var json_comments = new Array("
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yagisencho
August 4, 2009 10:31 PM
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I gave up Diet Dr. Pepper due to its use of Aspartame.


Dagnabbit.

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2 replies
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EinhornIsAMan!
August 4, 2009 11:43 PM
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@yagisencho: Aspartame sucks! WHY CAN'T THEY USE SACCHARIN!

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Powerlurker
August 5, 2009 5:00 AM
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@EinhornIsAMan!:

Saccharine sucks, why can we use cyclamates like the Canadians.

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henrygates
August 4, 2009 10:35 PM
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Geez just use sugar. It's pretty clear that all these alternatives are going to kill you somehow.

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6 replies
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sven.kirk
August 5, 2009 12:23 AM
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@henrygates: Coke, Pepsi, and generics. Sugar is the main ingredient in any soda that contains most of the calories.

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EinhornIsAMan!
August 4, 2009 11:42 PM
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@henrygates: Great idea! Unless you're a diabetic, or just on a diet. I like how saccharin tastes, too

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Chumas
August 4, 2009 11:24 PM
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@henrygates: So what about those of us who'd like to not get or make worse diabetis? Excess sugar WILL kill us, pal.

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bennilynn
August 5, 2009 12:07 AM
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@Chumas: My mother has diabetes and was informed by her doctor that it wasn't a good idea to drink diet soda or use artificial sweeteners. Instead, he recommended she just learn to suck it up and live with the fact that she can't have sugar-laden concoctions anymore.

His reasoning is that since aspartame and the other artificial sweeteners are actually sweeter than sugar, drinking that junk all the time will make a diabetic crave sweet things more often, hence the risk that you might be eating more sugar than you realize. He wanted my mother to develop a sort of sensitivity to hidden sugars in foods.

It's the same with salt.

My family went on a low-salt diet when I was a kid and my dad found out he had high blood pressure. All the food tasted bland and boring at first, but now things made with too much salt taste way too strong to me. My mother says its the same thing with the sugar. Now that she's cut it out and doesn't use the fake stuff, she doesn't need the sweet because it tastes too strong.

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thaShady
August 5, 2009 7:07 AM
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@bennilynn: agreed.... drink water....from the tap.

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arlanTLDR
August 5, 2009 12:54 AM
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@bennilynn: That makes sense from a psychological standpoint, that you should avoid sweet tasting things so you don't crave them even if you can eat artificial sugars safely.

However, while artificial sweeteners *are* sweeter than normal sugar, that just means that they use a lot less to get the same equivalent taste.

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crymson777
August 4, 2009 11:07 PM
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@NeverLetMeDown: How exactly? Sugar is a natural product that is grown in dirt rather than a petrie dish...so...how is that exactly supposed to kill you? I would be willing to bet that a lot of the diabetes in the US is caused by corn syrup, which the body doesn't really know how to process. Want to die less quickly, use sugar instead of \"artificial sweeteners\" or corn syrup. Sugar based coke tastes hellishly better anyway!

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Powerlurker
August 5, 2009 5:07 AM
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@crymson777:

Your body knows how to process HFCS perfectly well. Corn syrup is composed of glucose, which is pretty much the basic form of carbohydrate energy in human metabolism. In high-fructose corn syrup, a significant portion of the glucose has been converted to fructose, another perfectly normal sugar that you eat in any number of sources as it is the most common sugar found in the fruits you eat. Now, where the supposed unhealthiness of HFCS may come from, is that when you metabolize fructose, you bypass one of the main regulatory steps in carbohydrate metabolism which would result in consuming more sugar than would otherwise be needed to sate you (look up \"glycolysis\" on wikipedia or in a biochemistry textbook for more details).

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Persistence - Long viv revolisyon an konsomatè yo!
August 5, 2009 3:27 AM
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@crymson777: Johns Hopkins University recently released their abstract of a study on high fructose sweeteners and found that high fructose corn syrup does, in fact, cause obesity AND increase appetite, proving once and for all that it is worse for you than cane sugar. [www.physorg.com]

The healthiest alternatives for those who can't give up soda are the \"new\" throwback sodas that use cane sugar or all those really expensive \"natural\" sodas.

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:39 AM
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@crymson777: Back before we had machines and immigrants to do our hard work for us, anybody who wanted sugar would have worked hard enough for it that they could eat as much as they want without health consequences.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
August 5, 2009 12:42 AM
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@ChuckECheese: When did \"we\" as Americans not have immigrants to do our hard work?

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thaShady
August 5, 2009 7:11 AM
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@FooSchnickens: Oh yeah, nothing better than mexican coke. Oh, the drink...yeah, those are good too.

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 1:46 AM
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@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): lol. It's just an endless revolving conveyor-belt door.

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utensil42
August 4, 2009 11:15 PM
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@crymson777: Whoa...watch yourself with the \"it's a natural product grown in the dirt so it can't kill you\" thing. Unless, of course, you'd like to sample that hemlock?

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44 in a Row
August 4, 2009 11:15 PM
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@crymson777:

How exactly? Sugar is a natural product that is grown in dirt rather than a petrie dish...so...how is that exactly supposed to kill you?

Wait, so natural products that are grown in dirt can't kill you? Really?

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FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR
August 4, 2009 10:36 PM
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So what if it causes cancer, it tastes like crap. That's reason enough and then some to not ingest it. For me at least.

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7 replies
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arlanTLDR
August 4, 2009 11:28 PM
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@FooSchnickens: I think that choice should be left up to the consumer. Or should Brussels sprouts be banned because i think they \"taste like crap\"?

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Naame
August 5, 2009 1:52 PM
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@arlanTLDR: No way I want it to be left in the hands of the consumer. If we played by those rules then the result would be tons of various products on the shelves which lack a lot of quality and might be potentially dangerous and most consumers wouldn't even be aware because the info is not available in a lot of cases. I want to be able to go to the store and buy whatever foods and medicines I want without needing to worry about giving wife or kids cancer over the course of regular use. I don't want to have to data mine and fact check the hell out of the internet every time I have any inclination to buy a new product.

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bennilynn
August 5, 2009 12:08 AM
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@arlanTLDR: Brussels sprouts don't give you cancer.

In fact, they can help prevent it!

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SJActress
August 5, 2009 6:25 AM
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@bennilynn:

Cigarettes cause cancer, alcohol causes cirrhosis and cancer.

Should we ban those?

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arlanTLDR
August 5, 2009 12:31 AM
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@bennilynn: Well, the OP said \"So what if it causes cancer\" which is what i was responding to.

Also, there is plenty of evidence that Aspartame doesn't cause cancer either.

[www.cancer.org]

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FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR
August 4, 2009 11:46 PM
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@arlanTLDR: Sure, just because they hail from Belgium doesn't grant them preferential treatment.

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tbax929
August 4, 2009 10:49 PM
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@FooSchnickens:
I don't know if it contains Aspartane, but I have a major Coke Zero addiction. I think you inform consumers of the risk and then let them make the choice.

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:23 AM
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@tbax929: Funny about Coke Zero - I believe at one time it used Splenda, then changed a few years ago.

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FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR
August 4, 2009 11:03 PM
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@tbax929: Oh well. Can I interest you in a real sugar Coke from my local Hispanic Grocery? They're deeeeeeeeelish.

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Powerlurker
August 5, 2009 5:08 AM
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@FooSchnickens:

Or for those of us in Texas, we can get Dublin Dr. Pepper.

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tbax929
August 5, 2009 12:40 AM
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@FooSchnickens:
I've been drinking diet soda for so long I can't even stand the taste of regular soda. It's too dang sweet.


I'm not far from the southern border, so I've got plenty of stores around me that sell Mexican Coke. I just like Coke Zero better. But thanks for the offer.

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Tallanvor
August 5, 2009 6:35 AM
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@tbax929: Agreed. About non-diet soda tasting too sweet compared to diet soda. I'm a Diet Pepsi fan, though. Unfortunately I have to settle for Pepsi Max because you can't seem to get Diet Pepsi in Norway. :(

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FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR
August 5, 2009 12:58 AM
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@tbax929: Don't mention it. I'll just have yours at lunch tomorrow. MUAHAHAHA

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Willmeister
August 4, 2009 10:37 PM
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how is aspertame bad your body turns it to co2 and water

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LastError
August 4, 2009 10:41 PM
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I remember when this stuff first started coming out in consumer products. Quaker Oats had a cereal called Halfsies, half sugar (HFCS of course), half aspartame. It looked just like one of the Captain Crunch variants.

It gave me a terrible headache, helped in no small part by the idea that one could eat a lot of it and not worry about sugar so much. Or so we thought.

It will be a happy day when this stuff is banned. Now if they'd only tackle HFCS next.

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Clobberella
August 5, 2009 12:52 AM
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@LastError: Why will it be a happy day? Just because you personally seem to react to it? I mean, aspirin gives me horrible stomach cramps, so perhaps we should ban that too. Anyway, any link with cancer is dubious at best; people have been trying to prove it for decades and I've yet to see a source any more reliable than a chain email from the '90s that says it causes cancer.

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SJActress
August 5, 2009 6:25 AM
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@Clobberella:

Agreed. And I LIKE aspartame, thank you very much!

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OolonColluphid
August 4, 2009 10:46 PM
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Sounds dubious to me. I don't like to get my info on science from HuffPo.

[skeptoid.com]

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1 replies
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Bailen
August 5, 2009 12:40 PM
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@OolonColluphid: Agreed. We need Brian on here commenting on all these sketchy science posts. Not that his word is final by any stretch of the imagination but at least he knows how to and does his research properly.

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Marshfield
August 4, 2009 10:54 PM
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What is left for artificial sweeteners if Nutrasweet goes away?

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12 replies
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CarbonFiberFootprint
August 5, 2009 12:53 PM
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@Marshfield: Try Honey, Fruit, or (if you must) real cane sugar. If someone had to make it in a lab, I consider it the 'meth' equivalent of sugar.

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inadequatewife
August 5, 2009 2:11 AM
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@Marshfield: My husband is addicted to Diet Coke with Splenda. No sugar (he's diabetic) and no aspartame (gives him massive headaches and blurred vision). We also buy Waist Watchers (yes, that's the name, it's NOT Weight Watchers) sodas which come in 8 or 10 flavors. I don't care for the cola, but the rest are great alternatives to the big name sodas filled with aspartame. And they're less expensive.

Of course, in 20 years we'll find out Splenda is bad for us too.

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kateblack
August 5, 2009 11:47 AM
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@inadequatewife: Even better than soda made with artificial sweeteners: [sodastream.com] . I don't work for them, I'm just a big fan.

We make our own soda at home. Tap water. No disposable bottles, no wasted fuel shipping plastic bottles around the country. We drink plain seltzer or mix it with juice, a drop of flavor extract or rose water, cane sugar syrups, tea, homemade mixes w/ agave nectar, etc.

I'm NOT a fan of Sodastream's soda mixes. Super chemical flavors. But for DIY, it's great.

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:34 AM
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@Marshfield: Cyclamates, acesulfame K, defrutum, saccharin, some of the more esoteric relatives of aspertame (such as neotame), all those sugar alcohols that give you the runs, and NHDC. Our chemists haven't given up yet! We can go back to making boiled puddings of grated beets and carrots and prunes - now there's some sweetness.

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samandiriel
August 4, 2009 11:55 PM
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@Marshfield: Stevia wins as a sweetener, hands down. Completely natural, too.

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CyGuy
August 5, 2009 2:22 AM
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@samandiriel:

But my question is, since it was Donald Rumsfeld as the head of Monsanto that prevented stevia from being sold as a sweetener so that Aspartame would have a clear field to market it's poison once Sacharine started carrying a warning label, can they finally lift the ban on marketing stevia as a sweetener?

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EinhornIsAMan!
August 4, 2009 11:41 PM
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@Marshfield: For my money, nothing on the market, not even real sugar, can hold a candle to saccharin (sweet n low) in my coffee

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Coles_Law
August 4, 2009 11:13 PM
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@Marshfield: Splenda and Truvia come to mind-they'll figure something out.

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crymson777
August 4, 2009 11:08 PM
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@Marshfield: Splenda works great and doesn't causes headaches...so far that is...


Then of course, there is always sugar in moderation...

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
August 4, 2009 11:19 PM
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@crymson777: I find Splenda so supremely vile I can't eat it even in tiny amounts. It literally makes me gag, even in a sugar/splenda mix.

I know that's just a personal thing -- my husband can't stand aspartame, which I like the taste of -- but if we were stuck with splenda for low-cal stuff, I'd have to avoid them all completely. Blergh.

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MadameX
August 4, 2009 11:46 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Definitely a personal thing. I used to be okay with aspartame but now all I taste is chemicals. I definitely prefer Splenda.

Haven't tried the new stevia (Truvia, etc.) sweeteners yet. I've heard not everyone likes those, either.

I guess ya can't please everyone. :)

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:45 AM
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@MadameX: Stevia has a bitter aftertaste and isn't easily masked. If you want to go full-bore hippie, you should get some whole stevia herb. It's like grass clippings that taste like sweet licorice. I am so glad I don't cook for macrobiotics anymore.

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Shawn4168
August 4, 2009 11:05 PM
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@Marshfield: Sweet'n Low (saccharin) and Splenda (sucralose) both have pretty strong holds on the artificial sweetener market still.

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bohemian
August 4, 2009 10:55 PM
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There have been concerns about this for years. I can't stand the stuff, it gives me horrible headaches. Splenda gives some people horrible headaches also. That is made out of some chlorine derivative.

The better option is probably to just consume less sugar.

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8 replies
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kateblack
August 5, 2009 11:53 AM
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@bohemian: Splenda makes me gag AND gives me a headache. I tried a packet in my Americano one day. Horrible.

Acesulfame-K (in Coke Zero) just gives me a violent headache.

Aspartame does neither. I probably drink one Diet Coke every month, but I love it. I'll have to stop drinking commercially produced soda altogether if they take my Diet Coke away.

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kbrook
August 5, 2009 1:31 AM
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@bohemian: You and me both... Also, it tastes like something my cat threw up.

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godlyfrog
August 4, 2009 11:33 PM
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@bohemian: That's like saying salt is a chlorine by-product.

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Coles_Law
August 4, 2009 11:15 PM
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@bohemian: To be fair they plug a chlorine ion into the sugar molecule (Thanks Alton Brown!)-\"chlorine derivative\" sounds like a pool byproduct.


It gives me a headache too though.

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FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR
August 5, 2009 12:59 AM
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@Coles_Law: Aww, so it won't make my whites whiter or keep my pool clean? Nurts.

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smartmuffin
August 4, 2009 11:06 PM
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@bohemian: But why leave it up to individuals to take care of their own health and well being when we can just have the government ban it for everyone?

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CarbonFiberFootprint
August 5, 2009 12:54 PM
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@smartmuffin: Go to your local Wal-Mart and look around...

That is why.

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NeverLetMeDown
August 4, 2009 10:58 PM
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Epstein is far far far from the mainstream in cancer research, and NIH, the ACS, and the European Food Safety Authority do not agree with his conclusions regarding the safety of aspartame:


[www.cancer.org]


[www.cancer.gov]

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5 replies
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mugglehead
August 5, 2009 2:11 AM
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@NeverLetMeDown:

Its all about amount. Aspartame has been proven to metabolize into formaldehyde in the body. The enlightening part though, is that you'd have to drink dozens of cans of diet soda to obtain the same amount of formaldehyde in your system as if you consumed one average orange.

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NatalieErin
August 5, 2009 4:59 AM
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@mugglehead:Not to mention the formaldehyde produced in your body every day as part of metabolism.

