A couple of aspartame questions

[Ciggies and coffee]

I remember times that I drunk diet mountain dew with vodka, and the buzz felt different than with the corn syrup version. Nowadays, I drink mostly either whiskey on ice or coffee. Oh , and water, of course :)

Is there any kind of synergy between aspartame and alcohol? Could it be the phenylalanine adding to the euphoria?

Aspartame we know causes a small amount of methanol poisoning. I read somewhere that ethanol is used as an antidote in methanol poisoning-
so does adding alcohol to an aspartame-sweetened drink lower the toxicity risk?

Thanks

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. lots of warnings about aspertame. And that fake sugar is no different

Aspertame is a known carcinogen, even at levels approaching 12 pack consumption of diet drinks per day.
the best thing to mix it with is the trash can, unless you separate trash and recycle.

[trotsky]

5. That is not a proven fact.

Aspartame is not known to be a carcinogen.

[FloridaPat]

2. Wouldn't hunting with Cheney be a faster way to commit suicide?

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. Dew and Vodka

the chosen poison of my youth---we called it Recipe

[Warpy]

4. I'd worry about those cigarettes before I'd worry about the

aspartame. However, some people are sensitive to aspartame and react oddly to it. You may be one of them.

At high temperatures aspartame decomposes completely, releasing methanol into the system. This is a different, poisonous alcohol from the ethanol in beverages, so there is no additive effect. The amount of methanol released by the average amount of Aspartame used to sweeten a cup of coffee or a soda is minimal, however, and easily detoxified by the liver. Aspartame decmoposes partially in hot liquids like coffee and tea, becoming less sweet but generally not making it all the way to methanol. That's why it's unsuccessful in cooking from Jello to cakes and pies: the heat pops off those little amines and you're left with a largely inert substance that doesn't taste like anything.

Personally, I think people are better off if they learn to drink unsweetened coffee and tea and use real sugar sparingly, but I'm the queen of diet sodas so I can't lecture anybody. I did notice a huge difference when I switched to one sweetened with Splenda, though, easily worth the slight increase in price.