Lily has been asking for gum lately. One of her favorite cousins, Rylan, loves gum! So I finally gave in. We have to be really careful with gum. Aspartame is made from phenylalanine. Most gums have aspartame in them. If you look at the back of the package, it says that this gum contains phenylalanine (mandated by the govt!) There are only 2 types of gum, that I've found, that Lily can have. The old fashioned
Chiclets...that was my favorite as a kid. Especially the individual bags with the teeny tiny chiclet squares! And
Glee Gum. Which has become Lily's favorite!
They're both made with real sugar and NOT aspartame. Most parents don't want their kids eating sugar filled gum. Not me! I'm going against the gum standards. I want (need) my kids to fill their teeth with sugary goodness and enjoy the smacking and bubble blowing like everyone else! Yes, we may have to make extra dental visits in the future, but having Lily tell me she "LOOOOOVES" her gum is worth it! I think...
well I find it pretty annoying that there needs to be an indication that phe is in those products, but it would be more helpful to have an indication of how much exactly there's in.
ReplyDeleteI just found out recently that different chewing gums with aspartame have a very low amount of phe (my dietican told me for two certain gums that its only 1 mg per chewing gum) so I don't see the sense of warning - I think those products (or at least most of them) can be involved in daily diet when there's a knowledge of the exact phe amount. Maybe you can consult the dietician to find out about certain products?
F. e. I'm a fan of diet coke and it's only 7 mg / 100 ml, which is of course too much for children but it's ok for me to have a glass or two per day... Being aware that sweetener is not healthy in general yeah but well, that's another topic ;)