Aspartame is an artificial sweetener. It is used as a substitute for sugar in food and some beverages. It is the methyl ester of the dipeptide of L-aspartic acid and L-phenyl alanine. Both L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine are natural amino acids. It is said that aspartame is almost 200 times sweeter than sugar. This property allows us to have the same amount of sweetness as sugar but will a little quantity. As small quantity of aspartame is used, its calorific contribution becomes insignificant.
Aspartame gets hydrolysed into methanol and its constituent amino acids when hydrolysed in highly acidic conditions and also at elevated temperatures. There has been several articles on research work that shows some serious side effects of aspartame due to this break down especially due to the production of methanol. Methanol can cause permanent blindness even when consumed in little quantity.
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