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Bailen
August 5, 2009 12:45 PM
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@NatalieErin: I really wish bloggers would look into what they are reporting a little better and give examples like this that most people are able to comprehend easier. Yes it may very well be proven that aspartame can cause cancer, just like the sun causes cancer but we also need to know how much. Obviously too much sun is not good for you, but that does not mean im not going to go outside to enjoy it, im just going to moderate my time out there. Much like how aspartame can cause cancer in huge quantities which is why I may enjoy a diet pop every once in a while but im not about to drink a concentrated cup of the stuff!

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Cant_stop_the_rock
August 5, 2009 1:04 AM
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@NeverLetMeDown:
\"So a typical adult could drink 19 cans of diet soft drink each day before going over the recommended level.\"

Thanks for the info

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Coles_Law
August 4, 2009 11:15 PM
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@NeverLetMeDown: Aha-thanks for the links. Should be interesting to see any more studies come to light.

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crymson777
August 4, 2009 11:10 PM
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@NeverLetMeDown: But they have also been wrong before no doubt. Science isn't science if it is concrete. Science changes and those that don't change with it are wasting our time.


Then again...I've had cancer...and no, I don't use Equal (aspartame) unless there is no other option. The biggest problem with sweeteners in general is people use just too dang much of them.

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meredithw
August 4, 2009 11:06 PM
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Oh, here we go again! See an article in Reason from Oct. 1993:


\"In 1970 the Food and Drug Administration banned the artificial sweetener cyclamate. For more than a decade, until the arrival of aspartame (Nutra-Sweet), dieters with sweet tooths had to put up with the wrenching aftertaste of saccharin.


The FDA's cyclamate decision was based on a 1969 study in which rats who were fed high doses of the sweetener developed cancer. The World Health Organization, the U.N. Joint Committee on Food Additives, and the National Academy of Sciences have since rejected that study as a fluke because its results could not be reproduced. Yet cyclamate remains illegal.\"

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EinhornIsAMan!
August 4, 2009 11:47 PM
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@meredithw: Wrenching aftertaste of saccharin. Jeez, I prefer the taste of saccharin to every other artificial sweetener. And I'm no old fart either-I'm under 30

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OolonColluphid
August 4, 2009 11:08 PM
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After looking into this for just a few minutes, I'm certain that this article (like all others from HuffPo about science) is complete bunk. I think Consumerist needs to change this post to link to sources other than HuffPo.

Here are a few bits knocking down this poorly conducted study from the Italian Ramazzini Foundation (the 2006 one referenced in the article):

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

[www.nzfsa.govt.nz]

[www.efsa.europa.eu]

I'm disappointed, Consumerist. You're supposed to be protecting consumers, not parroting these fear-mongering rants.

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Sockatume
August 5, 2009 9:01 AM
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@OolonColluphid: I reckon that posting an unsourced blog accusation from a site reknowned for getting the facts wrong is pretty atrotious, regardless of what Consumerist's standards were before.

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StanTheManDean
August 5, 2009 12:33 AM
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@OolonColluphid:


I guess journalism standards don't apply to the Consumerist.

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Brazell
August 5, 2009 1:45 AM
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@StanTheManDean: I feel like an old malcontent by saying that \"the consumerist used to be better,\" but more often than not -- for the past year or so -- the Consumerist has just posted any story that criticizes, in any way, any corporation or business. It's still one of my favorite daily blogs, but as is the case with articles like this, it takes anything that possibly criticizes any big company, doesn't do any research, and just parrots it.

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OolonColluphid
August 5, 2009 2:58 AM
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@MichaelBrazell: I'm fine with reaming a company that is actually pulling a dick move. I can get behind that. But this sort of story is unacceptable. Scientific/health claims need to evaluated with a skeptical eye.

The OPs language is clearly biased. Using phrases like, \"that is well covered\" when referring to a discredited study, or, \"Dr. Epstein looks like the real deal\", is dishonest at worst, and ignorant at best. Consumerist is not a science blog, but they should not be spreading misinformation.

Also: \"as someone who has long found that Nutrasweet gives me headaches, I'm a believer.\" That is a great example of a non-sequitur. It gives you headaches, so it must also give you cancer. LOGICAL FALLACY.

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LordofBacon
August 4, 2009 11:11 PM
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Everything causes cancer.

Except cancer.

That causes death.

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Greasy Thumb Guzik
August 4, 2009 11:20 PM
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Bring back cyclamates!

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parapluie101
August 4, 2009 11:22 PM
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Whether or not Aspartame causes cancer, it has other things that make it not good for us as well. The first is that it has phenylalanine in it, which lowers your seizure threshold. (This is especially bad for people who suffer from phenylketonuria, who can not tolerate phenylalanine, but can affect you even if you do not suffer from it). Secondly, it can atrophy your organs (the liver being a big one) if you drink too much of it. It is 200X sweeter than sugar, so companies use it because they can use much less of it than sugar.
I work in a health food store. So yes, you can call me a crazy hippie if you want, but I know that I feel much better since I've stopped drinking diet coke (no more headaches) and no more of that awful metallic after taste.

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3 replies
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Sockatume
August 5, 2009 4:03 PM
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@parapluie101: If phenylalanine caused significant amounts of seizures, then there'd be Atkins fans flopping all over the place. People with PKU have to restrict their protein intake.

