I believe you.
Hippies’ postings are generally far more lucid.
:eek: <spits mouthful of Diet Coke all over computer>:eek:
Why am I just hearing this truth now?!?! Thank you…freak of the non-hippie sort.
Early in the week, sure.
I think it’s horseshit. No, wait, horseshit can actually become useful when allowed to age in a compost heap. This, however, does even have that redeeming feature.
No, it’s not.
The main breakdown products of aspartame are as follows:
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Aspartic acid - one of the most common amino acids in the human diet. If you drank 20 cans of diet soda a day the aspartic acid from the aspartame in the soda might be about 1-2% of what you take in daily from normal foods. And by that I mean fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, meat, etc. It’s not an additive, it’s a substance naturally found pretty much in everything we eat.
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Methanol - fresh fruit and fruit juices contain more methanol than aspartame containing sodas do. It’s found in trace amounts in just about every fermented food, not just booze but also things like soy sauce and kimchi and so on. Methanol breaks down in the body to form…
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Formaldehyde and formic acid - which, by the way, are perfectly normal metabolites of all those other methanol containing foods we eat, like fresh organic oranges and grapes and plums and durians and all the rest. And, again, the amount derived from aspartame containing sodas is miniscule compared to what is normally generated from the human diet, and which your body normally produces as a product of normal metabolism, and all of together is well within the capability of your body to eventually detoxify it and excrete it.
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Phenylalanine - this is the only one likely to cause anyone on the planet a problem, and that’s a well defined subset of humanity suffering from “phenylketonuria”, a genetic disease usually found at or shortly after birth these days by simple blood test. If it’s not found the person regrettably grows up mentally retarded and unusually pale and they smell funny. This is not because of aspartame but because phenylalanine is a dirt-common amino acid in the diet and is present in meat, milk, fruit, legumes, nuts, eggs and probably a bunch of other stuff. Sufferers are on highly restricted diets and every food or beverage containing aspartame has a warning label directed at these people to enable them to avoid this amino acid. If you don’t have the genetic disease - and assuming you’re old enough to be on this message board you’d know it by now if you did - it’s not a problem.
In other words, everything that sounds scary about aspartame is really stuff that’s been in the human diet (or the breakdown products of digestion) for millions of years. In fact, without any phenylalanine at all you’d die because it’s an essential amino acid. You need it.
Fact is, aspartame is just two amino acids that appear everywhere in our diet anyway, they’re just combined together in aspartame. Saying aspartame is dangerous is like saying it’s dangerous to combine, say, green beans and carrots in the same cassarole because [insert woo-woo] even though it’s totally OK to eat them in separate meals or in separately courses in the same meal or even separately prepared dishes… just don’t cook them together! Because that will cause lyme disease, post-polio, chronic fatigue, blindness, lupus…
I think her first line was referring to dihydrogen monoxide in a jocular manner and because her ellipsis lacked a concluding period I hoped the rest of her post would continue in a whooshish vein, but it may be a forlorn hope.
Speaking of one of the most egregious pollutants ever foisted upon unsuspecting Americans…
How’s that compare to Canfield’s?
What she means is Old Testament, Ms. Hippie, real wrath of God type stuff.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
I think they left out the most important side effect of all of this and all other artificial sweeteners I have tried: They taste nasty (or at least have a nasty aftertaste).
That side effect very effectively prevents me from experiencing any of the other side effects.
For me, aspartame tastes less nasty than the alternatives, so that’s what I use.
I have to admit that I haven’t really done any controlled experiment of which artificial sweeteners are least objectionable. Part of the problem is that I think that I only have a single brain cell dedicated to them so “Splenda”, “aspertame”, and whatever else there is out there just all blur together for me. I’ve just tried to avoid them all, and then when I have occasionally accidently have one, I never remember which it is. I just look at the ingredient list and say, “Oh, it has an artificial sweetener in it. That’s why I have this horrible taste in my mouth!”
That would explain the color coding of the packets of sweetener… I just use the blue stuff.
Why are a few of you so mean? I thought someone was asking what i THOUGHT about a food additive, namely Aspartame. I gave my opinion. I did not realize that i was going to be Drawn and Quartered for doing so. I do not believe i insulted or made fun of anybody.
I’m new to this whole internet thing, to forums and message boards and the like. I don’t understand many popular culture references. I do not understand the many abbreviations used. I only recently discovered what a ‘honey boo-boo’ is. I’m learning. This does not make me a bad person, in my opinion, but i am, indeed, completely out of my depth.
Some very kind folks here have suggested i make some changes to my writing style and have offered advice and technical assistance; i’ve taken note. And i am grateful. I Thanked them. I simply do not know what i do not know~ does this automatically make me prey?
Why would you be nasty to someone who is not nasty to you? Is this what happens online? It seems rather harsh to me, like the cool kids at school making the new kid feel really, really unwelcome and out of place. I do not think that is how the world should be.
