Diet Soda, bad for you ?

[divesancarlos]

" 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 ?

[Coldwater_Canuck]

I've just stopped drinking it in general. I'm not 100% sure it's doing harm, but it's certainly not doing any good. Scuba diver or not, I'd rather not consume the stuff anymore.

[mike_s]

Try eating Mento's and drinking diet soda :thumb:

[MaxBottomtime]

I've been drinking Diet Pepsi for more than two decades and the only symptom I have is joint pain, but I've had that long before I began drinking Diet Pepsi. Maybe baseball and basketball should be outlawed. :)

[RoatanMan]

60 Minutes did a segment on this also.
:doctor::eyebrow: (Doesn't CBS own a sugar-cane plantation somewhere?)

[ReefHound]

Life is terminal.

[fire_diver]

Everything in the world is bad for you and can kill you. Drinking water, breathing oxygen.... all things we MUST do, can kill us.

[Teamcasa]

Diet Soda will kill you, it may take a hundred years, but....


Seriously, I begged off the stuff many years ago and now restric my beverages to water, juice, beer, wine and whiskey. In that order.

[james croft]

Diet Coke junkie here. Been drinking them hard for 30 years. Drinking about a gallon a day. Quit cold turkey Jan 6 2009. I hurt so bad for days afterwards it made me realize that the stuff had serious side effect. Now I am off it and glad I did it.

Now drinking about a gallon of beer....

[tridacna]

" 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 ?

Complete hoax. See Snopes.

(Wait, I saw this on the Internet so it MUST be true).

[300bar]

now restric my beverages to water, juice, beer, wine and whiskey. In that order.

And they say,life sucks.:rofl3::rofl3::rofl3:

[olli]

If you drink a rum and diet coke while wearing split fins you will...DIE :)

(someone had to do it)

[diver 85]

Life is terminal.


And tomorrow morning, everyone wakes up a day older & one day closer to death, unless you 'go' tonite---As I tell all my patients, getting older is a good problem to have, the opposite of getting older isn't getting younger--------

[dhuskins]

If you drink a rum and diet coke while wearing split fins you will...DIE :)

(someone had to do it)

It's okay to dive with split fins now. There's a new line on the release of liability form that says you understand the risks associated with using split fins.

;)

[Moby66]

highjack: I tired to make a new post and get this error "You are only allowed to post URLs after you have made 5 posts or more." How do I make it go away. Don't flame me to bad...

[300bar]

highjack: I tired to make a new post and get this error "You are only allowed to post URLs after you have made 5 posts or more." How do I make it go away. Don't flame me to bad...

Make 2 more serious posts.:D

[tridacna]

highjack: I tired to make a new post and get this error "You are only allowed to post URLs after you have made 5 posts or more." How do I make it go away. Don't flame me to bad...

Wow. Four spelling mistakes in 24 words. (The SB quote doesn't count).

Before you are allowed to post on SB, you need to work on your spelling. My advice is to drink a liter of diet soda. I've heard that it instantly improves spelling.

[LIVES4SHARKS]

It's not the "diet soda" that is affecting people, it is the aspartame aka Nutra-Sweet. When it came onto the market in the mid 80's, it was during the saccharine scare (which proved to be a bogus study). I, along with other members of my family, are extremely sensitive to aspartame. The real problem is how this product is not just in diet soda, but in thousands of products right down to your toothpaste. Small amounts of the substance tend not to be as problematic, but when you pile the doses in all the products you consume in a day, you can be taking in quite a large amount of the substance.

I was a regular drinker of diet Dr Pepper. They switched from saccharine to aspartame around the late 80's. I started developing severe headaches and neurological issues with gait and would lose all sensations to my hands and feet. It would come and go and at first and my physician thought I may have Multiple Sclerosis. I had many, many, many tests including multiple spinal taps to figure out what was causing all these symptoms. It wasn't until I ran out of diet soda, and was off of it at college that in a few weeks my symptoms disappeared. After some experimentation, I figured out what had been causing the problem. I would get the symptoms with all products containing nutra-sweet, but never had any issues with saccharine or sucralose. After about a year, I was tested along with my brother and we were found to have a severe sensitivity to aspartame.

There are some facts to the claims of nutra-sweet and those that consume large quantities of diet products containing that substance. I am still surprised the FDA hasn't come down on this product. It is in truth, as Dr Janet Hull says, sweet poison.

Aspartame Side Effects (http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html)

Carolyn:shark2:

The best advice...drink plain water, it's much better for ya! ;)

[Moby66]

Wow. Four spelling mistakes in 24 words. (The SB quote doesn't count).