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OolonColluphid
August 4, 2009 11:58 PM
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@parapluie101: Seriously though, that's all incorrect. You clearly have no idea what phenylalanine is. It's just an amino acid... you know, the building blocks of proteins that you get shit loads of from any type of meat. The only reason that phenylalanine is dangerous to people with PKU is that they are unable to metabolize it. If you don't have PKU, you're fine.

In your health food store, they probably even sell phenylalanine as a supplement. Even though taking extra won't really do anything. But hey, that hasn't stopped the supplement industry from packaging up every other thing under the sun.

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parapluie101
August 5, 2009 2:24 AM
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@OolonColluphid: Yea, I'm aware that its an amino acid. Maybe I didn't explain myself properly, but studies have shown that even a tiny bit of aspartame can cause grand mal seizures.

[www.naturalnews.com]

This is more scientific but it shows the link between phenylalanine and seizures in rats.
[www3.interscience.wiley.com]

Also, I will point out that not everything is safe. Just because its \"natural\" and sold in a health food or organic store, doesn't mean it won't have bad interactions with your body. Everybody reacts differently to different substances, natural or otherwise. Most good naturopaths will tell you that you should always, always watch what you're putting into your body, speak to a doctor, and do research before you start taking herbs willy-nilly.

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OolonColluphid
August 5, 2009 3:15 AM
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@parapluie101: Unfortunately, a 40 year old study that found only a small effect in 4 week old mice, is poor evidence. There is no evidence that any amount of aspartame could produce such results. That study was injecting HUGE (seriously, the human equivalent would be like you getting an injection of ~1kg of pure phenylalanine) amounts of pure D-phenylalanine into the blood stream of baby mice. By the way, aspartame contains L-phenylalanine, not the D enatiomer.

As for that other link, it's not a study. It's one big vague, logical fallacy. It \"begs the question\" at every turn.

Try again...

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arlanTLDR
August 4, 2009 11:25 PM
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Hasn't this been debunked enough?

MIT News: [web.mit.edu]

American Council on Science and Health (ACSH): [www.acsh.org]

The previous FDA position: [vm.cfsan.fda.gov]

More sources at snopes: [www.snopes.com]

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golddog
August 5, 2009 2:18 AM
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@arlanTLDR: /pulls tinfoil hat out of drawer/

Debunked by whom though? The same outfit \"Clinical Research Center\" quoted in the MIT article, from 10 years ago, released a study during the FDA approval process called \"Aspartame Side Effects: Norway Study Connects Aspartame with Brain Destruction\". Different researcher though.

Point is, you can get someone to support your/any position with research if you pay them enough and word the findings the right way.

According to Sourcewatch, the American Council on Science and Health accepts funding from - among others - Coca Cola, Pepsi Co, Kellogg, General Mills, the American Beverage Association, and last but not least Monsanto, which owns the Nutrasweet brand. I'm sure that funding didn't skew their results on aspartame at all.

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Etoiles
August 4, 2009 11:30 PM
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I discovered in the mid 90s that aspartame makes me pretty thoroughly and nastily ill, so I wouldn't miss it.

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oldgraygeek
August 5, 2009 12:15 AM
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@Etoiles: I know people who get a screaming headache from the tiniest amount of aspartame. It's not psychosomatic, as they get the headache before they realize aspartame's present in the food or drink.

Thankfully, I'm not among them (see comment below).

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Tom_Servo
August 4, 2009 11:33 PM
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Good. It's about time. Asparatame tastes like dog shit. (Yes, I've tasted dogshit. No, it wasn't on purpose)

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Clobberella
August 5, 2009 12:46 AM
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@Tom_Servo: Yep, I'm all for banning things that I personally don't like the taste of. When can we get started on grapefruit?

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:43 AM
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@Tom_Servo: You could have been Divine's understudy in Pink Flamingos.

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GeorgeO
August 4, 2009 11:37 PM
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As I've said before.... I'll take cavities over cancer, any day of the week!

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:43 AM
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@GeorgeO: Cavities are cancer. They're teeth cancer, and it's not funny.

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Clobberella
August 5, 2009 12:56 AM
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@ChuckECheese: You're joking, right? I can't quite tell.

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spidercoz
August 5, 2009 12:02 AM
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Coke is already making headway using Truvia in products like Vitamin Water 10. It'll soon be tested in certain markets as a replacement sweetener in some of their less popular diet brands, with the ultimate goal of replacing all their diet brands using aspartame & ace-k with Truvia.

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outlulz
August 5, 2009 5:28 AM
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@spidercoz: I like Truvia. It has no aftertaste. And it's made from plants so it can't be bad for you riiiiight?

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samandiriel
August 5, 2009 12:08 AM
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While I can't cite any studies, I can certainly relate my own personal experiences with disease and aspartame.

When I was 20 (about two years after I started drinking diet pop), I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis - a really painful bladder disease usually only contracted by women. The inner lining of the bladder is disrupted, letting the uric acid burn it into a little tiny ball of inflexible scar tissue.

From a quick Google just now, obviously this is now accepted wisdom for IC. Here's a sample:
\"he half million people with IC may also want to avoid aspartame. Notorious for exacerbating IC bladder symptoms (and also anecdotally associated with migraines in some people), aspartame has long been on the IC patients' foods-to-avoid list. It is sold under the brand names NutraSweet and Equal, and is also found in many food products.\"
I took various meds for a couple years, up to and including being catheterized once a month so the urologist could fill up my bladder with medication til it bleed. None of it helped much. My bladder could only hold about 100ml by then, and even that hurt. Hurt when it was empty, too :P

Then I gave up aspartame sweetened pop, as it just tasted too nasty and I didn't feel like putting up with that anymore. At that point I'd also gone off medical treatment, as after two years it seemed a waste of time to keep going.

