Monsanto mass murder conspiracy, or not, Aspartame, and a host of other artificial sweeteners are certainly not what they are advertised to be. Weight loss is not correlatable with use of artificial sweeteners, in humans, or in animals, in any rigorous examination of the effects of these products.
An easy test to examine, to support this argument would be to take the population of the United States, and the total use of artificial sweeteners versus the average weight of individuals. Since the first large increase in their use by the public at large, it is not true that Americans have lost weight on the average. Quite the opposite is true. If you add artificial sweeteners to animal feed, and make no other changes, cattle generally show an increase in weight, as well.
Diet drinks? In the sense that anything you eat or drink is a part of your diet, yes.
The Raven is probably right. I will let others deal with the obvious pattern that will no doubt ensue:
1.Accusatory question based on “I heard somewhere that…”
2.People responding, both pro and con.
3.High praise for those that agree, ignoring those that don’t.
4.Other side trying to get him to at least respond to their side.
5.His insults of those with those with differing facts and opinions, and finally…
6.The oft repeated,“Prove it isn’t so!”
If you can stand these Rush Limbaugh-type tactics, fine, but for me…
*TTFN!{/i]
In other, less excusing words, you followed him around the message board waiting for a moment where you could insult him.
I should have expected that you’d sit around making excuses for your behavior rather than taking the high road. That Connie was banned for doing something which was allowed in another thread two weeks ago is not the issue here. The issue here is that you hijacked a thread IMMEDIATELY to start insulting the OP, something which is not appreciated by most of the people here who are actually making a legitimate attempt to “learn and have fun.”
Drain Bead, do you really believe that Connie is the poor innocent put-upon soul you are making him out to be? I am not stalking him; it’s been hard to avoid him lately in all his annoying guises! You know, if you must pick a guru to follow, try to pick someone who actually has good judgement and knowledge. Blind faith in a religion is one thing, blind faith in a person you have never met is a sign of weakness.
What the straight dope on this aspartame controversy? I’ve read the links both pro and con and I’m still not sure which side to believe. I’m sipping a generic diet cola with aspartame as I write this, so believe me when I say that I’m not predisposed to believe the con side. I wonder what the motivation is of the people that are going WAY out of their way to scare us away from aspartame? Are they digruntled shareholders in a sugar plantation? Of all the thousands of food additives out there, why pick on aspartame? Is it an alphabetic kinda thing? Start with food additives beginning in “a” and work their way through the alphabet? What motivation do the anti-aspartame people (including doctors) have? Is it just a coincidence that: “…a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner)” ???
I used to get into arguments with Connie all the time, you know. We really got into it in that Prayer at Graduation thread long ago. The key words there were “long ago.” I managed to let bygones be bygones, and found out that he’s really a decent fellow when you get to know him.
If you find him so hard to avoid, don’t read his threads. There, you’ve avoided him. Was that so difficult? Sure, I know it’s not as fun as insulting him all the time, but wouldn’t it cause many less problems?
As for my “blind allegiance,” the only reason I’m even involved in this is because I think he got screwed due to a miscommunication between moderators paired with fuzzy rules. I tried to point this out, but all had already been said and done. I doubt anyone will even admit that mistakes were made, but at least I managed to show them that they weren’t completely right to dismiss him. I hope.
Well, that, and I realize somehow that if I’d done the exact thing that Connie had done, I’d still be here. I wouldn’t have been trolling or spamming. If I’d done it, it would have been an honest mistake.
And I wonder when I sing along with you, if everything could ever feel this real forever,
If anything could ever be this good again.
–Foo Fighters
Aspartame is a harmless sweetener.
Saccharin is a harmless sweetener.
Cyclamate is a harmless sweetener.
The tests used to “prove” these chemicals were “toxic” or “carcinogenic” were absurd. The same tests would show ANY chemical to be a mrudering carcinogen, including distilled water.
Don’t worry, slythe. If Connie/Mart #3/ Cheif whatever decides to act like a jerk, we can handle him. And if he just wants to debate, even better. There’s better things to do than stalk someone’s posts.
