Why Aspartame Isn't Scary
Options
Replies
-
SarahSloth342634 wrote: »I try to not consume anything with this toxic rubbish, and i can taste it in my mouth for hrs if I have sugar free products. I don't buy them at all.
If aspartame really were 'toxic rubbish' don't you think that the millions of people who consume it on a daily basis would be showing some ill effects from it, like maybe falling over dead in the streets???
Can we at least agree some toxic rubbish is faster acting on our health while some others are slower to cause physical harm that may cause some to fall over dead in the streets?19 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »SarahSloth342634 wrote: »I try to not consume anything with this toxic rubbish, and i can taste it in my mouth for hrs if I have sugar free products. I don't buy them at all.
If aspartame really were 'toxic rubbish' don't you think that the millions of people who consume it on a daily basis would be showing some ill effects from it, like maybe falling over dead in the streets???
Can we at least agree some toxic rubbish is faster acting on our health while some others are slower to cause physical harm that may cause some to fall over dead in the streets?
Aspartame has been on the market for 50+ years now. Surely by now, however slow to cause physical harm, this "toxic rubbish" should have caused at least one individual to fall over dead in the streets. Or maybe the damage is so slow it takes 75-90 years of usage to inflict harm. But then, do old people die of old age or the ingestion of toxic rubbish?
7 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »SarahSloth342634 wrote: »I try to not consume anything with this toxic rubbish, and i can taste it in my mouth for hrs if I have sugar free products. I don't buy them at all.
If aspartame really were 'toxic rubbish' don't you think that the millions of people who consume it on a daily basis would be showing some ill effects from it, like maybe falling over dead in the streets???
Can we at least agree some toxic rubbish is faster acting on our health while some others are slower to cause physical harm that may cause some to fall over dead in the streets?
Certainly - but given that aspartame has been around for decades with millions of people consuming it daily and yet there is not a single concrete example that anyone has died from ingesting it, where/how does the 'toxic' label apply in this case?6 -
too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.18 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
Eating too many carrots can turn your skin orange. Does that mean carrots are unhealthy?
And link does not mean cause. Correlation does not mean causation.4 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
Onions give my dad raging headaches. Onions can't be good for you.5 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
The article that you reference was purely a correlation study that had no controls and could not positively identify diet drinks as the source cause of the dementia/stroke/etc.6 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
You get much MUCH more phenylalanine from protein that you do from aspartame in diet soda no matter how much diet soda you drink. The amount of phenylalanine in a soda is staggeringly small relative to the amount in protein. If you want I can do the math, I think I may have previously somewhere in this thread.
If people get headaches from drinking lots of soda chances are pretty good that the cause is the caffeine given that caffeine is a known cerebral vasoconstrictor.13 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
Did you actually read the article, or did you just cling to the click-bait headline as its conclusion?
"While the findings do not prove that diet drinks damage brains, they support other studies that show people who drink them frequently tend to have poorer health."
So, right in line with "spoons made me fat."
Where's that graphic of how bad information gets spread? I saw it around here somewhere this morning.7 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
You get much MUCH more phenylalanine from protein that you do from aspartame in diet soda no matter how much diet soda you drink. The amount of phenylalanine in a soda is staggeringly small relative to the amount in protein. If you want I can do the math, I think I may have previously somewhere in this thread.
If people get headaches from drinking lots of soda chances are pretty good that the cause is the caffeine given that caffeine is a known cerebral vasoconstrictor.
Eh what the heck I'll just do the math regardless, math is fun.
Aspartame content in one can of diet coke: 125mg
Source: http://static.diabetesselfmanagement.com/pdfs/DSM0310_012.pdf
Aspartame molecular weight: 294 g/mol (Source: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/aspartame)
Phenylalalanine molecular weight: 165 g/mol (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/6140)
Mass ratio of phenylalanine to aspartame within aspartame (ie the percent of aspartame by weight that is phenylalanine) = (165/294) = 0.56
Amount of phenylalanine in one diet coke = 0.56*125mg = 70mg
Amount of phenylalanine in protein is ~3.86% (Source: percent breakdown of amino acids in all cataloged proteins http://web.expasy.org/protscale/pscale/A.A.Swiss-Prot.html)
Amount of dietary protein recommended is ~50g a day (https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/protein)
If you take in 50g of protein a day and 3.86% of it is phenylalanine then that is 1.93 grams of phenylalanine. Of course I get about 150 grams of protein a day so I get closer to 6g of phenylalanine from protein.