Six months after giving up aspartame, I no longer had pain and seemed to be able to hold more. I went to visit the urologist, and he told me yah, he'd seen that before (why hadn't he told me then, dammit??!). My bladder size was up to 150ml too. He said to stretch it back out again by holding my water as long as possible.

I've been using stevia to sweeten my own drinks now for 10yrs, and I have no more bladder disease and a capacity of 700ml.

That's been enough to convince me that even if aspartame didn't cause cancer, it definitely had other effects and I was much much better off without it. I've been eating naturally as much as possible since then, and a lot of my other issues have evaporate as well. Lots of veggies, some unrefined grain products, and a little meat. Goes a looooong way!

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Bailen
August 5, 2009 12:59 PM
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@samandiriel: You do realize that aspartame most likely didn't cause your unfortunate condition, it would just exacerbate it. Stopping taking it may have helped you get better, but its along the same lines as someone having a lot of spicy foods then a few years later developing colitis. All the while under treatment continuing to eat foods that are known to compound the disease. Of course when they stop eating something known to irritate their body, it will have a much easier time healing itself or at least toughening up.

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oldgraygeek
August 5, 2009 12:11 AM
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My favorite sweetener is a mixture of Sweet'N-Low and Equal. A co-worker got me started combining the Pink and the Blue back in 2003, and I've been hooked ever since.
The combination tastes way better & more natural than either one used alone.

Try it, but hurry: \"...it is anticipated [by whom?] that Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner and inspiring public health advocate, will promptly ban the continued use of aspartame.\"

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ChuckECheese
August 5, 2009 12:49 AM
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@oldgraygeek: Even if your Nutrasweet gets taken away, you can still play artificial-sweetener chemist by mixing others. Artificial sweeteners are known to potentiate each other's flavors and to mask each other's off-flavors. This is why you frequently see combinations of sweeteners in foods, such as Ace-K and Nutrasweet in Coke Zero.

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Julia789
August 5, 2009 12:39 AM
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@oldgraygeek: Anticipated by him. He also wants to ban mammograms for women because he says they cause cancer. Not kidding.

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Julia789
August 5, 2009 12:38 AM
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A quick search of Samuel S. Epstein (who wrote the article) shows he's often considered controversial. For example, he also campaigns against mammograms and encourages women never to get them. He says they are dangerous and cause cancer.

The wording of his article is more that HE expects the new FDA commissioner to ban aspartame, not that anyone else does.

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weedpindle
August 5, 2009 12:47 AM
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And the continued ingestion of air into my lungs has caused life for me. I am so afraid the the Govt will allow this horrible substance to continue to be used by unsuspecting people.

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LilBadKitty
August 5, 2009 12:48 AM
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Aspartame has been banned in other countries for years. I quit the stuff after I had cancer and I started paying more attention to what I was eating. I eliminated aspartame and high fructose corn syrup from my diet, which got rid of my IBS. I've also lost a lot of weight and have kept it off pretty effortlessly.

Get off the stuff. You'll feel a lot better.

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cmdrsass
August 5, 2009 12:51 AM
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Why use an article, unchecked, from a source known for reporting bad science? It boggles the mind.

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Daveinva
August 5, 2009 12:52 AM
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Okay, does anyone know how much Nutrasweet has been consumed worldwide since it was introduced?

I would venture quite a bit.

Where are all these cancers? One would think there'd be a giant epidemic of dying diet soda drinkers, but there isn't.

I'm sure Nutrasweet isn't \"good\" for you, but I'd be absolutely shocked if it's dangerous. We've had decades to find this out by now.

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Clobberella
August 5, 2009 1:03 AM
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@McLaren and Torchinsky


You do know that Tab contains aspartame, don't you?


From Wegmans.com :


Ingredients:
Carbonated Water, Caramel Color, Natural Flavors, Phosphoric Acid, Calcium Saccharin, Potassium Benzoate (to Protect Taste), Caffeine, Aspartame.

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dougp26364
August 5, 2009 1:37 AM
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\"......and at doses less than usual human dietary levels,\"


I LOVE this trick wording. It might be less than human dietary levels but, what's the corresponding dietary level for rats? If you're giving an animal that weighs in grams a dose similar but less than the normal dietary level for a human that weighs in KILOgrams is it really a good test?


Figures do not lie but liers figure.

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Brazell
August 5, 2009 1:42 AM
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Fuck that, if I had a dime for every time some fat ass told me that diet coke is going to kill me... Well, I'd have at least 50 cents. Y'know what's gonna ruin your life? Being obese because you suck down 200-calories in every can. Years ago, I gave up soda after being a heady soda drinker and instantly lost 15lbs... I later went back to soda and ended up giving it up in exchange for diet soda instead, with the same effect. I have a hard time believing that such an oft-consumed beverage like diet coke actually does any harm more so than regular soda or anything else.

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golddog
August 5, 2009 1:59 AM
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I'm probably risking a Carnivore flag here, but Donald Rumsfeld had such a big role in getting aspartame pushed through for Searle that it can't not cause tumors.

