Diet soda is hazardous to your health??

[MrFun]

Someone has recently told me that diet soda is even worse for your health than regular soda, because there is an ingredient in diet soda, that if you drink it regularly over period of time, you could get cancer.


I drink a 20 oz bottle of diet soda three to four times a week. If I drink it this often, say over a period of decades, this means I'm at risk of getting cancer?

[Sava]

yes

artificial sweeteners cause cancer in lab rats

but then again, it's probably in REALLY high quantities

I never understood the point of diet soda... it tastes like ****... might as well just drink water

[Theben]

Living over a period of decades puts you at risk of getting cancer.

But yes, saccharine is well known for causing cancer in the lab. I'm not sure, but I think Splenda does too.

[Zopperoni]

Yea, it's the aspartame that's dangerous.

[Last Conformist]

Artificial sweeteners give you a sweet tooth, too - not a good idea if you want to lose weight. Drink water instead.

[Urban Ranger]

I have never heard aspartame is a carcinogen. However one theory I heard is it breaks down under high temperature (something around 40°C) it breaks down and forms a chemical that causes brain damage.

[mitch]

Originally posted by Sava
yes

artificial sweeteners cause cancer in lab rats

but then again, it's probably in REALLY high quantities

I never understood the point of diet soda... it tastes like ****... might as well just drink water

Maybe its the fack that regular sodas on average (per 12 oz) contain around 32 to 40 grams of sugar. It is one of the leading causes of obesity and can lead to diabetes. So if you love the taste of soda and are overweight sometimes the only option is to drink diet. I'm not even close to overweight and I drink diet. Ingesting that much sugar when there are better options is not exactly the best thing to do. Diet soda has 0 calories and 0 grams of sugar. While Diet soda is still not exactly healthy by any means its still far better than regular. I would recommend just getting used to water, though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29434-2004Aug24.html

[Boris Godunov]

There's no conclusive evidence that artificial sweeteners on the market today are harmful to people. A lot of environuts like to bash them, though.

[Sava]

Originally posted by mitch


Maybe its the fack that regular sodas on average (per 12 oz) contain around 32 to 40 grams of sugar. It is one of the leading causes of obesity and can lead to diabetes. So if you love the taste of soda and are overweight sometimes the only option is to drink diet. I'm not even close to overweight and I drink diet. Ingesting that much sugar when there are better options is not exactly the best thing to do. Diet soda has 0 calories and 0 grams of sugar. While Diet soda is still not exactly healthy by any means its still far better than regular. I would recommend just getting used to water, though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004Aug24.html

[MrFun]

great -- contradictory claims between Zopperonia and Boris

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm with Boris. There is nothing conclusive that artificial sweetners, whether aspartame or splenda are harmful. There is speculation and theories, but none have been proved.

[MrFun]

So the results in lab rats are not conclusive, Imran?

[Imran Siddiqui]

From the wiki article linked above:

A large body of scientific evidence suggests that aspartame, even in amounts many times greater than typical consumption, is safe and not associated with adverse health effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has investigated claims of ill effects since 1982 and maintains that there is no reasonable evidence of possible public health harm and no consistent or unique patterns of symptoms reported with respect to aspartame that can be causally linked to its use. [8] The American Cancer Society argues that since aspartame is broken down into these components before it is absorbed into the blood stream, aspartame in its initial form does not have the opportunity to travel to target organs, including the brain, to cause cancer [9]. The American Heart Association concludes that extensive investigation so far hasn't shown any serious side effects from aspartame. [10] Scientists at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being[11] The National Cancer Institute argues there is no evidence that the regulated artificial sweeteners on the market in the United States are related to cancer risk in humans.[12]

[MrFun]

Ok, Imran, from that article then, we can conclude that only lab rats given aspartme are prone to cancer, but has no effect on humans?

[chequita guevara]

Saccharine was thought to be a carcinagin, but a review of the studies discovered that the rats used in the studies had a predisposition to cancer. Saccharine is now considered non-harmful. It is 300 to 500 times sweeter than sugar.

Aspartame is made by combining two amino acids we normally eat, but they are linked by a molecule of methyl alcohol. However, fruit contains several orders of magnitude more methanol than what you would drink in one soda. The methanol is insignificant as a risk factor. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar and is made from a modified sugar molecule. The usual suspects are out and about disparging sucralose, but I don't credit them with saying anything intelligent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_substitute