Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Aspartame |
AspartameNoun1. An artificial sweetener made from aspartic acid; used as a calorie-free sweetener. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | Flavoring agent sweeter than sugar, metabolized as phenylalanine and aspartic acid. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
It is 160 times sweeter than sugar (sucrose), and is marketed under a number of trademarked names, such as "NutraSweet" and "Canderel". It is a common sweetener in prepared foods, particularly soft drinks. Aspartame is one of the sugar substitutes used by diabetics. Because phenylalanine is part of its composition, and is deleterious to sufferers of the genetic disorder phenylketonuria, products containing aspartame usually have a warning label that they contain phenylalanine, in compliance with U.S. FDA guidelines. Aspartame breaks down at a lower temperature than other artificial sweeteners, and is unsuitable for use in baking or to sweeten coffee and tea.
Many people, though probably only a small percentage of the population, also find the taste of Aspartame very unpleasant. It is thought that this taste response is genetic in nature, but so far no studies have been done.
Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by researchers at the G.D. Searle company (later purchased by Monsanto). Initial safety testing suggested that aspartame caused brain tumors in rats; as a result, the additive was held up in the United States for many years in the Food and Drug Administration's approval process. In 1980, the FDA convened a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) consisting of independent advisors charged with examining the purported relationship between aspartame and brain cancer. The PBOI concluded that aspartame did not cause brain damage, but recommended against approving aspartame at that time, citing unanswered questions about cancer in laboratory rats. In 1981, FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes, newly appointed by President Ronald Reagan, approved aspartame as a food additive, citing data from a Japanese study that had not been available to the members of the PBOI. [1]
Since the FDA approved aspartame for consumption, some researchers have suggested that a rise in brain tumor rates in the United States may be at least partially related to the increasing availability and consumption of aspartame. [1], [1] However, more recent research has failed to find any link between aspartame and cancer or other health problems. [1], [1]
One of the many hypotheses about the causes of Gulf war syndrome is that the soldiers, drinking huge quantities of fluids (soft drinks) in the extreme heat, accumulated toxic doses of methanol, formaldehyde, diketopiperazine and formic acid from the breakdown of aspartame into its component molecules. However, the symptoms do not greatly resemble those of classic methanol poisoning, and the body, in its normal metabolism, produces methanol in quantities comparable or greater than would be ingested via aspartame, so this theory does not have wide support.
See also: artificial sweetener.
Health Effects
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Aspartame."
Synonym: AspartameSynonym: Sugar substitutes. (additional references) |
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Aspartame has been extensively tested for safety. (references) | |
Many patients do report intolerances for certain substances that may be found in foods or over-the-counter medications, such as alcohol or the artificial sweetener aspartame. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Robert Atkins | Well, if a Diet Coke has aspartame, it's not as good as if it has sucralose and there are diet colas that do have sucralose. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Aspartame" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.12% of the time. "Aspartame" is used about 17 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 94.12% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5.88% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 17 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "aspartame"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | aspartam, E951. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | aspartam, aspartaam, E951. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | aspartaami (E951), E 951 (E951). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
French | aspartame, aspartam, E951. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Aspartam (E951), E951 (E951). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | Ε951 (E951), ασπαρτάμη (E951). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | aspartame (E951), E951 (E951). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | アスパラギン酸 (aspartic acid, asphalt, asphalt jungle, aspic, Aspirin, aspirin snow, Aspite). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | アスパルテー . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 아스파테임. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | aspartameay aspartamo, aspártamo (E951), E951 (E951). (various references) aspartamo (E951), E951 (E951). (various references) aspartam (E951), E 951 (E951). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "aspartame": aspartames. (additional references) | |
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"Aspartame" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aspartaim, aspartane, aspartate, aspartime, aspertame, Aspertini, aspettare. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-e-m-p-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: patamars. | |
-2 letters: patamar, restamp, stamper, tampers, taramas. | |
-3 letters: armets, asrama, master, maters, matres, paster, paters, praams, prates, ramate, ramets, reatas, remaps, repast, samara, sarape, satara, satrap, stream, tamers, tamper, tapers, tarama, tramps, trapes. | |
-4 letters: apart, apers, apres, apter, areas, armet, asper, aster, ataps, atmas, maars, mares, marse, marts, maser, mater, mates, meats, parae, paras. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-e-m-p-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: aspartames. | |
+2 letters: metacarpals, paramagnets. | |
+4 letters: paramagnetism, paterfamilias, permanganates. | |
+5 letters: aromatherapies, aromatherapist, paramagnetisms, patresfamilias. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 73 70 61 72 74 61 6D 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- ... .--. .- .-. - .- -- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01110011 01110000 01100001 01110010 01110100 01100001 01101101 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A s p a r t a m e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0073 0070 0061 0072 0074 0061 006D 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)358582678486677971 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Quotations: Spoken 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
