# Three Coke Zero's per day. Excessive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 18, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954 "2012-01-18T23:35:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/21 "2012-01-19T15:26:42Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > You find it odd that someone saying “X causes cancer” is met with people asking for evidence? > > Why would assuming that something causes cancer ever be the default? How did you possibly get that out what I wrote?:rolleyes: > [@Telemark](#): > > That’s not what is happening here. No one is dismissing concerns out-of-hand; people are just looking for a data-supported basis for that concern. First post of the thread: > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > The artificial sweetener is not a problem, and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, ask them to provide a reference to some reliable research (not something they “heard” or “read on the internet”). I have yet to see any research that supports any of the claims against either aspartame (unless you have phenylketonuria) or sucralose. Sounds exactly like the out-of-hand dismissal I find interesting. It’s not a problem unless an industry with strong disincentives to look closely and an agency that’s overtaxed and subject to politicization says otherwise. That doesn’t mean :eek: all artificial ingredients are bad :eek: It simply means that with that sort of premise the cite soapbox you’re standing on isn’t as sturdy as you think it is. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/22 "2012-01-19T15:31:42Z")
The incentive to not serve people mutagens in multi-billion dollar cash cow soda products is much, much greater than the incentive to use aspartame vs other sweetners/artificial sweeteners. Coke = Cancer is NOT a good marketing scheme. Having worked in an FDA regulated industry as a chemist, I feel rather comfortable telling you that the FDA is not nearly as corrupt as “some guy on the internet” says it is (then again, I’m just some gal on the internet…). A lot of this type of research happens in university and hospital research centres anyways - funding/research from cancer prevention institutes are very much interested in knowing what causes and what doesn’t cause cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/23 "2012-01-19T15:31:44Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > How did you possibly get that out what I wrote?:rolleyes: You found it odd that the default assumption was skepticism that something causes cancer. It might be reasonable to suspect that the alternative is to not be skeptical to claims that something causes cancer. I was asking clarification. Usually questions are indicated by a certain type of punctuation. See if you can find it in my post! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/24 "2012-01-19T15:32:42Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > …and having read your cite, the FDA recommended guideline for aspartame is 50mg/kg, and **200 mg/kg** causes damage to rats…again, that’s a much higher concentration than normal dosing. Those 200 mg/kg were consumed over a 10 day period, so 20 mg/kg/day appears to be unsafe. Still a high dose but lots of people consume that much every day. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/25 "2012-01-19T15:36:17Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Those 200 mg/kg were consumed over a 10 day period, so 20 mg/kg/day appears to be unsafe. Still a high dose but lots of people consume that much every day. No, that’s not what that cite says. The _chronic treatment_ with 200mg/kg over 10 days means that the dose was 200mg/kg on each of the ten days. But let’s go with 20mg/kg. For a 65kg adult, that’s 1300 mg of aspartame or 16 cans of Coke Zero a day. Closer to 3, but you still haven’t demonstrated that there’s a significant risk. This also assumes that rats and humans metabolize things exactly the same way (not a good assumption). ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/26 "2012-01-19T15:38:07Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > You found it odd that the default assumption was skepticism that something causes **cancer**. It might be reasonable to suspect that the alternative is to not be skeptical to claims that something causes **cancer**. I was asking clarification. Usually questions are indicated by a certain type of punctuation. See if you can find it in my post! > > :rolleyes: Reading comprehension fail. Can you find the word “cancer” in my post? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/27 "2012-01-19T15:43:52Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Reading comprehension fail. > > Can you find the word “cancer” in my post? Do you know what context is? You referenced calls for a cite. The only call for a cite was regarding claims that it causes cancer. So, again, :rolleyes: Also. > [@http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408440701516184](#): > > Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/28 "2012-01-19T15:53:54Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Do you know what context is? You referenced calls for a cite. The only call for a cite was regarding claims that it causes cancer. So, again, :rolleyes: > > Also. I’m sorry my post caused you so much confusion. Or maybe you don’t suffer from a total lack of reading comprehension skills–you could have \*\*rostfrei \*\*and \*\*Roderick Femm \*\*on your ignore list. ---
**Author:** ![slm2955](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@slm2955](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slm2955)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/29 "2012-01-19T16:37:25Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > Didn’t I just hear diet beverages causes multiple times more weight gainage? You heard right, those things aren’t good for you… ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/30 "2012-01-19T16:40:53Z")
> [@slm2955](#): > > You heard right, those things aren’t good for you… I could never deal with anything other the real things. I either have the real things or I don’t eat them at all. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/31 "2012-01-19T16:47:34Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Diet soda (and other soda) is very acidic. It can slowly rot away the enamel on your teeth, resulting in cavities. Ask me how I know how ☹ Me too, when I was growing up my father thought bringing home cases of Coca Cola/Pepsi along with boxes of chocolat was love. Therefore I grew up washing down chocolates with cola and drinking them like water… dentists love me. ☹ However I was never an overweight kid though. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/32 "2012-01-19T16:47:48Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > I could never deal with anything other the real things. I either have the real things or I don’t eat them at all. Odd thing is, I actually prefer the diet version of drinks to the sugar/HFCS ones. The sugary ones are too sweet. As for my own personal experience, diet drinks did help me lose and keep off weight. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/33 "2012-01-19T16:49:17Z")
