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Aspartame

MarkyX

Master Poster
MarkyX
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
2,157
Lately my friends keep commenting on how I will die a quick yet somewhat painless death of Cancer because I happen to enjoy my Diet Pepsi. Instead of canned sugar, I drink a canned artificial sweetner.

They even sent me to a few websites and articles on the subject, talking about how it breaks downs the DNA with each dose and so forth. Putting Aspartame in Google actually leads you to negative hit sites about it. One example is this piece http://www.dorway.com/blaytox.txt

Being a real skeptic, I want to hear both sides before I make a decision. So...what does the other side offer to counter these rumors of drinking Diet drinks give you cancer and so forth?
 
The only thing I've read recently about aspartame was a series of articles in an old copy of the Ecologist (bizarrely, the same issue I posted about yesterday which contained an article on telepathy... read that as you will):

theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=457

theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=459
 
Seriously, though, can aspartame be any more harmful that the high-fructose corn syrup that's in (American) regular soda? I'm much more leery of sugar and corn syrup because there's already documented evidence of the health problems they contribute to. I'm not gung-ho about eliminating all sugar completely (I love my chocolate, my lemon cakes, my pumpkin muffins...), but soda is notorious for the amount of sugar it contains and its ubiquity in the average American's diet.

The solution? With food, everything in moderation. A soda now and then, diet or regular, won't kill you.
 
Forty-Two said:
Seriously, though, can aspartame be any more harmful that the high-fructose corn syrup that's in (American) regular soda? I'm much more leery of sugar and corn syrup because there's already documented evidence of the health problems they contribute to. I'm not gung-ho about eliminating all sugar completely (I love my chocolate, my lemon cakes, my pumpkin muffins...), but soda is notorious for the amount of sugar it contains and its ubiquity in the average American's diet.

The solution? With food, everything in moderation. A soda now and then, diet or regular, won't kill you.
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Though I am a sugar fan, my wife decided to try working with splenda - and by wild coincidence has done several excellent (meaning I enjoy them too) chocolate, chocolate nut and pumpkin muffins/cakes. Their texture is slightly different than with sugar (not a problem, just noting it). Splenda's website has bunches of them - as do some others.:) :) :)
 
I'm a sugar fan, too. Does anyone else get dry mouth after drinking a beverage with artificial sweeteners? Both Equal and Splenda cause that with me. They also bother my stomach.
 
The Vampire said:
I'm a sugar fan, too. Does anyone else get dry mouth after drinking a beverage with artificial sweeteners? Both Equal and Splenda cause that with me. They also bother my stomach.
Click to expand...

Equal bothers my stomach, but Splenda doesn't. Not sure what the reason for the difference is.
 
No stomach problems with either - but Splenda does seem to give me dryish mouth.
 
Mojo said:
And these ones:
...
Click to expand...

Ok, that's it. In a year or so we won't have to discuss anything else here @ JREF. Similar to what a US patent commissioner said** in the end of the 19th century, there are no more new threads. Everything has been discussed ad infinitum.

(**I know it is not correct, but wth)
 
If you suffer from PKU disease then aspartame can be deadly but then so can milk. There really isn't two side to this story. It's imaginary dangers verses proven safety.
 
I don't think it's been around long enough to know the ill effects. Remember margarine? It was supposed to be so much better for you than butter...

I'm just a little suspicious of it, and I have nothing to back up my feelings. I don't use it or products that contain it because I think it taste nasty.
 
Demigorgon said:
I don't think it's been around long enough to know the ill effects. Remember margarine? It was supposed to be so much better for you than butter...

I'm just a little suspicious of it, and I have nothing to back up my feelings. I don't use it or products that contain it because I think it taste nasty.
Click to expand...

Aspartame has had more testing than any other food ingredient. All of it showing it to be safe except for phenylketonurics who need to be careful about eating many of the things that normal people consume. It's been around long enough to see cancer from it or whatever (there is none).
 
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Dogdoctor said:
Aspartame has had more testing than any other food ingredient. All of it showing it to be safe except for phenylketonurics who need to be careful about eating many of the things that normal people consume. It's been around long enough to see cancer from it or whatever (there is none).
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Then by all means sir, have yourself anouther 0 calorie flavored water.
 
Splenda is evil. Whoever is promoting it is completely insane.

If I remember properly, it's a sugar molecule with all the sugary parts replaced with chlorine.

*checks Wikipedia*

Apparently so.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener known by the trade name Splenda. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E955. It is 500–600 times as sweet as sucrose, making it roughly twice as sweet as saccharin and four times as sweet as aspartame. It is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose, by which three of sucrose's hydroxyl groups are substituted with chlorine atoms to produce 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-β-D-fructo-furanosyl 4-chloro-4-deoxy-α-D-galactopyranoside or C12H19Cl3O8. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions, and can be used in baking, or in products that require a longer shelf life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda

So, which is worse? Ingesting a lot of sugar, or ingesting a lot of chlorine?
 
MarkyX said:
Lately my friends keep commenting on how I will die a quick yet somewhat painless death of Cancer because I happen to enjoy my Diet Pepsi. Instead of canned sugar, I drink a canned artificial sweetner.

They even sent me to a few websites and articles on the subject, talking about how it breaks downs the DNA with each dose and so forth. Putting Aspartame in Google actually leads you to negative hit sites about it. One example is this piece http://www.dorway.com/blaytox.txt

Being a real skeptic, I want to hear both sides before I make a decision. So...what does the other side offer to counter these rumors of drinking Diet drinks give you cancer and so forth?
Click to expand...


Get yourself some bottled water from the north west corner of Tasmania. Purest water you can get. Much better than any of that soda garbage.

I don't worry about aspartame, unless it is in beer. sh.. I hope not....
 
Anyone use Stevia? It's not used in pop...or at least not yet. I use it for other things like cereal, etc. I believe it comes from a plant in South America.
 
RemieV said:
Splenda is evil. Whoever is promoting it is completely insane.

If I remember properly, it's a sugar molecule with all the sugary parts replaced with chlorine.

*checks Wikipedia*

Apparently so.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener known by the trade name Splenda. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E955. It is 500–600 times as sweet as sucrose, making it roughly twice as sweet as saccharin and four times as sweet as aspartame. It is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose, by which three of sucrose's hydroxyl groups are substituted with chlorine atoms to produce 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-β-D-fructo-furanosyl 4-chloro-4-deoxy-α-D-galactopyranoside or C12H19Cl3O8. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions, and can be used in baking, or in products that require a longer shelf life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda

So, which is worse? Ingesting a lot of sugar, or ingesting a lot of chlorine?
Click to expand...

But it tastes right. Unlike aspartame.

But in reality I have no idea what you are getting at. Should we stop eating table salt because it is 60% (by weight) chlorine molecules? Ridiculous.
 
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