This is just another proof that Jim Morrison was right. No one gets out of this alive. (paraphrased, I don’t remember the exact phrase, so don’t yell at me)
Dammit! I was almost through this thread and practically giddy because no one had done this yet. Oh well, your’s was much better than mine would have been.
You might have been thinking of aspartame.
Re: sodium vs. potassium benzoate, It probably wouldn’t make any difference to use one or the other. If you take a look at the structure, both are organic salts with benzoate as the anion. Sodium and potassium are physiologically ubiquitous, and salts of both have very similar solubility properties. For example, NaCl and KCl dissolve very easily in water, and both are safe to ingest orally. In short, the benzoate ion is the key player here.
At any rate, I’m not particularly informed as to the exact mechanism of how it might be converted to benzene, nor am I confident enough to say whether it’s physiologically plausible. I can say that the blurb in that Wikipedia article about specifically damaging mitochondrial DNA is a half-truth at best. If it could damage DNA in the mitochondria, it could just as easily damage the DNA in a cell’s nucleus, and that’s more likely to cause cancer. And that’s also assuming that the research on the benzoate ion is sound, which, again, I’m not prepared to address specifically.
However, it’s often the case that a chemical with anti-microbial properties kills bugs by screwing with pathways that are similar to those in larger organisms like us. It’s like that because, for example, the molecular machinery involved in metabolizing such substances is just different enough that the toxins are a better fit for receptors and such in a bacteria than they would be for similar molecules in the cells of a human. And, as others have mentioned, the levels required to kill a single-celled, less complex organism are a lot lower than you’d need to hurt a shaven chimpanzee that walks upright.
Those are my $0.02. I’m not a doctor, but I have a masters degree in this kind of thing, so I assure you it’s not a WAG.
According to the article, the benzoate anion resulted in an increase in oxygen radicals. Ironically, this may be the very reason they put benzoates in as preservatives. When compounds decompose, especially as a result of oxygen, they often produce radicals.
Radicals are bad news. They are very reactive. The products of their reactions are usualy more radicals that go on to do more damage. It’s a chain reaction. The only thing that stops this chain is another radical. The bezoate radical is quite stable. It sort of acts as a radical sink. This preventa other radicals from doing damage by making a very persistant stable radical.
More than you want to know:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/cicads/cicads/cicad26.htm
Peter Piper predicts Pepsi preservative produces Parkinson’s.
So, exactly what in diet soda ‘needs’ preserving to begin with? Other than losing bubbles, what can go ‘stale’ or ‘bad’ ?
Um, so will everything you don’t enjoy…eventually.
<pops top of Diet Coke>
All I can say here is anecdotal. One time I bought a case of diet coke. I didn’t drink it for a year. When I opened a can, all the sweetener was gone. It was gross. So I’d guess that the sweetener is not stable.
For one, bugs are pretty much everywhere and can get in anywhere. In fact, I’m sure that at least some persistent and/or lucky little bastards can survive the sterilization procedures they use to “clean” interplanetary probes like Huygens, Spirit, and Opportunity. Something I came to appreciate while working in a genetics lab is that it might be a good idea to approach biology from the perspective of “how much” or “how little” rather than yes-or-no. Take a solution rich in sugar and various useful ions like you find in soda and I guarantee you there’s a prokaryote or two that would relish the opportunity to live in it. This isn’t a matter of germophobia, just one of understanding that part of the reason why consumables go bad is because something is always busy metabolizing them.
Then there’s the issue of free radicals and the UV photons that help create them that, with time and patience will break chemical bonds and make tasty compounds not so palatable, but preservatives can’t really do much about that where pop is concerned.
Diet Pepsi has Potassium Benzoate as well.
I’m sorry if I’m missing something here…but what’s the risk from eating burnt food? I’ve never heard of this.
Interestingly, benzoate has been used as a drug for treating nonketotic hyperglycinemia..
I also found an Egyptian paper suggesting that high doses of benzoate may be toxic to the livers of rats, which was mainly interesting in that the researchers referred to rat offspring as “pups” (I had thought they were called “squabs” or simply, “vermin”).
As a practical suggestion, the thing to do in light of the new study* is to keep on drinking diet soda, while doubling one’s intake of coffee (coffee has been cited for its possible effect in preventing Parkinson’s).
The other advantage to doing this is you will only need two hours sleep a night, though your typichgng mnghtend up049 glook8bng thlike HTiehiehis.
*other than wait for another study refuting the hypothesis.