More on Sweeteners: Aspartame

By Amy Campbell Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their commentary, feedback, and questions regarding the two sweeteners I've recently written about: Splenda and Nectresse. Due to popular demand, I've decided to extend my series and focus this week on another standby, aspartame. Aspartame Aspartame is one of the older nonnutritive sweeteners, having been discovered in 1965. However, it has only been used in the US since the 1980's. Sold under the brand names Equal and NutraSweet, It's also one of the most commonly used sweeteners. Its patent expired in 1992, so generic versions of aspartame are now sold as well. This sweetener is made up of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. If you recall high school biology or chemistry, you'll remember that amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Amino acids are found naturally in many foods, including milk, meat, poultry, and beans. Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than regular sugar, and as you likely know, this sweetener is used in thousands of foods, candies, and beverages. It's also used in some medicines and vitamins. One of the drawbacks of aspartame is that it's not particularly heat stable, which means that it's really not suitable for cooking or baking. People who have a rare genetic condition called phenylketonuria (PKU) should not use aspartame or any product containing this sweetener. That's because people with PKU can't properly metabolize phenylalanine and levels of this amino acid can bu...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs