Dear Arlene,
Thankyou for your post regarding "clean foods".
 
Re Neuro Toxic effects of aspartame...
  Something happened recently to my ten year old daughter.  Every weekend my husband or I take turns at taking one of the children out for a special time with mum or dad.  This time it was DH's turn to take out my 10yog.  They went to the mall and they decided to buy an iced mocha from Gloria jeans.  We don't usually let the children choose something unhealthy like this, but Dh thought it would be o.k. just for once.  Within 15 minutes my daughter couldn't walk and had terrible pain in her legs, she had a neuro toxic reaction I am sure.  DH called the me at home and the ambulance to take her to hospital. ( He was terrified at looking at her demise so rapidly).  The medical staff couldn't work out what was wrong with her, and assumed she was "faking it", until one side of her face began twitching uncontrollably inhibiting her speech.  Basically they couldn't understand how the iced mocha could have done it, and she left without a proper diagnosis. They gave her a antihistamine and about midnight they came home.  She had terrible pain in her legs for 48 hrs from the time she had the iced mocha.  I realise the caffeine content could have had some effect on calcium on her bones giving her deep pain, but I suspect that there was aspartame in the creame which is often used as a thickner I believe as well as sweetener.  Even Dh said he feels the coffees are always thicker from that vendor and feels a little sick afterwards.
I am sure it was a Neuro toxic reaction because this daughter has had a brain injury as a 14month old in a car accident (amazing healing Praise the Lord, utterly miraculous!) when she and basically had the same symptoms (mild hemiparesis, and seizures). We have now realised that she had had minor reactions at other times when she had similar treats, so the Neuro toxic effect was increasing I think. She also had a minor reaction to some Vit C tablets which were sweetened with saccharin sodium last week.  So now we are very careful to avoid anything "sugar free", or "diet" formulas including bubble gum...not to mention caffeine.   Anyway she next sees her Neurologist in August for her yearly checkups,where I will raise this with him.
Just thought I would mention it.
 
Bless you and thanks for mentioning this and the other things you wrote.
Elisa