If you google excitotoxin or aspartame poisoning you can find much much more on this toxic substance.
Jazz at In Pieces traces her experiences with mania that led to a bogus bipolar diagnosis to consuming large quantities of diet soda. I’ve talked to others who have made this connection with their own “mood-disorders.”
From Jazz:
In my reading, I also came across some information about the artificial sweetener Aspartame being implicated in mood disorders. When I thought back over my own history, I realized that my mood swings had started in college, soon after I’d turned to diet soda as a study aid. I’d never liked coffee or tea, and didn’t want the calories in regular soda, so Diet Coke became my drug of choice. More importantly, those mood swings had stopped when I’d stopped drinking Diet Coke.
She has since been officially undiagnosed: “Bipolar” Off Meds Success
I stick to one guiding principal in my diet. If nature didn’t make it I don’t eat it. There are also some things that nature makes that I’ve discovered I have sensitivities to. I’ve learned the hard way to pay attention to everything I put in my body.
Aspartame is being placed in more and more products, including foods that are not labeled as diet foods and already have sugar in them…all chewing gum now contains aspartame. Moss Bliss – try stevia.
The point of the movie ‘Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World’ was to find out whether claims of aspartame’s effects were true or “conspiracy theory”. 7000 miles of travel and face-to-face talks with the players sheds a lot of light on this subject.
This documentary and it’s sequel, ‘Sweet Remedy’ are brilliant sources of information on aspartame.
EF – Good info on aspartame, tainted food, and the above films can be found at http://www.sweetremedy.tv
Diet sodas and anything with nutrasweet…it does have to be listed on the ingredients…just read the ingredients…and stay away from artificially sweetened and refined food in general…that’s the safest way to play it.
Does anyone know of a list of the most commonly found aspartame-containing foods/drinks???
Such a list to Avoid would help us all to be aware of where it may lurk.
I’ve read a bit about the theory that almost all Gulf War syndrome neurotoxins were a result of the massive amounts of old and sometimes overheated soda and diet sodas that major cola companies sent the troops. Not usre where to find it online but prob not too hard to find. Being very allergic to aspartame and knowing how it can turn to formaldehyde it struck a note of truth in my mind.
~ EF
LOL I labeled this product “Putrasweet” back in the 1980s. However, because of the flawed studies on Cyclamate and Saccharine (which purport to prove those sweeteners’ carcinogenicity, something which has not been tested on Putrasweet and Stupralose (sucralose)…) it’s bloody hard to find anything that still has saccharine in it. Why do I care? Because I’m allergic to nearly all sugars, and have not been tested on the others.
Yeah I looked at it when I was looking at doing the diazepam crossover. It’s been pretty good for me, but I’m not doing the crossover. Just wondering if the difficulty sleeping the first couple of nights after a taper is normal or if it means I’m going too fast. I don’t have the gut feeling I’m going too fast, but I’m still nervous because I went REALLY fast off the Abilify.
if you resume sleeping in a few days it sounds fine most likely…but sleeping is not the only thing to be aware of…there are dozens of potential withdrawal symptoms…if you’re having any of them too much then slow down.
Benzo Withdrawal symptom list
I’ve been a hardcore coffee drinker since I was 18… but recently gave it up completely, about a month ago… so now I guess I’m just sensitive again.
I have not had my adrenals tested, I think it’s a good idea.
Is it a 10% cut every week or a 10% cut every other week? I’ve been doing 10% every other week. It’s hard for the first two days to sleep, but then I find my sleep gets better.
Currently listening to Whitaker’s interview on Madness Radio and I’m getting pissed again. I cannot believe how much I was/am lied to by these mental health “professionals”
kimbriel,
10% is only a guideline and the general length of time is as well…
with benzos some people make much smaller cuts..as little as 2.5% and some go slower and some go faster…
there are water titration protocols that involve doing .001% daily…lots of things one can do…
have you ever looked at Heather Ashton’s manual? It’s not the be all end all…but it does shed light on things quite a bit…it’s worth printing out…just for ideas…there are people who don’t like her at all and others who worship her. I got a lot out of reading her work, though I know it like all advice should not be taken in a dogmatic way…
I have not noticed any sensitivity to aspartame, but I do stay away from it, since it is a neurotoxin. I had one little shot of espresso the other day, though, and that’s when I had my “anxiety attack”. Wonder if I’m just REALLY sensitive to caffeine.
a cup of green tea puts me through the roof!! and I used to be a hard-core coffee drinker…I hate to imagine what I was doing to myself…well…really I KNOW…my adrenals were totally shot…though they are coming back now…I can see the results in a years time of being caffeine free and using a couple of adaptogens…
have you ever had your adrenals tested?
so yeah…if you don’t normally drink coffee AND you’re withdrawing from benzos…if you’re anything like me it’s the likely culprit…
I have noticed this myself, I am very sensitive to aspartame as well as pretty much any artificial additive like BHT, chemicals added to a variety of things, salicylates, food dyes, food wax, caffeine, sugar and more. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. And thanks for finding my blog, I will follow your blog, too. You’re very smart to be cautious about new meds, I feel the same way, though the idea of a quick fix is something that needs to be thrown away.