Artificial Sweeteners Essay

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Today, Americans are extremely addicted to sugar. Many would agree that using artificial sugars to satisfy a sugar addiction is part of a healthy diet. Replacing those sugars in beverages, honey, etc., can dramatically reduce those high amount of calories that are consumed. Even though this appears to be healthy for the consumer, health risks are involved with the artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners do have their positive effects as well. These artificial sweeteners would be a great choice for a parent that has a hyper active child. Knowing the positive and negative effects that artificial sweeteners have on health can not only help consumers avoid the potential health risks but we will know our limits to the point where we can be influenced by the positive.
Over many years, children and adolescents have dramatically increased their consumption of artificial sugar-sweetened beverages such as diet soda, fruit drinks and punches, and sports drinks (Hendriksen 43). This consumption has been linked to less healthy diets and a number of other negative health consequences such as decreased bone density, tooth decay, migraines, anxiety and loss of sleep (Hendriksen 43). Much of these consumers have used these artificial sweeteners in large amounts, and with their high sweetness rate an over use of these artificial sweeteners have become dangerous. Many who suffer from migraines are to steer clear of artificial sweeteners because of being 2 – 8 times sweeter than normal sugar. Theory is that upon the consumption, the body reacts like the artificial sweetener is glucose, it stimulates that release of insulin (Hendricksen 44). This can cause the body to go into storage mode. Those Fats and sugars are more likely to store than bur...

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... foods are reduced in calories from aspartame. Aspartame is created by joining aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and a little bit of methanol. Aspartic acid and phenylalanine are naturally found in many foods and. Aspartame is digested just like any other protein. Aspartame breaks down into its basic components and is absorbed in the blood. Aspartame does not build up in the body over time. The FDA has concluded that aspartame is safe for the general public, including people with diabetes, woman that are pregnant or nursing, and young children. Aspartame is one of the most watched and studied agents in food. It has been tested over 100 times before the FDA approved of it in 1981. Many studies have looked for the health effects in animals when fed aspartame. Two studies showed that very high doses of aspartame might increase the risk of leukemia and lymphoma in rats.

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