Aspartame

[Viper]

My local sainsburys ran out of Bens Apple juice and bought him something different. After a few days he started to feel sick and dizzy in the mornings and not eating, we also noticed he was more prone to meltdowns, then we noticed the new drinks had Aspartame in them, we stoped him having them and he improved dramatically.

 

We have also noticed the sugar free drink that my other kids have always had (we give Ben apple juice to make sure he is getting some vitamins due to his limited diet) have Aspartame in them. We have just got home from shopping and the trouble we had finding squash without Aspartame was unbelievable.

 

Has anyone else noticed any reaction and any ideas what drinks we can get without Aspartame in (if thats allowed)

 

Viper.

[elaine1]

the only things i know without aspartame in are pure juices. i do think it causes a reaction. my son had a coke habit (cola!), and that was all we could get him to drink, but were hoping to wean him off it bit by bit.

[Flora]

Viper, my youngest son was reacting to aspartame and like you I cut it out of all my kids' diet with great results in both my boys.

 

My kids love Cranberry juice (the usual make... am I allowed to say which one?) which doesn't have aspartame or 'funny' additives at all. Also cranberry juice has many health benefits as well as being a good source of Vitamin C.

 

Lauren

[lil_me]

Never had a problem with it myself, since all the hype about it I've noticed its in loads of different foods and drinks

 

We only have fresh juices, none made from concentrate either, usually buy Tropicana. My son has the fibre juice which helps his loo problem and gets some much needed fibre into his diet as he eats next to nothing with any fibre in.

[denise2]

We don't have Aspartame as me and my sister have a reaction to it. As a family we drink Tesco hi-juice squash as it does not contain sweetners. Another difficulty is yoghurts, a lot of these have aspartame in. Some crisps also have it in mainly prawn cocktail, barbecue, pickled onion.

 

Denise 2

[smiley]

Hiya Viper,

My son has a huge reaction to aspartame, it sends him hyper, unable to have a conversation (he forgets words mid-sentence) and makes him feel sick and grumpy. It is a nightmare trying to find juice/squash without any in it, however, some of the high juice drinks are ok and there is an organic squash called Rocks thats free from everything - although you have to hunt for it (One of the more expensive shops by me sells it....don't know if i can say name! Begins with a 'W' !)

Happy shopping! Makes a big difference to my little boy

Edited August 21, 2005 by smileymab

[call me jaded]

'No added sugar' is soooooo misleading - it implies a healthier product, when what you're getting is an excitotoxin (the brain cells are 'excited to death'). Richard Blaylock has published research on this. Nasty stuff.

 

A friend of mine who is French develops products for a well-known dairy company. I asked her if she gives aspartame to her children. Her look of Gallic horror spoke volumes.

[Flora]

I don't trust anything that tastes like something that isn't added to it... and low calorie sugar... what on earth is that? . 'Low salt' salt is another one.. makes me cringe.

 

Lauren

[Guest flutter]

it is really hard to find things without it in. they sell things as reduced sugar, and that soemtimes is worse than sugar.

we are lucky cos little one can taste it and hates it

i did look the other day at a "new" juice drink, on tv lots and that had it in it too

[Viper]

Tesco High juice is the one we found without it. We made the mistake of thinking we were doing our best for our kids by buying "no added sugar" drinks but I now realise I would rather rot their teeth than feed them this toxic cr*p. When transporting this stuff in it's undiluted form the lorry has to have a skull and cross bones on it to warn of it's toxicity.

 

Viper.

[Tally]

Most artificial sweeteners are acidic. Sugar turns to acid, which rots the teeth. Acidic foods start rotting the teeth right away.

 

Always read very carefully any pruduct making health claims. Did you know for example that "light" Yakult contains more fat than the standard. It's sugar that it's light on. Very misleading that!

[Kazzen161]

We avoid aspartame as it does not seem to do T any good. I always go for the non reduced sugar versions.

 

Karen

[CarerQuie]

Aspartame hasn't had any noticeable effect on Rh but fruit juices have caused extensive tooth decay in my 17 year old and the Dentist has told her to stop drinking them.Sometimes you just can't win!!!xx

[oracle]

I avoid ALL artifical sweeteners with Matthew. I am looked at with horror by the doctor when I ask for full sugar medicine for him I also by the full sugar calpol because any artifical sweetener makes him vomit. It took me a while to realise that it was not the calpol he was reacting to but the sweeteners.

 

I also buy juice which does not say reduced sugar. At the moment Matthew is into making his own juice and loves squeezing the fruit. It may still be full of sugar but at least it's all natural - well pesticides aside that is

 

Carole

[smallworld]

Me too, except I also ask can we have the sugar version but without the colouring !

No can do !!

