Diet drinks - is aspartame restricted?

[Apache54]

To Air Force, Navy, Marine, CG pilots, or any others in the know...

I heard a rumor a while ago about aspartame (main artificial sweetener in diet drinks, etc...) being restricted to fighter drivers. I know it has been linked to potentiating seizures and making symptoms of multiple sclerosis worse. Not that anyone possessing a class 1 or 2 flight physical has these conditions, but I was wondering if you have any regulation, letter, etc... banning the intake of this stuff? I know we army guys have no such restriction either at a regulation level or at the policy letter level. And I have seen FAA reports citing the ill effects in the cockpit, although other factors may have played into those 8 incidents. The Dept of Ag/FDA has stated over and over the safety of the substance is without question. I don't touch the stuff, but I'm doing a grad school paper (biochemistry) and thought if there was a restriction somewhere, it would be nice to put it in my paper.

Thanx in advance for your info.

Fly safe and keep the diry side down, mostly!

A54

 

[OPIE01]

Diet Drinks

I know a former United Airlines Captain that suffered from Aspritain induced blackouts. He said that for years he would be driving or talking with someone and just go blank for a few seconds. He never believed his family when they told him that he was blacking out. But then one day in while he was flying his 747 on final approach he blacked out and the next thing he knew, he was on outside downwind. The FO reliezed that this captain was blacked out so he took control of the Air Craft and went around. Needless to say the Captain was perminatly grounded and now belives what his family was saying.

The doctor told him he was suffering from an Aspritain build up in his brain. So he quit drinking Diet Coke and hasn't had any more black outs.

As far as I know, the USAF doesn't restrick Diet drinks of Aircrew.

My sister is an Army PA and said that aspertain buildup doesn't affect everyone. Most people will not ever have any problems drinking diet drinks. But I avoid them just in case I am on who could be affected by Asptertain buildup.

 

[dgs]

Aspartame is bad stuff

We thought my wife had MS until we discovered it was just a bad reaction to aspartame. Her symptoms included blurred vision, numbness in her extremities, occasional partial paralysis, pre-seizures, and loss of muscle control--particularly in her hands. She would regularly drop dishes when she lost control of her hands. Once she got off aspartame it took over 6 months before most of her symptoms went away. If she accidentally gets some aspartame again, her symptoms return almost immediately and it takes weeks for her to return to normal.

Aspartame is everywhere. Most sugar-free gums and breath mints use it. This stuff is so dangerous to some people it should have HUGE warning labels and nobody should be allowed to use it at a restaurant without the same warning notices.

When I was in the AF, there was no policy restricting it. However, I quit drinking diet Coke and Crystal Light when I started getting numbness in my hands. Now we have a completely aspartame-free house and we both feel healthier.

BTW, for those of you who think drinking diet Coke helps keep you slim, a nasty side affect of aspartame is that it does almost nothing to satisfy and may increase hunger--leading to a counterproductive increase in appetite (compared to drinking or eating something with sugar).

There are some very interesting articles published about the dangers and politics of aspartame. You can do a web search, if you are interested. Based on our experience, I certainly believe most of the stories of adverse reactions. I care less about the politics of its approval--we just avoid it.

 

[Slim]

My father related this story to me about 15 years ago.

He attended a medical seminar at a fly-in in Dubuque (sp?), Iowa. The speaker was a medical examiner who had three commercial pilots (two airline and one corporate) and all complained of an "off" feeling. Something wasn't quite right and all three knew it.

The examiner gave them all flight physicals and blood tests. He found no abnormalities. The next thing he looked at was diet. The only thing all three had in common was a high use of diet sodas and Equal. At the time, Equal was the only aspartame based sweetner on the market. They also used Equal to sweeten coffee, tea, etc.

The examiner took all three off aspartame. The symptoms the three pilots complained of cleared up within weeks. After hearing this from my father, I stopped using anything with aspartame. I started feeling better within days.

There used to be a product called Sweet One, which is no longer on the market. I asked the commissary at WPAFB to carry it and they did until it no longer was available. Now, I use something called Splenda. I'll use Splenda or Sweet-N-Low before using anything with aspartame.