OT- NY Times article on Aspartame Study

#1

A new Aspartame study discussed in a recent Times article was a pretty disturbing read.

I know that at some point in my life I’ve consumed this stuff, and to know that it turns to formaldehyde in your system – !!! Ugh. I’m never buying chewing gum or breath mints again. Thank goodness I was never a fan of diet soda.

The thing that gets me is that this additive is in soooo many items we don’t even think about. Toothpaste. Chewing Gum. Muffin mixes. Kid’s lunch box drinks.

I sometimes wonder if the FDA is getting paid off to let these chemicals into the food market, so that the pharmaceutical lobby will have a disease to treat (and charge us for a ‘branded’ medication) down the line. I wouldn’t put it past them.

#2

I quit drinking it 7 yrs ago, when I was pregnant with my second DS-my DMIL told me about the dangers and I haven’t touched the stuff since!

It was nasty anyway, lol

#3

I would rather give up pop all together than drink diet pops. yuck.

It’s interesting to note tho that formaldehyde is one of the by-products of alcohol metabolism. But of course, you’d have to be a chronic heavy drinker to really deal with the effects of that.

#4

I can’t stomach the taste of artificial sweeteners…good thing because they’re so skeeeeery. :shock:

#5

Well, perhaps not by the pharm companies (though I wouldn’t doubt it), but by the chemical companies that are producing these things, yep. Lobbyists make big money, sister, and for a reason. :frowning:

If it ain’t natural, I don’t want it. Hell, even if it is natural, sometimes I don’t want it (sugar, anyone?) … it’s so sad that we’ve gotten so far away from the nutritious way in which we were intended to fortify our bodies.

#6

There are so many things out there that are worse for our health than chemical additives. We’ll all die from exposure to the chemicals spilling out our car exhausts long before NutraSweet could hurt us.

I don’t trust government agencies further than I can throw them, but generally the science that the FDA and the USDA bases their decisions on is pretty sound.

#7

Well, I happen to LIKE Diet Coke and I only drink maybe 3 a week, not the 5 twenty ouncers a day they did the test on so I think I"ll survive. I don’t mind drinks with splenda though so if that was an option in my DC I’d go for it.

#8

#9

[/quote]

Well there you go! I wonder if I’m drinking it now and didn’t know… :thinking:

#10

[/quote]

Well there you go! I wonder if I’m drinking it now and didn’t know… :thinking:[/quote]

I think the DC with Splenda is the DC Zero - it says Splenda on the can or whatever- or at least it did last time I looked. They also have the reg DC which is the aspartame.

#11

Aaaack my eyes are hurting and I want to argue with you Wynnie, but I like you so I’m going to bite my tongue. But I have to warn you - I work for the pharma industry. :twisted: :smiley:

#12

That diet coke with splenda doesn’t taster like Diet Coke, it tastes like regular coke. blech.

I’ve switched mostly to carbonated water with juice in it or stuff I can grab at the whole foods store. That high fructose corn syrup in regular soft drinks stinks, too.

tea, anyone?

#13

[quote=“FiberGirl”]

Aaaack my eyes are hurting and I want to argue with you Wynnie, but I like you so I’m going to bite my tongue. But I have to warn you - I work for the pharma industry. :twisted: :D[/quote]

No worries, FG - it wasn’t meant as a personal thing. I have a friend who works for the FDA, and we get into it too. :lol:

#14

[quote="WynnieGI sometimes wonder if the FDA is getting paid off to let these chemicals into the food market, so that the pharmaceutical lobby will have a disease to treat (and charge us for a ‘branded’ medication) down the line. I wouldn’t put it past them.[/quote]

Incompetence usually prevents complex conspiracies. :thumbsup:

#15

[color=gray][size=7]A-MEN![/size][/color]

#16

:roflhard: :roflhard: :roflhard:

I drink lots of diet bevvies…diet Pepsi is my favorite.

I do have a question, though; what does “turning into formaldehyde in your system” mean? It sounds bad, yes, but what does that really mean from a physiological standpoint? :??

#17

Personally, I stay away from Splenda too because I figure it’s only a matter of time before they discover that it’s as harmful as the other sugar substitutes.

#18

I can’t do large amounts of real sugar b/c it makes me woosy, and I really don’t like my food super sweet. I get really irritated when I go shopping for things, see “Low Sugar,” get all excited at the prospect of a less sweet food, and then discover that all the mfr has done is add fake sugar! Fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt is a particularly troublesome item to buy. I don’t want all that sugar in the real-sugar kind, but I don’t want the fake stuff either. Gah! :evil: Am I the only one who actually wants some foods to be less sweet?

#19

Oh, Gawd! Something else to eliminate from our diets.

Let’s see what not to eat -

Meat/chicken for too many reasons to go into
Fish full of mercury
Water (don’t be fooled by bottled water, it’s not what you think it is)
All sugar
Vegetables/Fruits (poisons in fertilizer, or migrant worker humanitarian issues)
Bread/ starches (Carbs are bad, we’ve been warned)
Fats

And this could easily reverse the next time the food pyramid is reorganized.

I think if I eat things in moderation, I’ll be okay. We all die of something, right? Life without chocolate (sugared or sweetened) would be a sad life.

#20

Not much, actually. Most sugars and alcohols go through a step in their metabolism in which they are an aldehyde - usually acetaldehyde but sometimes formaldehyde - but those compounds are perfectly natural components in the metabolic cycle and are in turn processed into other compounds that are ultimately eliminated from the body via the kidneys. There’s not a bucketful of formaldehyde circulating around your body pickling your organs no matter how much diet soda you drink. :thumbsup: