Diet soda linked to risk of depression

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millyvanilli321
millyvanilli321 Posts: 236 Member
in Food and Nutrition
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20943509

Interesting article about quite a large study that links diet sodas (and particularly aspartame) with depression...
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  • stfuriada
    stfuriada Posts: 445 Member
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    I'd be depressed if I had to give it up, tbh.
  • lucasriggs
    lucasriggs Posts: 131
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    Could be other factors. Diet soda drinkers may be more likely to be overweight or obese, and maybe its that which is causing depression not the soda itself.
  • millyvanilli321
    millyvanilli321 Posts: 236 Member
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    I agree, the article says that too. It doesn't mention cause, just a link to higher risk of depression. I just thought it was interesting because so much of how you feel is affected by what you put in to your body.
  • doc35
    doc35 Posts: 1
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    Interesting, thanks for posting this.
  • Akimajuktuq
    Akimajuktuq Posts: 3,037 Member
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    Get ready to come under fire for even suggesting that diet soda might not be healthy. Been there, done that. There's NO way that government regulating organizations would ever allow products in our food that would hurt us. No way, it can't possibly be true. And why would someone give up something they LOVE (now heroin is springing to mind...)? Why worry about long term good health when there is a pill for everything? No personal accountability for one's own health is required.

    I don't care at all if adults choose to consume diet sodas, but I do care when it is marketed/given to children. And while my own child is not allowed artificial sweeteners, the staff at school still violate my instructions and give them to her. Sorry, but that pisses me off to no end. It's hard to be accepting of others personal choice when they violate mine and harm my child.
  • MeMyCatsandI
    MeMyCatsandI Posts: 704 Member
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    Funny. I read this article today, which claims that SUGAR sodas cause depression!
    http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/sweet-sodas-soft-drinks-may-raise-risk-depression-183000091.html
    ETA: Oops, it looks like this one claims that diet drinks have a higher risk, but seems to say that sugary drinks do too. Either way, I don't really care. I don't drink enough of either for it to matter to me.
  • bingojok
    bingojok Posts: 2
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    my fella said to me 2day diet sodas can bring on depression and i have a diet coke everyday ......its not coke making me depressed it him and being over weight and lack of money .lol x
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,714 Member
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    I agree, the article says that too. It doesn't mention cause, just a link to higher risk of depression. I just thought it was interesting because so much of how you feel is affected by what you put in to your body.
    The body's digestive system doesn't know what it's eating, it just processes it. Emotions linked to it are subjective since some that drink are happy, some aren't emotionally affected at all, and some get depressed.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
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    I agree, the article says that too. It doesn't mention cause, just a link to higher risk of depression. I just thought it was interesting because so much of how you feel is affected by what you put in to your body.
    The body's digestive system doesn't know what it's eating, it just processes it. Emotions linked to it are subjective since some that drink are happy, some aren't emotionally affected at all, and some get depressed.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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    I prefer to humanize my internal organs
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,714 Member
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    I don't care at all if adults choose to consume diet sodas, but I do care when it is marketed/given to children. And while my own child is not allowed artificial sweeteners, the staff at school still violate my instructions and give them to her. Sorry, but that pisses me off to no end. It's hard to be accepting of others personal choice when they violate mine and harm my child.
    You need a new school then. If you're instructing your child to only drink and eat what you give her, and have instructed the school staff not to allow anything else, then it shouldn't be violated. Just like a child that's allergic to peanuts shouldn't be allowed eat anything with peanuts in it.
    What I would ask is how are you sure this is going on?

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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  • cjh022
    cjh022 Posts: 88 Member
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    YEP, if you want a real scare google almost anything about aspartame, from carcinogenic to digesting into methanol and formaldehyde in your body, there's some scary **** out there! Can't comment on the validity but hey everything causes some disease or cancer nowadays so I just continue to enjoy in moderation... :drinker:
  • millyvanilli321
    millyvanilli321 Posts: 236 Member
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    I agree, the article says that too. It doesn't mention cause, just a link to higher risk of depression. I just thought it was interesting because so much of how you feel is affected by what you put in to your body.
    The body's digestive system doesn't know what it's eating, it just processes it. Emotions linked to it are subjective since some that drink are happy, some aren't emotionally affected at all, and some get depressed.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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    I'm not saying that when you eat/drink it, you feel depressed by the action of doing so, you've misunderstood me there. What is digested by the body goes in to your blood stream, to your organs etc and this can affect energy levels, mood, etc. to the extent that over long periods of time it can create long lasting effects. Certain foods can affect your body in such a way that the chemical processes are changed, making you feel emotions differently. For example, people who are allergic to the protein casein in milk (different to a lactose intolerance) can have such a reaction that mood is low, energy levels are low and hormones can also be affected.