Before you are allowed to post on SB, you need to work on your spelling. My advice is to drink a liter of diet soda. I've heard that it instantly improves spelling.

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...

[LIVES4SHARKS]

Welcome to :sblogo: Moby!


Carolyn:shark2:

[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...

:rofl3::rofl3::rofl3::rofl3:
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.

[divesancarlos]

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? :confused:
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.....

[RoatanMan]

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. :rofl3:

[AggieDad]

:D 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.

[divesancarlos]

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

[Hoomi]

Was it George Carlin that had the routine, "The Surgeon General has determined that saliva, when swallowed in small quantities over long periods of time, is hazardous to your health"?

[AggieDad]

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

Go ahead. I did have a chance in Sydney this last trip but decided not too. I was very tired and it was expensive in my book. $200 US for two dives. Most of my layovers are way too short to dive and fly. I have dived in Honolulu and frankly was NOT impressed. They took us out to an old Japanese freighter at 100 feet plus and total dive time was 19 minutes. The next dive was at a place they called the Pipe. Turns out it was an old sewer pipe from a long time ago and there were nothing to see but a couple of turtles and the DM harassed an octupus. In Hong Kong you have to take a couple of trains and buses and a boat ride to get somewhat decent vis and dive areas. Hong Kong it self is nothing but a trash dumping area and from what the dive shops told me no one dives close to Hong Kong.
Most don't understand...it is a job and I am in and out as soon as possible. Just another hotel.

[Andy077]

Never drink the water, fish screw in there.

[Moby66]

Getting closer Moby, need to work on highjack and plebian a bit more. ;) Darell

u phunnie....... i kil u last.:D

[Cajuncru Diver]

I solved my problem----every time I have a craving for a diet soda I stop it by ingesting a 3 finger shot of Jack Daniels----seem I keep getting those d___n diet soda cravings 5 or 6 times per night.

[tridacna]

[QUOTE=LIVES4SHARKS;4732369]
Aspartame Side Effects (http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html)

Bogus website. Complete nonsense. Nary one true fact in that unscientific claptrap. I'm sorry...:depressed:

But it's on the Internet so it must be true.

[Hoomi]

Is the aspartame what I sit on?

[Lake Muroc Diver]

As an airplane nut I went to AOPA. No such restriction that I could find.

[Lake Muroc Diver]

FAA too. No such medical restriction found.
SODA = statement of demonstrated ability, not what you get from Coke or Pepsi.

[netdiver]

After about a year, I was tested along with my brother and we were found to have a severe sensitivity to aspartame.

There are some facts to the claims of nutra-sweet and those that consume large quantities of diet products containing that substance. I am still surprised the FDA hasn't come down on this product. )

My cousin is allergic to milk and is hospitalized when she consumes it. I saw a show about a boy that is allergic to water. Should the FDA crack down on those, too?

[netdiver]

Diet Coke junkie here. Been drinking them hard for 30 years. Drinking about a gallon a day. Quit cold turkey Jan 6 2009. I hurt so bad for days afterwards it made me realize that the stuff had serious side effect. Now I am off it and glad I did it.

Now drinking about a gallon of beer....

I'm pretty sure that your "hurt so bad" was the withdrawal symptoms from your drug addiction. In this case, the drug was caffeine.

I don't think this was an issue with diet soda specifically.

[1_T_Submariner]

Beer, Water, Coffee all natural that you.

[Deep-6]

I recommend the Arizona Arnold Palmer Lite 1/2 Iced Tea, 1/2 Lemonade. My buddy got me started on it. The stuff is amazing. It's like crack in a can.

[LIVES4SHARKS]

For someone who has experienced side effects of it's use, I guess it was literally in my head right? How many medications have been brought to market and then were pulled due to severe side effects and sometimes death? There is alot of money in the diet industry and alot of hands in that pot. I wouldn't blow it off as a hoax so easily.
History of Aspartame | www.DORway.com (http://dorway.com/dorwblog/history-of-aspartame/)

If you have never had any problems with the stuff..hey you are a lucky person. Since new products have come on the market that do not contain aspartame, it has been an easier road for me to find alternatives. I wouldn't wish the kind of headaches I used to have on anyone.

Have a good one y'all!
Carolyn:shark2:

[Deep-6]

Hey Sharks, Can you have Splenda?

[Hoomi]

In most of these types of stories, there is typically a little bit of truth that is blown out of proportion by someone.

Does aspartame have some side effects on some people? Yes. Are they as extensive and dangerous as the OP made it sound? No.

