Anyone want diet coke?

[LimeSlice]

After deciding to find out exactly what was in a packet of "Juicy Fruit" This is only some of what I found...


April 10th, 2006Health

ARTIFICAL SWEETENERS 950 AND 951

Hello Folks,
These sweeteners 950 and 951 are now used in the new Coca Cola Zero Sugar beverage.

The marketing decision of giving consumers ? A Great Taste? without the sugar input. There has been a lot of anti around sugar lately and the bottlers of Coca Cola have been under the spot light in NZ for the amount of Sugar in Coca Cola.

951 Aspartame is not new and is used world wide in approx 5000 to 6000 products. It is also used in Diet Coke. Generally used in products that are sugar free. There is a lot of negative press re this 951 eg literature that I have, published 2002, says that 951 accounts for over 75% of adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA ( US Food and Drug Administration )
In addition this literature lists under Potential Health Effects : Cancer, asthma, MS like symptons, headache, hyperactivity, fatigue,anxiety, dizziness, migraine, memory loss, depression, insomnia, irritability, impotence, epilepsy, blindness,diabetes, neuralgia, seizures,plus many others.

950 Acesulphame Potassium Acesulphame K is also used as an artificial sweetener, doesn?t seem to have as much negative press as Aspartame but Potential Heath Effects advise: May increase levels of cholestrol in blood, caused cancer and tumours in animals.

There are at least 4 US Court Cases lodged in 2004 fighting against Aspartame.
Search Google for Aspartame - there is no shortage of adverse publicity.


August 5th, 2007 at 6:13 pm

?Curiosity about the safety of Aspartame need go no further than the indisputable fact that each molecule of the sweetener turns into a molecule of Formaldehyde when metabolized in the human body. Enough said!?
Dr. Woodrow Monte Ph.D. ,University of Arizona, professor of Food Science, early investigator of aspartame, now residing in New Zealand.


Anyone for a Diet Coke?....
What is actually in the food we eat - more importantly - why dont most of us care to find out?

[Bathsheba]

I agree, I think we all need to question what a life-time's ingestion of all these chemicals is doing to us. We often think the diets of our grandparents were 'unhealthy" but I personally feel they are often healthier simply because they didn't have the additives.

I don't touch fake foods if i can avoid it. I don't buy 'diet' products. It's the real deal for me and in moderation.

[Niliac]

Hate to be the barer of bad news, but this was debunked a long time ago...

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

[Lulu2]

Yeah, but Diet Coke is still crap - as is anything labelled "diet"!

[Niliac]

LMAO I grew up with a diabetic mother so it was all I knew

[Trish]

Crap or not, I like my diet coke.

I think if we knew about half the stuff in the food we eat or drinks we'd be disgusted.

[canberramomma]

That's why I only eat whole foods and make most things from scratch. Well, for that reason and the whole environmental thang!

[Renstar]

Yes Diet Coke is full of cr@p but if I was to drink the 'real' coke stuff i would be even fatter!!!! it is lloooooaded with sugar....

coke is just as bad as diet coke. they are all bad for us.... I only drink diet coke with my rum when my AF arrives, it helps me to deal with it!

Completely agree that additives,chemicals etc in our foods are making us sick these days however what about the air we breathe in every day, car fumes, the products in our house have chemicals and carcinogens all over the house.... not just in what we ingest.... its all a matter of 'limiting your exposure' and you'll be fine....

[Lulu2]

My Nutrition class collectively lost about 40 kilos after the first semester, once we started learning about everything that is done to food and drinks. It's just revolting and more fool us for being so ignorant about the things we do to our bodies.....

[Renstar]

I think if you eat fresh fruit and veges and grains and nuts and meat (if you aren't a vegetarian) all week (which is what i do) and then ocasionally treat yourself to the odd snack here and there, there isn't anything wrong with it.... I feel anyway. 2 or 3 drinks here and there and a chocolate here and there.. mmm how would i survived without it? I love my choccy

[christy]

I agree Renstar, we say 90% of our diet at home is whole foods etc and the other 10% is a treat, like lollies or chocolate or the occasional fish & chips.

[Tracey Habron]

This thread is close to my heart - I have read a lot about it over the years and I do believe that it is a chemical we can do without. We have no idea of the long term effects. We test some chemicals on animals for a period of time, then humans are the guinea pigs for the next 20 years and then we find out that perhaps that chemical wasn't such a great invention.

Mother Nature has spent years getting the food right, I'm sticking with her.

But here is something that I have watched over the years and this is just a logical flow that happens in the body.

When you eat somethig sweet, the tongue says sugar, sends a message to the brain to tell the pancreas to release some insulin - get the sugar out of the blood because more in on the way. The pancreas releases insulin in response tot he sweet taste. It doesn't wait until the stuff gets form your stomach and into your intestines - you know how quick a sugar rush can be. Watch the kids on coke and cake at a party!!

