I have always thought aspartame (e.g. Nutrasweet) is an effective sugar substitute. Here is an excerpt of a 1994 email pertaining to aspartame as unsafe for diabetic patients:

Does anyone buy this?

Do you have any newer research? 1994 is a long time ago. Also, the email in question looks slightly dodgy.

Sure. Here's another one that says aspartame is unsafe:
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspar...en_dangers.htm - copyright 2005

The American Diabetes Association and the Joslin Diabetes Center say otherwise.

Nutrasweet, Aspartame and Phenlyalanine are all the same things. As a sweetener they are incomplete and dangerous.
Phelalanine as we knew it in teh begining though an important component for insulin is not the same chemical as our bodies make.
Phenylalnine was first devloped in the 1940s as Phenylalanine mustrtad. It was given to the over 40 age group of wopmen who were pregnant. the idea waas that teh chemical prevented brain retardation and allowed for a more complete brain cell division.
As as ide effect of the chemical it was sweet.
Later it was fund becaus eof teh effects on brains to work with epileptics, autistics and mild retardation by helping damaged areas to grow.
Cute trtick for use in todays market.
This chemical has cause seizures, migraines, brain compression, kidney damage. Though effective today as when developed, its uses ae still for retardation, seizure and brain repair.

If they are dangerous as a substitute for sugar, then why do doctors still recommend them as a substitute?

In small doses aspartame really isn;t likely to do gross physical harm. Measurable damage is only seen at very high doses in healthy people. A lot of peope are eating a lot of aspartame and they aren't dropping like flies.

That said, I personally never knowingly eat aspartame. For a start I don't like the taste, but secondly I reason that if it does harm in high does it probably isn;t doing any good at small doses--especially to children or people with health vulnerabilities. The neural effects are particulalry worrying to me. So I figure, better safe....

Doctors still recommend it but in my experience an informed doctor recommends it *in moderation* to avoid accessive consumption of sugar. A can of aspartame cola is probably much less damaging to a diabetic than 150 calories as sugar.

IMHO nobody should be buying gallons of diet drinks and using it instead of water. Let alone of they have poor healt, or letting thier kids do the same.

well, let's be serious - ANYTHING in large doses is bad for you, and more so if it's an artifical thing - I'm nervous about Splenda because it's advertised as "coming from sugar" which to me sounds rather dicey... either it's sugar or it's not!

I enjoy maybe a diet cola a day, if it's a hot one and I need something very cool other than water... but in large amounts anything is going to be bad for you!

What cracks me up is a lady at work who goes on and on about how bad tap water is you with flouride and so on--so she drinks cola instead. I never could understand the logic there. A bit of copper, flouride, maybe a few bacteria at the worse--versus cola!

ugh... and you know how much sugar is in the cola!

what a fool...

I have a lady who comes into work on a regular bases. Claiming she is on a diet, and she orders a diet cola. But she gets at least three refills. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.