URGENT: NutraSweet(tm) Destroys Usenet!!!!

[Betty Martini]

Dear Joe:  I just posted in the nutrition newsgroup under Coca 
Cola/Health -Attitude and also in this group under 
Urgent/NutraSweet/Methanol/Truth.  Please read both of these posts, and 
notice what three cans of Diet Coke can do.  I would be interested in 
what you have to say afterwards.

Regards  Betty

Betty Martini
Domain:  betty at pd.org
UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!betty

On 3 Aug 1995, Joseph Bret Wood wrote:

> In article <3vmvck$fb3 at lys.vnet.net>, AL BELL <allbell at lys.vnet.net> wrote:
> >Aspartame:
> >
> >One possibility is that old aspartame breaks down into some not-so-great 
> >substance. My recollection is that aspartame that's heated for too long 
> >at too high a temperature has an effect similar to that of alcohol.
> 
> Not that I'm saying anything pro or con about this debate, but the reaction
> you're refering to is taught to all first year organic chemists.  It's called
> hydrolysis of an ester.  Aspartame is an ester (compound [1]).  When reacted
> with water in a basic or acidic solution (soda pop is acidic), it undergoes
> the following reaction, giving aspartic acid and methanol as products.
> Personally, I doubt that one or two cans of diet soda could harm you from the
> methanol, because methanol has been a contaminant in moonshine for centuries,
> yet it only causes serious side effects if the batch is particularly bad,
> and/or a very large quantity is consumed.  And nutrasweet is so potent, one
> can of diet coke only requires a VERY small amount of aspartame.  
> 
>                             +                    +OH2                     OH 
> H3C-O-C=O             H3C-O-C-OH                  |    (3 stp)            |
>       |   + H+OH2 ==>       |    + :OH2 ==> H3C-O-C-OH ======> H3C-OH  +  C=O
>       R                     R                     |                       |
>                                                   R              [2]      R
>    [1]                
>                                                                          [3]
> 
> [1] -- Aspartame              This reaction apparently requires heating in the
> [2] -- Methanol               case of aspartame.  For some other hydrolysis
> [3] -- Aspartic Acid          reactions, it will happen at room temperature.
> 
> 
> -Bret Wood
> -bretwood at cs.uoregon.edu
> 
>