No. Aspartame is not bad for you. Sugar, however is absolutely bad for you. The purpose of this video is to show people how much aspartame is in Coke Zero vs the amount of sugar in Coke. Sugar, the number one cause of obesity, heart disease and other health issues, is far less sweet so you need a much larger amount to get the same level of sweetness as aspartame. The tiny amount of black stuff left over at the end of the Coke Zero pan is the aspartame. You need milligrams of aspartame compared to 30 grams of sugar.

All of the studies that have "shown" damaging effects of aspartame have given RATS not milligrams of aspartame, but GRAMS. This would be equivalent to a human being shoveling a pile of aspartame powder into their mouth, something that no one could even do because it would be too sweet to ingest.

Aspartame is a very simple chemical that when it enters the human body breaks down into three things, phenylalanine, methanol and aspartic acid. Once again, the amounts that these things break down into is smaller than you would get from eating comparable "natural products." You would get more methanol eating a few grapes or an apple. Aspartic acid is an amino acid that is good for you and you would once again find more of it in an oyster than in Coke Zero. And finally phenylalanine is the only thing that is of any danger to anyone. And even then, it is only dangerous to those who have phenylketonuria, a sensitivity to phenyl-groups that you would know if you have. Otherwise it is a hormone that only affects infants and is present in breast milk, one of the healthiest substances on earth for a human.

Sure, aspartame is one of the most complained about items by consumers at the FDA. But does that mean the science is wrong? No. It simply means that someone gets a headache and they blame it on the diet soda they just drank instead of the fact that they are dehydrated. Or someone has a dizzy spell because they got up too fast and they blame it on the diet soda they just drank. Aspartame has been investigated by every Federal Consumer Product group around the world and none of them have found a sufficient link to any health danger in order to take it off of the shelves. If you believe that this is a conspiracy, you are wrong. The bigger conspiracy is the rampant disregard for the danger of sugar in processed foods.

If you are curious about the dangers of sugar that are backed by solid nutritional and molecular biology, you should watch "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" on Youtube, or the movie Fed Up.

Some people have sensitivity to Aspartame. I used to get headaches when I was younger from drinking Diet Coke, and it was a co-worker that suggested Aspartame could be the cause. I stopped drinking Diet Coke and the frequent headaches went away.

I drink Coke Zero now, but not as much as I used to, and it doesn't bother me. Coke is still the only thing I will drink rum with.

Let's say, for argument's sake, there are 1,500 advanced civilizations within 1000 light years of us.

If only 1 of those civilizations -ours- gives a shit about anything beyond their atmosphere, then there's your problem right there.

Once you add the chances of life, then intelligent life, then intelligent life that actually thinks it needs a way to talk to each other over long distances, THEN develops radio, only THEN can we hear them.

What if they just never got to broadcast signals? Wire and fibreoptic may have been just peachy for them. Or maybe they just got to cell phones before trying short wave...

Maybe they react to radio waves. Like the few people out there who get headaches -proven by blind tests- from being close to radio emitters.

I also have narcolepsy, but out of the different "versions" you can find, I think mine may be the easiest to handle (though it may depend on person to person). I do get tired, but strangely I also suffer from extreme chronic headaches, which are powerful enough to keep me awake (bad however, as taking naps are almost always out of the question).

My issues revolve around the fact that when I go to sleep I stay in REM, or phase 2 sleep, almost all night long. I will have very vivid dreams that occur all night long (usually I'll sleep for two hours, get woken up by the dream, rinse and repeat). With this comes the more terrible aspects. I have constant bouts of sleep paralysis every night, and on top of this I suffer from hypnagogic hallucinations like crazy (even when I "think" I'm fully awake).

Very rarely the narcolepsy causes sleeping fits, but it is rare. It may be possible that cataplexy is involved, but I doubt it--it simply happens to rarely (although it does mimic it fairly closely).

Anyway, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis are NOT for everyone (as I had a hypnagogic hallucination so strong it felt like someone was yanking me through my bed, sound familiar?). This is where the origins of succubi, demons, angels, and aliens taking you away in the night come from. So, if you do not have a healthy intellect and open mind, you may just end up being, literally, scared of sleeping (unless you are on something akin to Xyrem).

My father has it as well, his symptoms are a little more classical, much like the poster above.

FTW???
Maybe I'm just not juvenile enough, but I'm not seeing the humor here.
Jeeze, at least, Lay him on the ground and prop his head up.
He's going to have one hell of a headache and maybe some medical. (??)

My gf had terrible headaches, constant nausea, and terrible drowsiness whenever she was hungry for her entire life... until I met her. I suggested she might be hypoglycaemic and should carry around a sugary treat or drink wherever she goes. She started doing that and quickly her hunger sickness symptoms could be basically controlled. But they were still there. One thing I always found strange about her eating habits was her insistence on having lots of bread. She never felt satisfied or full without bread.

After a year of doing that my mom suggested she might be gluten intolerant. My gf had never heard of the concept, had zero friends on any kind of gluten free fad diets. She decided to give it a shot, no gluten for 4 weeks. Boom all symptoms gone. More tests led her to trying out gluten after a week, and what do you know it was back. She waited two weeks, back again. Eventually she figured out a system in which she could have a gluten meal/snack/treat every four weeks without symptoms appear.
Also, she started to feel satisfied and full without an urge to eat bread, almost like the bread caused a weird drug like addicting withdrawal cycle which seemed to be why she always craved it. The gluten seems to build up in her system, or at least the allergic reaction and her body goes through a withdrawal after she has had too much, or too much too frequently, and doesn't get more in her system soon enough.

