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Children

Anderson GH, Saravis S, Schacher R, Zlotkin S, Leiter LA.

Aspartame: effect on lunch-time food intake, appetite and hedonic response in children. Appetite
. 1989 Oct;13(2):93-103.

Two experiments were conducted, each with 20 healthy 9-10-year-old children. After an overnight fast, subjects were given a standardized breakfast at 0830 hrs, the treatments at 1030 hrs, and a lunch containing an excess of foods at 1200 hrs. Visual analog scales of hunger, fullness, and desire to eat were administered 5 min before and 20 and 85 min after treatment. Lunch-time food intake was measured. In experiment 1, either aspartame (34 mg/kg), or the equivalent sweetness of sodium cyclamate, was given in an ice slurry (300 ml) of unsweetened strawberry Kool-Aid with carbohydrate (1.75 g/kg polycose). In experiment 2, drinks (300 ml) contained either sucrose (1.75 g/kg) or aspartame (9.7 mg/kg). In both experiments, significant meal- and time-dependent effects were observed for subjective feelings of hunger, fullness and desire to eat. Treatments, however, did not affect either subjective feelings of appetite or lunch-time food intake. Thus, aspartame consumed without or with carbohydrate, did not affect either hunger or food intake of children when compared with the sweeteners sodium cyclamate and sucrose, respectively.

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Stegink LD, Brummel MC, Filer LJ Jr, Baker GL.

Blood methanol concentrations in one-year-old infants administered graded doses of aspartame. J Nutr
. 1983 Aug;113(8):1600-6.

Blood methanol concentrations were measured in 24 1-year-old infants administered aspartame, a dipeptide methyl ester sweetener. The doses studied included a dose projected to be the 99th percentile of daily ingestion for adults (34 mg/kg body weight), a very high use dose (50 mg/kg body weight) and a dose considered to be in the abuse range (100 mg/kg body weight). Blood methanol values in infants were compared to values observed previously in adults administered equivalent doses of aspartame. Methanol concentrations were below the level of detection (0.35 mg/dl) in the blood of 10 infants administered aspartame at 34 mg/kg body weight, but were significantly elevated (P less than or equal to 0.05) after ingestion of aspartame at 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight. At the latter doses, mean peak blood methanol concentrations and the area under the blood methanol concentration-time curve increased in proportion to dose. Mean (+/- SEM) peak blood methanol concentration was 0.30 +/- 0.10 mg/100 ml at a 50 mg/kg body weight aspartame dose (n = 6) and 1.02 +/- 0.28 mg/ml at the 100 mg/kg body weight dose (n = 8). Blood methanol values in infants were similar to those observed in normal adults.