Nutrasweet - Junk Science / Fear Tactics / Or really bad for

alphaip

First of all - please check your emotions at the door (or keyboard) - as for some reaoson, people are passionalte about this topic. Full disclosure: I'm a diet coke addict. I drink a lot of it. My kids say there coach tells them they will die young if they drinking it.

I see a lot of EMOTIONAL debates that "Aspartame is poison" etc. Or, my friend drank diet coke and now has MS (or Cancer, or bleeding gums, what have you). Yes, people who drink diet coke will get cancer this year, but so will people who drink green tea. Not NECESSARILY correlated.

Last year, I did some contract programming for a a class action suit lawyer (Mesothelioma, Phen fen, etc). Based on what I saw there, if anyone could prove for a second there was any harm in nutrasweet, you would see advertisements all day long that say "If you drank a diet coke in the last 20 years, please call 1-800-blah blah). I mean, there's not even any type of warning on the label - coca cola would go bankrupt in so fast it would make your head spin.

So, I like to make informed decisions. I have thought about stopping diet coke because of the sodium - but my blood pressure is fine, and I drink a lot of regular water too (as the caffine is a diuretic ).

Here's what I do notice:
- A lot of fat people (like me) drink diet coke in abundance. But my theory is that these people, like me, tend to be addicted or lean on food too much, or are emotional eaters, and that's why they are heavy.
-There is a lot of sodium - but my blood pressure is fine.
-Caffine - Well, this is a diuretic, so I need to drink more water if I do have a diet coke
-Phosphoric Acid - okay, Grandma never made anything with phosphoric acid in it - so that does scare me a bit.
-Nutrasweet - what's the big deal???

Here's my logic: If nutrasweet was dangerous, this could be proven. If this could be proven, the class action lawyers would come out of the woodwork to make their money.

My conclusion: Since you can't show that it's harmful, then it probably isn't, but I don't know everything and I could be wrong. Do you have any FACTS that might help me? I think I would like to quit - just to not be addicted to anything.

LuckyLeprechaun

oh boy, you better prepare yourself...it's about to go CRAZY in this thread LOL


for the record, I drink coke zero all the time, and IDK why anyone comments on the sodium in diet soda. 40 mg per can is pretty low compared to my daily target.

(ducks in fear of incoming bombs) :laugh:

weaklink109

Ok. here comes the opening salvo, unless someone types faster than I do and ends up the third poster.:bigsmile:

The biggest problem I have with any artificial sweetener is that if I use it, I crave carbs and sweets. I was not positive about the relationship until I tried my own unscientific experiment. I made a point of not using any product with artificial sweetener in it for two weeks, found I had no cravings.

I used my go to pre-made protein shake, which has artificial sweetener in it and within two days, I had the galloping munchies in the evenings again. I stopped using it. Another two days and I was able to finish the day without wanting a feeding frenzy.

I will let others quote you chapter and verse on scientific data, but this is what I found out for myself, so I choose not to use products with artificial sweeteners.

BTW, as far as diet coke or other sodas containing phosphorus, it is my understanding that excessive consumption can weaken your teeth enamel, and leech calcium from your bones. I am sure someone is going to quote the specifics of that below me so I will leave it at that.

Now pardon me while I step back to watch the fireworks!!:laugh: :laugh:

dawnna76

I believe in the "everything in moderation" rule. I like soda, diet coke is my fav. but I only have one or two cans a week. doesnt hurt me, doesnt help me.

PLUMSGRL

I'm in the medical field and I've heard and read things on both sides of the table. That being said, there is a warning on the side of boxes / bottles/cans that contain aspartame and babies are automatically given a simple blood test before discharge from the hospital to see if they have PKU which deals with phenylalanine conversion (they lack the enzyme, results in brain damage).
Many people, including myself, have sensitivities to various chemicals. For me MSG and phenylalanine ary crappy...headaches and other neural problems. I used to be a huge soda drinker (2 two liter bottles/day), mostly diet stuff. when I quit using products with nutra sweet (like the soda habit) my symptoms slowly cleared up. I also didn't crave sweets so much.
And yet, I have friends who drink and eat the stuff without any problem.
which goes to prove Paul Simon to be right : one man's ceiling is another man's floor

gjulie

How on earth do you drink the stuff,its just horrible,when I drink Coke which is maybe once in 6 months It has to be the proper stuff,Im interested to know how people come to depend on it,as kids we got very little fizzy drinks,possibly only if you had an upset Tummy,Im just wondering if the addiction begins in childhood,I dont know,I think everyone needs a little of what they like but I just feel that too much of anything isint good.

alphaip

Julie - good question. My first job was att the movies in 1985 and we could get free cokes. My next job in college was as waiter at steak & ale - so then more free cokes. Of course, when I was 20, my body could handle it. So then I was in the habit of drinking 5 or 6 cokes a day. Then I get a desk job, and gained so much weight in two months that I had to do something - so I had to switch to diet cokes - At the time they tasted nasty chemically - but I've acquired a taste. I've never been a coffee drinker, just the fizzy stuff.

