This is a great analysis, but anytime I see conversations around artificial sweeteners and aspartame I think it's worth reminding ourselves how many people we know who consume diet sodas in large quantities are are afflicted with terrible health maladies.
It is unfortunate that some of the science around why this is the case is only coming to light now. Here is a recent one where we can see how artificial sweeteners can lead to insulin resistance, a fact that we should all find shocking.
Nice piece, dynomight. Have you ever tried neotame? It's my favorite artificial sweetener, economical with a clean and sugar-like taste. You can get the sweetness equivalent of 450 lbs of sugar (20g) for $20 on Amazon. Titrate ~11mg/mL in vodka or similar to get 1 tsp sugar equivalent per drop.
Neotame doesn't metabolize quite as cleanly as aspartame. However, it is 50x more potent than aspartame and one of my priors is that more potent drugs tend to be safer because they have more targeted receptor effects and lower total metabolite mass.
Oh and licking the pure powder is a terrible idea, it is mind-bendingly sweet.
Does this also include effects on the gut microbiome? I've heard from people I somewhat trust that aspartame is bad for your gut health by causing gut dysbiosis. I only skimmed the article and searched it for the words "gut health", "microbiome" and "dysbiosis" (They aren't there). At first glance it still seems possible that aspartam is bad for you because it's effect on the gut. I've also heard it's common that research confirms that "X is not bad for you", but never checks whether "is it also ok for your gut microbiome". I personally have no idea. What's your take on this?
This is a great analysis, but anytime I see conversations around artificial sweeteners and aspartame I think it's worth reminding ourselves how many people we know who consume diet sodas in large quantities are are afflicted with terrible health maladies.
It is unfortunate that some of the science around why this is the case is only coming to light now. Here is a recent one where we can see how artificial sweeteners can lead to insulin resistance, a fact that we should all find shocking.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014832/
Nice piece, dynomight. Have you ever tried neotame? It's my favorite artificial sweetener, economical with a clean and sugar-like taste. You can get the sweetness equivalent of 450 lbs of sugar (20g) for $20 on Amazon. Titrate ~11mg/mL in vodka or similar to get 1 tsp sugar equivalent per drop.
Neotame doesn't metabolize quite as cleanly as aspartame. However, it is 50x more potent than aspartame and one of my priors is that more potent drugs tend to be safer because they have more targeted receptor effects and lower total metabolite mass.
Oh and licking the pure powder is a terrible idea, it is mind-bendingly sweet.
Does this also include effects on the gut microbiome? I've heard from people I somewhat trust that aspartame is bad for your gut health by causing gut dysbiosis. I only skimmed the article and searched it for the words "gut health", "microbiome" and "dysbiosis" (They aren't there). At first glance it still seems possible that aspartam is bad for you because it's effect on the gut. I've also heard it's common that research confirms that "X is not bad for you", but never checks whether "is it also ok for your gut microbiome". I personally have no idea. What's your take on this?