Sweeteners, both artificial and sugar-derived, top the list of addictive additives. But artificial sweeteners are the absolute WORST things you can put in your body. Consider aspartame, sold under the brand names NutraSweet and Equal. Diet cola, which often combines aspartame and caffeine, is the perfectly addictive beverage.

These two agents create a very unique but deadly combination of excitotoxins that kill off your brain cells. However, before they do so, they go out with a bang by giving you something akin to a buzz. It's the perfect plan to get you to go back to the store to buy another soda. And maybe a super-sized soda—after all, it has ZERO calories, no matter how much you consume!

But not so fast. You are sipping your way into a trap.

Studies now show that, in spite of their zero-calorie status, many artificial sweeteners actually cause weight GAIN because they stimulate your body to crave carbohydrates. But weight gain may be the least of your worries. Aspartame causes formaldehyde to build-up in your brain, which results in all sorts of potentially serious medical problems.

In fact, pilots' associations are aware of the visual disturbances and caution pilots to avoid using aspartame due to its potential to compromise their ability to pilot a plane.

The food industry claims that aspartame is safe. However, if you look at the studies that claim to support aspartame's safety, you will see that 90 percent of them were funded by the food and beverage industry. When you examine independent aspartame studies, it's a totally different story. Ninety percent of those have found serious health problems related to aspartame. The FDA merely evaluates the studies that the industry submits—it doesn't have a team of researchers conducting those studies itself, contrary to what you might thin

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