Is There No Gum Without Aspartame?
- Monday, March 23, 2009, 11:07
- Companies
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- 37 comments
I’m taking a jab today at Aspartame. Years ago we all thought it was great that we had “diet cola” and “sugar free” products. With the lose-weight and workout craze, people flocked to purchase anything with aspartame. It’s also beneficial (or so we think) for diabetics as it allows them to eat things they normally wouldn’t be able to.
Now that more research has been done, more clinical studies are being brought to light, we now know that this product shouldn’t even be allowed on the market. Aspartame is sooo bad for us, yet it continues to be in products and consumers continue to ingest it.
Did you know that over 75% of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are due to aspartame. Many of these reactions are very serious, resulting in seizures and death but also include: headaches/migraines, muscle spasms, weight gain, depression, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, tinnitus, memory loss, heart palpitations, loss of taste, and joint pain. Studies have also shown that aspartame can trigger or worsen brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, birth defects, fibromyalgia and diabetes.
My daughter suffered from migraine headaches last year and when I searched up the main causes of migraines in children Aspartame was on the top of the list. Since my daughter was a fan of diet cola and sugar free gums, I immediately cut Aspartame out of her diet. Not an easy thing to do. Once you start looking at labels, I think you’d be amazed how many products contain aspartame. Did you know some mouthwashes contain Aspartame? I didn’t.
So now we find it almost impossible to find gum without Aspartame. Bubblicious, Hubba Bubba and Thrills are the only ones so far. If you know of any other brands, I’d love to hear about them.
Since cutting Aspartame out of her diet , she has had one migraine in the last year. There is no doubt in my mind that this was the cause for her migraines.
So I’m taking a big jab today at the FDA and any company who includes this additive in its products.
What are your thoughts? Do you consume a lot of Aspartame? Maybe think twice or read some labels and opt for the product without the Aspartame next time. I believe it’s a step in the healthy direction.
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jamilyn has written 13 stories on this site.
37 Comments on “Is There No Gum Without Aspartame?”
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Glee Gum is also aspartame-free, as well as "Vegetarian, Additive Free, Lactose Free, Dairy Free, Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Casein Free, Egg Free, Yeast Free, Nut Free, and Peanut Free."
Thanks James, Now where do you get Glee Gum from? Is it available in Canada? And is it available in stores or is it special order. I've never seen it before.
I believe it's available in stores in the US and Canada, such as Trader Joe's – link for their non-US store finder is the comment's blog link, and I think you can order off of their website as well.
Almost missed the reply because I didn't confirm the intensedebate comment tracking thing
Chiclets are the only gum that I have been able to find lately with none of the bad stuff… Just SUGAR!
I went and purchased Bubbalious for my daughter, I was also told that it didn’t contain aspartame, and to may dismay, it also has it listed in the ingredients
another gum to knock off the list
Remember that gum Thrills? It’s purple and tastes weird but it has no aspartame in it. Bought some for my daughter and she says its ok, not her favorite but no aspartame is a good thing
i beeive the original dentyne red has no aspartame
i believe the original dentyne red has no aspartame
I just got back from the store and every pack of gum has aspartame..Even hubba bubba..ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG…I am sick of it. I get horrible migraines and this needs to stop..GIVE ME SUGAR….
I’m with you on this. Even my yogurt has it in there. Shopping takes me forever, because we don’t have a Trader Joe’s (which I love) or Whole Foods in Huntsville, AL. I have to sift through all the stuff at Target.
Another dangerous thing, Splenda. It has only been tested on 6 humans and for no longer than 3 months. The FDA approved this and his contains arsenic! Wow. I’ve learned not to trust what the FDA says. They’re owned by Mont Santo (sp?) anyway. Thanks for the article.
Dentyne fire is a good one that contains no aspertame..big red use to be like that untill they conformed to the gum industies attempt to ruin peoples day one migrane at a time…I learned of this switch the hard way because even the smallest bit triggers them and sadly I have arura migranes which I read is the most destructive lol
I looked at the websites of most of the major gum companies and was able to come up with this list of gum flavors from popular gum brands which do not contain aspartame.
Orbit Fabulous Frutini
Dentyne Spicy Cinnamon
Altoids Cinnamon Gum
Trident White Cinnamon
Stride Sweet Cinnamon
Looks like you better like cinnamon flavored gum if you want to avoid aspartame.
altoids gum does not have it
juicy fruit original has no aspartame
No one mentioned this (and to us its probably common knowledge) but ASPARTAME = PHENYLALANINE. If you’re looking on the label, its usually listed as phenylalanine. Thanks to our oh so kind FDA, you probably also will see the less than helpful warning: “Phenylketonurics – contains phenylalanine”. They should instead make them list all the side effects on the package.
