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FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

cnbc.com

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Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#141

Post by DarknessFalls »

klodolph wrote: post #46
wredue wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WHO does have a tendency to lean overly cautious. But you have to remember that the FDA is not working for YOUR best interest either. When the FDA says that something is “safe”, what it actually means is “the economic impacts of this are probably negligible in a lifetime”. So if aspartame causes cancer after your career is over, then it’s safe according to the FDA. The WHO isn’t under the same lobbying or economi…

The FDA has a history of being cautious as well. Perhaps even overly cautious. > So if aspartame causes cancer after your career is over, then it’s safe according to the FDA. I would love to see some kind of foundation for this, to explain where your beliefs about FDA processes are coming from.

Yes, because there's nothing wrong with anything they've greenlit before, like high fructose corn syrup.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#142

Post by xorbax »

serf wrote: post #66
mrleinad wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And given the alternative is sugar No, the alternative is to learn to enjoy bitter beverages. We don't need sweeteners.

>the alternative is to learn to enjoy bitter beverages. people seek replacements when things they like become scarce, not alternatives. asking the public-at-large to wholly change preference (especially when the preference is compounded by biological bias in the way we experience taste..) will never be effective without extenuating circumstance or market control of some sort. I sympathize with your point -- people sh…

People should think what I want them to think! After the FDA tells me how to tell them what I want them to think

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#143

Post by Clamchop »

DarknessFalls wrote: post #141
klodolph wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA has a history of being cautious as well. Perhaps even overly cautious. > So if aspartame causes cancer after your career is over, then it’s safe according to the FDA. I would love to see some kind of foundation for this, to explain where your beliefs about FDA processes are coming from.

Yes, because there's nothing wrong with anything they've greenlit before, like high fructose corn syrup.

It's sugar. They so far haven't been in the business of forcing food to be healthier, to my knowledge, and corn syrup isn't poison.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#144

Post by wdr1 »

legitster wrote: post #14

> Schubauer-Berigan acknowledged during a press conference with journalists Wednesday that the studies could contain flaws that skewed the results. She said the classification should be viewed as a call to conduct more research into whether aspartame can cause cancer in humans. > “Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is…

The WHO lost credibility to me when they, at the height of the pandemic, asserted as fact that COVID is not airborne.

Not "we believe", "we suspect", "data suggests" or anything like that, but asserted it as a fact.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#145

Post by andy800 »

strict9 wrote: post #9
mytailorisrich wrote: post #3

My understanding is that the WHO has maintained its recommended max. daily intake, which is the equivalent of about 10 cans of soft drinks a day... make of that what you will.

Ask someone who has worked in a restaurant about the habits of diet coke drinkers. They always require 10x or more refills than water or soda.

I can speak to this, anecdotally, as I read this comment, at a restaurant, on my 3rd Coke Zero refill.

I realized a long time ago that I really enjoy drinking soda, and not much else. Very little interest in alcohol, sure I have some with friends but never when alone. Don't drink coffee (I have, of course, but never particularly enjoyed it or drank it regularly). I do enjoy Gatorade and fruit juice, of course it's because they are sweet.

Anyway, I also realized that if I'm going to drink soda regularly, I had to switch to diet. Just for the calories, really, at the time concerns about sugar weren't as prominent. But I gained a bit of weight in my late teens and switching to Diet Coke was a "free" reduction of 500 calories per day. "Free" as in, easy to switch, no dieting, no eating less, etc.

My point here is that I think the refill situation is the opposite of what you suggest -- diet soda doesn't cause me to drink more, it's the fact that I've always drank a lot of soda that caused me to choose diet soda.

Oh, and maybe it's related, I love chewing on ice that has been doused in soda. A server sees an "empty" glass and wants to clear it, but I see a mountain of delicious ice. Weird, I know.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#146

Post by hilbert42 »

legitster wrote: post #14

> Schubauer-Berigan acknowledged during a press conference with journalists Wednesday that the studies could contain flaws that skewed the results. She said the classification should be viewed as a call to conduct more research into whether aspartame can cause cancer in humans. > “Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is…

"I'm going to side with the FDA on this one."

Likewise. I like to hold a suspicions mind about chemicals introduced into diets until proved safe, and sometimes their dangers can take decades to manifest. However, from aspartame's structure and its metabolites (phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol) it's difficult to see how it could be dangerous except in huge amounts. The worst being methanol and no doubt it's very nasty but the body is well adapted to metabolizing small amounts of methanol from the breakdown of normal foods. It seems unlikely anyone could consume enough aspartame to be harmful.

I'm a lot more suspicious about sucralose (chlorinated sucrose), it seems to me we ought to be much more concerned with what its three Cl atoms do during its metabolism.

Edit: seems to me WHO ought to concentrate time on reducing the population's 'bliss point' from its all-time high. Over the last 50/60 years corporations have forced up the bliss point by making drinks etc. sweeter and sweeter. We desperately need to wean the population from this high point back to more normal levels. Then we wouldn't need as much sweeteners whether natural or artificial.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#147

Post by xen0 »

mrleinad wrote: post #113
xen0 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like alcohol?

I don't understand your point, but alcohol is not safe either.

A sarcastic 'careful what you wish for'.

But to say the solution for people liking something evolution has made us like is to like things evolution made us avoid is... weird?

For some people, some bitter tastes are intense; no amount of 'learning' will ever get me to like coffee for example.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#148

Post by kriberg »

Alex3917 wrote: post #35
legitster wrote: post #14

> Schubauer-Berigan acknowledged during a press conference with journalists Wednesday that the studies could contain flaws that skewed the results. She said the classification should be viewed as a call to conduct more research into whether aspartame can cause cancer in humans. > “Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is…

> Aspartame could possibly hold the title as the most scrutinized chemical in history You could almost say that it's the Lance Armstrong of food additives.

Ooof, that's a lot of shade to throw on aspartame.

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#149

Post by anon373839 »

Aspartame has an interesting history. This includes the fact that its FDA approval is credited to none other than Donald Rumsfeld, who hand-picked the FDA commissioner who approved aspartame while he was still CEO of the company that held the patent to it.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-rumsfeld-and-the-s_b_8...

Re: FDA says aspartame is safe, disagreeing with WHO finding

#150

Post by klodolph »

DarknessFalls wrote: post #141
klodolph wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA has a history of being cautious as well. Perhaps even overly cautious. > So if aspartame causes cancer after your career is over, then it’s safe according to the FDA. I would love to see some kind of foundation for this, to explain where your beliefs about FDA processes are coming from.

Yes, because there's nothing wrong with anything they've greenlit before, like high fructose corn syrup.

HFCS is very similar to sugar, from a diet and health perspective. The FDA’s mandate is food safety, not population health.
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