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shepd
August 5, 2009 2:00 AM
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Interesting. Seems like they make sure the levels aren't ridiculous, as they were for saccharin (something around 300+ diet cokes a day worth--enough you'd die from water poisoning alone).

I might need to switch to cyclamates. Yeah, I'd use saccharin if my stupid country hadn't banned it.

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Telekinesis123
August 5, 2009 2:13 AM
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There is no free ride in nature, you always have to pay for something, people should just try to consume less normal pop and you'll be better in the long run.

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hunter3742
August 5, 2009 2:24 AM
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ok....while I would never credit cracked.com as a serious source of science, generally, when your theory is so widely discredited that they're making fun of you, it's time to stop (note: this article is form over the past weekend, see the second entry).

[url][www.cracked.com]]

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HogwartsAlum
August 5, 2009 3:35 PM
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@hunter3742:

Your link didn't work for me...is this what you were trying to post?

[www.cracked.com]

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SilverBlade2k
August 5, 2009 2:34 AM
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Please let this be true. This would be an absolute God-send if aspartame was banned.

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CaptZ
August 5, 2009 2:36 AM
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Quit banning things and just throw a warning label on it like Sweet N Low has and let the consumer make the decision.


The government is not here to protect us from our own decisions. Cigarettes are bad and they have warnings and they still sell them. Why? The govt cant afford to have those sin taxes go away.


Get out of my house and let me buy hat I want.....

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itsgene
August 5, 2009 2:57 AM
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1) I believe the patent on Nutrasweet has expired, and that's why you no longer see the Nutrasweet logo on products -- it's just generic aspartame now.

2) Pharma companies are always moving on to market the latest new thing so they can charge more for it. Nutrasweet is OLD OLD OLD.

3) Many manufacturers have taken note of the internet memes and dumped Nutrasweet in favor of Splenda and... amazingly, SUGAR.

Ergo: if the FDA doesn't ban aspartame, I'm certain that it will go off the market soon anyway. Searle doesn't care about an ancient product when they could be pushing something new and under patent.

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mizmoose
August 5, 2009 3:02 AM
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If that crap really caused cancer I'd be one gigantic walking tumour.

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chocolate1234
August 5, 2009 3:15 AM
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Consuming too much of that stuff is definitely not good for you. When I was little, my mom drank a ridiculous amount of soda, because she was finishing up a graduate degree and had three little kids at home. By the time she was finished with her degree, she was so sick that doctors misdiagnosed her with M.S. It took them months to figure out that she was perfectly healthy, and that the diet soda had been the culprit. Scary.

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I Love New Jersey
August 5, 2009 3:47 AM
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Wonder how much big corn is paying for that?

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CaptZ
August 5, 2009 4:01 AM
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Searle is already gearing up for the move to stevia, since it can now be marketed as a sweetener. But for years they and the corn sweetener marketers, were campaigning against it being a sweetener so it was relagated to a dietary supplement when it's naturally sweet properties were know by few.


Try buying the concentrated stevia liquid at Whole Foods. They have it in natural and in flavors and it lasts forever. Try the orange flavored in iced tea....great stuff!

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PsiCop
August 5, 2009 4:09 AM
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Sounds as though someone over at Huff fell for an urban legend. Snopes has the story, and it's an old one.

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The_Gas_Man
August 5, 2009 4:45 AM
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\"So down with Diet Coke! (Tab is better anyway.)\"
Tab uses a mixture of aspartame and saccharin. Nice try, though.

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lincolnparadox
August 5, 2009 5:23 AM
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The Searle Corp faked studies during the registration process for aspartame. They greased palms and employed backdoor shenanigans in order to get their product approved.

Nobody looked at the monkey study that showed a 4-fold increase in brain tumors.

Nobody cared about the mouse study that showed severe damage to the brain and spinal tissue.

Nobody worried about the anecdotal evidence collected over the past 25 years that connected aspartame with vision problems, cognition, memory loss and headaches.

Our government just pushed the product through to market. Check out the documentary \"Sweet Misery\" to learn more about the process of approving aspartame.

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satoru
August 5, 2009 2:01 PM
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@lincolnparadox:

If by 'nobody' you mean yourself then this would be a valid point.

Most of the mice studies cited are have results that were not re-producable by other scientists, or were given doses that were several orders of magnitude beyond even the very conservative daily intake levels. You'd have to eat an entire barrel full of nutrasweet, all at once, to get even close to the levels tested in rats.

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Studies concerning headaches/cognition/memory loss and headaches have been done and shown to be mostly confirmation bias by patients.

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

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Mavo
August 10, 2009 10:31 AM
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@satoru: Those studies you mention my friend are ALL funded by the food industry and are self-serving! Care to read the actual independent study done by the Ramazzini Institute in 2007:
[www.newmediaexplorer.org]

Probably not as you seem to think you know it all! I can tell you that I do not need a stinking study to know what aspartame can do to people.. I drank the toxic crap for three years, thinking like you, it was safe... and I just recently got diagnosed with ALS! I do not believe in coincidences and the connection between my ALS and aspartame consumption is clear to me! But you go ahead and drink your diet soda or chew your sugar free gum... and you can read all those asinine studies about how safe aspartame is from YOUR own wheelchair!