Anyway, its fun arguing with someone who has MPD…especially if they do not all agree. But his are just clones. Pity.
Anyway, I agree with Drain Bead. I hate it when a thread gets hijacked to Cuba before it even left the airport.
For those interested, here is a lenghty point-by-point rebuttal concerning statements made about the safety of Aspartame consumption: http://www.sightings.com/health3/badnews.htm
I’m not a medical person so some of this goes over my head, but on the surface, the author seems to make some good points that challenge the conclusions of previous industry-related studies…
I just read through the site. I do have a small problem with the fact that 1)The author is Mark Gold of the Mark Gold Aspartame Toxicity Information Center, which doesn’t quite smack of impartial and unbiased research in my book, 2)The website, with the Bigfoot-U.F.O.-C.I.A border, is run by Art Bell wannabe Jeff Rense, and 3)Tons of good scientific references, most of which are refered to in the article as withholders of the “truth”, or just wrong.
Small question-why did you reference this site when there are so many good and impartial aspartame studies out there?
Actually, the jury is still out on at least one claim of the aspartame vilifiers.
Many nutritionists and some doc’s are beginning to believe the assertion that aspartame makes people crave carbohydrates, and may cause paople to eat more unintended calories than the “regular” soft drink would provide.
I personally think that the “toxic” claims are unfounded, but even this Diet Coke addict has cut down on her usage & is actually contemplating life without Diet Coke ::shudder::
A credible mechanism for this effect of aspartame exists - it’s dipeptide structure is similar to that of many neurotransmitters.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
I guess it was too much to expect someone to help me out with un-biased interpretation of the medical/scientific rebuttal points of the link I posted. It was rather long and specific though. I’m disapointed with “attack the source” tactic…
The author at the link I provided takes on the Aspartame industry stance that always comes up when refering to methonal and the conversion of methanol into the highly-toxic chemical, formaldehyde.
The industry folks have always countered that “Hey, no different than consuming fruit juice or a can of beer”. Mark Gold counters that there is a difference…the difference being that alcoholic beverages have a protective factor “ethanol” that prevents the conversion of absorbed methanol to formaldehyde, and fruits have an unknown, but recognized protective factor that also prevents the conversion of absorbed methanol to formaldehyde.
Gold points out that Aspartame has none of these protective factors, and in fact, excitotoxin released from aspartame, free-form aspartic acid, is known to increase the adverse effects of formaldehyde toxicity.
What say you SD’ers? True, false, or none of the above?
I didn’t attack you, Krispy. I merely pointed out the problems using a very biased researcher posting on a very unscientific web site. If you can ignore problems such as these when doing research, more power to you.
Even assuming that aspartame is safe – and goddess knows I hope so, as I’ve consumed enough of it in my life – what Sue has to say about the possibility that it actually may cause a carbo craving or increase in appetite is disturbing. Sue is not the first medical person to tell me that, either.
I think my New Year’s resolution is gonna be to give up aspartame for three months to see if it makes any difference. Can’t hurt, might help.
Melin, I think that you should consider the relative safety of aspartame compared to the other choices. Sugar is relatively safe, but entirely suited to your needs if you are trying to lose weight. Cyclamates were dropped from most of the market years ago due to a premature release of a scientific study, but can still be found in some sodas. You need to find out which sugar substitutes are the safest(no food is entirely safe!), and use it in moderation.
You misunderstood me. I wasn’t accusing you of attacking me, but rather the source of information that I was using.
If you would have addressed the points that the source made I could have respected that, but your post didn’t even go there…you simply attacked the source out of hand.
I invite you (and anyone else for that matter) to address any or all points that Mark Gold makes concerning the safety of Aspartame. I’m not here to defend Mark, but to try to get to the truth.
JillGat,
Thanks for the link, but I’ve read it already and I’d point out that it was published in 1996… Cecil seemed to me to have some lingering doubts about Aspartame and he did briefly address the methanol issue, however I wonder if maybe it is time to take another look, especially if the points that Mr. Gold has made are scientifically valid…