The truth about sugar subsitutes

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  • lorenzoinlr
    lorenzoinlr Posts: 338 Member
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    Ahh....the wonderful world of Research Studies. Absent funding they'd barely exist. Sometimes the funding source is only after knowledge but often the purpose is to defend their side of the street. Just the fact that that phenomenon exists means we have to take them with a grain of salt. Enough studies pointing the same way helps but often you don't have that.

    For me prudence has me avoid risks that can't be justified. I avoid artificial sweeteners because I'm fine without them and the possibiility does exist they're harmful along with the possibility that they're not, I'd just assume be risk averse here.

    Now, if it were something I loved or felt I needed, my risk benefit calculus might be different.
  • bcampbell54
    bcampbell54 Posts: 932 Member
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    Eeks!!
    More science-ish sounding scariness, from the Federal Drug Administrations, whatever they are.
    Hiding under my blankie now...
  • pauljsolie
    pauljsolie Posts: 1,024 Member
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    I like how people are always crying about the awful chemicals,yet probobly use deoderant,makeup,hair dye,toothpaste all get absorbed into your body
    Ahhhhhhhh, a voice of reason. Good point!
  • celliott_sa
    celliott_sa Posts: 2
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    OM My GAWD! I have been taking these for YEARS!!!! I even have a diet coke in fornt me right now! I didn't know it was that bad, though my brother said aspartame was originally created for making a type of bomb by a german scientist. YIKES Thank you
  • pauljsolie
    pauljsolie Posts: 1,024 Member
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    Ahh....the wonderful world of Research Studies. Absent funding they'd barely exist. Sometimes the funding source is only after knowledge but often the purpose is to defend their side of the street. Just the fact that that phenomenon exists means we have to take them with a grain of salt. Enough studies pointing the same way helps but often you don't have that.

    For me prudence has me avoid risks that can't be justified. I avoid artificial sweeteners because I'm fine without them and the possibiility does exist they're harmful along with the possibility that they're not, I'd just assume be risk averse here.

    Now, if it were something I loved or felt I needed, my risk benefit calculus might be different.
    How dare you tell me I have to take in salt!!!!!:wink:



    oops, forgot to turn off the sarcasm switch
  • docdick9120
    docdick9120 Posts: 34 Member
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    What are we diabetics supposed to do when we need sweetness in our food or drink?
  • Stefanie7125
    Stefanie7125 Posts: 462 Member
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    Excellent post. I do not do artificial sweetners at all.


    ^^ Me either. I wish they would outlaw aspartame all together. I would much rather eat a little bit of real sugar than polute my body with that artificial crap.


    I completely agree. I try very hard to avoid it!
  • trixirn
    trixirn Posts: 130 Member
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    Did you guys know that deodorant can cause kidney failure? Read the back of your product. There's a warning.
  • stef827
    stef827 Posts: 215 Member
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    I use truvia... ._. and I'm still going to use it.


    Truvia is not artificial :)
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    I gave up all sugar substitutes.

    My gut feeling was that something was wrong.
    I do not regret this.

    And as I pour over all the conflicting notions, I certainly can report that I just feel better.
    Scientific? Nope...

    I am a study of one, and the results are in.
    Something about sugar substitutes just ain't quite right.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
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    Thank you for posting this....I've been saying this stuff for years but people have stopped listening to me and chew their sugar free gum and drink their diet sodas anyway. Did you know aspartame has close to 100 known side effects - one of which being death! and was rejected by the FDA the first several times through, and only passed when leadership changed. Now it's in everything!

    you know what else has a side effect of death?


    life.


    aaaaahhhhhh!



    Disney-Chicken-Little-Sky-Falling.jpg
  • bjfmade
    bjfmade Posts: 543 Member
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    Eggs and coffee used to be bad, too. Let's not mention what Dr. Spock did to help raise kids! It is all a matter of interpretation. If you want to use something, you will only see the good in it. Same goes with something you don' t like. I use artificial sweeteners and will continue to do so. I drink coffee and will continue to do so, etc., etc., etc.
  • ericalynn104
    ericalynn104 Posts: 382 Member
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    Aspartame is EVERYWHERE!!! I swear it haunts me.. It gives me headaches and it is SOOOOOO hard to avoid! It's in gum. It's in drink mixes. It's in low calorie yogurt! *frustrated sigh*
  • meg7399
    meg7399 Posts: 672 Member
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    Why would anyone want to ingest chemically modified or created anything? Its a sickening thought for me. 15 calories are not that important to me that I can't use a tsp of REAL nature produced sugar in my coffee instead of a 0 calories plant engineered substitute! Eat real stuff! We don't eat lead paint...lets not eat other bad for us stuff either!
  • Helice
    Helice Posts: 1,083 Member
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    I have 3 sweetners in my cups of tea. (artifical suger).
    As scary as the side effects sound, if i just had normal sugar. My cups of tea would become like 54 calories more than they already are..
    =/
  • SilverStrychnine
    SilverStrychnine Posts: 413 Member
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    Sugar replacements are artificial and nothing but chemicals. Sugar is a natural substance. Regardless of the pros and cons, I don't want to pump my body full of chemicals.
  • 967_1111
    967_1111 Posts: 221 Member
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    Anyone reading Doonesbury this week?

    http://www.doonesbury.com/

    What I love about the Internet is I can support any argument with a bit of cut and paste from a variety of web sites.

    What's that phone number for MyFacts anyway?
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
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    *sigh* I had a nice long post about the chemistry of it all... And blamo! Gone!

    Briefly - Spleda is natural sucrose treated with chlorine. We use chlorine to disinfect, and therefore, it's toxic to living systems. Chlorine gas has been used as a chemical warfare agent. Aspertame does break down to formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen and even brief exposure during a high school dissection could be enough to cause cancer. Do you REALLY want to put these things into your body?

    We use alcohol to disinfect too. :D

    Splenda is the racimer of glucose. What does that mean? It has the same molecular composition, but the bonds are oriented differently and so the molecule doesn't fit into our enzymes and can't be metabolized the way that glucose is metabolized.

    It's really NOT that scary and most of the stuff you're sharing on this thread is hear-say, scare-tactics, and not based on science.

    I repeat a sentiment that I've shared many times before (this statement is directed to everyone, not just to the individual I quoted)- there's no need to twist the science to fit your bias. There's no need to be a fear-monger. Choose not to consume artificial sweeteners if you wish, and by all means, feel free to point out the possible danger. But let's not make boogie monsters out of them, shall we? Dieting is hard enough without jumping at every possible shadow.
  • cressievargo
    cressievargo Posts: 392 Member
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    I could be wrong, but I think the original poster's point was that people ingest artificial sweeteners a LOT - and MANY (not all) do not know of the potential side effects, etc. They assume b/c the FDA allows it, it must be okay (or they just don't care either way).

    Whether or not a person chooses to use artificial sweeteners is their own choice.

    For me, personally, I do use them but severely limit my intake now. I used to drink diet pop - and once I quit drinking it last summer, I realized that it was a a MAJOR trigger for me. It made me crave sweets like CRAZY. Someone else might not have that same experience - but another might...and isn't that the point of this forum? To offer help, ideas and suggestions?
    People have the right to further research or ignore it all together.
  • iuew
    iuew Posts: 624 Member
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    the truth about seared or cooked meat : it contains heterocyclic amines, which are a known carcinogen. however, it's unlikely that eating cooked food will cause you to get cancer. pathogenic organisms in uncooked food, however, can and do kill a lot of people.

    likewise, being overweight is a serious health risk. artificial sweeteners help a lot of people cut calories and therefore lose weight.

    here is a reputable link addressing the issue : http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

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