Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

sciencedirect.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 106 posts

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#31

Post by nobodyandproud »

Guzba wrote: post #5
ein0p wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's why everyone is fat in the US: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-per-capita-caloric-... It's not "aspartame". It's eating out twice as much as we did in early 70s [1], rise of fast food consumption, and huge portion sizes. [1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-consumption-nutr...

This just begs the next "why". Why are people eating more now? Such a significant behavior change across a large population is not well explained by "we just did". I'm not sure fast food consumption or huge portion sizes is a great explanation. If fast food is the problem, why does that matter if it just comes down to calories? As for larger portion sizes, would even larger portions make us continue eating? Would tin…

Food designed to circumvent the sensation of cloying or satiation.

Also, eating more in isolation and without talking.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#32

Post by layer8 »

throw034248 wrote: post #8
teslabox wrote: post #2

Aspartame (1965) was approved by the US FDA in 1974/1981. This is commonly paired with acesulfame-K (1967) to provide sweetness in low-calorie drinks and sodas. Saccharin (1879) was the first artificial sweetener, followed by cylcamate (1937). Low calorie sodas (Tab, etc) using these sweeteners were introduced in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s diet sodas sweetened with the combination of aspartame and acesulfam…

I'm not overweight, but I observed the following: - All artificial sweeteners when consumed on empty-stomach, causes very strong feelings of hunger in a short time. My guess is that this can more than cancel out the reduced calorie content. - Sucralose gives me headaches.

They do neither for me.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#33

Post by kelseyfrog »

profsummergig wrote: post #15
teslabox wrote: post #2

Aspartame (1965) was approved by the US FDA in 1974/1981. This is commonly paired with acesulfame-K (1967) to provide sweetness in low-calorie drinks and sodas. Saccharin (1879) was the first artificial sweetener, followed by cylcamate (1937). Low calorie sodas (Tab, etc) using these sweeteners were introduced in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s diet sodas sweetened with the combination of aspartame and acesulfam…

I started drinking too much alcohol during the lockdown era. I experimented with non-alcoholic mocktails. The one that works for me is diet cola + milk in equal proportions. Somehow provides the combination of richness/creaminess, sweetness, bitterness that replaces the feeling of drinking Irish cream. Diet cola contains aspartame. Anyone know if there's a safer non-sugar version of or alternative to diet cola that I…

Pilk? In all earnestness, I thought that was a joke drink.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#34

Post by gruez »

Dwedit wrote: post #26
techwiz137 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can be a case study. I drink over 2 liters of Coca-Cola with aspartame, per day, every day on an empty stomach. With an energy drink, containing aspartame. I am not bragging, it is an addiction.

Is it really specific to Aspartame though? What if you switched to a product with a different sweetener, such as Sucralose?

Limiting yourself to sucralose means paying a premium (it's only used in premium brands) and restricting what brands you can get. If you want "coke" specifically, aspartame is your only choice. They don't make sucralose cokes.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#35

Post by Guzba »

esskay wrote: post #12
Guzba wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just begs the next "why". Why are people eating more now? Such a significant behavior change across a large population is not well explained by "we just did". I'm not sure fast food consumption or huge portion sizes is a great explanation. If fast food is the problem, why does that matter if it just comes down to calories? As for larger portion sizes, would even larger portions make us continue eating? Would tin…

> This just begs the next "why". Why are people eating more now? Have you been in a US supermarket? It's absolutely nuts and I don't think many Americans realise it. To be bombarded with monumentally huge portions of everything is just a recipe for...well....the situation the US is in. Theres not many other countries that have whole food groups focused on cramming in as much peanut butter, jelly, marshmallow, chocola…

The orthodox reason for why people are overweight is calories in, calories out. Does it matter if those calories are a prepackaged cake or candy? In the end it is just calories.

Would gratuitously large steaks in the meat section and huge rotisserie turkeys instead of chicken at Costco produce the same result?

It seems strange to pick on certain types of foods unless believe those foods are the cause of obesity instead of just eating too many calories of any kind.