How is your weight? As mentioned upthread, studies have shown that consumption of sugar-free beverages actually contributes to weight gain (something about pushing up your body’s desire for sugar from other sources or something). Conversely, consumption of regular soft drinks has also been linked to weight gain (something about them containing a ton of calories). Aside from weight, I’m not aware of any significant drawbacks to diet soda consumption. I _will_ be that guy who recommends no soda at all and instead water. ---
**Author:** ![slm2955](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@slm2955](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slm2955)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/34 "2012-01-19T16:54:51Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > I could never deal with anything other the real things. I either have the real things or I don’t eat them at all. Yea I try avoid soda at all costs… ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/35 "2012-01-19T17:20:19Z")
**Snarky\_Kong** and **Rhythmdvl** - your posts in this thread (prompted by the [aside]) made me remember a story my Toxicology professor told us in class years ago. Problem is, I don’t quite remember it, but I remember the point of it,so I’m going to substitute stuff in for the sake of relating it anyways. I’m going to assume that my professor was talking to a [friend] of his, because I don’t remember who it was. [Friend] was a smoker. I know it wasn’t about artificial sweeteners/aspartame, but it was about something else with similar lingering claims of being damaging, so for simplicity, I’m just going to sub in [aspartame]. [Friend] told my professor that she no longer wanted to consume [aspartame] because it might be bad for her health/a carcinogen/[whatever claim]. My professor pointed out that the studies done so far indicated that it was a matter of dosing, and that she was unlikely to consume [aspartame] at any level that was likely to cause any damage to her health. Besides, her cigarettes were _much_ more dangerous. [Friend’s] response was that “at least I know what those dangers are. I don’t know that [aspartame] isn’t dangerous, so I’ll avoid it.” Somehow, it was less scary for [friend] to engage in something she _knew_ was dangerous than it was to engage in something that hadn’t conclusively been proven to _not_ be dangerous. In effect, the fear of the unknown was so much greater than the fear of the known dangers of cigarettes, even if the unknown amounted to “there doesn’t seem to be any danger at all.” Some might argue that [friend] was a somewhat stupid person - I don’t know, she might have been. But I kind of get the feeling that a lot of people without scientific backgrounds - and even many with - occasionally engage in this kind of thought process. I don’t _know_ this, so therefore I must assume something, no matter how often people have tried and looked and failed to find it. I think it plays into why a lot of people don’t “trust” science. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/36 "2012-01-19T17:32:33Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Do you know what context is? You referenced calls for a cite. The only call for a cite was regarding claims that it causes cancer. So, again, :rolleyes: > > Also. > > > [@http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408440701516184](#): > > > > Quote: > > Originally Posted by > > Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. Either you completely missed the study that I posted above or your reading comprehension is impaired. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/37 "2012-01-19T17:35:47Z")
> [@slm2955](#): > > Yea I try avoid soda at all costs… Now I only drink cola as a part of my hangover cure regimen (chilled + a lots of ice)… for medicinal purpose only. Also, though rare, when I’m having pizza sometimes or fast food which I don’t eat much. ---
**Author:** ![littlespeedysuperbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@littlespeedysuperbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/littlespeedysuperbike)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/38 "2012-01-20T00:24:13Z")
If 20mg/kg is excessive, then a 65-kg man can have no more than 1300mg/day. There’s around 56mg of aspartame per 250ml of Crystal Light. Therefore, it would be unwise to consume more than about 5.8 liters of Crystal Light per day. Unless you are playing Ultimate Frisbee all day in Houston it’s unlikely that you’d want to drink 5.8 kg of Crystal Light in a day. ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/39 "2012-01-20T00:40:48Z")
If you’re wondering if you would feel better without it give it up for a week and see if you feel better. I usually feel better if I stay away from more than the occasional diet soda but if I felt the same either way I would drink it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954/40 "2012-01-20T01:31:11Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > …[Friend’s] response was that “at least I know what those dangers are. I don’t know that [aspartame] isn’t dangerous, so I’ll avoid it.” > > Somehow, it was less scary for [friend] to engage in something she _knew_ was dangerous than it was to engage in something that hadn’t conclusively been proven to _not_ be dangerous. In effect, the fear of the unknown was so much greater than the fear of the known dangers of cigarettes, even if the unknown amounted to “there doesn’t seem to be any danger at all.” > > Some might argue that [friend] was a somewhat stupid person - I don’t know, she might have been. But I kind of get the feeling that a lot of people without scientific backgrounds - and even many with - occasionally engage in this kind of thought process. I don’t _know_ this, so therefore I must assume something, no matter how often people have tried and looked and failed to find it. > > I think it plays into why a lot of people don’t “trust” science. Insightful post… Behavioral science meets toxicology! I’m in a completely different field, investment management and corporate finance, and I frequently experience very smart people making dumb decisions as well. We’re all born with irrational fears and prejudices that we acquired when we were living in caves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-coke-zeros-per-day-excessive/609954.md?page=1)