in silencing cancerous cells," Mallery said.

In another study presented at the same conference, researchers from Rutgers University found that an extract of green tea may help prevent against the growth of colorectal tumors.

Researchers first induced colorectal cancer in mice with a toxin, azoxymethane, which is believed to cause mice to develop tumors similar to those found in human colorectal cancer. All of the rats were then placed on a high-fat diet intended to simulate a typical Western diet. In addition to this food, half of the rats were also given a 0.24 percent solution of Polyphenon E, a standardized green tea extract.

Polyphenon E contains four of the major polyphenols that occur in green tea. Sixty-five percent of the polyphenol concentration of the extract is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is believed to be the most active ingredient. Prior studies have shown that EGCG helps prevent the skin from the tumor-inducing effects of ultraviolet radiation.

After 34 weeks, the rats that had been given the green tea extract developed 55 percent fewer tumors than the rats on the high-fat diet alone. In addition, the treated rats had tumors that were 45 percent smaller and were less likely to be malignant. They also weighed approximately 5 percent less than the rats that had not been treated with the extract. Tests of the treated rats' blood and colorectal mucosa showed detectable concentrations of green tea polyphenols.

Green tea polyphenols are also believed to block the body's ability to absorb fats.

The researchers said that the amount of polyphenols used in the test could probably be achieved simply by drinking green tea.

"When you account for caloric consumption, 0.24 percent Polyphenon E in the diet gave the experimental rats the equivalent of about four to six cups of tea a day," said researcher Hang Xiao. "While I can't make any recommendations for how much green tea people should drink each day, it isn't uncommon for some to drink that much tea."

In the third study, researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, found that a commercially available berry drink inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells.

The drink, marketed as Blueberry Punch, contains a combination of extracts from blueberries, elderberries, red grapes, raspberries, grape skin, grape seed, citrus skin, green tea, olive leaf, olive pulp, tarragon, turmeric and ginger. The researchers tested each of these ingredients individually, and confirmed that all of them are antioxidants that effectively suppress the growth of cancerous cells in laboratory tests.

In order to determine how the effectiveness of a combination of the antioxidants compare with the sum of the individual ingredients, the researchers first exposed prostate cancer cells in the laboratory to increasing concentrations of Blueberry Punch. After 72 hours, the size and viability of the cells decreased relative to the dose of punch they had been given.

The researchers then tested the punch on mice that had been induced to develop prostate tumors similar to those found in humans. After two weeks, mice that had been consuming a 10 percent solution of Blueberry Punch had tumors 25 percent smaller than those in mice that had not been given the beverage.

Among the potential mechanisms of action for the beverage, the researchers cited the inhibition of inflammation and the inhibition of a protein called cyclin D1, which has been an observed effect of EGCG.

Because Blueberry Punch is a food product and not a drug, the researchers believe that there should be no health side effects to its use, excepting only people who have a food allergy to one or more of the ingredients. They hope to move on to trials in humans with prostate cancer.

"The evidence we have provided suggests that this product could be therapeutic," said researcher Jas Singh.

^ Seems that most (all?) dark fruits and vegetables have considerable health benefits... Interesting.

bmwracer wrote:^ Seems that most (all?) dark fruits and vegetables have considerable health benefits... Interesting.

Yup...because all the phytonutrients are in the pigments of fruits and vegetables. That's why they always say eat the skin...and that's why it's preferable to buy organic because just as the skin has most of the phytonutrition...it also has all the friekin' pesticides in it too. At the very least wash that ish before you eat it. :P