Giving up Shakes *sniff*

PurpleButterfly

PurpleButterfly

16lb to go!
I just want to have a little ramble.

I have been doing my homework about the sweetener aspartame in the last couple of days, and it's really quite scary how dangerous it is health wise. Carcinogen, ME type symptoms, weight gain, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, the list goes on and on and on. Even in our psychology lecture we were told that aspartame is as bad as cocaine, marijuana, caffeine and ecstasy in causing anxiety and even panic disorder. :eek::eek: The only clinical trials which have found it to be safe are the ones funded by the manufacturer of aspartame - and their methodology and results have been found to be flawed. 100% of independent trials found that there were problems with it. There are numerous lawsuits against the manufacturers of aspartame coming out, so much so that they reckon they'll ban the use of aspartame in a couple of years.

I have emailed lighter life about how concerned I am about the use of aspartame in their shakes, though not sure they'll respond.

So, I guess this means I have little choice but to vote with my feet and just have soups and bars :(. I really like the shakes and find them more filling but if it's a case of poisoning myself or not poisoning myself I'd rather not lol! To make matters worse I only really like the veg soup, can tolerate the chicken and tomato ones, and think the thai chili and mushroom are gross! so it'll just be a case of forcing myself to down those soups for 3 months! Booooooooooo.:sigh:

ok rant/ramble over.
 
PurpleButterfly said:
I just want to have a little ramble.

I have been doing my homework about the sweetener aspartame in the last couple of days, and it's really quite scary how dangerous it is health wise. Carcinogen, ME type symptoms, weight gain, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, the list goes on and on and on. Even in our psychology lecture we were told that aspartame is as bad as cocaine, marijuana, caffeine and ecstasy in causing anxiety and even panic disorder. :eek::eek: The only clinical trials which have found it to be safe are the ones funded by the manufacturer of aspartame - and their methodology and results have been found to be flawed. 100% of independent trials found that there were problems with it. There are numerous lawsuits against the manufacturers of aspartame coming out, so much so that they reckon they'll ban the use of aspartame in a couple of years.

I have emailed lighter life about how concerned I am about the use of aspartame in their shakes, though not sure they'll respond.

So, I guess this means I have little choice but to vote with my feet and just have soups and bars :(. I really like the shakes and find them more filling but if it's a case of poisoning myself or not poisoning myself I'd rather not lol! To make matters worse I only really like the veg soup, can tolerate the chicken and tomato ones, and think the thai chili and mushroom are gross! so it'll just be a case of forcing myself to down those soups for 3 months! Booooooooooo.:sigh:

ok rant/ramble over.
Click to expand...

WO! That's some scary sh*t! I live off the shakes. The chocolate one to be specific. And the only thing I have noticed is the dizziness. And it's peculiar, because I have a history of Anxiety and Panic Attacks, but I haven't experienced anything relating for quite some time now. And I know that certain illegal substances do affect me with them because I have been spiked several times in the past. (I really am crap at watching my drink and I live in Chavsville where spiking people is a sport!)
I'll keep an eye on it though. Thanks for the warning!!

B x
 
Ooooh that's a bit scary PB. Do you know of any reports from people on, or having been on LL that have suffered the problems that you have described?
 
A really good website is here:
Aspartame Formaldehyde Poisoning
As far as I can tell it's more the build up of it that's harmful if you're having it regularly than having it once or twice a week. It's still not a risk I'm willing to gamble with.

But I'm glad you've been ok with it and that it hasn't triggered any of your anxiety and panic attacks.
 
Susianna: I don't know of any specific cases to LL, but aspartame is the same whether it's in diet coke (and there are cases for people who drunk that regularly), or most diet/low fat products (cos they want to make it taste better), or whatever.

If you do a search in google for aspartame poisoning, it comes up with heaps of other results, if anyone's interested in finding out more.
 
Wow, fascinating... I'm not sure i'll cope with LL sans shakes... but I have suffered with panic disorder for years, and that tied in with my job drinking about 3 pints of diet coke a day. Hmmm...

I think once I finish LL, I will be making a conscious effort to avoid the stuff.

Thanks :) x
 
Actually, I did used to drink a hell of a lot of diet coke!! Now I wonder if it made some kind of bearing to my anxiety issues!? Hmmm... Would explain why I'm not suffering at the moment I suppose, although not really if I have just swapped the diet coke for hot chocolate. I think I have just confuddled myself!!

B x
 
It's not that I'm saying your wrong in any way, but just how do they put those symptoms down to aspartame?? I know that I might get fatigue, dizziness, headaches, etc, etc, from everyday living. There is NO way that I could attribute them to anything other than stress half the time. I think we are more stressed these days than ever before. I had a really bad day in work yesterday and got a horrendous headache. Now, I could have put that down to the aspartame I suppose, but seeing as though it was the only REALLY stressful day I've had in weeks, and the only headache I've had in weeks, I think it was all tension. As for fatigue, I'm working with four kids, so I think that might be explained away.

