51–60 of 106 posts
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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.
Ok… I’ll be the one to rudely ask, how tall and how much do you weight. I’ll drink 1L of sugar free coke a day, but that’s my definite limit
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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.
How is there not a slam dunk answer to whether this 50+ year old incredibly popular ingredient is ok for us or not?
I'm very open to human data that aspartame is bad for humans in reasonable amounts, if you have any, but I haven't seen it.
I'm looking to avoid erythritol these days though.
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> 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 inste…
>Does it matter if those calories are a prepackaged cake or candy? In the end it is just calories.
In the end it's a complex, poorly understood network of hormones and brain chemistry. Human action is mostly downstream of that.
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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...
Why does capitalism not make people fat in Japan, France, Italy and Spain?
The typical diet is also relatively lower in bread (processed carbohydrates...with unnecessary added sugar in the US) and higher in protein. That combination is typical of any structured diet designed around controlling weight gain, such as Weight Watchers.
Fast food is also different. International menus have different items and different sizes. I've seen people express shock about the existence of things like the Triple Baconator or US soda sizes. Drinking a 32 oz of sugar-filled soda is an easy 350 calories right there, and a disturbing number of Americans "don't like water."
Konbini and ramen/soba shops also exist, so there are even more convenient alternatives to western fast food, which are often healthier in the typical portions.
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> 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 inste…
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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.
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Why does capitalism not make people fat in Japan, France, Italy and Spain?
Japan's easy: only about 1-in-3 households in Tokyo (and presumably the other large cities, where the majority of people live, are similar) own a car. People walk and take trains to work or to go shopping or eat out. A half hour of walking can burn upwards of 100 calories. The typical diet is also relatively lower in bread (processed carbohydrates...with unnecessary added sugar in the US) and higher in protein. That…
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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.
With this in mind, is the real cause "calories in, calories out" or "optimized flavor and marketing strategies"?