If you think cookies and candy are bad but other things are not, why? Is it that they are easier to over-eat? If so, how does that compound over time, given humans are trying to maintain homeostasis which includes a healthy set weight via satiety. Exercise induces more calorie consumption later. Over calorie consumption also induces lower consumption later. This seem like relevant factors.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#36

Post by catigula »

bsder wrote: post #7
teslabox wrote: post #2

Aspartame (1965) was approved by the US FDA in 1974/1981. This is commonly paired with acesulfame-K (1967) to provide sweetness in low-calorie drinks and sodas. Saccharin (1879) was the first artificial sweetener, followed by cylcamate (1937). Low calorie sodas (Tab, etc) using these sweeteners were introduced in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s diet sodas sweetened with the combination of aspartame and acesulfam…

> This is at about the time the obesity epidemic took off. Correlation != causation. Average heights continued increasing through the 1980s. This suggests that a not insignificant chunk of the population was still in caloric deprivation until the 1990s. You can't get obesity while lots of people are still continuously hungry. For this one, correlation probably is causation. In addition, smoking bans took off in the 1…

Doubtful.

Smokers only gain a handful of pounds when they stop on average.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#37

Post by Guzba »

denkmoon wrote: post #11
Guzba wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just begs the next "why". Why are people eating more now? Such a significant behavior change across a large population is not well explained by "we just did". I'm not sure fast food consumption or huge portion sizes is a great explanation. If fast food is the problem, why does that matter if it just comes down to calories? As for larger portion sizes, would even larger portions make us continue eating? Would tin…

The proportion of households with a person with time and energy to prepare a healthy home cooked meal has diminished. We have sacrificed domestic life on the altar of profit.

If healthy home cooked meals are better, why is that? This is a non-answer.

It must be something about the ingredients (invalidating calorie theory) or it must be lower calorie (invalidating ingredient theory).

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#38

Post by spondylosaurus »

sleepyguy wrote: post #16

Peter Attia has covered this at some length. https://peterattiamd.com/what-are-the-side-effects-of-aspart... >While an excess of alcohol sugars can cause gastrointestinal distress (e.g., if you overdo it on these you can get diarrhea), in most people they do not cause secretion of insulin from the pancreas due to their distinct chemical structure (see figure of their structures, above). The same is true for the first…

Not the aspartame specifically, but the phosphoric acid in (Diet) Coke can be quite soothing if you have a stomachache. Carbonation + phosphoric acid + a Gas-X or two will cure bloating very quickly... and very loudly :P

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#39

Post by alabastervlog »

Guzba wrote: post #5
ein0p wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's why everyone is fat in the US: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-per-capita-caloric-... It's not "aspartame". It's eating out twice as much as we did in early 70s [1], rise of fast food consumption, and huge portion sizes. [1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-consumption-nutr...

This just begs the next "why". Why are people eating more now? Such a significant behavior change across a large population is not well explained by "we just did". I'm not sure fast food consumption or huge portion sizes is a great explanation. If fast food is the problem, why does that matter if it just comes down to calories? As for larger portion sizes, would even larger portions make us continue eating? Would tin…

Food got way, way cheaper, including and especially convenient (ready to eat) food. Plus a race between companies selling that food to optimize flavor and marketing strategies for maximum sales, which, at some point, had to start meaning “more eating”, not “more eating this instead of something else” otherwise line could not go up.

Re: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

#40

Post by butterlettuce »

techwiz137 wrote: post #18
pupppet wrote: post #13

How is there not a slam dunk answer to whether this 50+ year old incredibly popular ingredient is ok for us or not?

I can be a case study. I drink over 2 liters of Coca-Cola with aspartame, per day, every day on an empty stomach. With an energy drink, containing aspartame. I am not bragging, it is an addiction.

I was hooked on diet coke until one day I decided to take a break, and my tongue felt... weird. It felt slightly fizzy as if my brain was signaling that it was time to drink diet coke. On top of that, I felt lazy for a couple days.

I'm glad I was that self aware because I stopped drinking it everyday. Maybe 1 or two a month.

Post reply on HN