{"id":50386,"date":"2025-04-25T21:27:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T01:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hancockhealth.org\/mayo-health-library\/phenylalanine-in-diet-soda-is-it-harmful\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:41:11","slug":"phenylalanine-in-diet-soda-is-it-harmful","status":"publish","type":"mayo","link":"https:\/\/www.hancockhealth.org\/es\/mayo-health-library\/phenylalanine-in-diet-soda-is-it-harmful\/","title":{"rendered":"Phenylalanine in diet soda: Is it harmful?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Phenylalanine is an amino acid, a building block of protein. Most people don’t need to worry about it. But it is an issue for people who have a genetic condition called phenylketonuria (PKU). Genetic conditions are passed through families.<\/p>\n

In people with PKU<\/abbr>, phenylalanine can cause intellectual disability, brain damage, seizures, and skin and other problems. Intellectual disability is slow learning and skill building.<\/p>\n

Phenylalanine is in many protein-rich foods, such as milk, eggs and meat. Phenylalanine also is sold as a dietary supplement.<\/p>\n

The artificial sweetener aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) has phenylalanine. Aspartame is added to many medicines, diet foods and diet sodas.<\/p>\n

In the United States, any product that has aspartame must carry a warning about the phenylalanine. This warning helps people with PKU<\/abbr> avoid those products.<\/p>\n

People who don’t have phenylketonuria most likely don’t need to worry about phenylalanine.<\/p>\n

Use products with aspartame with care if you:<\/p>\n