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Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

theguardian.com

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Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#191

Post by kergonath »

fluidcruft wrote: post #70
kergonath wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silica can cause cancer, in the form of asbestos fibres or silica dust. Yet, it’s safe to drink from a glass, have windows at home, and walk on sand. A lot of factors matter besides chemical composition.

Are you suggesting that aspartame in food has a different physical form that prevents it from entering the body?

For example. I cannot provide any insight because I don’t with in that field, but it would not be necessarily surprising that e.g. inhaled powders could have different effects than ingested compounds diluted in something else. Quantity would matter a lot as well.

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#192

Post by IshKebab »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #95
cameldrv wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Myself the truly distasteful part is the use of neotame (a follow-on to aspartame) on animal feed, to get animals to eat feed that they normally would not; for instance, if the feed is rancid or otherwise in a condition/taste that normal animal instincts, would have the animal reject the food... True for human food as well. Maybe it’s not rancid, but food science can make terrible ingredients taste great. Take Dori…

I think it's disingenuous to say that cornmeal is just animal feed. Polenta has been a thing for a long time.

Yeah that's like saying "sandwiches are just ground up wheat, plus a ton of delicious filling to make them taste good"

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#193

Post by throwaway38249 »

samtho wrote: post #170
vosper wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are the players in Big Sugar who would exploit this? Can’t be the likes of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, because they’d also be part of Big Aspartame.

You’re correct that soft drink providers have no horse in this race as they are mere consumers of sweetening agents, and the their product output depends on customer demand. It would hardly make much difference to them if 90% of consumers started to prefer Diet Coke over Coca-Cola, they would just make more Diet Coke. The sugar industry’s escapades are well known. Most notably, the SRF’s (Sugar Research Foundation) w…

They need to sell something, if people believe sugar is bad, sweeteners are bad, even disposable plastic bottles are bad, what's left?

Edit to add something more concrete, we already have the "sugar tax" in the UK, to avoid it soft drinks went mostly sugar free or reduced sugar substantially, and replaced it with sweeteners.

And now: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/artificial-sweeteners-to-face-go...

Simultaneously: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deposit-return-scheme-for...

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#194

Post by nielsbot »

IshKebab wrote: post #192
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's disingenuous to say that cornmeal is just animal feed. Polenta has been a thing for a long time.

Yeah that's like saying "sandwiches are just ground up wheat, plus a ton of delicious filling to make them taste good"

Not quite--I assume sandwich fillings are food. Doritos are coated w flavor powder.

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#195

Post by nwienert »

brewdad wrote: post #61
SoftTalker wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do it yourself. I used to drink a lot of sweetened soda. I switched to diet, then stopped. Regular sugar-sweetened drinks taste sickeningly sweet to me now, and diet drinks taste like chemicals. Once you break the habit, your sense of taste recovers and you realize how nasty these drinks are. Most people get started on them as kids when you don't have a nuanced sense of taste and really crave sweet stuff.

Same. I used to drink multiple Cokes a day. I switched to Diet Coke sometime in my late 20s. In my 30s I cut back to one Diet Coke a day and about 4 years ago in my mid 40s I switched over to carbonated water when I crave something fizzy but still limit myself to one a day most days. Coffee and plain water have replaced the soda I used to drink. This was all done over time as I realized I needed to change my diet to…

Until you realize caffeine has long term negative effects on sleep even at low doses. Only the pure water drinkers can claim any moral high ground! (I’m not one of them)

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#196

Post by Cerium »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #95
cameldrv wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Myself the truly distasteful part is the use of neotame (a follow-on to aspartame) on animal feed, to get animals to eat feed that they normally would not; for instance, if the feed is rancid or otherwise in a condition/taste that normal animal instincts, would have the animal reject the food... True for human food as well. Maybe it’s not rancid, but food science can make terrible ingredients taste great. Take Dori…

I think it's disingenuous to say that cornmeal is just animal feed. Polenta has been a thing for a long time.

Since you don't even have to add the flavors to make corn meal taste good. Look at Fritos - corn + oil + salt.

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#197

Post by nielsbot »

wcedmisten wrote: post #94
flashback2199 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaded gasoline will really blow your mind, at least it did for me Edit: Figuratively not literally, haha!

Interestingly, the inventor of leaded gasoline also invented freon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr .

Smithsonian Magazine has an article about that angle

"One Man Invented Two of the Deadliest Substances of the 20th Century" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-man-two-deadly...

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#198

Post by TheRealPomax »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #121
TheRealPomax wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what does California's proposition 65 say about it?

I know this is a joke, but if anyone’s curious: Prop65 says you have to tell people if your product contains chemicals from a list of carcinogenic substances. The list is kept up-to-date by California. Prop65 has no punishment for over-reporting though - you can slap on a warning “just for fun” if you want. Unless California has aspartame on its list, prop65 says nothing about this.

No aspartame, but aspirin's on there. https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#199

Post by User23 »

glonq wrote: post #156

A few of the conspiracy nutters that I know firmly beleive that "Big Aspartame" is responsible for suppressing information about its dire negative effects. But when you consider: - how many doctors and scientists are personally/professionally motivated to research this - how many gov't organizations are concerned about this - how many industry competitors would benefit from discovering this - how many lawyers would g…

> ...then I somewhat doubt that one group could suppress all of this, globally, for 40+ years. At this point, aspartame is probably one of the most researched food additives out there.

Have you ever heard of tobacco? Suppressing information about the harmful effects of a popular consumer product for decades is observably within the capabilities of at least some who might wish to do so.

Re: Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

#200

Post by RamblingCTO »

mrabcx wrote: post #100

Perhaps this will finally increase the popularity of Stevia.

Just live healthy. I hate the addition of stevia and other sweeteners to everything. Please give me cane sugar. I'm a grown up, I can handle my intake, thanks. (Especially anything in the direction of soylent, green shakes etc. No need for stevia.)
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