My wife and I tracked down headaches and migraines to ingesting aspartame-sweetened mints and gum. We cut it out and immediately they went away. Every once in a while, they will flare back up, but it ALWAYS ends up being that we accidentally ate something with aspartame in it.
With the long list of known side effects of aspartame (phenylalanine), I strongly urge anyone with ANY health condition to stop ingesting it. And don’t use that excuse that its your favorite gum, mint, soda, or whatever. If you found that someone put rat poison in your favorite cheesecake, would you keep eating it? Really.
Thank you so much for the list of aspartame free gum i have them written down and in my wallet. I was beginning to think that i would no longer be able to chew gum!
Oh yeah just listing them again.
Aspartame free gum
Orbit Fabulous Frutini
Altoids Cinnamon Gum
Trident White Cinnamon
Stride Sweet Cinnamon
Juicy Fruit
juicy fruit has aspartame also
I think certain flavours of Extra Gum are aspartame free. Only in Canada though. It’s different in the US.
Spry Gum doesn’t have aspartame. It has xylitol which is actually good for your teeth! You can get it at health food stores but, it’s pretty expensive. I get ours at vitacost.com
Man this is crazy!!!!! I am in my senior year of high school and for my last six years EVERYONE has been chewing gum!!! Since 7th grade it as been that if you dont have gum or you arent chewing it you arent cool. This is terrible. Wait until everyone figures out that they have been idiots chewing so much gum!
I order PEELU gum , free from Aspartame poison, from Swansons Vitamins. They have spearmint and peppermint. It tastes decent and is sweetend with Xylitol…which, in theory, also helps prevent germs and allergens from attaching to the mucous membranes which can result in illness like colds, flu, etc. I switch a few weeks ago and am very pleased, and haven’t caught a cold either!
Check out Zapp gum; you can order it online only. It is sweetened with only xylitol.
Chiclets and Big Red do not contain aspartame.
http://www.gleegum.com: Glee Gum doesn’t have aspartame or any other artificial ingredients. The one downside is that is does have sugar. Pick your poison….literally! Sugar or formaldehyde? Aspartame turns into formaldehyde after it’s processed through the body (for those of you who may not know). Check out Glee Gum, though. I’m purchasing some online now….I hope it’s as appealing to the taste as it is to my content standards….
Try the old fashioned stuff;- found some “teaberry” at a cracker barrel restaurant today that is free of aspertame! I was so excited I bought all they had.
Thanks everyone for your help. It’s terrible that we have to do research like this to find out what is causing these excruciating headaches! Can’t these companies be stopped from slipping this poison into things that we ingest daily with no idea that they could be the causing the migraines that we’ve been battling for years now? A simple warning that they contain Aspartame would be enough, but for some reason they choose NOT to tell us this. Why?
The reason they don’t put warnings on anything containing aspartame is the same reason they’ve slipped it into everything in the first place. Migraines are the least of our worries. They know that this ingredient gives us cancer and cancer is a multi-trillion dollar industry for big pharma. And who does big pharma have in their pocket? Oh…everyone! They control the FDA(among other govt organizations). They control the health insurance companies. They even control your doctor who’s telling you that drinking diet soda and chewing sugarless gum is fine. The more things they can put this poison into the more people they reach and are able to profit off of when they develop cancer. The government has never and will never have our best interests at heart. It’s up to us to protect ourselves.
I mean honestly, I’d rather have good old sugar any day over man made ingredients that are messing up our bodies. Sugar is from the earth! Our bodies know what to do with it. Unlike chemically produced ingredients that make our body say “Uhh don’t know what to do with this so I’m just going to stash it over here and hope nothing bad happens”. But bad things are happening with all that stuff that our bodies are stashing and they’re counting on that. We’re nothing to them. Ants. Highly profitable ants but ants nonetheless. I just wish more people would wake up and realize that they’re killing us and laughing all the way to the bank.
I am just as furious as you, if not more. In fact, Bubblicious now has aspartame, as well! I wasn’t happy, it WAS one of the only ones without aspartame. I’m going to send an e-mail to them sometime. Also, Hubba Bubba Glop doesn’t have any aspartame in it (last time I checked) and Hubba Bubba Ouch didn’t used to…
There are other names for aspartame, though. Here’s all the names that I know of.
Acesulfame
Aspartame
Nutra-Sweet
Neotame
Phenylalinine (sp?)
Equal
Splenda (which is just as bad)
There’s also Bazooka (They sell the old recipe AND the new one with aspartame) and Xylitol gum from health food stores that don’t have aspartame in them.