For me - it's the "sting" in the morning on the back of the throat - feels like it's time to get moving.

lilmissy2

As a person, I like my splenda and I'd rather have my tea sweet and low calorie than unsweetened or high calorie.

As a dietitian, the jury is still out on the super long term effects of sweeteners. That is, there have not been any proven harmful effects in human subjects and it has also not been proven that over the long term, sweeteners are completely safe. They have however been shown to be safe up to a certain level - which you would be unlikely to exceed unless you were say having 10 cups of tea with 3 tsp of splenda in each and 3L of diet coke a day... which I'm sure you would agree is extreme.

I do appreciate the attitude that most anti-splenda people here have which tends to be 'go without any sweetener or sugar'. I don't have a problem with people that choose to take the 'better safe than sorry' approach, providing it isn't hindering their health in some other way. I come across a lot of patients that seem to use it as an excuse as to why they still drink regular soft-drink (and I'm not talking about in a once in a while sense, of course I wouldn't have a problem with that). When a patient asks me 'but won't sweetener give me cancer?' I usually point out that there is no proven link between sweetener and cancer but there IS a strongly proven link between obesity and several types of cancer.

LuckyLeprechaun

How on earth do you drink the stuff,its just horrible,when I drink Coke which is maybe once in 6 months It has to be the proper stuff,Im interested to know how people come to depend on it,as kids we got very little fizzy drinks,possibly only if you had an upset Tummy,Im just wondering if the addiction begins in childhood,I dont know,I think everyone needs a little of what they like but I just feel that too much of anything isint good.

when it comes to diet coke or diet pepsi, I agree with your assessment that they taste awful. I wasn't allowed very much fast food or soda at all as a child, and when we did have it (soda), it had to be clear (sprite/7up/no caramel coloring or caffeine). When I went off to college and on my own is when I indulged in a lot of real coca cola. I gained a lot of weight from all that sugar and fast food eating, and when they invented coke zero, I decided to try it to see if I could use it to eliminate all the calories I was getting from coke. In my opinion, zero is very very close to the real thing, and doesn't have the chemical aftertaste diet coke has. So for me, it was an easy switch, because I can still have the taste without the calories.

I also loved sweet tea, with a ton of sugar in it. I have made the switch to iced tea with sweet and low in it for sweetener.

I'm impressed at the civility of this thread so far !!! Usually these get pretty passionate pretty fast, so good job fellow MFP'rs!!!:drinker: :bigsmile:

weaklink109

I checked back in here to see how many craters there were from flack,:noway: :laugh: but to my great pleasure, civility is the order of the day. I agree with the above poste, WTG MFP'rs:flowerforyou:

rocknrolla2009

I know that when I drink it, I get instant headaches. Someone did a report in one of my college classes and it was found in studies to cause holes in the brains of test rats and mice. Then there's the good old fashioned science experiment where Coke will dissolve a nail if left in a glass overnight. Gotta love the scare tactics! Pretty much everything these days is cancer causing.

The main reason I don't drink anything with aspartame is the headache issue, and the yucky taste. If I want pop bad enough, I will leave room in my calories for a real Pepsi, or drink club soda with a bit of cranberry juice for flavor. (1-2 oz per can of club soda) Splenda is just gross. The aftertaste makes me want to hurl.

Brandi

Oh ya..I read somewhere too that aspartame actually slows down the fat burning process. I think it would depend on how much you drink. Lots of people have it every day and still lose weight so who knows how accurate it is..

Duganhorse

Personally I just don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners. I love my sugar and probably eat too much of it. You can find a study out there to prove anything you want. I think if they could prove it caused cancer there would be a warning label on it like cigaretttes and you would have to be over 18 to buy it! I am sure it's not really healthy for you, but we eat a lot of things that aren't. It's all in moderation.

alphaip

Yes appreciate the civility. Abd for the record, coke will not dissolve meat, nails, or paper overnight.