???? Aspartame, a sweetener in many drinks and foods, can affect our memory

2023-09-24 06:00:02

Aspartame is widely used to sweeten a large number of drinks and foods. In other words, it is a food additive that is used to give a sweet taste to foods. Low in calories, it nevertheless has a sweetening power 200 times greater than that of sugar (What we usually call sugar is, from 1406, a “substance of sweet flavor…). We thus find it in many (The notion of number in linguistics is covered in the article “Number…) products such as diet sodas, desserts, sweets, chewing gum, dairy products, etc. According to a recent study, the consumption of this additive could, however, affect our memory (Generally speaking, memory is the storage of information. It is also recollection…).
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As part of their research, American scientists from the University of Florida have indeed found a link between aspartame ( Aspartame is an artificial sweetener discovered in 1965. It is a dipeptide…) and memory and learning deficits (Learning is the acquisition of know-how, that is to say the process…). This observation (Observation is the action of attentively monitoring phenomena, without wanting to…) could be carried out within the framework of tests carried out on mice (The term mouse is an ambiguous vernacular name which can designate, for French speakers, before…).

To conduct these tests, the researchers divided the rodents into three groups: the first group received water; the second had access to water mixed with 7.6 centiliters of aspartame per day, corresponding to 2 diet sodas if we transpose it to humans (i.e. 7% of the maximum intake of aspartame recommended by the authorities American Sanitary); and the third group had access to a quantity of aspartame ranging from 11 to 23 centiliters. Each animal consumed the drinks provided for a period of 16 weeks. Several tests were then carried out on the rodents to measure their memory and their learning capacity, notably using maze-type exercises. Result: the mice which had not consumed aspartame reached the goal more quickly than the others.

The animals having consumed aspartame still managed to reach the objective, but with a different strategy (In mathematics, the different is defined in algebraic theory of…) and by taking more time (Time is a concept developed by the human being to understand the…) or even by requiring help. It is also important to point out that scientists observed the same effect on the offspring of rodents (but not on their grandchildren).

The use of these additives has been debated for several years now, with fear of initially unsuspected effects. Some even mention cancer risks linked to the consumption of this sweetener. Previous studies had already established a link between the consumption of this additive and anxiety in mice. Even if it remains to be confirmed whether these observations are applicable to humans, the results of this research are striking.

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