All,
With all the posts I've seen regarding Aspartame, both "pro" and "con"
(so to speak..), I thought I would weigh in with my own Aspartame
experience. I have no commercial interest in either side of the
argument nor do I have any strong feelings either way about Searle,
Rumsfeld, etc.. But I think this is important enough to share.
Sometime in the mid-1980's, I was in a business/sales meeting with
some other people. I was in the middle of explaining something when
very quickly it felt like a "cloud" or a "rushing wind" came over my
thoughts. I couldn't remember what I was talking about, and in fact
this "block" was so extreme that I couldn't remember where I was or
what I supposed to be doing. This "brain block" lasted maybe 20-30
seconds and slowly cleared, so that within 60 seconds I was "OK" again
(but could still feel some residual neural effects). I think I was
more "scared" than anything. Embarrassed, too.
This same scenario (business meeting, brain freeze, etc.) occurred
twice again over a few weeks period. Nothing even remotely like this
had ever happened to me, so I began thinking about what might be
causing it.
I'll leave out the many details, but over months of self-testing
(admittedly less than "scientific"😉, I found that ingesting Aspartame,
even small quantities (such as a stick of gum) caused susceptibility
to these attacks of short-term brain freeze. I'll add that these
episodes were always accompanied (triggered) by a heightened stressor,
the most common being a business meeting. I also found that these
symptoms would diminish within 2 to 3 days of Aspartame avoidance, and
would -never- occur when I avoided Aspartame.
During my "experimental period," I probably experienced this brain
blockage effect a dozen times. Occasionally, when I've accidentally
ingested Aspartame over the last 15+ years, I've experienced the same
neural symptoms to varying degrees -- it's no fluke. Some might claim
that these symptoms are purely coincidental or sub-consciously
connected, and they may be right. But I doubt it, and I'm not taking
any chances.
For what it's worth,
PT