I eat gluten just fine. Together we eat vegetables, meat, fruit, and occasional pieces of the best gluten free bread (most of its sucks). I tend not to eat tasty gluten stuff around her unless it is a treat day for her Gluten products also make people fat, so it really isn't a problem to not eat them. No one on the planet requires gluten to live a healthy lifestyle. Bread, white bread in particular just gets converted into sugars and fat inside the body. It is empty calories.

Sorry, you're right. Your one anecdote outweighs the thousands of man hours of research put into this. Tell me, does this restaurant not use soy sauce?

Yes, MSG is harmful to a small number of people ... if taken in large doses on an empty stomach, i.e. like pretty much every foodstuff out there.

And I don't know where you got the idea that the video claims that "deluded MSG haters need to be set straight". It simply states that the prevailing myth about MSG has no basis in fact, much like the other current fad, the gluten free diet

*related=http://videosift.com/video/You-Probably-Dont-Need-to-Be-on-that-Gluten-free-Diet

And meh, you got a headache... so what? People actually die from peanut and shellfish allergies, but most people still eat them. I'm not really sure what your point is, other than to raise a meaningless anecdote about a restaurant that gives you headaches, but for some reason you still go back to.

Ok, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but you seem to be serious, so...

You're wrong.

The video debunks exactly what it says it does, the myth that MSG is bad for you, when in fact, it's in all kinds of food.

You got headaches after eating Chinese food from one restaurant; do you know what that means? Absolutely nothing. Your anecdote is completely and utterly irrelevant, unless you've never eaten any other food with MSG in it (like any of the list @Sarzy mentioned).

And yeah, "perfectly safe for the vast majority of people" is a completely acceptable standard. You can pick pretty much any food on the planet and a small number of people will get sick or even die from eating it. But it's "perfectly safe for the vast majority of people". Otherwise, we'd have to ban peanuts, shellfish, gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, garlic, meat... need I go on?

If eating at one Chinese restaurant gives you headaches.... don't eat there.
But don't blame it on some mythical MSG boogie man that was basically drummed up out of xenophobia.

"perfectly safe for the vast majority of people" - What about the other people? Screw them, they're just the stupid minority, right? This video debunks NOTHING. I'd like to see this prick get the headaches I used to get after eating Chinese food from a particular place. I'm sure he'd be real gung-ho about MSG then.

Well.., I guess the thing here is to define "Safe to eat" because many of my family members and friends "DO NOT" find it safe to eat.
Including nausea, stomach cramping and diarrhea and sometimes vomiting.

1). Is MSG the same as salt?

No. MSG is made from water, sodium and glutamate. Table salt is made from sodium and chloride.

2). Is MSG safe to eat?

Yes. According to Health Canada, MSG is not a health hazard.

BUT some people may have a sensitivity to MSG. It is the glutamate part of MSG that can produce symptoms such as:

Blurred vision
Tingling and/or burning sensation
Chills and shakes
Feeling of pressure on the face
Headache
Increased heartbeat
Nausea and vomiting
Pain in the face, back, neck or chest

These common symptoms of MSG sensitivity are generally temporary and can appear about 20 minutes after eating MSG and last for about two hours. The symptoms seem to happen faster and are more severe if you eat MSG-containing foods on an empty stomach or drink alcohol at the same time.
http://www.eatrightontario.ca/en/Articles/Food-allergies-intolerances/The-Truth-about-MSG.aspx#.U_wvE4JFcqU

Well, I'm a biologist and a medical doctor. Am I qualified to answer?

The fact is, we use WAY more adulterated substances in medicine all the time. From antibiotics all the way up to chemotherapy and radiopharmaceuticals. If you reject GM food as "unnatural" then you should never go see a doctor and certainly never take a prescription medication. I guess you could go suck on a Willow tree if you had a headache, but I doubt it would be as good as manufactured aspirin.

I would also like an honest answer for the question, "Which is worse, world starvation or effects of GM food?"

Pretty good video if you lack visual headaches. Sort of a "found footage" thing.

Of course empire borders have got a bit fuzzy with the rise of corporations - nowadays you can control most of another country's resources without having to deal with all the paperwork of running a government or the headache of revolutions.

You are going to have to work harder on the mansplaining -- I didn't see any. Your post is just intelligent, educated and observant conversation, a very different thing.

I really did have a great conversation with Empire in the lounge. Very respectful (although he did end up with a headache, poor guy.) At one point, he was explaining his response to the video and said, "I really don't think it's an insult to women" in reference to the phrase "run like a girl."

I instantly realized that could be the official motto of Mansplaining. "I really don't think it's an insult to women." Here I am, a woman, saying it is insulting and he is telling me I shouldn't be insulted.

Huh? There are reams of research showing the harmful effects of this kind of language and denigration.

....OH MY!!!!

I just realized you were Mansplaining. Except it is more Mansplaining-to-Mansplainers. From your intelligent, educated and observant place.

(And yes, I agreed with Empire that "mansplaining" is an insulting term. However, it is very useful shorthand for complex phenomena. I'd love to use a different term that is just as short that covers something so pervasive and complicated. There is a reason that term exploded in usage -- it was needed.)

In other words, I LOVE YOUR POST. Thank you.

Wow. So.....maybe I should stop being such an asshole, huh?...If I like, want folks to like, LIKE me?? Fuck THAT shit.

Who's Nickleback?? ...kinna missed the poppy-90s and then the government coop with 9-11 and all, bit fuzzy in the grey areas... GoddAMN!!-Typed this while listening and got a me a dweeb-speaking, 'Phil Fish' headache now

Excellent offering mechadeath, cheers. with some great scotch!