Should the FDA crack down on it? Frankly, the focus on such things is so skewed as to be almost comical, were it not so totally twisted that people's lives are affected every day by it. Think about it; liquor has a long list of well-documented health dangers, and is not only legal, it's treated almost like a cultural requirement for adult social interaction. Tobacco, likewise, would never make it on the market were it a new product introduced today, with the kinds of health risks it carries, and yet marijuana, which not only doesn't have such detrimental effects - and, in fact, has been demonstrated to have positive effects in medical use - is illegal.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating a return to Prohibition and I do not support the cumulative "sin taxes" they keep passing on tobacco. I've never drank, never smoked (anything, either legal or not), and at almost fifty years old, I don't have any desire to start. I also don't have this big desire to play nanny on everyone else's health and well-being. If someone wants to smoke or drink, that's their business, not mine.

If someone wants to avoid aspartame, or if they want to suck down 3 liters of diet soda every day, then that's their choice.

[netdiver]

If someone wants to avoid aspartame, or if they want to suck down 3 liters of diet soda every day, then that's their choice.


I agree.

However, I do rely upon the FDA to let me know that cigarettes, alcohol, and anything else <maybe an artificial sweetener?> do have known health issues or risks so I can make an informed choice to consume them or not.

[cloudswinger]

I agree.

However, I do rely upon the FDA to let me know that cigarettes, alcohol, and anything else <maybe an artificial sweetener?> do have known health issues or risks so I can make an informed choice to consume them or not.

How long was it before the FDA required labels warning of the danger of cigarettes? They knew at least 20 years before labeling became common place.

Products with aspartame do come with a warning, for phenylketonurics. Every chemical, natural or not, comes with risks. There are people allergic to wheat, egg, soy and dairy, at least one of which is in every processed food product. That's why there are warnings now about those things on the labels. We've messed so many things up that we've started to become intolerant of the foods we eat. On top of that, can you imagine that there would be a penguin allergic to fish bones? There's one in the Central Park zoo that's hand fed fish fillets. That bird would be dead in the wild.

[vladimir]

The worst thing about diet soda--and artificially sweetened "food" in general--is that it doesn't help anybody lose weight. If you're going to be fat anyway, you might as well enjoy the taste of real sugar (assuming you can find food that's made with real sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup).

[Steve50]

Was it George Carlin that had the routine, "The Surgeon General has determined that saliva, when swallowed in small quantities over long periods of time, is hazardous to your health"?

Baseball players should live forever...

[Kingpatzer]

Soda of any sort is really not a great idea.

My personal view of food is that food is recognizable as food. It's something you can find and make yourself without the need of a manufacturing facility or barrels of processed compounds.

Food is actually rather hard to come by these days. Which is really an astounding thing if you think about it.

Water, preferably home filtered and not wrapped in plastic, is the best answer to the question "what should I drink today?"

[Hatul]

I avoid diet soda on boat because of the diuretic effect, which is something you don't want when diving. I stick with water.

Adam

[netdiver]

I avoid diet soda on boat because of the diuretic effect, which is something you don't want when diving. I stick with water.

Adam



It's the caffeine that's the diuretic and you can get caffeine-free, diet soda. I'm sure that stuff taste's even worse than just the diet soda.

I also stick with water in the morning/afternoon when I'm diving. Although, I still have to get going with a cup of coffee for those excursions when the boat leaves the dock at 7:00 AM. After that, I drink water on the trip to the dive spot, during the surface interval, and during the ride back.

[Hoomi]

If the soda doesn't have any sugar or caffeine, you're basically just getting colored, flavored water anyway.

One trick I learned when riding the bicycle a lot during Tucson summers - diluted Gatorade. Greg LeMond wrote in his book that he found full strength Gatorade too sweet when riding, and cut it to half-strength with equal amounts of water. This way, he would still get the electrolytes and hydration, without leaving his mouth feeling sticky.

While diving isn't as strenuous as a Hors Category climb in the Tour de France (thank heavens), I found the Gatorade (or Powerade) trick useful on the dive trips I've taken as well. "Hydrate or die" doesn't just apply to bicycling, and proper hydration/electrolyte balance is a good first step towards preventing muscle cramps.

[LIVES4SHARKS]

Products with aspartame do come with a warning, for phenylketonurics. .

I have not seen warning labels on any item containing Aspartame. I look at every label to stay away from the substance. The thing is, there are alot of people who have severe sensitivities to the product and it was like over night that Apsartame became the artificial sweetener of choice. It is in hundreds of products and until recently, I had very little choices, even when it comes down to toothpaste.

Hey Sharks, Can you have Splenda?

I can handle Splenda/sucralose if taken in small amounts. I don't ingest as much Splenda as I do Saccharin. Stevia has also been a substitute for me to an extent. When I use that, I have had no ill effects. I try to limit my sugar and sweetener consumptions anyway, but again, artificial sweeteners are in so many products, I doubt the consumer realizes to what extent it it being utilized.

