Dears, Personally speaking, I have learned a lot from this debate.
Allow me to summarise: 1: Aspartame is not a medication required for the treatment of any disease process (as of yet). 2: Aspartame is not a prescription substance. 3: Certain individuals (i.e. with PKU) should not be using Aspartame. 4: In regular usage, it has been deemed to be safe. 5: Even so, it is a substance of choice. Nobody forces anybody to take it. Some individuals with diabetes or with obesity choose to add Aspartame instead of sugar as a sweetener to (say) their coffee, others do not bother with either. 6: Those who have concerns about Aspartame should not use it. Some have concerns about the about the amount of insecticide on fruits and vegetables. They might well choose to eat chicken replete with antibiotics and hormones or fish from the heavy-metal contaminated waters around. 7: Even Love and Fresh Air have their side-effects especially in places like Karnataka and Bihar. 8: If some doctors believe that they have a duty to advise their clients re: what they (the doctors) believe to be the truth, they should do so. 9: Modern patients are quite savvy. They check and double chec 10: When a semi-layman like me is presented with information like the one I have been reading, I normally turn to Snopes to sift out the Methi from the Myth. http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp 11: Sometimes, these frenetic claims were true some time ago ....but no longer are (as the formulations have been changed - but the chain letters have not bothered to update themselves). http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/ppa.asp 12: If however, we are interested in discussing the technical side of matters, I suggest that we first (a) familiarise ourselves with the technology (b) decipher how modern science agrees to accept/publish research papers (c) go right to the source of the studies or publications....and not to some blogs.....before we splash ourselves on the www. have a good one jc
