Aspartame is not that bad? (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#251

Post by cubefox » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 1:12 AM UTC

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #131

kdheiwns wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you lick plain MSG, it tastes bitter. Add it to something very sweet and it just tastes bizarre. Sprinkle it on fried chicken and it tastes like you just dumped chicken gravy on it and pumped up the taste. It really does mainly amplify flavors. And while MSG tastes very wrong in sweets, sweets generally always taste better with a bit of salt. Salt is its own flavor and a flavor amplifier.

Plain MSG absolutely does not taste bitter. I just tried some (again) to confirm, it's not salty & not bitter. Just a strong flavor of its own.

Yeah, I also just tried it, it doesn't taste bitter at all. It tastes like clear soup broth, which usually contains a lot of MSG.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#252

Post by cyberax » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 1:29 AM UTC

JCattheATM wrote: post #250

cyberax wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A guy on the Internet recently reverse-engineered the Coke formula and published the recipe. I always liked Diet Coke, the regular one is just too sweet for me. So I replicated the recipe, and I actually liked unsweetened Cola! It feels a bit tea-like, but also more acidic. Kinda like coffee but without the bitter undertone. If you like Coke drinks, I highly recommend it.

There are lots of cola recopies, why is this guy confident he has Coke's?

He used chromatography and mass spec to match the chemical composition, along with taste tests.

Many people also tried this recipe and can't tell the difference in blind tests between it and various types of Coke.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#253

Post by MrDrMcCoy » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 1:46 AM UTC

cyberax wrote: post #197

midiguy wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that everything has to be sweet, but rather that, for example, Coke really isn't Coke without sweetness and people just happen to enjoy Coke. And if you're going to enjoy a Coke, Coke Zero or Diet Coke is better for your health. Of course there are other things like coffee that really are not defined by sweetness and can be perfectly enjoyed unsweetened.

A guy on the Internet recently reverse-engineered the Coke formula and published the recipe. I always liked Diet Coke, the regular one is just too sweet for me. So I replicated the recipe, and I actually liked unsweetened Cola! It feels a bit tea-like, but also more acidic. Kinda like coffee but without the bitter undertone. If you like Coke drinks, I highly recommend it.

I've seen a number of attempted coke replicas, but this one sounds like the best. Would you kindly share the link?

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#254

Post by tonyarkles » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 1:57 AM UTC

bena wrote: post #204

bennettnate5 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely wouldn't be surprised if that were the case

Or psychosomatic. It's possible she believes that those items all trigger her migraines therefore her body gives her a migraine when she believes she's had one of her triggers. A big tell would be her getting a migraine and blaming it on "hidden MSG" in a food item that doesn't have it. Or her not getting migraine from foods that have MSG naturally but is never pointed out. Like tomatoes.

It's funny... reading this thread, I'm reminded of a friend of mine who indeed gets migraines from tomatoes. That was actually what she figured out first; the MSG connection came later.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#255

Post by cyberax » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 2:16 AM UTC

MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #253

cyberax wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A guy on the Internet recently reverse-engineered the Coke formula and published the recipe. I always liked Diet Coke, the regular one is just too sweet for me. So I replicated the recipe, and I actually liked unsweetened Cola! It feels a bit tea-like, but also more acidic. Kinda like coffee but without the bitter undertone. If you like Coke drinks, I highly recommend it.

I've seen a number of attempted coke replicas, but this one sounds like the best. Would you kindly share the link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#256

Post by pHequals7 » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 3:38 AM UTC

jiaosdjf wrote: post #139

lormayna wrote: post #12

In Italy we have an "indipendent research lab" that become really famous for a study that demonstrates that aspartame may cause cancer. The same institute published few years later a study about 5G emissions that may cause cancer.

I'm going to start a research lab that releases dubious conclusions so I can then be hired by other companies to "bad mouth" their product just so people on the internet can link the two and conclude that their product is actually good.

lol pseudoscience as a service ha!

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#257

Post by eszed » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 4:30 AM UTC

ch4s3 wrote: post #110

bennettnate5 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a family member who has discovered through gradual process of elimination that she gets migraines from MSG, aspartame and yeast extract. "just sodium headaches" doesn't really apply to her case; simply chewing a piece of gum that has aspartame, or eating a piece of meat cooked with MSG in her salad is enough to trigger them. I agree in the general sense with your comment and the article that there's no widespr…

> discovered through gradual process of elimination that she gets migraines from MSG This is definitely not true. There is no biological pathway that can do this. MSG is nearly identical to the glutamic acid in other foods. If it were true they'd be unable to tolerate parmesan cheese, soy sauce, aged meats, tomatoes, mushrooms, and seaweed.

Well, my dad got migraines from everything° on that list bar tomatoes - though he did from dried tomatoes, so does that count as everything on the list? I don't know the biological pathway, but it was neither self-diagnosed, self-derived, nor made from woo; he visited several real-MD neurologists before someone identified the chemical(s) at fault, and gave him a list of foods not to eat.

°In fact it was all cheeses, not just parmesan; the more aged the worse. And also chocolate, and olives. Basically anything aged or fermented. I don't know how that lines up with MSG's chemistry, but he was careful with MSG, though nothing like as avoidant as he was with soy sauce and cheese.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#258

Post by Sprocklem » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 5:41 AM UTC

Induane wrote: post #205

jjice wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. I doubt most consumers of sugar free soda are drinking more than 4 (which is already a lot). I have to imagine that, like most things, most people consume them in moderation and have no ill effects. That said, I have to imagine if you go from drinking ten sugared sodas a day to ten diet sodas a day, your life will change in a very positive way. That would be removing 1500 calories of pure sugar from your diet…

Except that four cans of soda is not much more than a single 44oz soda fountain drink at QT and folk gobble down those often 3 times a day.

44oz? That's huge. I couldn't imagine drinking one of those a day.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#259

Post by srean » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 6:22 AM UTC

human_person wrote: post #248

srean wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very interesting because cheese, paneer and cured meats do trigger wife's migraines. I had not considered that richness is n glutamic acid is a common factor. The personal, anecdotal relation seems strong on the cheese and paneer component. Even if she had something not aware that it contains either of those it would trigger a migraine, sometimes not immediately though, seems to take a few to several hours. Wi…

Oh she/you should check out mast cell activation syndrome (mcas). Basically different foods increase histamine levels in the body or prevent its degradation. Old proteins and fermented foods are particularly problematic because microbes break down the protein and release histamine precursors.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: Aspartame is not that bad? (2022)

#260

Post by BiteCode_dev » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 7:18 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #97

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

n = 1 but I clearly feel the effect when I start drinking aspartam drinks a few times a week. So much so that I just stopped drinking them. I didn't use to. But I stopped rafined sugar for a year and compensated with coca zero. After that, guts never been quite the same and it took some copious amount of probiotics with regular doctor checks to feel better. Even then, it's still no back up to baseline, and now drinki…

People say this about MSG too, but when you blind-test them the effect vanishes, which is unsurprising because the constituents in MSG are, like aspartame, widely prevalent in traditional foodstuffs.

Since I'm mostly cooking fresh food, I wouldn't know.

I do use MSG, though, and don't feel anything off about it.