I just don't know how they can attribute such vague symptoms.

There is just no way I'm stopping drinking the shakes! ;-) I could cope with headaches, etc, but couldn't cope drinking soup three times a day!! Yeuck!
 
Hmmm I'm not saying that aspartame is the ONLY cause for above symptoms, as you very rightly pointed out they can be for many reasons. It's just a consideration and some of the symptoms can be quite serious for some people.
And I don't know how they test them to conclude that those symptoms appear; I presume they gave one group aspartame, another a placebo and another nothing, and measured health changes over time. This is just my guess.
 
Andy: that's fair enough.

Just to be clear, I wasn't going on a campaign trying to convince everyone to drop the shakes, far be it, I was literally just wanting to have a little ramble and rant and sort of see for myself the reasons why I was giving up shakes.. Also I suppose to put some information out there and if others decide or decide not to be worried about it then that's fine by me either way...

Oh gosh, now I'm sounding really defensive aren't I?

*digs hole*
 
Not at all PB... I appreciate any info that is shared on here - that's what forums are for. Of course, for many people it won't make a difference, but it's better to know and make a choice than to assume all is hunky dory and be caught out. Don't worry - I didn't think the tone of your post was overly antagonistic against LL - it is a widely known fact that aspartame is a dangerous substance - has been reported on for many years.

Night x
 
No don't worry PB, I don't think you are being defensive and I know that it was not your intention to get others to give up shakes. This is clearly something that has worried you and therefore you wanted to bring the subject to the board.

Personally I will watch with interest but won't give up the shakes as when I think of how many people I know that almost live of diet coke and other diet drinks and they are fine ..... so as I try to do with most things I will keep an open mind.

Hope you get on OK with the soups and bars ... let us know how its going!

x
 
Yikes!! I wasn't in anyway antagonised and definitely didn't feel I was listening to you campaign against drinking the shakes, so hope my reply didn't actually come across that way!!

To be honest I often think when I look at side effects from drugs, etc, that the symptoms could be due to lots of other things because they are so common. And when there are food scares, I tend not to listen, as I'd eat nothing!! (Mmmm, maybe that might be an idea - would save me £66 a week!) LOL!!

Anyway, I absolutely understand why you might make that decision, but I just wouldn't want you to stay away from the shakes, drink the soups only, plus a bar, and then this make you so fed up that you'd not stick to LL. It's for such a short time anyway that I think you need to enjoy it as much as you can. But then if the decision you make it to not drink them, then good on you for just trying to look after yourself.

I've never felt better than when I've been on LL, so I'm in no way worried about the shakes.

Gawd, going to stop there as I'll just dig a bigger hole I think!! Just wanted you to be totally clear that I wasn't being argumentative or meaning anything hostile by my earlier post.

xx
 
I know there has been lots of concern about artificial sweetners in general and aspartame in particular, but I'm not sure how it can be avoided in most diets. Almost all the processed foods I ate while on WW or even when I wasn't had some form of sweetner. I have drunk gallons of diet coke every week for about 20 years.

I guess if I was susceptible to anxiety disorders it would have emerged by now. Potential longer term illnesses such as cancer are probably too late to avoid by stopping now. I need to lose serious amounts of weight to immediately improve my health and I really don't think I could do it on soups and bars alone - that's three soups a day!

PB If you can cope then I say go for it. It would be great to live life free from the cocktail of chemicals we are exposed to every day. Limiting it in whatever way you can must be beneficial. :)
 
Lol!

No, I didn't think you were being antagonistic PS, you seem like a lovely person from round the forum so I didn't think you would be one to pick an argument anyway!

Hey I think that JCB is doing overtime here! God I do put my foot in it sometimes.

But yeah I think I'm going to stick to my thing of soups and bars with the odd shake thrown in for variety. (I'm keen to try making maltesers anyway, and that involves a shake mix!). The way I see it is that it's only nutrition, so it's just a case of throwing something down the hole in my face! :D See how it goes as well, I might decide that I really hate soups and go back to having some shakes for a while, I'm sure a few won't kill me.
 
Um - JCB? Sorry to be dense but what or who is that?
 
big mechanical digger :D
 
Duh!!:eek:
 
Interesting stuff PB!

I can only stand the choc shake, so aspartame or not I've gotta stick to it. However, I'd already made the decision that post-LL, fizzy drinks are a no-go for me. I know they trigger me something awful anyway, so I'll be steering clear of them!

Good info though.....
*runs to google it and check out more*

:)
 
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