Originally Posted By: Darp
Airline pilots are not allowed to drink aspartame sweetened drinks...


Do you have a source for this? I was a corporate pilot for years, and have a father and plenty of friends that currently fly for airlines, both majors and regionals, and plenty of them drink Diet Coke and other aspartame laced beverages.

Last I had heard, the FAA had no official stance on aspartame other than "it's probably not good for you."



G&C, Found two, the 2nd is on FDA site:

I found the below at: http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/fraud.htm

Aspartame Affecting Airline Pilots

Some of the more interesting developments in 1989 surfaced in the Palm Beach Post on October 14th, where an article by Dr. H.J. Robert described several recent aircraft accidents involving confusion and aberrant pilot behavior caused by ingestion of products containing aspartame.[13] Soft drink makers were notified of this problem in 1991.


Now for the FDA one: http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/03/jan03/012203/02p-0317_emc-000199.txt

There are other clinical reports in the scientific literature of
aspartame-caused toxicity reactions including Blumenthal (1997),
Drake (1986), Johns (1986), Lipton (1989), McCauliffe (1991),
Novick (1985), Watts (1991), Walton (1986, 1988), and Wurtman
(1985).

Many pilots appear to be particularly susceptible to the effects of
aspartame ingestion. They have reported numerous serious toxicity
effects including grand mal seizures in the cockpit (Stoddard 1995).



Yea, I wasn't really disputing that aspartame might be part of the problem, I was more curious about your statement that airline pilots were not allowed to consume aspartame. There may be some airlines that have their own SOPs or mandates restricting it, but there's nothing from the FAA that I've been able to find. The FDA can not tell pilots what they may or may not do. The FAA can, and they do not have an official stance on the consumption of aspartame.

That's not to say that they shouldn't, just that they don't.

And while I also recognize that my question may have been slightly off topic, at the same time, if the FAA had taken a stance on the consumption of aspartame by pilots, it would have made the story much more powerful to me, seeing as how pilots spend a good portion of their time at cabin pressures of 7-8,000 ft.

One day I'd like to hike the entire John Muir Trail and not leave a single footprint. -Randy Morgenson