By Kermit B. Fernander, Guardian Lifestyle Reporter, kermit@nasguard.com -

Traditionally, the diet industry has used slick advertising of slender women in bikinis to tempt weight-conscious consumers to buy low-sugar or no-sugar products, especially diet colas. Many bought into this craze in the belief that diet colas would either help them lose weight, or allow them to feed — with impunity — on their favorite junk foods.

According to nutrition specialists Kurt Butler and Dr. Lynne Rayner of the University of Hawaii in "the Best Medicine", it has thus far not been demonstrated that low-sugar and no-sugar products result in weight loss. In fact, these two experts argue that, while diet drinks have little or no calories, they do contain artificial sweeteners like saccharin or aspartame that may actually stimulate appetite to eat extra carbohydrates, thereby increasing weight gain. And that's only part of the problem.

Saccharin, which always had an unpleasant after taste, has been largely replaced by aspartame, an artificial sweetener marketed under many different trademark names, including Equal, Nutra Sweet and Canderel. Aspartame is everywhere, and is found in approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide, including diet colas, chewable vitamin supplements and sugar-free chewing gums. It is also one of the sugar substitutes used by people with diabetes.

Many believe that aspartame did them more harm than good, and there are tons of articles and reports highlighting the dangers of it. These articles surfaced followed the experiences of many individuals previously hooked on diet sodas who later developed a host of alarming medical problems, from paralysis to migraine headaches to seizures, all of which disappeared, they claim, once they ceased drinking diet sodas.

Dr. Janet Starr Hull, the author of Sweet Poison, states that Aspartame is the common denominator of at least 92 different symptoms at the root of modern disease. "I counsel aspartame victims worldwide and have witnessed nine out of 10 clients restore their health by following the Aspartame Detoxification Program," she said. "Begin with detoxifying your body of all residual chemical toxins from aspartame's chemical make up of phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol and their toxic by-products, and see if any adverse health symptoms remain. Try the Aspartame Detoxification Program, and within 30 days your symptoms should disappear."

On the other hand, the diet industry is rich and powerful, and today there are many experts who refute the dangers of aspartame in diet colas and other products. But, where there's smoke, there is fire, and one feels instinctively that there must be some basis to the argument against aspartame. In fact the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took years to approve aspartame for use in carbonated beverages and in other foods because, in the beginning, there was concern that aspartame might cause cancer in laboratory rats.

Aspartame is an exceedingly complex substance, which, after ingestion, is broken down into other compounds, including some that are poisonous like formaldehyde, which is used to preserve laboratory animals and also as an embalming fluid. In addition, heat precipitates the breakdown of aspartame, but, curiously, this fact did not deter soft drink giants from sending great quantities of diet sodas to the US troops during the Gulf War.

According to a report prepared by America's National Soft Drink Association (NSDA): "Soldiers say [the diet sodas] sat in the 120 degree Arabian sun on pallets for as long as eight weeks at a time, and they drank them all day. They were drinking formaldehyde cocktails. It is no wonder the symptoms of Desert Storm Syndrome are identical to the symptoms of Aspartame Disease now declared a world epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D."

Not surprisingly, arguments against the use of aspartame are more convincing that those in favor of the substance. Janet Martin, an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author, lists a few reasons why people should cease consuming aspartame:

* Aspartame causes brain cancer in laboratory animals even though this has not yet been proven in humans. However, according to Drs. G. Timothy Johnson and Stephen Goldfinger of Harvard Medical School, heavy smokers who drink diet colas may have a greater risk of contracting brain cancer.

* Dr. Susan Banker of Boston Children's Hospital reports that this controversial sweetener may interfere with blood sugar retention, which is bad news for diabetics.

* Dr. Lynne Rayner of the University of Hawaii warns against the use of diet soft drinks by youngsters and pregnant women also because of the effect aspartame has on blood sugar retention.

* While aspartame has been certified "safe" by the US Food and Drug Administration, it should not be taken by those suffering from an enzyme deficiency called phenylketonuria (PKU). This disorder is characterized by high levels of phenylalanine that can cause brain damage.

Since diet drinks are out of the question, what do doctors recommend as the safest, cheapest, most popular, sugar-free and calorie free beverage? You guessed it! Water, of course!

And remember, if you are ever unsure of the safety or suitability of a certain product like aspartame given that some experts approve while others disapprove of it, it is always better to err on the side of caution and not consume it. That way you save yourself a lot of problems.