Aspartame may "cause cancer", how to calculate the safe dose for children? Don't exceed this amount per day

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Low-calorie high sweetness - aspartame in the diet of "ubiquitous"

Aspartame is a synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners, from the birth of the 1965, on Since its inception in 1965, it has been bringing people different surprises. From the perspective of "weight loss", aspartame has only 200-300% of the calories of sucrose. From the perspective of food and beverage companies, the sweetness of aspartame is about 150 to 200 times that of sucrose, and to achieve the same sweetness, the use of aspartame as a sweetener can greatly save costs.

To date, there are more than 90 countries in the world that allow the use of aspartame, and about 9,000 types of beverages around the world contain aspartame. The common sugar-free/low-calorie beverages, coffee beverages, flavored fermented milks, etc., as well as the health food for diabetes, hypertension, etc. that we see in our daily lives are commonly used, and even the drug tracks are all flying the flag of aspartame towards the "healthy". The drug circuit is even racing towards "health" under the banner of aspartame.

Children's food and drug safety anxiety more? Reading the ingredient list is key!

Aspartame was so popular in the past, but now it's so scary. The "sweetener of choice" that was popular for decades has become a loved and hated part of the food world, and no one is more anxious than parents. Although CNBC said that the amount of daily intake of aspartame does not exceed 40 mg per kilogram of body weight is safe. But for children, whose safety is not yet known, it should still be avoided at all costs.

Beijing's baby mama Xiao Xin, who has a 5-year-old boy at home, said: "I used to buy food and nutritional supplements for my kids and didn't pay too much attention to the ingredients, but now I pay attention to them, staring at the list of ingredients and checking them one by one. Even if there is no aspartame, there are other additives also feel very suspicious, do not know what else to believe!"

In fact, parents' concern is not unreasonable, aspartame's wide application has indeed touched children's food and medicine. I deliberately studied its ingredients list, the results were greatly surprised:

1, children's food: In the past, in order to increase the palatability of dairy products, many milk powder to increase the sweetness of the use of sucrose, but with the introduction of aspartame, by virtue of the "high sweetness, low-calorie, low-cost" characteristics make it become a substitute for sucrose, "the preferred choice"! However, with the introduction of aspartame, which is characterized by "high sweetness, low calorie and low cost", it has become the "preferred choice" to replace sucrose, and many manufacturers have changed the original use of sucrose and lactose to aspartame to reduce the cost, increase the sweetness and improve the palatability for children. In addition, children often eat puffed food, snack cookies, chewing gum, juice drinks have many contain aspartame.

2, children's drugs: in addition to food, children's medicines are not lacking in aspartame, common children's nutritional supplements, such as vitamins, calcium, DHA supplements are also added to aspartame, in order to increase the taste and compliance of children's medication.

But not all fruit-flavored medicines have aspartame added, I randomly visited a few pharmacies around the drugstore, in the drugstore clerk's recommendation to find a does not contain aspartame, to natural cane sugar as a sweetener for children's calcium supplement products Fuwa calcium zinc gluconate oral solution. According to the clerk's feedback, the taste problem is the first hurdle for parents to give their children supplemental nutrients, this sweet and sour orange-flavored calcium and zinc preparations most children like to drink, can insist on drinking, and, can insist on drinking the children in the growth and development of anorexia and partiality, developmental delays, and resistance to low and other problems have been significantly alleviated.

Today, the use of aspartame is full of controversy, especially pregnant women, children and other special groups are avoided. In this regard, the First Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University Nutrition Clinical Dietitian Liu Xuemei said: If you are worried about aspartame such artificial sweeteners, then you can choose a safer natural sweeteners ingredients, such as: with "glycoside" sugar, such as stevia glycoside, sweet glycoside of rosmarinus officinalis, are from natural plants; with "poly" sugar, such as stevia glycoside, sweet glycosides of Luo Han Guo, are from natural plants; with " Sugars with "poly", such as prebiotic properties of natural active substances oligofructose, as well as by natural glucose and other high-temperature melting polymerization of soluble dietary fiber polydextrose; with "ketone" sugar, such as sugarcane, honey contained in the natural sugar isomaltosucrose, as well as low-calorie originating from nature Monosaccharides such as alloxan; Sugars with "alcohols" such as xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, erythritol, etc. derived from natural fruits, vegetables, grains, and mushrooms [1].

In addition, clinical dietitian Liu Xuemei suggested that for children whose bodies are still developing, the diet should reduce the intake of sweets, minimize the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and sweetened beverages, and drink more healthy drinks such as plain water and sugar-free soda.

References:

[1] Qilu Evening News: Aspartame cancer controversy is endless, want to reduce the sugar can still how to eat?