Have another Diet Coke

Originally posted by MouseOnMars

Why would a corporation or company of any kind attempt to KILL it's customers?

I'd ask the ciggarette companies that one, or makers of alcoholic beverages. These things kill people on a regular basis.

I have to laugh.

I have posted a variety of important news items and links on every sort of subject impacting Americans and the World with little interest but let me mention Coca Cola and look at the nerve I hit.

Does anyone not grasped that any "Processed Foods" are not good for you? Is it so difficult to buy fruits and veggies from farmer's markets where the food is grown locally and not on corporate farms? Is it so hard to distill your own water?

Milk? HAve you ever seen where milk comes from? If you go visit a Dairy, you might think twice. Fact is, I don't see why grow people are drinking milk to start with; any kind of milk.

However, if I had to mention one thing a person can do to be more healthy, it would be to not eat so much; Americans are FAT.

Genetics are an issue that none of us can do anything about in the first person, ie you are already here and can't go back and pick your parents but, while we can talk about selective breeding of Animals, we can't mention it where humans are concerned and thus, look around at Americans.

It's probably not the artificial sweeteners, but rather the caffeine that triggers the migraines. I get them all the time, but they definitely decrease if I cut all the caffeine out of my drinks. Fortunately, there are plenty of perfectly good non-caffeinated beverages out there.

Funny that caffeine is a natural substance, causing the problems.

As for water, you know what W.C. Fields said about it...

[edit on 4-4-2008 by Nohup]

Originally posted by MajKarma
Does anyone not grasped that any "Processed Foods" are not good for you? Is it so difficult to buy fruits and veggies from farmer's markets where the food is grown locally and not on corporate farms? Is it so hard to distill your own water?

Yeah, I'm psychotically paranoid about my tap water that I'm going to distill it! Ha!

Again, how is it that more and more people are living longer and in reasonably good health when more and more processed food is being consumed? It seems like there's a positive correlation there, not a negative one. Of course, diseases increase as we get older, and with more older people there is more disease. It's age, not the processed foods, that are increasing the amount of disease in the population.

We humans are just not built to last. We're only programmed by our DNA to live as long as it takes our wisdom teeth to rot out, which naturally happens around 45-50 years old. Just long enough to see the grandchildren survive. Anything beyond that is a fluke, especially for females, since they don't add any additional genetics to the population after menopause.

But that's okay. You stroll down to the farmer's market every day (like anybody has the time for that) and get your raw carrots and raw wheat and raw meat, and you eat hearty. Don't forget that cooking is a "processing," too. And who knows what horrible thing refrigeration does to food.

Maybe you'll outlive me, maybe not. Maybe you'll be more healthy, but you're going to be more likely to get horribly sick from an e coli infection than me. Either way, we'll both eventually be dead.

And in the meantime, to save some time and effort, I'm going to indulge in the occasional frozen TV dinner or pizza or salty peanut (salt is a "processing," too). Bon appetit!

At the risk of being lambasted by the almost cult-life following of the anti-aspertame movement, I have to say: PLEASE!!!

Does anyone do any research anymore? The website listed, www.mercola.com... lists all sorts of "facts" and talks a good talk about "studies" done, but even a simpleton can check these claims.

For example, a "Dr. Russell L. Blaylock," supposedly of "Medical University of Mississippi" is listed. This "university" does not exist, and the only thing close is the "University of Mississippi's Medical Center," at which, no Dr. Russell L. Blaylock has ever researched, studied, published, or performed.

In fact, the only mention of this doctor or his credentials I could find are listed in anti-aspertame websites, as well the books this man himself is trying to peddle.


Now, for anyone who really wants the FACTS about this substance, please visit:
www.aspartame.org...

This is a comprehensive list of articles, studies, and papers written on the subject, and *GASP* they contain verifiable claims, people, contact information, and generally what is considered "scientific" evidence and documentation.

I know those die-hards out there will lump anything that disagrees with their personal beliefs into the "conspiracy against us" pile, but ask yourself: Are you denying ignorance by believing unsubstantiated claims made by people with unverifiable evidence?

I'm not going to go into the in's and out's of medical trials and stuff here particularly, other than to say that if you pay someone enough to prove something one way or the other then you are always going to get the results you want.

My personal experience with aspartame is that its bloody awful. It gives me severe migranes and it makes me feel sick. How do I know its aspartame? Well its only products that contain it that have that effect. Overtly cafffienated products like full sugar Red Bull don't do that.

I am also of the personal opinion that its a habit forming substance, and a behaviour modifier. Can I back that up with facts and proof? No - but I won't touch the stuff, and I won't let my kids have it either.

reply to post by misswanderer31


Despite the fluoride not being present in your tap water (which I find a little hard to believe, but then again, maybe not all states follow the same rules set when it comes to potable water), there are other toxins placed in order to "clean" the water or some of the stuff that doesn't get through the filtering system (rust from pipes, insec and animal parts etc.) I would suggest you get yourself a very good filter before you go chugging along the water thinking it's safer... look at it more closely next time, I know I had to switch to filter or bottled due to the fact I was finding white little flotaty thingies in my tap water. God only knows what they were.