Our kids drink fruit juice diluted with water, or morrissons hi-juice (blackcurrant) made very weak. After one glass of juice with their meal, they get water if still thirsty (am hard mother !) I wish I could have the same resolve with other areas but I've found that avoiding aspartame and colourings is a fairly easy route to a calmer life. We do have the occasional treat of 'pop' but only early enough in the day to not effect sleeping at night-time generally, or we live to regret it !!!

Incidentally, although my three kids have always had the full sugar version of all the drinks going, none of them have ever needed any dental work doing, despite eating lots of sweets. Our dentist thinks that fizzy drinks are the culprit.

We are now onto removing preservatives from our childrens' diets and funnily enough, one of the most suspect ones is in almost all fizzy drinks.

let 'em drink 'corporation pop' I say !

 

wac

[oracle]

Mu husband is also a firm believer in 'corporation pop' drinks gallons of the stuff and Matthew likes it to

 

However David never drinks anything now except bottled water, and even then it's not your easily available naive stuff. Hubby firmly believes that the makers of this water are taking the water if you know what I mean David even uses it in his kettle for making tea and coffee doubling the price of a cuppa

 

Carole

[smallworld]

Carole,

buy him a water filter jug, just remember to change the cartridges, we never do !!

Am glad someone else knew what 'corporation pop' is, makes you realise that, that's all we got as kids, or milk.

Am seriously beginning to think that our kids have too many choices in every aspect of their lives, not just food and drink. It's bewildering, no wonder kids find it difficult to make choices.

Did you have a 'pop man' who came round delivering fizzy drinks when you were a kid ? We did, and that was the start of it......(if you were posh !!)

 

wac

[Klou]

Still investigating the whole drinks thing.

 

I would ideally avoid aspartame however also read on Eric when investigating our on going toilet training nightmare that apple juice effects some children, berry based drinks effect others, then there is the whole teeth thing......

 

Ds is lately very into banana milk. A cetain powdered substance in banana flavour added to regular cow juice. The powder has added vitamins, only contains sugar and I am hoping the milk is giving his teeth the protection he needs from the sugar.

 

Very worried about this because of the aspartame toxicity and teeth destruction on the other hand.

 

A friend's nearly 4 year old has to have a few fillings on her back teeth. Very scarey. I am consoling myself with the fact that she had a dairy allergy and probably didn't have enough calcium in her diet while her teeth were forming/when she was a toddler.

[call me jaded]

I'm deprived. Never heard of corporation pop. What's different about it?

[oracle]

Wac we still have pop man really But he does not come to our house. My dad was famous for his sayings (especially if he was not going to give in and give me something that I wanted) and one of them was 'If god had wanted you to drink pop he would have given you fizzy spit

 

Carole

[Viper]

I think corporation pop is tap water but I might be wrong, I've never heard of it either.

 

Viper.

[smallworld]

Carole's dad's saying really made me laugh

Viper, you guessed correctly, it's good old tap water (or not, depending on where you live !)

I'm still trying to convince my kids that fizzy drinks make you thirstier, and that water is the best thing to quench thirst. Until they realise that I'm right, I'll just have to carry on being 'mean mummy' !!

 

wac

[Jadensmum]

Hi Viper,

 

J drinks a lot of water. I try and avoid all artificial sweeteners etc but I do some times buy a juice from tesco's or waitrose which is organic and contains organic oranges, sugar and orange oil (whatever that is ) It begins with an "R"

 

Hope this helps

 

Denise

[UltraMum]

We made the mistake of thinking we were doing our best for our kids by buying "no added sugar" drinks but I now realise I would rather rot their teeth

Ditto - I try to avoid anything that has "no added sugar" as it's usually full of the stuff.

[Suze]

Reading this thread is scary, my son had a very bad hyper reaction to R*bena when he was little and similar when he ate red jelly at a school party( that,ll teach them).I,m gonna look into this aspartame thing some more.......another thing saw a dietician regarding sons lack of diet????? ......and the subject of Sunny D came up...can,t believe what that has in it .....vegetable oil to give it a gloopy consistancy ....you can,t beat good old water .

[cjsmum]

it omay not be the aspartame that causing the problem even though it isn't very ggod for you, ( dietician friend of mine won't touch anything that contains it) most squashes, high juice and the cheaper juice drinks contain sodium benzoate which is a preservative that causes most problems, we've found a certain fruit and barley drink in all flavours doesn' contain the nasties and we don't seem to have the problem as we've had with other drinks!!!!

[smallworld]

sodium benzoate is our list of things to avoid, I think it's E211 ? It seems to be in most drinks and sweets.We also try to avoid colourings, some manufacturers are now using natural colourings, eg. beetroot in yoghurts and sweets which helps,

 

wac