Aspartame

[Trassk]

Its funny, being diabetic, I was told when I was younger by diabetic 'experts' instead of regular sweets and chocolate like the other kids, I had to eat diabetic candy.

the only kind of chocolate and sweets they had in this range where hard sweets that were like cough sweets, and thin, grisly chocolate bars with biscuits in them and nothing else.

It was then that my GP was told I'd been eating this stuff, and told my mother to get me off it right away, the health risk of diabetic sweets is far, far greater then normal chocolate bars and sweets.

And yet years later these insane f**kers are still releasing these kinds of sweets and candies. It just as well my doctor was smart enough to recognize the dangers.

Nowadays, i ue regular suger in coffee, sometimes drizzle some honey on my cereal and in my tea, and generally ignore all the bs there health experts claim to be better alternatives.

[Deleted]

Its funny, being diabetic, I was told when I was younger by diabetic 'experts' instead of regular sweets and chocolate like the other kids, I had to eat diabetic candy.

the only kind of chocolate and sweets they had in this range where hard sweets that were like cough sweets, and thin, grisly chocolate bars with biscuits in them and nothing else.

It was then that my GP was told I'd been eating this stuff, and told my mother to get me off it right away, the health risk of diabetic sweets is far, far greater then normal chocolate bars and sweets.

And yet years later these insane f**kers are still releasing these kinds of sweets and candies. It just as well my doctor was smart enough to recognize the dangers.

Nowadays, i ue regular suger in coffee, sometimes drizzle some honey on my cereal and in my tea, and generally ignore all the bs there health experts claim to be better alternatives.

What dangers? So far you have not linked anything and only have the say so of 1 Doctor to go on.

[Teebone]

Trouble finding it now, but I read one study where it actually contained more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. I was able to locate this:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dai...emc-000199.txt

There are tons of conflicting reports regarding it. Considering how widely used it is, I doubt anything less than greed is on its side. Aspartame.net for example, is a blatant corporate soapbox in favor of it.

If you are concerned, I would suggest sucralose (brand name for it is Splenda). Developed the same way as Aspartame and 0 side effects have been found. Asthmatics like myself seem to have huge problems with Aspartame (massive headaches in my case, like shoot me now bad).

[Kasierith]

According to the most prominent study "proving" how dangerous it is, you have to drink massive amounts to get any negative effect. I did the math in a previous thread on this.

5 cans of diet soda every single day for 30 years will give you a "Statistically significant" higher chance of cancer than the standard population if you are 54.5kg (120lbs)

Statistically significant, by the way, means that that is the first point where they realized that there was a difference between large populations of diet soda drinkers and large populations of the control. It doesn't mean you get cancer at that point; typically, with populations that large you're talking about a few percents if that.

[draykorinee]

but there are several good reasons to be against vaccination

There isn't, Whitey is completely correct, anti-vaccines are basing everything on anecdotes and piss poor/flawed science.

Aspartame is as bad as everything in high quantities, otherwise its fine.

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Snip

Sounds like a quack doctor.

[Kasierith]

It was then that my GP was told I'd been eating this stuff, and told my mother to get me off it right away, the health risk of diabetic sweets is far, far greater then normal chocolate bars and sweets.

A general practitioner has significantly less validity than those specializing in ambulatory care, and even moreso those specializing in diabetic management. Most general practitioners go into that specific line of medicine because they don't have the ambition to get into specific medical fields; there's a huge issue right now where they fall out of date faster than any other medical professional because their scope of what they have to keep up on is so broad that continuing education cannot possibly cover it all. It could have been commonly believed/taught in medical school 10-30 years ago that aspartame is problematic (which coincides with when all this misinformation was pumped into the public), but a general practitioner has mayyyybe three years before the medical field threatens to overtake his education.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

I don't know much about this, though I've heard it's pretty nasty if you have asthma. Suffering from this myself, I've never seen any real difference, however I almost never consume any aspartame.

[MerinPally]

I'd be more worried about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene_in_soft_drinks in diet sodas than aspartame.

Maybe I'm weird.

Again I'll play the "ahhhh you'll be fine" card. Unless you have soft drinks in place of a blood stream, the exposure you'll get isn't likely to be all that high. Remember that "Hazard = Risk * Exposure" so unless you're drinking litres and litres of this per day then the amount you're getting isn't going to be all that bad. Honestly you're probably in more danger from passive smoking.

[Kujako]

Sounds like nasty stuff. I ended up switching to sparkling water from soda, seems like the right choice the more I learn.

[MerinPally]

Sounds like nasty stuff. I ended up switching to sparkling water from soda, seems like the right choice the more I learn.