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crazydavythe1st
August 5, 2009 5:46 AM
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I can't believe some of the responses on here promoting the ban of aspartame. How is that Consumerism? And I can't stand the armchair nutritionists around here. How many of y'all are actually qualified to make sensationalist claims like \"aspartame is bad\" or \"a fast food hamburger will kill you. But my homemade ground beef burger fried in lard is ALL-NATURAL and tastes so much better\".

Guess what. Aspartame doesn't bother me. It tastes good. I like it more then Splenda. And there's so real evidence that aspartame is all that dangerous, except in lab rats. Which spontaneously develop cancer constantly anyway.

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Mavo
August 10, 2009 10:25 AM
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@crazydavythe1st: You are misinformed my friend! I have a diagnosis of ALS because of three years of drinking aspartame... and I have spent the last YEAR studying it! I'll put up my knowledge of aspartame up against any so called nutritionist 'expert' who probably just reads the propaganda put out from the manufacturer and the FDA! This stuff is toxic and if you have any common sense you will avoid it like the plague.. but you seem so flippant in your comment I doubt you have the reasoning power to listen to good advice from someone who KNOWS what aspartame can do to you!

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tvscifi.com
August 5, 2009 1:25 PM
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The molecule is the same one that gives bananas their sweetness, so you'll have outlaw bananas too. NutraSweet is the most tested food additive ever. They were worried that it would go the way of saccharine, so they tested the hell out of it before releasing it on the market. It does give some people headaches, but that is more of an allergic reaction (or the caffine in the coke). Carob gives me terrible headaches, yet I don't see health food store pulling that off their shelves. We know sugar is bad for you in the large amounts they put put in pop 16 table spoons!). So if you're giving up diet soda, switch over to water, fruit juice or tea.

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Mavo
August 10, 2009 10:20 AM
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@tvscifi.com:

That is such a LAME excuse for the safety of aspartame... you are an idiot for even suggesting that! Either you are a victim of the propaganda pumped out by the makers of aspartame.. or you are just ignorant! The difference between the methanol in a banana is it is naturally occuring and is therefore bound to pectin. The human gut does NOT have the enzyme to break the methanol off from the pectin.. so bananas are safe and you get no methanol toxicity. Aspartame on the other hand has free form methanol and is very toxic! Not to mention the aspartic acid that is a excitotoxin that kills brain cells!

Look I have ruined my health because I foolishly believed that the FDA was doing it's job and protecting us from poison like aspartame. I have been diagnosed with ALS from drinking diet soda!!! So please DO NOT tell me about how harmless and tested aspartame is!!

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nnj
August 5, 2009 1:28 PM
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When I was a kid, about 12 or so, I somehow got a free diet Country Time lemonade. I took it and was excited. When I finished the drink I decided to read the can. Someplace on the can it stated how aspartame can cause cancer in lab animals. Since that day I have never touched a food item with artificial sweetner.


Like the other poster, Ill take a cavity over cancer any day.

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silversilver
August 5, 2009 2:36 PM
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Shame on Huffington Post, and mostly shame on the Consumerist for failing to think critically about the claims presented and the person presenting them. Samuel Epstein is widely discredited, and a simple internet search would tell you this. He is just another conspiracy theorist, and his MD doesn't make him an authority by any means. I expect better from the Consumerist.

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HauseMan
August 6, 2009 1:24 AM
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Having seen, and now own, \"Sweet Misery\", I wouldn't want to touch this stuff with a ten foot pole. Given that 10% of a molecule of aspartame is methyl ester (methanol), is yet more incentive to stay away. I go for only standard sugar, honey, or Stevia.

It's my understanding that aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde at 86 degrees. Our bodies are (usually) 98.6 degrees. You figure out the rest.

As a medical assistant, I don't need to know any more than the above to know not to use aspartame for any reason.

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MightyCow
August 9, 2009 10:02 AM
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@HauseMan:
P.S. If you were my medical assistant, I'd fire you on the spot for that kind of attitude. You give medicine a bad name.

Any time you talk about science and health and say, \"I don't need to know any more...\" you've failed.

Seriously, get a different job. You are responsible for people's lives, and you can't bother to find out the real story behind health issues, or have even a basic understanding of chemistry and human physiology.

How the hell did you become a medical assistant?

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MightyCow
August 9, 2009 10:00 AM
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@HauseMan:
Did you know that 66% of water is hydrogen, a deadly explosive!

It's my understanding that sugar turns into death juice at 70 degrees, and since I understand chemistry so well, you figure out the rest.

/rant

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synergy
August 6, 2009 5:40 AM
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All that cash from Splenda is finally getting them some results!

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Osi
August 6, 2009 2:43 PM
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Not to mention it causes seizures in children. I'm surprised they left that out.

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Mavo
August 9, 2009 9:05 AM
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It would be wonderful if in fact the new FDA chief bans aspartame! This toxic poison was the worst thing Donald Rumsfeld ever foisted on the world! As the former CEO of the company that invented aspartame ... he used his political power to force the FDA to approve aspartame back in 1981 right after he joined the Reagan Administration.

I am a victim of his crime against humanity.. after drinking aspartame diet soda for years... I have recently been diagnosed with ALS!!! I am NOT a believer in coincidences! The connection between my living hell now and my aspartame consumption is CLEAR!

Please, everyone who reads this, contact the FDA and express your support for a full ban on aspartame! For your sake, your kids sake and for GOD's SAKE!!

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