Talk:Phenylalanine
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I thought that aspartame is poisonous because it contains phenylalanine? If that is so, then why is it essential for human nutrition and why are not more people aware of it?
- Aspartame is not generally poisonous. It is poisonous to phenylketonurics because it contains phenylalanine. I doubt that phenylalanine is 'essential for human nutrition', even though it may be an 'essential amino acid'. The two are not equivalent. JunkCookie 23:45, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
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- Maybe you should add that? Certainly, more people can be confused as well. Anonymous 21:35, Apr 17, 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Source of data
I found the information for the melting point, boiling point, and density of phenylalanine here: http://chemfinder.cambridgesoft.com/result.asp?mol_rel_id=63-91-2 KBi 04:36, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Diet Coke!
Can someone add information as to food types these amino acids are added and effects human well being? Is it cancerous?
It's almost like an allergy to the acid. You either are, or you aren't allergic. Don't worry, chances are if you don't have a problem with it currently, then you're fine. But just to be on the safe side, I would try to consume as little as possible. It contains formaldehyde(sp). I personally find that repulsive, considering it is used to preserve dead bodies.
It contains Aspatame which is metabolised to %50 Phenylalanine, %40 Aspartic acid and %10 Methyl alcohol which is metabolised to formaldehyde —The preceding unsigned comment was added by The Right Honourable (talk • contribs) 08:34, August 21, 2007 (UTC).
[edit] Some form of lifting going on (not sure which direction) and objectivity questioned
This site: http://www.sweetpoison.com/phenylalanine.html
has the exact same phrasing of
"too much Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death to the brain cells. ADD/ADHD, emotional and behavioral disorders can all be triggered by too much Phenylalanine in the daily diet of the human body."
It looks like the sweetpoison.com person is billing herself as an "expert" on this topic, but is also selling a detox program. I am guessing that she didn't lift from wikipedia for her own text... which means it happened the other way around.
If something like that is going to be claimed, we need something more than a detox sales site to back it up for sure.
- I concur. This is an encyclopedia, you cannot have what looks like a factual reference to something that does not have any studies, medical journals or anything of that effect listed. If a view was to be presented with regards to Aspartame, then post it there, not at this page.
- At second thought, that link is completely irrelevant to the discussion, and i believe it is a blatant plug for a commercial product, i'm going to edit that out since it is not relevant. Imagine someone plugging a radiation treatment plan on the Nuclear Weapons page
- --Popoi 19:41, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Someone has again added this spurious statement. If you, the author of this text, are reading this: please provide a legitimate citation. That website is not legit. It is most definitely untrue that Phe can cause such disorders. One would think that by increasing phenylalanine intake, one could thereby increase dopamine production. Unfortunately, this logic is flawed, as the human body has numerous mechanisms which prevent this from happening. If we didn't have such mechanisms, we would all suffer a form of psychosis not unlike that caused by excessive amphetmine intake (amphetamine psychosis), or MAOI poisoning. Fuzzform 20:40, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
Furthermore on the "too much Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death. ADD/ADHD, emotional and behavioral disorders can all be triggered by too much Phenylalanine in the daily diet." Just a couple comments... ADD/ADHD is medicated by giving people amphetemine salts (i.e. adderal), which happen to work by blocking the reuptake of dopamine and norepinephrine into the presynaptic neuron and increasing their release from the presynaptic neuron into the extraneuronal space. So, if it were possible that phenylalanine excited neurons, which I'm most positive it doesn't unless converted to a catecholemine (also see fuzzform's inciteful comment above), then it could be speculated that it would decrease ADD/ADHD not increase it. That is, unless some time during developmental gene imprinting, excess dopamine caused by excess phenylalanine (doubtful) caused a down regulation of DA receptors in the prefrontal cortex. Niubrad 02:54, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Should I or Shouldn't I
My personal trainer advised me to start drinking protien shakes and recommended SciTech Nutrition Whey Best. As I sit here today reading the label I noticed it says it contains "*Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine" So I looked it up on the internet, found this web site and want to know...what do you think, should I drink it? Is it safe? --70.32.145.76 23:15, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
- Phenylalanine is present is in a lot of things. Check out a can of cola. The handy thing about commercial food products is that if there's something dangerous in it, either it's not understood as dangerous yet (in which case everyone will tell you it's safe) or the FDA wouldn't have allowed it in the first place (or whichever governing body controls food safety on your continent). You'll be fine, unless you OD on it; in that case, as in if you intend to drink vast quantities of these shakes, you should probably talk to your doctor to get a more considered medical opinion. --User:Firien § 10:41, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
The warning "*Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine" is there for people who are Phenylketonurics, that is those who have PKU and are unable to process phenylalanine. These people are often on resrictive diets that don't have this amino acid. The warning is for them so that they are aware that they cannot consume the product. Most foods with that label have aspartame in them, which in the body is changed to phenylalanine which is poisonous for those who are have PKU, but not necessarily anyone else. --Moonshire 16:45, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
This last paragraph is possibly what many people will be looking for when they search on phenylalanine. Could it be included at the top of the main article? AlexFoster 01:33, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
- Whenever you eat protein you'll break it up in your stomach and absorb the "infamous phenylalanine". You need it! Aaadddaaammm 07:19, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merge with DL-Phenylalanine
I vote a definate yes to the merge. Aaadddaaammm 07:20, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
- support as well. I suppose if no one has chimed in further in a few days it should be fine to merge. Radagast83 05:22, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
- Weak support, if it is clear in the resulting article, that D-Phenylalanine is the other isomer, hence, it should have an own section, not merged into all the other sections. Otherwise this will be confusing. --Dirk Beetstra T C 08:32, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
- Support as long as it has it's own section and is searchable. Many people will just search for DPLA, so the page will need a redirect also.--Travisthurston 17:38, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
- Support merging, especially if DL-Phenylalanine is cleaned up in the process. – ClockworkSoul 20:25, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
Now that DL-Phenylalanine redirects here, I guess I'll go ahead and remove the tag. --Michael 19:45, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Question about generalization:
The article asserts that "... food products, all of which must be labeled: "Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine." As I have yet to see this labelling in Canada (but would like to), I'd value some clarification as to the geographical scope of the statement. Which governments require this labelling? I.e.: "Says who?" Ve3wtj 19:00, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Uninformative "dietary aspects"
I removed this section because it was completely uninformative:
- Phenylalanine is contained in most protein-rich foods. Especially good sources are dairy products (curd, milk, cottage cheese), avocados, pulses and legumes (particularly peanuts and lima beans), pistachios, almonds, seeds (piyal seeds), leafy vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, other seafoods, and some diet beverages.
It used the shaky formulation "good sources" and named some foods low in protein like leafy vegetables where even the fraction of the protein consisting of phenylalanine residues is lower than in some protein rich sources which are not listed. Icek 22:56, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