I’m awkward in this medium, undeniably. But i am kind to children and animals, i do contribute to society. If i may ask, in all sincerity, why was my post so loathsome as to elicit ridicule? I did not know that stating an opinion would require that i back it up with research ~ i’ve learned. I’m now aware that this is a debate, not a friendly “What do you think?”
It apparently is not considered socially correct {online} to provide an opinion without providing proof of one’s beliefs.
I do know which fork to use, how to dress, and how to make guests feel comfortable when they’re in my home. I believe that i’ve been at least somewhat helpful to a couple of individuals who had questions that i could contribute an answer to. I clearly do not ‘grok’ this internet culture, however. I simply cannot understand why people would make fun of a person who they do not know, and who does not give any indication that they mean harm to others or are intending others to feel ashamed and maligned.
Yes, i was being ‘jocular’ about the water thing. I now know to pay attention to my ‘ellipses’. And Thank You VERY MUCH to you who’ve gone out of your way to be gracious and thoughtful. I appreciate it more than you know.
Stupid opinions get vicious responses. The way to avoid this is to fact check one’s opinions before giving it.
Because “opinions” don’t equal “facts”.
I’m truly baffled. I’m not trying to be argumentative AT ALL. Please help me suss this out, if you’re inclined. Once i understand, i’ll understand, and drop it. From my limited and often pedestrian perspective, an ‘opinion’ is what’s solicited when one asks, “What do you think about…”
As in, “What do you think about my putting a white sofa and seagrass rug in this room?”
Or, “What do you think about M-Theory?”
I can have an opinion. I cannot prove that my opinion is based on Anything. Heck, i can’t prove, beyond the Cartesian sense, that i’m even alive. Maybe a biologist could, but i can’t. I can’t prove that i’m not existing in a sophisticated simulation. I can’t prove that there is such a thing as the cosmological constant; nor can i determine if the Earth is elliptical, ellipsoid, or spherical. I’ve never seen the Earth from outer space, but i do believe that the photos i’ve seen are accurate. I cannot prove as much. I have to base my opinions on others’ research, or someone’s interpretation or explanation of someone else’s research. And with all there is to Know on this supposed planet called Earth, i simply do not have time to delve into the nitty gritty of such things. I have to, at some point, take a Leap of Faith.
If posed the question, “What is your position on Vermont Yankee?” then , if i chose to answer, i’d better be prepared to back up my position with facts as to why i’d adopted this stance or that one.
A position, or stance, in my benighted Take On The Matter, is very different from an opinion. I could be wrong, i admit this freely and unabashedly. Definitions do Drift.
In my last encounter with Real People in Real Time, an opinion was more about, “Do you think it’s going to rain?” than, “ If you think it’s going to rain, can you prove it? “
In other words, “What do you think?” was an invitation to participate in a friendly conversation.
There are several things going on here.
First, there is a lot of incorrect information posing as authoritative medical advice. Some of this stuff comes up again and again. Some of us have genuine concern that it may cause harm to others either through giving bad advice or delaying people from getting real medical assistance with real problems so we tend to react strongly to it. I try to keep it factual when contradicting a fellow poster on this board, I’m not always sure I succeed.
Second, when you post something you may be asked to defend your position. You can defuse some of the hostility by prefacing an opinion with “It’s my opinion that…” which makes it clear that it’s your opinion and not, say, the product of extensive scientific research. Other useful phrases for after the fact are things such as “Admittedly I haven’t given it much thought”, “Let’s agree to disagree”, and “You’ve given me much to think about, until I digest it I’m bowing out of the debate”.
It can get rough out on the internet.
If I may add… You say you only posted your opinion, but you framed it as though you were stating facts:
“It’s seriously one of the most egregious pollutants ever foisted upon unsuspecting Americans…” sounds like a factual claim
“Sure, different genes mean different people… but it’s not worth testing . it’s Poison…” again, sounds like a statement of fact.
And this is a question where facts can be had - there is a real world out there - and if artificial sweeteners are killing people, we should be able to measure that by counting bodies. It’s possible to have an opinion on something, and just be wrong.
Then it would be appropriate to indicate that, rather than baldly stating that aspartame = poison.
You could say that it doesn’t agree with you personally, that you don’t like the taste, that you have questions about a particular claim as to its alleged toxicity, and you’ll find the tone of responses more agreeable. A lot of posters have heard all the gobbledygook about aspartame many times before from people who are determined to be ignorant on the subject, which explains why rebuttals of these claims tend to be curt.
This is the Great Debates forum. In this forum you are expected to post arguments and back them up with citations and logic. Other forums on this message board, such as In My Humble Opinion, are better suited for posting opinions without citations. We take the forum definitions pretty seriously here.