Man of Honour
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I'm saying that you can't take it into account if you are running the experiment yourself.
Diet drinks
- Thread starter AyJay
- Start date
I'm saying that you can't take it into account if you are running the experiment yourself.
Associate
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too ture....I'm sick of the advertising for Coke Zero, the stuff tastes like crap.
Diet Coke is also Gash.
I like Coca Cola but can't even drink half a can due to the sugar content (I sometimes buy the mini tins if I'm in the mood for a hit)
Plus, does anyone else think that coke tastes horrible out of a 500ml bottle compared to a tin?
You can take account of the fact that you may not be able to take account and get a 3rd party to review your findings :S you can however blind test yourself against placebo too tho its not that difficult.
Caporegime
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It took you 3 years to experiment that one substance causes it? The question would be, what did you take with the aspartme, and once you'd crossed off everything else you thought it might be, and concluded there was one option left, well, at that point as others have mentioned, the placebo effect can be impossible to ignore.
Either way, just because you react to aspartme, doesn't mean its bad for you. Some people are allergic to lactose, while the rest of the world is stronger using products with it in. SOme people are allergic to certain proteins, obviously this is not the case for most people and doesn't mean the specific proteins are bad.
It REALLY gets on my goat when one person, or even a decent sized group of people(that compared to the population is still indescribably small) have a problem with something and insist on telling everyone how it will kill them too.
Some people are unable to metabolise fat well and have to eat a carb heavy diet, most people will be much healthier on a lower carb diet, your brain is made of fat, a group of people not doing great with fat doesn't mean fat is bad for you.
Your logic that aspartme must be awful for everyone, because you don't get on with it, is simply flawed. We're all different, all of us, and its very likely that for almost any substance out there in the universe, there will be a few dozen people allergic to it while its fine for everyone else.
Even worse than that is the people who run around saying things are bad "because its a chemical".
We've even had that in this thread, aspartme's worse for you because its a chemical, and what is sugar exactly? People get all up in arms about manufactured chemicals, rather than natural chemicals or substances, which is mostly utter madness. Especially as most artificial things, well lots and lots of them, are often artificially reproduceable chemicals of substances found from natural sources.
Its unbelievable the amount of people who will happily take anything branded as natural, while shunning anything man made insisting it to be deadly.
Anyway, corn syrup or other really crap quality sugars they dump in the non diet versions are normally horribly bad quality cards, incredibly refined and are indeed bad for you. Crap highly refined carbs do more damage to the body than most small quantitys of chemicals. The body can filter out chemicals very well, its built to metabolise carbs and will only metabolise highly refined ones very quickly, the reaction of your body to high levels of sugar is far more dramatic, and long term, not healthy at all.
But they don't taste the same, more power to people who want to drink whatever the hell they like. Everything in moderation frankly, diet coke tastes better than normal coke, which leaves a "my teeth are melting" feel in my mouth long after I've stopped drinking, the nasty feeling they've reintroduced with Coke Zero, I assume by adding some chemical that acts to strip you tooth enamel.
I didn't know what was causing it - but noticed patterns emerging of when it was worse, not so bad or I felt fine.
It took awhile to narrow it down because as I found out it can take a couple of months for the symptoms to start noticeably showing or to go away. I had never even heard of aspartame it was only when I finally narrowed it down to a group of products I found it was one of the few common ingredients. I didn't just decide it was that until I'd done more testing however.
Funny you should say about allergy to proteins I'm allergic to the ones in eggs.
How I came up with aspartame is bad for you isn't simply based on my own personal experiences but digging into the composition and the reactions, etc. in the body coupled with my own experience - as I said it affects some people worse than others, and apparently some people not at all - tho lacking any scientific evidence (either way) from what I've read it looks reasonable to link it in some cases to cancer and exacerbating already prevailing conditions.
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You do realise for a lot of allergies and intolerences your Doctor/nurse will get you to analyse what you eat and keep a diary of your symptoms and eating habits? I did a similar thing for my intolerence, maybe my issue and "cure" was just a placebo effect as well?
In essence what he did is pretty standard practice and if he went to a doctor they would have told him to do exactly what he did (maybe he even did).
Unfortunatly I'm all to familiar with it :S adverse reaction to artifical colors in food and allergy to certain proteins.
Associate
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I don't mind any diet/non diet versions of coke/pepsi... they all taste similar (to me) although there are slight differences, but I hardly notice unless if I especially look for them. As for the health side, it is pretty much undeniable that loads of sugar will increase the chance of diabetes and being fat, and being fat and diabetes are both likely to make you die sooner. However, there is very little proper evidence that aspartame/e numbers are dangerous - especially in the tiny amounts we consume. There is a reason e numbers are e numbers - they are considered safe for consumption.
I think the industry turns a blind eye personally due to the low number of documented cases of people with serious reactions... I don't expect a lot of people would even associate say bouts of depression or regular headaches and specific chemicals in their diet.
Their is no doubt however even based on ancedotal evidence theres a strong link that artifical colors, sweetners, etc. do cause adverse reactions in (some) people...
As to whether they cause damage to a varying degree to the wider population theres very little hard scientific evidence but if you look at the way some of these chemicals break down in the body theres very strong reason to believe the potential is there.
