Darn, I had a difficult time trying to arrive at a somewhat PC (politically-correct) two-letter summary abbreviation. FT was for 'functionality topic', and PT was for 'potency topic'. There were others that came to mind, but oh, well!!

The artcle linked below states that "Aspartame damages the hypothalamus". It further states that "In original studies aspartame triggered atrophied testes and testicular tumors. It then goes on to discuss how the pleasure signals may get sent, but are not received as such in the proer receptors, the result being, well, uh, a certain miscommunication that Bob Dole made a heck of a lot of money admitting to.

After doing some reading on asparteme awhile back, I'm not surprised. Could these sorts of studies (in the pipeline) be part of why the asperteme business was recently spun off?

"Sightings: Male Sexual Disfunction..."

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 23, 2000

Answers

This article was very vague. I mean, how much, over how long a time period, is harmful? I am not trying to advocate nutrasweet, but I heard the pepsi company filters their tap water so much that the end product with Nutra sweet is probably safer than tap drinking water, which is full of crap.

For many years my husband has had a caffeine free diet coke daily, as part of a diet. I'd say the weight loss more than makes up for any aspartame problems when it comes to the bedroom! I drink diet soda too, and after 20 years of marriage we are still on our honeymoon, as it were.

I'd say the evidence favors saccharine...sweet and low....if you need a substitute.

-- sugar (is@a.killer.too), February 23, 2000.

There is absolutely no vagueness here. Don't let it upset you too much...

Aspartame

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), February 23, 2000.

I'd guess that Pepsi's source water is very thoroughly filtered before being used to make the product, not after the product is made.

As to the how much over how long question, I suppose that those questions are among those addressed by the studies being now being run.

The site "Dorway.com" can get pretty blatant, but it is a well known sight about aspertame.

The article on that site, "Bad News" discusses some downright ugly parts of what that product is and what it does.

Finally, I agree that weight can also be a large problem in the bedroom (no pun intended -- I am slightly over my ideal weight also).

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 23, 2000.

FWIW: Awhile back, I offered some "lite" icecream with aspartame to my dog. Now he'll kill for regular icecream or most any milk product and I usually give him a small taste when I'm having some. But he wouldn't touch this stuff or anything with aspartame in it. I left the icecream in his dish for awhile to see if he'd change his mind and eat it. He'd go up to it, smell and back off. And this is a dog that will eat ANYTHING, the nastier the better!

As a further test, I tried stuff sweetened with Saccarin. No problem. Gobble gobble.

Over the years, he's warned me off foods, situations, snakes and more than a few people whom I found later to be dangerous. I think I'll trust my friend about Aspartame too.

-- mush (discovery@shields.up), February 23, 2000.

Bottom line -- anyone who willingly consumes regularly, artificially sweetened products is a frickin' IDIOT.

People who do the "low calorie" thing stupidly FEEL (emotion, not facts) that "low-cal" will help take off weight or maintain weight loss. Not so! Just look around you! Since "low-cal" and artificial sweeteners have become omnipresent there are more fat asses than ever.

The "diet Pepsi/diet Coke", "lean bullime" eaters are just kidding themselves.

The only solution is diets like the Atkins diet -- i.e., LOW CARB (carbs of all kinds - including bread, pasta, and rice -- should be reduced).

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 23, 2000.

From a chemistry point of view I have to doubt this. Aspartame is simply a pair of natural amino acids, which are of course the basic building blocks of all protein. Further, digestion breaks down protein (about 20% of your food) into single amino acids and small groups. So how is aspartame different?

However, I do wonder why you can't get naturally sweet lower-calorie drinks. Fructose (from fruit or honey) is six times sweeter than common sugar (sucrose). So you could sweeten with one unit of fructose instead of six units of sucrose, and sell it as one-sixth of the calories, and no artificial sweetners.

-- Nigel (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), February 24, 2000.

Nigel: one-sixth (?) doesn't do it -- it has to be ZERO, so they can "get fries with that". :o)

You might ask also (with no good answer received if you ask an average dolt) why not drink 100% fruit juice instead of "juice drinks" and "nectars" and "soft drinks"? (My answer, most people are idiots.)

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 24, 2000.

let's give it to rapists? :-)

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), February 24, 2000.

Stevia is a natural substance banned by the FDA which apparently is safe, has no calories and is 100's of times sweeter than sugar. No link, just google it if you're interested.

-- number six (#@#.com), February 24, 2000.

Nigel, the link above to dorway states that aspartame contains methanol, which breaks down into two damaging chemicals, one of them formaldehyde, and both damaging. It states, and I've read this elsewhere, that it caused brain tumors in animals in lab studies. Friends who have stopped using NutraSweet have markedly improved health, including the cessation of debilitating headaches.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), February 24, 2000.

Well, I guess it's time for me to switch to tea!

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 24, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

ED Topic? Every time I hear that commercial I think Bob Dole is saying he has a reptile disfunction.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), February 24, 2000.

Dancr, ROTFLMAO! Call me "Ain't gonna dance, no more, with "That" big fat woman! Me, Woman, myself.

-- Diet Coke (withdr@wal.com), February 24, 2000.

Stevia is used in RC Diet Cola, I bought some at Raley's here in CA. It's the only diet drink that I have found Stevia. Apparently, it hasn't been approved for "over-the-counter" by the FDA yet, but I understand it will be available. soon.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 24, 2000.