Frankly that was the good choice before any idea of aspartame came out, and has been what doctors have been saying for years. Not that there's anything inherently dangerous in soft drinks but rather the extra sugars which your body doesn't need as part of it's diet are just going to be more than you need and not help at all. Water on the other hand... as long as you don't overdose you're gona struggle to go wrong.

[Kujako]

Frankly that was the good choice before any idea of aspartame came out, and has been what doctors have been saying for years. Not that there's anything inherently dangerous in soft drinks but rather the extra sugars which your body doesn't need as part of it's diet are just going to be more than you need and not help at all. Water on the other hand... as long as you don't overdose you're gona struggle to go wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I still have a soda from time to time, but I seek out stuff like Hansen's or Virgil's so at least I know what's in it.

[XDurionX]

There isn't, Whitey is completely correct, anti-vaccines are basing everything on anecdotes and piss poor/flawed science.

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Main point is, that in most cases it´s simply not needed, since most vaccinated people won´t get ill anyway, and their respective diseases are easily treatable once they´re acute. Just a matter of risk assessment. To say there are "no reasons" is as wrong as it´s dumb.

Don´t want to look up how much my geovernemt has wasted on useless (swine-)flu vaccines. There´s a strong interest in the industry to produce and sell that stuff, no matter whether somebody actually needs it. And flu vaccines lose their effect since it´s constantly mutating anyway.

[Stir]

There's a few problems with aspartame:
1: It is, indeed, poisonous... But as others have pointed out, it's hard to take in enough to be outright poisoned by it. Then again: We know little of the long-term effects (cancer) and its risks. Meaning: We know there's risks, but yeah.. Risks are everywhere.
2: It's sweet. While that is the entire goal of the stuff, one thing to remember is that the brain responds to sweetness by thinking there's sugar to burn... And there isn't. Which actually makes you long for more sugar. Which in turn translates into an increase in caloric intake. Indirectly, artificial sweeteners make you fat.
3: Lots of people are allergic to phenyl anelines. Usually, this causes shortness of breath, an inability to breathe normally, tightness around the chest and in the throat.

Basically: I avoid the stuff like the plague. Even if it's perfectly harmless on paper. Truth be told, I am allergic, which doesn't help (creates bias). But I'd much rather have a nice cup of (non-sweetened) tea or coffee.

[draykorinee]

Main point is, that in most cases it´s simply not needed, since most vaccinated people won´t get ill anyway, and their respective disease are easily treatable once it´s acute. Just a matter of risk assessment. To say there are "no reasons" is as wrong as it´s dumb.

Don´t want to look up how much my geovernemt has wasted on useless (swine-)flu vaccines. There´s a strong interest in the industry to produce and sell that stuff, no matter whether somebody actually needs it. And flu vaccines lose their effect since it´s constantly mutating anyway.

I honestly can't fathom what vaccines you're talking about that people dont get anyway and that are easily treatable, can you name one? I don't think you know what you're talking about.

Edit: swine flu killed 3 people at my hospital including a fit 35 year old, so is that one of the easily treatable ones?

[Masark]

their respective diseases are easily treatable once they´re acute

Utter nonsense. The best we've got for practically all viral illnesses (most of what we vaccinate against) is supportive care.

[belfpala]

Again I'll play the "ahhhh you'll be fine" card.

By "more worried" I didn't mean "am worried". I don't drink enough of the stuff for it to matter. I probably get more benzene exposure from air pollution than from soda.

[Trassk]

What dangers? So far you have not linked anything and only have the say so of 1 Doctor to go on.

Actually I popped the same question to my doctor now, since I changed practices years ago, and he said the same thing, that the risks of taking foods with aspartame in it is more a risk then having plain suger or glucose.

[Doktor Faustus]

Water and chocolate are deadly, in the correct quantities.

[Kapadons]

Trouble finding it now, but I read one study where it actually contained more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. I was able to locate this:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dai...emc-000199.txt

There are tons of conflicting reports regarding it. Considering how widely used it is, I doubt anything less than greed is on its side. Aspartame.net for example, is a blatant corporate soapbox in favor of it.

If you are concerned, I would suggest sucralose (brand name for it is Splenda). Developed the same way as Aspartame and 0 side effects have been found. Asthmatics like myself seem to have huge problems with Aspartame (massive headaches in my case, like shoot me now bad).

There is talks of Splenda being removed from the market due to our inability to remove it from treated water. That is to say, we drink or eat splenda, pee or poop it out, it goes to a waste treatment facility and once it goes thru treatment it is still found in the water. They cannot find a way to get it out.

[Deleted]

1. Dihydrogen Monoxide is also poisonous in high amounts
2. The brain responds to blood sugar levels. not mouth sugar levels.
3. Lot's of people are allergic, sometime's fatally to lots of things. Perhaps we should Ban dogs, or peanuts, or Rapeseed, or trees, or antibiotics, or eggs, or bacon or perhaps lets not