1.93g is the same as 1930 mg and there was 70mg in a can of diet coke. So to get the same amount of phenylalanine that one would get from their recommended protein intake one would have to drink 28 cans of diet coke a day. That is if you only get 50 grams of protein a day. I'd have to drink something like 75 cans a day just to get the same amount from the soda as from my protein intake and at that point I'd probably be dead from water poisoning as that'd be drinking 960 fl oz or 7.5 gallons a day.
So are you still concerned about the phenyalanine content of diet sodas?25 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
You get much MUCH more phenylalanine from protein that you do from aspartame in diet soda no matter how much diet soda you drink. The amount of phenylalanine in a soda is staggeringly small relative to the amount in protein. If you want I can do the math, I think I may have previously somewhere in this thread.
If people get headaches from drinking lots of soda chances are pretty good that the cause is the caffeine given that caffeine is a known cerebral vasoconstrictor.
Eh what the heck I'll just do the math regardless, math is fun.
[snip]
You're a kind and patient man.2 -
PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
Did you actually read the article, or did you just cling to the click-bait headline as its conclusion?
"While the findings do not prove that diet drinks damage brains, they support other studies that show people who drink them frequently tend to have poorer health."
So, right in line with "spoons made me fat."
Where's that graphic of how bad information gets spread? I saw it around here somewhere this morning.
This one?
Still had it open in my browser from posting it another diet soda thread...8 -
alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.3 -
stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Sometimes short is better.2 -
stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.17 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.
What does that have to do with anything being discussed in this thread?6 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.
You sure about that? Have you ever read the ingredient list on a can of soda?
And the reply was specifically about phenylalanine. What does that have to do with whatever else is in chicken breast?
And who suggested soda instead of chicken breast?
Dude. Come on.5 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.
So as long as I eat a chicken breast with my 20 cans of soda, they cancel each other out in terms of premature death? Cool. brb opening 19 more cans of soda to go with my chicken dinner.
I never heard that chicken breasts prevent premature death, though. Pretty powerful stuff.11 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.
So as long as I eat a chicken breast with my 20 cans of soda, they cancel each other out in terms of premature death? Cool. brb opening 19 more cans of soda to go with my chicken dinner.
I never heard that chicken breasts prevent premature death, though. Pretty powerful stuff.
I just pictured a chicken on leash walking in front of you (looking mighty tiny BTW) and making appropriate clucking
noises for tripping hazards to help you avoid a premature fall and potential death.
13 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »stevencloser wrote: »alicebhsia wrote: »too much phenylalanine causes headaches. that can't be good for you. now there's a study (pertaining to many sugar substitutes not just aspartame but including it) that link sugar substitute consumption to stroke and dementia. not saying the sugar consumers fared much better, but to say aspartame is perfectly safe? it's too bad diet sodas use these chemicals in their product. if they just made less sugary drinks then i would buy them more often. i don't want to give myself brain damage or a brain tumor from drinking soda laced with chemicals and regular soda is too sweet. at least with the sugar if i'm getting similar damage it tastes good. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/diet-sodas-raise-risk-dementia-stroke-study-finds-n749051
i need to get off my butt and use my soda stream to lessen the sugar in my soda by mixing plain carbonated water in.
100 grams of chicken breast has ~20 cans of soda's worth of phenylalanine...
Nevermind, Aaron did it first and better.
Keep in mind what is in the 20 cans of soda does not help prevent a premature death but what is in the 100 grams of chicken breast does.
I don't think anyone is suggesting you replace your protein intake with diet soda consumption. The point was that it is extremely unlikely that the amount of phenylalanine contained in a diet coke would cause any health issues given that much much more phenylalanine is present in protein in general.10
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 393 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 937 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions