Diet Soda, bad for you ?

[soamelt]

Soda bad for you? What's next cigarettes?

 

[scubaren]

tridacna: I have rewritten my original post to read as follows. I hope it no longer offends your sensitive nature… :mooner:

Highjack: I tried to make a new post and got this error "You are only allowed to post URLs after you have made 5 posts or more." How do I make it go away? Please do not flame me, as I am a neophyte when it comes to forum rules and etiquette. I apologize profusely for my plebian approach to this esteemed establishment...

Welcoma aboard! I am sure you will phit rite inn.

 

[Seaduced]

tridacna: I have rewritten my original post to read as follows. I hope it no longer offends your sensitive nature… :mooner:

Highjack: I tried to make a new post and got this error "You are only allowed to post URLs after you have made 5 posts or more." How do I make it go away? Please do not flame me, as I am a neophyte when it comes to forum rules and etiquette. I apologize profusely for my plebian approach to this esteemed establishment...

Getting closer Moby, need to work on highjack and plebian a bit more. Just kidding, one more post and you can post URLs. Welcome to the board!

I drink the hard stuff, sugar water and food coloring. That diet stuff will kill you. Trying to go cold turkey on the sugar will give you a headache to remember though.

Darell

 

[peterbj7]

I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners. Luckily here in Belize all sodas are made with pure cane sugar.

 

[sprange]

Interesting this topic should 'pop' up as I was talking about aspartame with a patient this week. His concern with it was that it 'turns into formaldehyde', and his source was the infamous internet. Having spent ten years in medical research (MSc/PhD) I tend to favour established journals over internet 'faqs'. I'll be damned however, as the breakdown of aspartame does in fact yield methanol--which is happily converted to formaldehyde in your body. Trying to determine whether this amount is harmful would be virtually impossible to study. The other products of aspartame breakdown (aspartic acid and phenyalanine) both seem to be innocuous (I'm a dentist, not a dietician) but as far as I remember digestion of proteins doesn't normally cause a spike of single amino acids. I have no idea if aspartame deserves the bad rap it's been getting on the internet but I do think there could be some basis for concern.

 

[Johan Broere]

So yes, I guess I was hoping for a dietition, neuro-person or decomp specialist to scientifically adress the question. Are aspartame-junkies at increased risk for decompression illness ? Lets organize a test for the rest of us. Also, my wife is not home, nobody around to ask about spelling. Now what ?

 

[AggieDad]

" If you experience any of these symptoms when you drink diet soda…STOP! It is known to cause migraines, heart palpitations, insomnia, seizures, breathing difficulties, memory loss, vertigo, joint pain and nausea. These symptoms can lead to many diseases and disorders that I stated above. Airline pilots are not allowed to consume products with Aspartame because of these risks and luckily for us they do not."
I was just googling around and found this. Being middle aged and trying to leave more room for delicious in-between dive snacks the boat crew makes fun of me for drinking diet. I have heard it many times it is not good for you, but these symptoms look like someone has been diving way too much. Airline pilots are special. Nobody wants to fall out of the sky, but I am special too. I have never made the link to any of the symptoms and they do talk about 16 cans of soda per day to get enough aspartame. I really don't care for the taste and if I just drink water I can still eat that extra fish taco. I just read those symptoms again and I do not want them.
60 Minutes did a segment on this also. The commercial airline pilot warning I get, but should scuba divers be more aware also ?

Ok, first of all this is a complete internet hoax. I am an airline pilot and when I get a order form for crew meals there is always a box for cokes/Pepsi/diet coke, diet pepsi etc. Now with that being said, my doctor and other doctors that I know, dietitians, all say that diet sodas are not good for you. Many of the symptoms are in fact experienced by me and others but some of them are due to the ridiculous duty and flight time limits that we operate under. I ask this...which is worse for me... a few diet cokes or flying around the world with only a 20 to 24 hour layover at each stop (btw - physiologically a 24 hour break is the absolute worst thing you can experience - one sleep period and then by the time your body is ready to sleep again you are getting in the airplane for another ten hour flight). I am home now from a eight day around the Pacific flight....I took an airline flight to Ontario CA and went to the hotel for 12 hours and got up and left at 1 AM west coast for Honolulu where I stayed for 25 hours then a 10:50 hour flight (all daytime) to Sydney for a 49 hour layover and left there at 9 PM Australia time for Hong Kong arriving there at 1:30 AM for a 20 hour layover and then left there at 11 PM Hong Kong time for Osaka and Anchorage arriving in Anchorage at 9 PM Anchorage time for a 21 hour layover then leave the hotel at 9:30 PM anchorage time for Louisville KY and arrived there at 9:30 AM. I then flew on a commercial flight to my home in Austin TX arriving here at 3:30 PM. I slept at 11 PM that night for a grand total of 50 minutes and stayed awake for the next 24 hours before falling asleep again for 90 minutes. I stayed awake for 18 hours and then finally fell asleep for 8 hours. I just woke up after taking two Tylenol PM tablets and slept for a grand total of 1 hour. It is 10:30 PM and unless I take some more PM's I will be awake until about 5 in the morning. A very very good days or nights sleep for me is 5 - 6 hours. Now, which should I be more concerned with...aspartame or insomnia?
BTW, all of these schedules I told you about...are typical and legal. Try going two weeks of working 8 hours and on a rotating basis of 24 hours off and then back on. Now the FAA in the infinite wisdom and the general public goes berserk when we talk about one pilot taking a short power nap in the cockpit. But I digress.....

 

[Doc]

I used to skin-pop TAB, but I'm in the program, now.

I am an airline pilot...

Yeah, and you don't look so good until day two of your dive trips. I seen it.

 

[AggieDad]

Doc you should see me now! Even Rebecca wouldn't want me. Not that there is anything wrong with a bald overweight old married man!!!

I am not doing a safety stop...I am sleeping while doing a fin pivot.

Going back on Jan 2 for a week and then again June 12 with Dee.
Hope to see you one of those times.

 

[Johan Broere]

So, who dares to ask about the diving in Honolullu, Sydney, Hong Kong or Japan ?