Life is Full with Chemistry

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Aspartame

One day when I’m having chemistry lecture, one of my friend offer me a sweet so I took it and have a look on the ingredient label and I saw aspartame, so I didn’t take it and returned it back to him. It’s because during few years ago I read an article about aspartame that’s it isn’t good to human health but I didn’t really read in detail so I decided to do research on it and posting it up for my chemistry assignment as the 5th posting. Basically I only know aspartame use as sweetener and it’s isn’t good but I don’t really know why is it so? So hope u will enjoy sharing my research together and less consuming aspartame containing food. ^^

Aspartame was first discovered in 1965 by James M.Schlatter, a chemist which worked under G.D. Searle & Company that undergo synthesized of aspartame in course of producing anti-ulcer drug. By coincidence he discovered that its sweet taste serendipitously when he licked his finger, which had been contaminated with aspartame accidentally.

Aspartame is the name for the artificial, non-carbohydrate sweetener, or known as aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester. It had been an ingredient of almost 5,000 consumer foods and beverages worldwide which commonly used in diet soft drink and vitamin. On top of that, it is also use as substitutes sugar use by diabetic.

Do you know that aspartame is been subjected by vigorous public controversy regarding its safety of it?

It’s well known that aspartame contains the naturally occurring amino acid phenylalanine which is a treat to people which born with phenylketonuria (genetic intolerance to phenylalanine).

What make the properties behind aspartame causes it to be generally uses in food?

Aspartame mainly use as a sweetener due to it is 180 times sweeter than regular sugar at the same concentration and like other peptides has a caloric value of 17kilojoules per gram, the quantity of aspartame need is SMALL as to make its caloric contribution negligible.(main reason people use aspartame is to avoid calories from sugar).

How aspartame properties work?

Aspartame may break down into its constituent amino acids under high temperature or high pH. (How does this related?) It makes aspartame undesirable as a baking sweetener and prone to degradation in high-pH products which required a long life shelf. Aspartame’s stability under heating allowing it to improve by encasing it in fats or in maltodextrin while the solubility of aspartame is determined by pH. (Let me tell u how it work in soft drink when it come to solubility).

At room temperature, aspartame is stable at pH 4.3 where its half-life is nearly 300days while at pH 7 neutral, its half life is just several days. In most soft drinks its pH ranging from 3 – 5 where aspartame is stable. In production of food, it requires a longer shelf life therefore aspartame would blend with a more stable sweetener, saccharin. (Saccharin also proved to causes cancer) (Try imagining 2 cancer-causing substances added in 1 new mixture. What you think will happen? Disaster?)

Aspartame also uses in powdered beverages, it required to undergo a Maillard reaction with aldehyde groups presents in aroma compound. It is to ensure the sweetness and flavor from losing via the protection by aldehyde as an acetal.
Since now we already knew about the chemical and properties of aspartame. I will continue about the effect of it to our human body.

Well as said earlier, aspartame contains phenylalanine which is harmful for phenylketonuria people. (Do you have phenylketonuria? If u do, be careful when intake aspartame or any phenylalanine product)

Aspartame was reported by FDA(U.S Food and Drug Administration) that it caused 92 types of health effect!!! (OMG ! it’s a lot ! Now I’m really freak out ! I never gonna take any aspartame anymore)

There is a lot to list out . . . .

Here are the 92 types of health effect :

(Sort it out using this table ^-^ ).

In aspartame, there 4 chemical components that causes adverse effect on human’s health, they are methanol, phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine.

Should I do in a separate topic on them? I know I’m very “chiong hei” (a lot thing to explain) ha-ha. .. . So I will do it separately as 6th posting which only about the 4 chemical substances.

Let’s end this posting soon it’s getting pretty long.

My Dear Reader don fall asleep yet, I save the best for the last XD

I sure not much teenager actually read the ingredient of certain product in the market but do u know a lot of the sweet and beverage u bought contain aspartame? It could appear as sugared form or artificially sweetened form and most of the products have sweet taste but no calories from sugar contain ASPARTAME! So don’t be happy seeing no calories in sugar and be glad of consuming 0% sugar. Ha-ha
Below is some example of product containing aspartame:

For those that love eclipse a lot, here a poster i found.
Don be deceive! it contain aspartame thought it not stated on it.
As i was Eclipse's lover previously but NOT NOW!

~Jasonyap~