TBH the fact that anything with Phenelonine (sp!) has to be labelled as such shows in my mind there must be something wrong with it! Having said that I don't really care what is in my food, I don't eat/drink copius amounts of the same thing and have a varied and reasonably healthy diet so...
Associate
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But is it good to scaremonger the public saying that artificial sweeteners and colours are bad, maybe leading to more people consuming the full sugar equivalents, and rises in obesity?
When I was young, my Mum read a scaremongering article about artificial sweeteners being really bad for health, and tried to cut them out of our diets. This lasted about a year before we got fed up and went back to artificial sweeteners. I felt no more depressed or fatigued when I had artificial sweeteners as when I didn't. Frankly, it made no difference - It just meant I couldn't have all the food I wanted.
I am far from overweight, but if I look at the nutritional information on something, I am far more concerned about the sugar content than the artificial sweeteners in it.
Excessive sugar IS bad for your health... artificial sweeteners might be... I know which choice I'd make
(ok a bit of generalisation but you get the picture)
When I was young, my Mum read a scaremongering article about artificial sweeteners being really bad for health, and tried to cut them out of our diets. This lasted about a year before we got fed up and went back to artificial sweeteners. I felt no more depressed or fatigued when I had artificial sweeteners as when I didn't. Frankly, it made no difference - It just meant I couldn't have all the food I wanted.
I am far from overweight, but if I look at the nutritional information on something, I am far more concerned about the sugar content than the artificial sweeteners in it.
Excessive sugar IS bad for your health... artificial sweeteners might be... I know which choice I'd make
(ok a bit of generalisation but you get the picture)
Diet Coke is filth.
The only 'sugar free' drink on the market that tastes 'good' is Pepsi Max.
Everyone should know what none of the soft drinks we drink are particularly good for us. The only reason to drink any of them is taste, that is why they exist and that is their single biggest selling point (aside from branding, but most intelligent people aren't swayed by branding as much as taste).
Sugar free soft drinks make a lot of naive people feel less guilty about consuming (or excessively consuming) them.
If sugar free soft drinks and sugar free concentrated juice drinks take over the manufacturers will simply see less sales from me, because sugar free is inferior on taste. I find it difficult to understand how anyone can prefer the taste of Diet Coke over Coke, or Sugar Free Ribena over normal Ribena.
If you blind taste tested a large sample of consumers I would be very surprised if the results didn't come out in overwhelming favour towards the original products.
The only 'sugar free' drink on the market that tastes 'good' is Pepsi Max.
Everyone should know what none of the soft drinks we drink are particularly good for us. The only reason to drink any of them is taste, that is why they exist and that is their single biggest selling point (aside from branding, but most intelligent people aren't swayed by branding as much as taste).
Sugar free soft drinks make a lot of naive people feel less guilty about consuming (or excessively consuming) them.
If sugar free soft drinks and sugar free concentrated juice drinks take over the manufacturers will simply see less sales from me, because sugar free is inferior on taste. I find it difficult to understand how anyone can prefer the taste of Diet Coke over Coke, or Sugar Free Ribena over normal Ribena.
If you blind taste tested a large sample of consumers I would be very surprised if the results didn't come out in overwhelming favour towards the original products.
Soldato
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Can't be bothered looking up the specifics at the mo, but it's notified due to the fact that people with certain pre-existing conditions can have an adverse reaction to it.
Really no different to "This product contains nuts". Doesn't mean everyone should steer clear of nuts.
I don't drink that much fizzy.
For some reason I'm currently into squash with bottled sparkling water - love the combination.
Anyway, I simply cannot drink full fat fizzy any more.
I stopped a while ago when I was losing weight (as much as Coke was nice, I'm afraid I can find better places to get a third of my daily sugars from).
I drink Coke Zero - love it, Sprite Zero, equally impressed.
Diet Mountain Dew when I'm feeling rich enough to get some.
Diet Lemonade, Fanta Zero.
Now I wo't say they are exactly the same as the full fat in taste.
However they are all excellent and I know I'm not going to be putting any weight on because of them.
For some reason I'm currently into squash with bottled sparkling water - love the combination.
Anyway, I simply cannot drink full fat fizzy any more.
I stopped a while ago when I was losing weight (as much as Coke was nice, I'm afraid I can find better places to get a third of my daily sugars from).
I drink Coke Zero - love it, Sprite Zero, equally impressed.
Diet Mountain Dew when I'm feeling rich enough to get some.
Diet Lemonade, Fanta Zero.
Now I wo't say they are exactly the same as the full fat in taste.
However they are all excellent and I know I'm not going to be putting any weight on because of them.
The reason our family only have diet drinks.
Soldato
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Ah yes... how evil that phenylalanine is! Not. It's in breast milk ffs!
They label it for people with phenylketonuria - an inability to process it and the buildup can lead to mental retardation. Especially in the young.
my younger brother drinks 2L or more of diet coke per day. infact id say that apart from lager its the only fluid he will ever drink.
we try to tell him its bad but hes obviously addicted and also has the valid argument that he is never ill. ever. i honestly cant even remember the last time hes been even slightly ill
im sure i was once addicted to pepsi max too. even though it gives me mad headaches
we try to tell him its bad but hes obviously addicted and also has the valid argument that he is never ill. ever. i honestly cant even remember the last time hes been even slightly ill
im sure i was once addicted to pepsi max too. even though it gives me mad headaches