It is an unusual person who doesn't appreciate fresh-smelling breath. Hence, the popularity of chewing gum at supermarket checkout tills. But every time you pop a piece automatically, you are likely ingesting 6 to 8 milligrams of a chemical that has raised eyebrows since its approval in the 1970s.

Most gum contains aspartame, a pervasive faux sweetener that is 200 times as sweet as sugar and represents about 60 percent of the fake sugar market. It is an excitotoxin, meaning that it causes cells to become extremely ­excited and, in large enough doses, can cause cell death. It is made up of two amino acids (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) and a wood alcohol (methyl ester).

Some aspartame defenders point out that the chemical's two amino acids are found in nature and so are not harmful. Yes, they are in foods, but they are bound to other amino acids in proteins, a stability that moves them safely through the body. They are never found alone and free as they are in aspartame, which allows them to disrupt the body's chemical balance and cause damage.

When ingested, the other component of aspartame, methyl ester, is metabolized into methanol and further breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde, toxins that the body stores. Methanol found in fruit is combined with ethanol, which is methanol's natural antidote, so it too causes no harm when found in nature. 

There is no ethanol in aspartame to counter methanol's effects. What this artificial sweetener does have, however, is a long United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) list of complaints, collected before the agency stopped keeping track in 1996. Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, change of mood, memory loss, sleep problems, weight gain, depression, vision problems and heart palpitations are a few of the 92 reported side-effects from aspartame.

Safety in question
The FDA says that aspartame is safe at a daily intake of 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. That is a lot of chewing gum! Still, even one stick would be too much for Samuel S. Epstein, MD, a cancer prevention expert and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Early concerns about a cancer connection were revisited in 2006, when the prestigious Italian Ramazzini Foundation confirmed that aspartame caused cancer in animal tests in multiple organs, including lymph glands, brain and kidney-and at doses less than human dietary levels. Similar findings from 2007 tests were presented by Ramazzini scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

Dr. Epstein has spoken out in favour of an aspartame ban, but given its presence in an estimated 10,000 food and drink products, a more immediate way to eliminate it from the diet is to shop with discretion. Reading labels is our best defense. If a food contains aspartame, chances are that it belongs in the over-processed, nutritionally poor category of foods that is best to limit or avoid altogether. Sources of aspartame include non-fat, diet foods, pediatric medicines, and prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Calorie-reduced soft drinks are perhaps the most common product of choice. The typical 12-ounce carbonated soft drink contains 180 mg of ­aspartame.

Aspartame is also disguised under many names and is changing all the time. It is marketed as Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, Naturtast, E951, Canderel and Benevia.  Sometimes manufacturers just state "contains phenylalanine."

Last November, Ajinomoto, the world's largest maker of aspartame, ­decided to rename the troubled sweetener in Europe. If travelling abroad, watch out for AminoSweet.

When it comes to aspartame and most artificial and so-called natural sweeteners, the safest exposure is no exposure. Read labels to make educated choices for yourself and your family-and chew with care.

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