    You studied nutrition?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,714 Member
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    I'm not saying that when you eat/drink it, you feel depressed by the action of doing so, you've misunderstood me there. What is digested by the body goes in to your blood stream, to your organs etc and this can affect energy levels, mood, etc. to the extent that over long periods of time it can create long lasting effects. Certain foods can affect your body in such a way that the chemical processes are changed, making you feel emotions differently. For example, people who are allergic to the protein casein in milk (different to a lactose intolerance) can have such a reaction that mood is low, energy levels are low and hormones can also be affected.

    You studied nutrition?
    If you're speculating about diet soda affecting mood, then it's going to be hormonal since hormones have a direct affect on it. So please post a peer reviewed clinical study on aspartame directly affecting serotonin, dopamine, testosterone and estrogen for starters. If you can't then you're speculating.
    Allergies are a different ballpark. Someone who is allergic to something wouldn't keep ingesting it so they can be in a bad health state.:laugh:

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  • LambdAmy
    LambdAmy Posts: 3 Member
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    "From Norfolk Genetic Information Network (Taken from Welcome to the Spin Machine by Michael Manville http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/2001/04/biotech/ http://www.freezerbox.com/ )

    In 1985 Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet. Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame's clouded past, including a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it "might induce brain tumors."

    The FDA had actually banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (currently the Secretary of Defense) vow to "call in his markers," to get it approved.

    On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan's inauguration, Searle re-applied to the FDA for approval to use aspartame in food sweetener, and Reagan's new FDA commissioner, Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry's decision.

    It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision, but Hull then installed a sixth member on the commission, and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartame's favor. Hull later left the FDA under allegations of impropriety, served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then took a position with Burston-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time he has never spoken publicly about aspartame. "

    Taken from http://rense.com/general33/legal.htm
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    When I'm in a depressive slump, I'm lethargic and mopey, sometimes with nasty headaches, so I'm more likely to drink more diet soda for the caffeine pick me up. So in my case, it's not that diet drinks cause depression, but depression causes me to turn to more soda.

    I'm also more likely go shopping when I'm depressed.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,714 Member
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    "From Norfolk Genetic Information Network (Taken from Welcome to the Spin Machine by Michael Manville http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/2001/04/biotech/ http://www.freezerbox.com/ )

    In 1985 Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet. Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame's clouded past, including a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it "might induce brain tumors."

    The FDA had actually banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (currently the Secretary of Defense) vow to "call in his markers," to get it approved.

    On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan's inauguration, Searle re-applied to the FDA for approval to use aspartame in food sweetener, and Reagan's new FDA commissioner, Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry's decision.

    It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision, but Hull then installed a sixth member on the commission, and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartame's favor. Hull later left the FDA under allegations of impropriety, served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then took a position with Burston-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time he has never spoken publicly about aspartame. "

    Taken from http://rense.com/general33/legal.htm
    Good thing this happened or I wouldn't get to have my diet Pepsi.:laugh:

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  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,714 Member
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    When I'm in a depressive slump, I'm lethargic and mopey, sometimes with nasty headaches, so I'm more likely to drink more diet soda for the caffeine pick me up. So in my case, it's not that diet drinks cause depression, but depression causes me to turn to more soda.

    I'm also more likely go shopping when I'm depressed.
    Lol, there's some suggestion that aspartame does increase dopamine transmission to the brain making people more alert.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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  • hayleycreates
    hayleycreates Posts: 27 Member
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    I agree, the article says that too. It doesn't mention cause, just a link to higher risk of depression. I just thought it was interesting because so much of how you feel is affected by what you put in to your body.
    The body's digestive system doesn't know what it's eating, it just processes it. Emotions linked to it are subjective since some that drink are happy, some aren't emotionally affected at all, and some get depressed.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    I thought there had been a lot of studies done on food and mood and their connections? What about how "the nutrients and food-based chemicals we consume can influence both the structure and function of our nerve cells (neurons) and the communicating chemicals (neurotransmitters) that make them work." (Quoted from Alive, Alan C. Logan, ND, FRSH)
    I know certain foods make me feel like crap on the inside and outside.
  • Jory2pointOh
    Jory2pointOh Posts: 38
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    My mother's a RN and a nutrition counselor. She says there are studies out there where the aspartame in diet pop can actually have the same effect on people as drinking a regular soda. So those trying to prevent obesity or becoming bigger may be doing just that when they drink it. I quit pop altogether. If I want one, I'll drink a regular one that way I don't get the other side effects aspartame gives me.. like running to the bathroom holding my shorts.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
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    Could be other factors. Diet soda drinkers may be more likely to be overweight or obese, and maybe its that which is causing depression not the soda itself.

    bingo

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