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

theguardian.com

471–480 of 584 posts

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

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most bread you get from a supermarket (even outside the US) is highly processed garbage, as are many common sandwich fillings (mayo, salami, margarine). The typical sandwich is probably up there with many of the other least healthy things you could eat, so yeah, ground up wheat with filling to make it taste good is probably fair.

Mayo is processed garbage?? Please explain. It’s whipped egg with lemon and oil, maybe some salt.

It may depend on the brands, but one big brand of mayo here in France (Amora) has all kinds of weird crap, apart from "whipped egg with lemon and oil".

It has rapeseed oil, which to me seems dubious since it requires special processing to make it non-toxic.

It only has 5.1% eggs (according to the label).

It also has "flavorings", thickeners and coloring agents.

So yeah, it's nothing like the homemade mayo I make, which only has olive oil, a bunch of eggs, mustard, and indeed some salt. Mine doesn't need any sort of coloring and is thick enough.

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

#472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I drink a lot of Pepsi Max. I just love it especially in summer. I've drank it for decades. Would this make me worry a lot? Not really. I have worse health risks like being overweight, pfas etc. The "if it was that dangerous we'd see the effect" is a pretty decent argument IMO considering it's been heavily used for almost 40 years.

I don't think it's a decent argument. You are using the "I was at the train station and I was never mugged there, therefore mugging never happens at train stations" extrapolated argument. People still think that smoking doesn't cause cancer, even when they are in the hospital because of not being able to breathe. People still deny that climate change exists because of that one bought study in the 60s. People still dr…

It's not that argument.

It's more like "1 million people were at the train station and were never mugged there".

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

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I drink a lot of Pepsi Max. I just love it especially in summer. I've drank it for decades. Would this make me worry a lot? Not really. I have worse health risks like being overweight, pfas etc. The "if it was that dangerous we'd see the effect" is a pretty decent argument IMO considering it's been heavily used for almost 40 years.

Well, aspartame has been shown more recently and by studies not funded by the food industry to impair glucose tolerance in obese people. And soda cans are lined with plastic, so there's your PFAS intake.

Yeah I'm sure it's bad but all things are "bad for you" these days.. I just don't really care that much.

I mainly drink my sodas from PET bottles by the way because cans cost twice as much per litre over here.

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

#474
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sucralose (Splenda) has been linked to cancer quite convincingly last week. It's the only artificial sweetener that I used, and now there are no options except sugar alcohols. Monk Fruit has also been linked to cancer.

My Peruvian climbing guide turned me onto stevia which doesn't fall into any of your categories. It is really a wholesome plant extract instead of something chemists have invented which leads me to have confidence in its (so far as we know) lack of carcinogenicity.

Cyanide is also one of those "wholesome plant extract". Not entirely sure why that would even qualify as an argument.

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

#475

To clarify, this doesn't mean aspartame in food is harmful, it means that in certain circumstances it's possible for the chemical to cause cancer. For example, workers exposed to extremely high levels during manufacturing, or breakdown products formed during improper storage.

Can you find aspartame naturally in the environment in non processed and manufactured foods? E.g steak, fruit, milk whatever? If yes, then I'm a little more lenient on your answer. If not, personally I would rather not see artificial man made ingredients in foods I consume. I did a quick Kagi search and it looks like it's completely synthetic?

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

#476
post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something is bound to get ya. As we get better at managing other diseases and risks, cancer - which is seldom truly curable - gets a larger share. The progress on other fronts really is staggering. Forget pre-industrial times: global child mortality is half of what it was in the 1980s. The same is true for vehicle deaths in the US.

You're seeing half the picture. Cancer is, in the large majority of cases, a preventable disease. It is caused mainly by environmental factors, i.e. the modern way of a sedentary obese lifestyle.

A Cancer maybe preventable. Cancer in general is most certainly not a preventable disease. The only thing you can do is stall it. There is no lifestyle that ensures you will not get cancer.

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

#477
Nice! I can't wait for cheap obsolete sweeteners like aspartame and acesulfam-k to begone from my beloved energy drinks to be replaced with relatively modern and supposedly prebiotic alternatives like steviol glycosides, xylitol etc. Unfortunately even the most expensive energy drink manufacturers still use aspartame and acesulfam-k.

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

#478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, we have nitrate-free bacon available that is actually nitra(i)te free: https://www.betternaked.com/products/better-naked-unsmoked-b...

To what everybody else is saying, I'll add that by the US definition, that's not bacon; it's back bacon, which is a loin cut, radically different than American bacon, which I believe you lot call "streaky bacon".

Being a global community, would we assume bacon means all types of bacon cut? I have been but maybe I've been wrong. Surely we're not just referring to streaky bacon or American bacon

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

#479

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.

Mexico also consumes millions of tortillas every day made of exactly that.

Not all maize are created equal.

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

#480
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nitrate-free (or, "no nitrates added") bacon still contains nitrates. About the same amount as standard bacon, and in some cases, more. https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos...

A big problem with the these "nitrate free" forms is that Vitamin C was required in the "nitrate" versions, to prevents the formation of some of the carcinogens [1]. In the "nitrate free" versions, it is not! I make sure to drink orange juice, or take a vitamin C, with any form of bacon. [1] https://locavoredelivery.com/blog/some-facts-about-bacon-wit...

Orange juice is a huge spike to the insulin levels. As the saying goes, eat your juice, don't drink it.
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