The truth about sugar subsitutes

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Replies

  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    *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.


    but .... but .... but .... chemicals!

    (and chlorine? it's in every swimming pool you've ever been in. I'm no chemist ... but I bet some of that stuff gets into your pores. aaaaahhhhhh!)
  • crystale0143
    crystale0143 Posts: 37 Member
    Thank you for posting that. Very interesting reading. Aspartame does give me BAD headaches. I just can't stand the taste of regular soda compared to diet so I guess I just need to not drink soda AT ALL....
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
    Thank you for posting that. Very interesting reading. Aspartame does give me BAD headaches. I just can't stand the taste of regular soda compared to diet so I guess I just need to not drink soda AT ALL....
    I did not give up soda, but over time just stopped wanting it.
    And then after a year, I said "WTF"

    It tasted like syrup. YUK!
  • You should be weary of ANYTHING processed and/or artificial that you put into your body. Your body is not artificial, so why should you feed it anything artificial? Fresh food, fresh body.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    You should be weary of ANYTHING processed and/or artificial that you put into your body. Your body is not artificial, so why should you feed it anything artificial? Fresh food, fresh body.

    I think you mean wary. just sayin.
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
    Kick the sweet tooth - problem over.
  • SilverStrychnine
    SilverStrychnine Posts: 413 Member
    You should be weary of ANYTHING processed and/or artificial that you put into your body. Your body is not artificial, so why should you feed it anything artificial? Fresh food, fresh body.
    ^^^THIS^^^
  • lilojoke
    lilojoke Posts: 427 Member
    I was a sweetener freak but soon found out that anything that was sweet that touched my lips including sweet tea or coffee made me crave more! Even stevia does this!
  • AnarchoGen
    AnarchoGen Posts: 400 Member
    Wow it is amazing how angry some people can get during what is suppose to be a civilized debate. As far as this debate goes there is science that supports both the safety of artificial sweetners as well as the unsafeness of them. As a nurse that knows something about the human anatomy and chemical make-up of the body I make the PERSONAL choice not to use artificial sweetners, limit my intake of sugar either in raw form or agave or honey, and I also choose to use Organic meats,diary and fruits and veggies when I can. It is my belief based on medical articles that I have read that NATURAL is better for the human body than UNNATURAL I also have the belief that all the antibiotics given to livestock is the reason for resistant bacteria. And it is also a personal belief based on my own research of the topic of pesticides that organic is the way to go....I mean I am not gonna spray raid on my dinner am I. Personal attacks should not take place on a forum where all people have the same goal....To be Healthy.

    ^This. On NPR they were saying that 80% of pharma's production goes to livestock.

    Remember, these are artificial sweeteners. artificial. antonym for natural.
  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
    Wow it is amazing how angry some people can get during what is suppose to be a civilized debate. As far as this debate goes there is science that supports both the safety of artificial sweetners as well as the unsafeness of them. As a nurse that knows something about the human anatomy and chemical make-up of the body I make the PERSONAL choice not to use artificial sweetners, limit my intake of sugar either in raw form or agave or honey, and I also choose to use Organic meats,diary and fruits and veggies when I can. It is my belief based on medical articles that I have read that NATURAL is better for the human body than UNNATURAL I also have the belief that all the antibiotics given to livestock is the reason for resistant bacteria. And it is also a personal belief based on my own research of the topic of pesticides that organic is the way to go....I mean I am not gonna spray raid on my dinner am I. Personal attacks should not take place on a forum where all people have the same goal....To be Healthy.

    I love YOU!!!

    :heart: :heart:
  • Thank you! I know that these are so toxic. My sister-in-law had a brain tumor removed along with the front tempral lobe. She still has seizures and drank aspartame laced drinks and other things that contain it! Its a terrible thing! Its not a safe or healthy alternative. I would rather have real sugar than the artificial stuff any day!
    She cannot drive now due to seizure risk.
    Artificial sweeteners are so NOT worth it!!!
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    "Study reaffirms safety of aspartame

    By Deborah Halber
    News Office

    Even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being, a visiting scientist at MIT reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week.

    "We conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population," said Paul A. Spiers, visiting scientist in the Clinical Research Center (CRC).

    Mood, aggression and selected cognitive functions were tested during a study in which some of the subjects consumed doses of aspartame nearly 20 times the daily amount taken by the vast majority of the general population.

    During a four-month period, subjects received either aspartame, sugar or a placebo and underwent physical and psychological testing. Some subjects were given doses of up to 45 milligrams per kilogram of body weight--the equivalent of 17 to 24 12-ounce diet beverages for males and 14 to 19 12-ounce drinks for females."

    http://web.archive.org/web/20050207034647/http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/sep16/aspartame.html

    You should know not to try to use scientific research and/or facts in an online debate.... Besides, you need to throw in some mispeled words, CAPS and ex!cl!am!a!tion points!!!
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    Asparteme is converted into fomaldihide (can't spell) in you digestive system so it embalms you from the inside! Not cool!!

    Please let me preface this post by saying that I do not advocate the use of artificial sweeteners or artificial much of anything.

