In our office the bosses have been gracious enough to provide the employees with access to really, really cheap name-brand frosty cola beverages. Now, ever since the Summer started, I’ve taken a “liking” (read: ADDICTION) to Diet Pepsi. Caffeine-free, regular; doesn’t matter. I used to drink seven or eight cans of regular, non-Diet during a sitting while watching Mexican League Soccer on Galavisión on a Saturday. Now, I drink the Diet stuff instead.
So, back to the office. Here I am, minding my own, drinking a can of Diet Pepsi, when one of my co-workers (drinking non-Diet) makes the remark, “Diet? Eew. You shouldn’t drink that stuff. It causes brain damage.” Brain damage. That’s what she said.
Never in my life have I ever heard something like this. Sure, the sugar rots your teeth (but that’s the point of drinking Diet, right?). Sure, the caffeine can screw up your body temperature. Sure, the Aspartame and Phenylalanine border on heroine. Hell, the stuff may even cause cancer!
But… brain damage? What’s up with that? Help me out here. Thanks.
Yes, it’s true… if you drink Diet Pepsi, you must have brain damage.
What? Oh… Sorry…
I think that what your co-worker was thinking of is that studies have shown that phenylalanine has inhibited brain development in the unborn. I’ve never heard of it destroying working parts of the brain.
[soapbox] That being said… 7 drinks? Your poor: liver, kidneys, stomach, teeth, <insert other body parts here>. Remember that everything is a poison. It’s the dose that matters. [/soapbox]
Well living in New Jersey, I think, has made my immune system super resistant to all toxins up to and including severe gamma ray radiation.
But in my defense, it’s Mexican League Soccer. I mean, c’mon! All those teams are sponsored by either Corona, Coca-Cola, or the Mexican National Telephone Company. And, as everyone knows, the beverages that telephone companies produce aren’t frosty or cola-related! I blame the government for allowing them to advertise in such a fashion.
I had heard that aspartame leads to the development of brain tumors, not necessarily cancerous, but a brain tumor is still not a nice thing. I don’t have any way to back this up, but I will look into it. Also, I heard another problem with aspartame is that it may screw with your vision somehow.
I too partake of the Nectar of the Gods (ie Diet Pepsi) and am in fact enjoying one these refreshing beverages as I type. Aspertame is considered safe to date and nothing other than the overactive imaginations of the chemical=bad crowd can cast aspersions on this wonderful chemical.
In fact I have had to wrestle the little blue packets out of various food retailers because they are expensive relative to Sweet & Low and people steal them.
Actual Conversation:
Me: Do you have any Equal?
Clerkboy: As in “have” on premises?
Me: Well yes… I need to sweeten my coffee.
Clerkboy: Ummmm…what’s wrong with the Sweet & Low in the
basket?
Me: I don’t WANT Sweet & Low. It has an unpleasant after taste. Now what about that equal?
Clerkboy: Well OK (reaches behind counter) and extracts a single packet. We have to be careful. People walk out with handfuls.
Funny that I see this today. I was just talking to my dad who recently quit drinking diet pepsi because for some reason the aspartame affects him negatively. Anger adn stuff(allergy or something). He said about a week after he quit, his memory got better, his head was clearer, and he felt better all the way around. Then yesterday he drank a diet soda and he said immediately, he felt retarded. He couldn’t think, couldn’t remember simple things, and just felt BAD.
I don’t like diet anyway, so I’m not worried about it.
Some folks prefer Equal ™ to Sweet’n’Low ™ because it tastes more like sugar. I daresay it does; after all, Equal ™ contains sugar. It says so on the label.
I’ve never seen an artificial sweetener where the first ingredient wasn’t a sugar… Usually dextrose. This is because most artificial sweeteners are actually much sweeter than sugar, and if they just gave you an amount of aspartame or saccharine equivalent to a teaspoon of sugar, you wouldn’t be able to find it in the package. Instead, they give you a half-teaspoon of sugar, and an amount of saccharine equivalent to another half-teaspoon, thoroughly mixed together, so you can actually see something pouring into your coffee. More ingredients fun with sweeteners: If you look at the last ingredient, it’s usually sodium aluminosilicate, or silicon dioxide, or calcium silicate, or some other silicon compound. The common name would be sand.
Can’t remember if it’s aspartame or nutrasweet, but I’ve heard of a study which concluded artificial sweetner + pork prouct (ham, bacon, etc.) = brain cancer.
