Formaldehyde and Chewing Gum?

Question

Ok...so I heard that chewing gum, for example, Orbit, contains an ingredient called phenylketonurics which contains phenylalanine which is used in Formaldehyde (the stuff they use to preserve dead people or something like that). I heard that Formaldehyde preserves fat cells in the body. And in turn orbit chewing gum can preserve fat cells........

If anyone knows anything about any of this, please share!

Answer 1

Phenylalanine is an amino acid found in protein. Phenylketonurics are people who have a disorder where their body cannot break down this amino acid. If this disorder is not found early enough, it can lead to learning disabilities and other problems. PKU is an abbreviation for this disorder. Any products that have aspartame (artificial sweetener, aka nutrasweet) have to have a warning about that because aspartame is broken down into three products, one of which is phenylalanine. Here's info about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine

Answer 2

phenylalanine is an amino acid that's used in proteins, one of the main 20 amino acids in your body. It has nothing to do with formaldehyde as far as I know. Formaldehyde is really bad stuff, and a highly suspected carcinogen, but phenylalanine in small amounts is most likely harmless, mostly because your body already uses it. When you eat proteins, your body breaks them down, so there, you probably get phenylalanine in your body through that means anyway. Don't worry about it, I doubt any chewing gum has any toxic things (I hope).

Answer 3

as was already stated phenylalanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that is found in most animal proteins.

you can use this site to find out what is "really" in the food that you eat and not what people claim is...

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/