More evidence that Soda is Satan

[danaeris]

Not all sugars are equal when it comes to weight gain

Researchers report that drinking beverages containing fructose, a naturally-occurring sugar commonly used to sweeten soft drinks and other beverages, induces a pattern of hormonal responses that may favor the development of obesity. It is estimated that consumption of fructose has increased by 20-30% over the past three decades, a rate of increase similar to that of obesity, which has risen dramatically over the same time span. Data from the present study suggest a mechanism by which fructose consumption could be one factor contributing to the increased incidence of obesity.

I've always thought soda was evil. I mean, it has caffeine, which has its own issues, and it has no nutritional content yet is high in calories. And the diet sodas have nasty chemicals in them... most have aspartame, which suppresses your body's ability to process food as anything but fat for a good length of time afterwards, according to a friend of mine, and suppresses the seratonin cycle promoting depression, according to a variety of research papers. Not to mention the cancer... Those with splenda may be better, but more and more studies are coming out with negative information about those too.

My originaly instincts are right. If I have the necessary willpower, I sould swear off soda, because it really is that bad.

Comments

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

There are, also, some sodas that don't contain high fructose corn syrup. BevMo is a good source.

Just sayin'.

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

Links on aspartame would be appreciated. I was aware of the issues with high fructose corn syrup. There's begining to be a body of evidence around HFCS that also points towards it tending to concentrate in the liver and turn into fat IN the liver.

[headlouse.livejournal.com]

don't believe the hype about aspartame. While I'm sure it ain't all that great for you it ain't all that bad for you either.
About.com Urban Legends: Aspartame (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blasp2.htm)

Mayo Clinic list of artificial sweeteners (http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=382A0FA5-2E06-4970-90F98E444F969EF4)

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

Or at least check out sodas with other ingredients, or cut back pretty hard, or develop a thing for tea. I'm trying to get to a point where I only have 1-2 sodas per week instead of 4.

[auror.livejournal.com]

I haven't sworn off soda completely, but I have weaned myself off of diet soda. I was addicted for a while, but no more aspartame for me. Or caffiene.

I still enjoy root beer and sprite every now and then though.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

That's about where I am, results-wise. And occasionally I have ginger beer, though the kind I drink is sweetened mainly with pineapple juice and honey.

I find that drinking far less soda makes soda far less attractive to me, which has been a good thing in keeping off it.

[qedrakmar.livejournal.com]

Aspartame is much worse than that... It contains things that "occur naturally, such as in a banana" unfortunately, aspartame metabolizes into methanol, which, while it does occur in many fruits, et al, it occurs post-metabolically with what's needed to bind to it for excretion, namely ethanol. Methanol then re-metabolizes into formaldehyde (the real reason it damages you), which you do not excrete.

So, if you're going to have a Diet Coke, make sure you have a shot of vodka with every can, or kiss your brain goodbye in 20 years... There's a reason Aspartame is under FDA re-evaluation.

[headlouse.livejournal.com]

" Aspartame is composed of two amino acids, aspartic acid and the methyl ester of phenylalanine. When aspartame is absorbed by humans, approximately one-tenth of the dose is converted to methanol, which is then converted to formaldehyde, then immediately to formate, which is then converted to carbon dioxide and water. All of these conversions occur by normal metabolic processes. These same processes are used in converting the methanol found in many fruits, fruit juices, vegetables and wine to carbon dioxide and water. Thus, methanol is a natural by-product of the metabolism of many commonly consumed foods. In fact, a glass of tomato juice provides about five times as much methanol as a similar amount of diet soft drink containing aspartame. Many other juices also provide more methanol than a similar amount of soft drink. These amounts of methanol from many foods, or the lesser amounts from aspartame intake, are rapidly metabolized, do not accumulate in the body and cannot reach harmful amounts."

...believe what you want to believe but I prefer real scientific studies to internet urban rumors. Feel free to point me to real studies if you got them though. Oh and the FDA reevaluates things all the time -- it's their job -- there doesn't have to be any solid reasons for it.

[qedrakmar.livejournal.com]

It's nice that that's in quotes, but did you find it on a site run by NutraSweet? We all know Formaldehyde does not completely excrete... that's why it fucking kills you. Yes, it goes through the process mentioned above. About 70% of it does. The other 30% tend to stay with you. When it happens in a chain of a natural metabolism, it is pre-bound and removed, but when you extract it from the larger chains that it originally came from, you miss those vital ingredients, and the physical reaction is incomplete. In fact, if you read the statement you wrote closely, it's pretty much exactly the propoganda I've seen debunked (namely, that it's not cumulative), which I mentioned in my original comment.

If you want real references, check some of the following I found by searching for "Aspartame Methanol" on google.

http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/sci.bio.food-science/msg00352.html
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/methanol.faq

In fact, the only debunking of this I found was on aspartame.org, which is obviously a pro-aspartame site. Therefor any contrary studies are listed as "myths" because they wouldn't dare bad-name their own product, just as you'd have better luck turning lead into gold than you would getting the FDA to admit it was wrong. I'll admit, most of what's out there is people saying you can die from drinking a diet coke left in a warm car, which, if it were true, people would be dropping every day. However, it is not uncommmon for subtle and/or cumulative things like this to slip through the FDA, and since we have skeptics out there who perform their own studies, they come back up for re-evaluation years later.

And no, the FDA does NOT re-evaluate things "all the time". They're too busy with new products to worry about things that have already passed, unless they're given good reason to do so. If they did, it wouldn't have taken over 20 years since it's approval for it to come back under review...

On another note, knowing many people in the pharmaceuticals and food science industry, I do NOT trust things passed by the FDA to not be harmful. I merely acknowledged that someone said they were safe, and that someone is subject to fallibilty, bribes, etc... Data gets fudged, reports get lost, and testing is not always complete, or even relevant. The FDA (and all that it's hands are in) is a dirty business.

[coffeekitty.livejournal.com]

my impression is that the primary issue with fructose is that it bypasses one of the important regulatory steps in glycolysis.

i don't believe for a minute without a good solid reference that aspartame does anything to lipid metabolism, and the amounts of methanol that get produced as a byproduct are negligible. i bet i get more from just breathing in lab all day.

given that a lit search i did on aspartame a while ago turned up "it's basically innocuous," i'd like to see what references the claims you make come from, as if i missed something, i need to sharpen my research skills.

[evergrey.livejournal.com]

uh-oh. What are they saying about splenda?

[japlady.livejournal.com]

I had to sware of nutrasweet because it gave me migrains, the fructose info is depressing, and now your saying splenda is bad too...

Its back to water...

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

Hmm, most of the hits I'm finding by googling 'Splenda risks' seem to be mixed between reputable sites saying it's safe, and alarmist sites with little science backing it up saying it's bad.

Re: soda

[etherial.livejournal.com]

The worst part about soda is that people think it's a beverage.

[biailisha.livejournal.com]

It's not just the soda...
Anything in a can can and most likley contains corn syrup.

I read about this whole thing when I was working on my MBA. Turned out that, ADM was doing price fixing so that their corn syrup would be artificially cheaper than sugar. This forced Coca-Cola to start using corn syrup, and once that happened, due to supply and demand, various products stop using sugar and there was no turning back.

Drink Soda that is manufactured outside of this country (say, Calpico of Japan, or Mexican Coca-Cola). Eat organic and fresh veggies (all canned veggies have corn syrup in it).