I am sooo happy I found this Blog…It amazes me that people are so blind to what they put in their bodies because the goverment said it’s ok…SO NOT TRUE!!!, People need to start thinking for themselves!! i looked and the calorie difference is like 3 verses 8! I would much rather have the 8 calorie gum then something that some scientist made in the lab….I don’t use sugar hardly ever so, chewing REAL gum is fine for me….it has to be better than a chemical anyhows….thanks to everyone for finding the GOOD STUFF for me and my family!
Glee Gum (be sure to check this out, its awesome and perfect chewing texture), Teaberry, Blackjack, Clove, Beechman. Also check some of the generic “bubble gum” type gum. Glee gum can be bought online, check auction sites for the others, they are readily available. My wife gets really sick from this, migraines, diarrhea, upset stomach and such. It doesn’t really bother me, but I figure if it’s such bad stuff it would probably be best to avoid it if possible.
What makes me mad, I used to love juicy fruit, they changed it to have aspartame (about the time it became yellow instead of white) and it changed the taste. I bought up about 6 cases of the old stuff and it’s gone now. I even did blind taste tests on friends and relatives and all 6 agreed the white/old kind tasted much better. The yellow has that “sickening sweet” taste and aftertaste to it.
Three years ago I noticed that Wrigley was slowly adding aspartame to it’s frontend line of chewing gums. Extra already had it. Winter Fresh, Spearmint and Double Mint were the first sugar containing gums to get it. Next was Juicy Fruit. Big Red was the hold out. I was begining to wonder if there was an issue with the sweetener and the cinnamon flavoring. But a couple of years ago it happened… A “NEW AND IMPROVED FLAVOR!!!” banner appeared on the Big Red wrapper just like it did on the other gum packages over the years. For the life of me I can’t understand why they say new and improved flavor. The Nutra-death after taste is very disgusting. I actually had some candy years ago that was flavored with aspartame. They were called Petite Desserts as I recall. Little flying saucer shaped fruit flavored candys that boasted no calories due to the artificial sweetener nutrasweet. I placed one in my mouth and the after taste was so prevalent that it make me vomit on the the floor. A couple hours later I went to the vending machine to purchase my usual bottle of Diet Mountain Dew that I had enjoyed for 15 years and I could literally taste the aspartame over the soda flavoring. This seemed to be a unique side effect of “ODing” on the Petite Desserts candy aspartame. I threw the diet soda away and unsuccessfully vowed never to drink it again. I seemed to be hooked on the diet sodas. I read the “Natural Cures” book and it decried aspartame so much that I knew for certain we as a society were being poisoned by the sweetener, so I vigilantly quit cold turkey and experienced the shakes, severe cravings, headaches and a lot of other curious symptoms from ceasing to ingest aspartame. It took two months for the symptoms to stop and I haven’t consumed aspartame in any large quantities in three years. The occasional stick of gum gets to me when I am hard up but never the beverages. Get free America, wake up, before it’s too late and save yourselves!
Hey guys. I was a gum-oholic till i did some research. YUCK!!!!!! Cutting aspartame (I won’t capitalize it) as well as flouride from my life. I already feel better. I’m just eating mints now.
bubbalicious also has aspartame!!!!!!
If you are in Canada try Planet Organic, I know they sell Glee gum and probably some others. I’ve tried it, and while it’s not quite as good as regular gum, the whole no cancer thing hopefully tips the scale in it’s favour. Also, another Migraine fact that I think too few people know – you should not be on regular birth control pills if you get true migraines (not just bad headaches, but with “focal neurological symptoms” such as visual auras) Your chances of a stroke are increased by around 15 times !!! I was on birth control for a number of years before I was this, and couldn’t believe no one had mentioned it before!
Glad to hear this is a problem for others as well. I’m sorry that it effected your daughter so horribly. My husband was having terrible headaches every day. They would start in the morning and go all day. He was practically living on Excedrine to get through the day. We finally made the connection to the gum the ladies at work were giving him each morning. Once he quit chewing the gum, the headaches went away. It is incredible how severly such a small amount of Aspertame can effect a grown man. I can’t imagine the effects it could have on children. I will certainly never give it to my son. Thanks for the interesting article.
When I realized most manufacturers had started making their gum with aspartame, I ended up searching online and finally found some that do not contain aspartame. I get my gum online now, at http://www.victoryseeds.com/candystore/index.html . I’m sure there are other places you can purchase it as well, once you know the brands you are searching for. =) I am thinking about contacting some of the companies that make gum, since I recently realized that they didn’t SWITCH to making their gum with aspartame, but just ADDED it to the gums they make, so Juicy Fruit gum that is NOT SUGARLESS ALSO HAS ASPARTAME!!!! I was floored when I realized that they didn’t substitute it but added it. So aggravating! and although I realize my one small voice won’t make a dent in anything- it’s just so stupid, I really feel like I need to at least try. =/