Comments on: Science on Thursday: Sugar Never Tasted So Good

By: Marcia

Marcia — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:08:36 +0000

The Feingold Association sure has been a big help to my family and many others. Its website is http://www.feingold.org

By: Jane Hersey

Jane Hersey — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:37:54 +0000

Despite the folks who defend aspartame, it is the additive that has resulted in the most consumer complaints to the FDA. That should tell us something. Its approval was delayed for years by FDA scinetists, until politics won out. Researchers who have no vested interest have warned of the many harmful effects. One of these, Dr. H. J. Roberts, has collected thousands of case histories of people who have sufffered serious ill effects from this chemical. (He has published two books on the subject.)
Case histories are not the whole story, but they deserve to be heard. Cori Brackett is a young woman who was diagnosed with MS and needed to use a wheelchair; when she cut out the diet sodas, etc. she began to recover and is now well. Cori has produced an excellent film on the additive, titled “Sweet Misery.”
And as far as “sugar” being responsible for the obesity epidemic, sugar has been around for a very long time, and I ate more than my share as I grew up in the 1950s, but obesity was comparatively rare then.
I would blame high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and MSG as among the worst offenders. MSG is known to stimulate appetite and HFCS is foreign to our bodies…they don’t know what to do with it!
When people depend on fabricated foodless-foods to nourish themselves, they will be sorely disappointed. Not only will they consume weird chemicals, but they will not feel as satisfied, leading to eating even more. Happily, there are lots of good options and people can eat healthier food by making some simple changes in their grocery shopping. They don’t even have to give up snack food, junk food, fast food, and dessert. The just need to make a better selection. For 32 years the non-profit Feingold Association of the US has been helping people find the food they enjoy, but in a healthier version.
By the way, a good stand-in for soda is 1/3 cup fruit juice — Welch’s grape juice works well — and 2/3 cup of sparking water or tap water, plus lots of ice. It’s very inexpensive, refreshing and natural.

By: A Free Man

A Free Man — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:58:41 +0000

Seriously, I don’t want to get involved in another whacko science war. I’ve already got the autism nuts calling me a Nazi.

I would encourage any of you to Google John E Garst PhD and you’ll see that this “person” is a serial blog commenter who writes the same thing on any blog questioning the safety aspartame. For kicks, I checked his publications on NCBI and I’m not sure there is a John E Garst who’s a working Medicinal Chemist, Pharmacologist, and Toxicologist. There was a JE Garst in Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois in the 70’s and 80’s but that person appears to have retired and I’m doubtful that he is this John E Garst.

Make your own judgement, dear readers, but personally I reckon that John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology) has something invested in assuring people that aspartame is safe.

A Free Man, Ph.D. (Genetics, Botany and Biotechnology)

By the way, if you want to check me out, send me an e-mail and I’ll happily give you credentials. What about you, John?

By: arizaphale

arizaphale — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:17:12 +0000

Comin’ in late too. Re: Obesity and sweeteners, Himself uses sweetener in his coffee and he weighs 110kg. Enough said.
I heard a Science Show on Radio National where they talked about corn syrup amongst other things. Apparently the onset of childhood obesity in Japan can be linked directly to the use of corn syrup in some of the manufactured foods.
Science Show

arizaphales last blog post..Daughter At Large

By: John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology)

John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:58:44 +0000

This web site is seriously misleading about aspartame citing seriously flawed work. Aspartame is perfectly safe used as directed in healthy people. For the real facts see my more thorough response to the similar garbage posted at http://www.uncensoredmagazine.co.nz/news/2008/08/01/phoenix-organics-publicises-dangers-of-aspartame/

John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology)

By: Not Afraid To Use It

Not Afraid To Use It — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:21:32 +0000

Okay, so I hit “submit” and I remembered.

As for the high fructose corn syrup and Coca-Cola, if you buy kosher Coca-Cola, it is made with sugar and NOT the HFCS. You can usually find it in the “ethnic” section of the grocery store (LOL) but I don’t know how it is set up down under. If we drank sodas, that’s what I would buy.

Not Afraid To Use Its last blog post..American As Apple Pie?

By: Not Afraid To Use It

Not Afraid To Use It — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:19:51 +0000

How in the hell did I miss this post! Damn fucking virus! Gah!

Thanks for looking into this. And no, I will not be going “Splenda crazy”. I won’t go near the stuff with at ten foot pole. I have been to people’s houses where if they don’t have real sugar, I skip my cup of coffee entirely. I am all about real sugar, in moderation. Finito.

I am curious as to what you think of the structure of sucralose? As opposed to that of aspartame? There are those who liken it to the structure of a pesticide. Whether that is actually true or not, hell if I can tell.