So, the insuling runs through the blood, shepherding the sugar in the cells so that when the new sugar comes through, your body won't suffer sugar overload.....except no sugar comes through. Artificial Sweetner comes through but we have no enzyme to unlock this chemical so it passes out of the body.

Meanwhile, you have no sugar in your blood and your sugar level starts to fall......and suddenly the body is sending messages to the brain to start telling you to eat something with real sugar.......

And you do. The number of people I see with diet coke and then going to buy a mars bar!!!

If you eat more diet product, the cycle gets worse. Which is why people often end up eating more calories in diet food than they would if they ate the real deal.

It is pure logic. This is how your body works. Your brain can't tell sweet sugar from sweet artificial ad this is the same for stevia or xylitol or any of the others.

I worked this out 20 years ago when I studied anatomy as a Radiographer for the first time. It was like a light going on in my brain. I thought that if that is how digestion works, then logically the artificial sweetners must have an impact of sugar levles. Recently I heard on ABC radio a small newsclip about investigations into artificial sweetners upsetting sugar levels and that there was a rethink about whether diabetics should cut back on their consumption.

[Kitt3n]

I have known about thsi for years and avoid anything with aspartame with a passion.

if it was safe, why would it be banned in the EU from child - specific products?

No offence Cailin, but i dont think it has been 'debunked" i really do think there is more info out there regarding the ill effects of such a terrible product.

Aspartame (NutraSweet) Formaldehyde Poisoning, Health Destruction, and Lawsuits

ASPARTAME Is Manufactured By Monsanto Using Genetically Modified Bacteria ? Genetically Modified Foods, The Silent Killer

Aspartame - the silent killer

[Bathsheba]

Great post Tracey, I've heard similar but didn't have it clear enough in my mind to explain it in here! There ain't no fooling Mother Nature. Drop the fake stuff people.

[sangie]

I totally agree Tracey! I am in research and for my own personal interest I have done a lot of research into artifical sweeteners. Safe to say that we avoid it in this household. Of course, as some have mentioned, the occasional treat is fine but I worry about those people who drink 'diet' drinks all day thinking that this is better for them?

[*charmalea*]

i avoid fake foods too ... except for the odd choccy , but i rarely eat packet foods and when im shopping i always check the preserviteves and additves and avoid any that i dont know .... 90% of the time my diet is great .. i have soft drink about once a month if that ...

i agree , you dont have to go so far are growing your own veges and raising cows to get meat , just eat healthy and aviod fast foods , you will feel sooo much better for it

[Bathsheba]

Choccy doesn't have to be fake If you eat the real stuff, preferably dark, not milk, then it can be good for you in small amounts. The real stuff is often expensive, but worth it. The thing with eating the real stuff is that there is more of the naturally occuring chemical that makes us want it... but less fat and sugar. My favourite diet book (that is really an anti-diet book) "Why French Women Don't Get Fat" recommends a piece of real chocolate a day! It is a very "pro" no fake food book!

[LimeSlice]

I recently read a National Geographic (will have to dig it up to find the edition) where one of their journalists paid to have a chemical test done on his body (to test for these cost US$15k) and found that the levels of certain chemicals in his body was incredible high, even for someone who had been exposed in an industrial situation (which he hasn't) they affect the brain, fertility, everything!
There was evidence he had found regarding a 2 yo girl who had so much lead in her system it looks like confetti in her intestines on the x-ray - she is TWO. This is not uncommon apparently.

But then the thing that really scares me is that of the tens of thousands of chemicals released upon the public every year in the US, they only have to be tested for side effects if they are already known to have harmful side effects (no that is not a typo) To prove they are bad, they have to know they are bad already! Hello?!?!
This includes things that go into foods.

Companies recently have been using the "no artifical preservatives" meaning the preservatives we use are natural...Well so is crude oil, doesn't mean I want to eat it.

My favourite example of well meaning people producing products for human consumption is the development and release of the first contraceptive pill...It was supposed to be wonderful, thousands of women took it, and then a year or so down the track, massive consequences including many deaths resulted -- oh, ooops!
They are now having anecdotal evidence of similar problems with the Cervical cancer "vaccine" - something which has now become a standard immunisation for adolescent girls - with less than 10 years of testing.

I just find it scary that governments, companies, medical professionals and the general public continue to accept these chemicals in their food, carpets, toys, immunisations, medications, paints, cleaning products ... without ever thinking that the people that produce these things aren't always testing them, or for that matter, really care to test them.

ETA: Cailin - im not sure exactly how the link you posted does anything but reinforce the point of my argument? Any for someone who has lived with the affects of progressive MS every day of my life, I can tell you that anyone who is diagnosed with the disease looks VERY seriously and vigorously into anything and everything that is could alternatively be...and diet is the first thing they look at in terms of treatments. If you have MS syptoms a year after being diagnosed with MS, then you have MS.
Oh, and the report I posted actually says "MS like symptoms" not MS itself.