    Regardless, low levels of formaldehyde in will certainly not embalm you from the inside out. Formaldehyde is something that occurs naturally in the human body and is actually necessary for human life. See the following quote from the Philadelphia Children's Hospital website "formaldehyde is essential in human metabolism and is required for the synthesis of DNA and amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Therefore, all humans have detectable quantities of natural formaldehyde in their circulation (about 2.5 ug of formaldehyde per ml of blood).

    This doesn't mean you should intentionally increase your exposure, it just means that a little bit of formaldehyde is actually a good, normal part of your biochemistry.

    They should worry more about the acid in their stomachs. Research has shown that eating food causes acid production in the stomach and that can lead to all sorts of problems like ulcers and gastric reflux disease.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    Thank you! I know that these are so toxic. My sister-in-law had a brain tumor removed along with the front tempral lobe. She still has seizures and drank aspartame laced drinks and other things that contain it! Its a terrible thing! Its not a safe or healthy alternative. I would rather have real sugar than the artificial stuff any day!
    She cannot drive now due to seizure risk.
    Artificial sweeteners are so NOT worth it!!!

    sorry for your s-i-l's problems. honestly. BUT ... that's like saying that I have blue eyes and got rear-ended once and hurt my back, therefore blue eyes make driving super dangerous.
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    *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?

    There's another substance that in excess can lead to lung problems, vision problems/blindness, high blood pressure/heart failure, and pregnant women are warned to avoid excessive use of it. It's called OXYGEN. Do you really want to put this in your body?
  • www.dorway.com has a lot of interesting information.
    If you are interested.
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    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.

    You seriously think the sugar you buy at the store is not artificially processed? Raw sugar is brown, not white. Sugar cane is heavily processed to extract the sugar and change it into the white stuff at the store. Natural? Yeah, so is cocaine and heroin....
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
    I just skimmed that, but I basically try to avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible anyway, so you're basically preaching to the choir. I had a great success losing weight after cutting diet sodas out of my diet, so that's part of it. But the other part of it is it conditions me to want to eat super sweet foods, which are best enjoyed in moderation. If I'm going to have something sweet, I would rather have it be the real deal and just enjoy it in moderation. If I eat too much artificially sweetened stuff, healthy sweets like fruit become less fulfilling. It's just a better practice in my opinion.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    The history of Aspartame. http://dorway.com/history-of-aspartame/

    wow. that site ... heh. certainly looks balance and legit.
  • Why does giving a source of information or personal experience seem to bother people and bringing out the worst in them?
  • lorenzoinlr
    lorenzoinlr Posts: 338 Member
    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

    And I'm not giving up deodorant.....
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    I would just prefer a non-biased source of information is what I'm saying. that entire site seems to be dedicated to taking down artificial sweeteners. it's basically a propaganda site. so I can't trust that any of the information therein is balanced and trustworthy.
  • When I offer information that I feel is important, I think it is insensitive of someone to make insensitive nonsense comparisons to blue eyed drivers getting into accidents.. So sad someone feels like they need to cut someone else down or belittle them.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
    When I offer information that I feel is important, I think it is insensitive of someone to make insensitive nonsense comparisons to blue eyed drivers getting into accidents.. So sad someone feels like they need to cut someone else down or belittle them.

    ok. but what I was pointing out is that you were claiming a cause and effect that isn't necessarily a cause and effect, and did so with another example. of course it was a nonsense comparison. that was the point. one has nothing to do with the other.

    and if you feel I was insensitive, I apologize. it's why I started with the fact that I was truly sorry about the situation.
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    When I offer information that I feel is important, I think it is insensitive of someone to make insensitive nonsense comparisons to blue eyed drivers getting into accidents.. So sad someone feels like they need to cut someone else down or belittle them.

    The point was that there is no causal link between aspartame and the brain tumor. One did not necessarily lead to the other. Just as the blue eyes did not lead to the car accident. Correlation is not causation. In no way did the person who posted to you cut you down or belittle you. THey just pointed out that there was no factual link between aspartame and the brain tumor.
  • Actually when Nutrasweet first came out we had a youth group so we bought kool-Aide already sweetened with he stuff. We took our group to a music and learning weekend. Let me tell you it was one of the worst weekends of my life. I had a terrific headache and I was so nauseated it wasn't funny. I didn't learn about the side effects until about a week later. That was the only time I ever used the stuff again. We weren't in our camp except for meals so it wasn't like I was drinking a pitcher full every hour. So it doesn't take much at all to induce a reaction.
  • zasiiniya
    zasiiniya Posts: 100 Member
    When I offer information that I feel is important, I think it is insensitive of someone to make insensitive nonsense comparisons to blue eyed drivers getting into accidents.. So sad someone feels like they need to cut someone else down or belittle them.

    I know people who've had many products, including artificial sweeteners, throughout their lives and have not had brain tumors.

    Can I say drinking soda/having artificial sweeteners stopped them from getting a brain tumor? With as much veracity as your claim that it caused them. We've got the same proof.
  • Soooo true, the best is Trivia, other than that u should just eat regular sugar if u think u need it! So stupid all these low cal, low fat things, there all worse for us and make us gain weight!!! Thanks for sharing hun!! :)
  • He didn't even take his time before looking at the website before he made a comment about the site "looking legit". He posted like a minute later with that comment. So how can he say anything without even taking some reasonable time to really check it out.
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