I had something else that I wanted to add/say, but I can’t remember. Will post if I think of it…

Not Afraid To Use Its last blog post..American As Apple Pie?

By: April

April — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:55:47 +0000

You probably did, he was in Chandrasekhar’s lab, Gary V.
I once heard that Succralose breaks down into formaldehyde. Even if it doesn’t, I’ve always felt the Splenda slogan “It tastes like sugar because it’s made from sugar” is disengenuous. It’s made through complex chemical processes.
The HFCS people are now out to dispel the idea that the stuff is bad, by saying it has the same effects on your blood sugar as honey or regular sugar, this may be true, but which takes the most processing to generate, just think of the carbon footprint? There are now quite a few choices of sodas made with cane sugar available in the states.

Aprils last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Bella, up close

By: A Free Man

A Free Man — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:31:55 +0000

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments guys - makes the work of putting a post like this together.

SSG - you pointed out something I should have mentioned, that there are people who can not tolerate aspartame at all, that’s why a lot of aspartame containing products come with a warning label. Not in Oz, surprisingly. Food labelling here is shockingly bad.

Angel - I preferentially choose diet sodas for the same reason that you do - all that high fructose corn syrup is just disgusting. But your first point is one that I tried to make at the end. People drink a diet soda and then think it’s OK to have an extra helping of dessert and end up overeating.

SSG - the ads. I’m trying it out to see. I’m not sure how we’ll go because as I write this the ad is for “Meet Local Single Girls” in my area, which I am not impressed with. We’ll see how much income they bring in for a month.

Vera - I think you ended up making the right decision and the one that I made as well.

Nichole/CMGD - you guys are reporting things that a lot of people have found. But it’s hard to link particular food products to a symptom. There was one study of a small number of women who reported headaches after chewing sucralose containing gum. When they stopped, the headaches started again. When they started chewing the gum, the headaches came back. But, after that, they didn’t want to take part in the study anymore. Fair enough. So, the researchers couldn’t make a firm link. Definitely a possible link there, though.

Nathan - one time in the lab that you and I shared for a while, an undergrad and I made up a batch of green tea in one of the big flasks we use to grow bacteria and put it in the fridge. Then, when a male technician that we both know walked in I pretended that it was LB and drank it, as a joke. Later, the male technician said to try the joke on another grad student, which I did, but he had exchanged the tea for actual LB.

So I guess I have tasted my experiment once. Actually there are some other incidents as well…

Sherrie - I’m almost certain that peeps are carcinogenic, or at least nasty. Been following your trip, sorry to hear you had a spill.

Courtney - pollutive should be a word. I’d love to read the article that you found about aluminum, don’t know nothing about that.

Jamie - always like the historical perspective that you bring on things. Hadn’t thought a bit about sugar and slavery and all that. That scientist is right - if you have any background in biochem and look at the structure of aspartame, it looks a lot like things we use as mutagens in the lab. Also, some researchers say that under certain conditions aspartatme can break down to formaldehyde. I didn’t mention this because it is very contentious. But it definitely does break down into methanol.

JK - that study that you looked at is dead on, but that was when Splenda made up close to 10% of the rats’ diet. For this post I tried to focus on posts that looked at consumption of reasonable levels of these things. HFCS is nasty stuff. Coke in Europe is made with sugar rather than HFCS and it is sooooo much better.

Headbang 8 - an infected tooth

April - water makes up most of my liquid diet these days, though I do like the fizzy water. I’m wondering if I knew your H2O loathing friend, as we did share a grad school.

Thanks again, guys.

By: April

April — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:25:46 +0000

Ah, artificial sweeteners. In grad school, for a while, I would have about one diet soda a day, but I never deluded myself into thinking it was the healthy choice. Water or another unsweetened and natural beverage are really the only healthy choices out there (most juices are packed with sugar).
Since I like to do a lot of cooking and belong to a fair number of cooking communities, it really gets in my craw when someone touts the healthiness of a recipe because it uses an artificial sweetener and not sugar. Much as I trust science, I think nature does it better, just make sure you enjoy your sweets in moderation (this coming from someone with a terrible sweet tooth).
I want to understand why people just don’t drink more water (or iced tea)? Some people never drink just a plain glass of water (I knew a guy in grad school who claimed he didn’t like the taste of water). There’s nothing as refreshing for me as a cold glass of water. Since getting pregnant I’ve cut artificial sweeteners out completely, and will have a normal soda from time to time (usually splitting it with my DH). I just don’t like the stuff enough to take any risks consuming it.

Aprils last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Bella, up close