I think the FDA needs to really look at the issues with Aspartame that has developed since it's massive introduction into the food supply. Saccharin was demonized from bad science. But have we truly looked at the effects of Aspartame with the large amounts of it that is consumed by the general population? It is in many products, including medicines. It has been banned in all
children's products in the European Common Market. I wonder why?

I don't have an agenda, but if someone has been plagued with illnesses that go unexplained, it is something to look into.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYSyJoNDf3E

Just a thought.

Carolyn:shark2:

PS: I drink, on average. 64-100oz of water a day. I don't buy bottled water, I just drink filtered water from the tap. Most of the people I dive and work with know me by the water I jug that I carry with me all the time. :)

[HJeffreyM]

If you drink a cabonated beverage before diving, will the CO2 be absorbed in the lining of the stomach and lead to gastric DCS upon ascent?

I read somewhere that if you drink Diet Coke til you are 95...you lived a long time.

[James R]

Diet Soda is, in my (and many others) opinion, just as bad as regular.

I have posted about this on SB before. (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/diet-strategies/223007-water.html#post4350328)

Diet sodas will wreak havoc on your health, kill fat loss efforts, and will ultimately cause you to gain weight. The sweet taste will illicit an insulin spike, which blocks your ability to burn fat. Artificial sweeteners disrupt satiety (the feeling of being full).

Ask your dentist to explain to you how diet soda is bad for your teeth, too.

[Abidon]

The worst thing about diet soda--and artificially sweetened "food" in general--is that it doesn't help anybody lose weight. If you're going to be fat anyway, you might as well enjoy the taste of real sugar (assuming you can find food that's made with real sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup).

Exactly! Why drink diet when the real stuff tastes so much better. :dontknow:

Being an avid regular Coke drinker, I was amazed at how much better the glass-bottled Cokes in Mexico (made from real sugar) tasted compared to the Cokes in the USA (made form corn syrup).:shocked2:

[LIVES4SHARKS]

Pepsi is now using "sugar" instead of corn syrup. I get Pepsi every once in awhile for a treat. Soda in general has so much acid in it anyway. Heck, the easiest way to clean you car battery connections is to use soda. It also makes a good meat tenderizer. Makes you wonder what it does to your stomach!

Carolyn:shark2:

[fire_diver]

Pepsi is now using "sugar" instead of corn syrup. I get Pepsi every once in awhile for a treat. Soda in general has so much acid in it anyway. Heck, the easiest way to clean you car battery connections is to use soda. It also makes a good meat tenderizer. Makes you wonder what it does to your stomach!

Carolyn:shark2:

You might want to check your A&P books again, the stomach is already filled with acid.

[netdiver]

Pepsi is now using "sugar" instead of corn syrup. I get Pepsi every once in awhile for a treat. Soda in general has so much acid in it anyway. Heck, the easiest way to clean you car battery connections is to use soda. It also makes a good meat tenderizer. Makes you wonder what it does to your stomach!

Carolyn:shark2:

Soda is very acidic. But then lemonade, orange juice, and many other fruit juices are more acidic than soda.

[cloudswinger]

I have not seen warning labels on any item containing Aspartame. I look at every label to stay away from the substance. The thing is, there are alot of people who have severe sensitivities to the product and it was like over night that Apsartame became the artificial sweetener of choice. It is in hundreds of products and until recently, I had very little choices, even when it comes down to toothpaste.


from the wiki on aspartame:
Since individuals with PKU must consider aspartame as an additional source of phenylalanine, foods containing aspartame sold in the United States must state "Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine" on their product labels.

Doesn't really say that it has to say that there is a warning on aspartame. The warning is on one of the breakdown products of aspartame.

[Tom Winters]

Soda: goooooooood; people who bitch about soda: baaaaaaaaaaaaad.

[RonFrank]

Something MUST kill you! For me, I'd rather it NOT be diet soda, so I don't drink the stuff. I do drink other things that are not so good for you, but I enjoy those a LOT more than diet soda.

[siikik]

...Doesn't really say that it has to say that there is a warning on aspartame. The warning is on one of the breakdown products of aspartame.

And one of the constituent components of aspartame is none other than formaldehyde... you know, the liquid used to preserve your frogs, worms and other animals before you dissected them in biology...
:shocked2:

Another interesting tidbit is that aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde with heat... and it just so happens your body is a sufficient heat source to accomplish this.

That being said, sugar and HFCS aren't any better because of the processing... no nutritional value whatsoever because it has been stripped away... empty calories. If you want a good sweetner, go with simple fructose or even better, something like stevia.


Ken