[edit on 4-4-2008 by Question]

It amazes me how people are coming to the defense of these sugar substitutes for reasons that I can't seem to grasp. I think one of the contributing factors to the obese problems we have here in the US are these chemical replacements or "enhancements" to our food supply.

Here's a link that covers many studies on the stuff and results from different sources:

www.holisticmed.com...

Here's another link where members of parliament wanted to have the sweetener banned completely:

www.guardian.co.uk...

Now do you think that the members of parliament were swayed by a few Drs. that were faking their credentials? My guess is that they took a fair look into it and decided the risk outweighed the benefit.

I am lucky that our local Rainbow grocery store carries a large variety of natural foods and bulk organic goods. I also buy milk that comes from a local farmer that does not use hormones and will not allow milk from cows on anti-biotics to be shipped. As a bonus it comes in returnable glass containers that don't change the flavor of the milk. If you drink a glass of that next to the standard grocery brand milk it will amaze you how much different it tastes, the texture and thickness is much different, etc.

I've never had a problem drinking caffeine and getting migranes, in fact I have a weak spot for normal coke even if it has HFCS in it... It's just those nasty substitutes that really make my day a hell, any of them.

So tell me o' defenders of the chemicals, what is the reasoning behind your allegiance? Is it so hard to believe that once we start messing with nature too much, which by the way knows how to provide EVERYTHING our body needs to function properly, that we will start running into long term problems or short term "incompatibilities" with people that ingest them daily?

One other thing I was thinking of after I wrote that, for people that don't think there isn't some huge push to start using replacements like splenda (sucralose, NOT sucrose) take a look when you're at the store next and try to find some dry mix for Tang that doesn't have sucralose in it. I know that seems like a really weak example but it's just one that sticks out personally for me. Awhile ago I had purchased Tang as I always do and didn't pay much attention to the "New easier mixing formula" on the front of the package. I got it home, made a pitcher of it and proceeded to get a horrible headache, after I looked at the ingredients in it, it all made sense.

Now what really surprised me about that list was that sugar was also on the same list of ingredients. Now why the heck would you go and add both of these things in there? Isn't one sweetener enough?

There are other dry drink mixes that have started to do the same thing, Nestea iced tea mix I can no longer find with only sugar in it. At least I've got a simple replacement for that, Lipton, but I really liked my Tang.

As Michael Pollan says: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Why would anyone need to write a book called In Defense of Food? If we can afford it and can get our hands on it, we eat food several times a day. Or do we?

According to Michael Pollan, most of what Americans consume isn't food. He calls it "edible foodlike substances." He also says that the way we consume it is not really eating. It's something we do pretty unconsciously as we work or drive or watch TV.

We all know about the U.S. epidemic of obesity and diabetes over the past 25 years, on top of the steady rise of chronic diseases over the past hundred. Paradoxically, this happens just as Americans and the food industry are ever more aware of nutrition. What's going on here?

Alternet | Pollan: Nutrition 'Science' Has Hijacked Our Meals -- and Our Health

reply to post by Nohup

Edited to add, It takes no longer to pop by the farmers market once a week and buy fresh veggies and fruit that actually taste like something; and with all the goodies the get thrown in the regulars bags it doesnt end up costing anymore.

Plus its way more fun the standing in line behind the family with a kid only wearing diapers and two carts of food at walmart.
Have you ever noticed the difference between tyson chicken and the smart chicken or even sanderson farms. Tyson is always full of those nasty tumor/cyst nasty spots and it has no flavor at all. It is also packed full of brine and preservatives in the package so you are buying mostly water rather than meat by weight.

We eat pizza and burgers and I just polished off taco bell and a beer and a Diet Coke...I love the stuff I just limit how much I drink because of the whole migraine issue, now I am smoking a cigarette. But I try to balance the bad with the good and get enough fresh air and activity to stay healthy.

Earlier I had to pop in the grocery store to get some dog bones (raw beef knuckles no rawhide here) And there was a women with 4 kids and two of them had bottles with soda in them.
The older two were total spazzes, one of the babies was also having a fit trying to get out of the cart basically chaos....DUUHHHH what mom in their right mind gives kids something to make them more active.

My son "had a drink" of my pop the other day, which amounted to chugging down nearly an entire can of dr. pepper before breakfast, sneaky little toot. We had to go to the park because he was literally bouncing off the walls in the hallway. But what was even worse was the later crash from the sugar and caffeine.

I figure he has his entire life to drink pop and eat crap, but while I have a say Im going to do my best to make sure he learns to eat well and his body has what it needs to grow properly.


Caffeine actually helps with some headaches and migraines because it works as a vascular constrictor.

If I have a non-migraine headache coming on I can sometimes stop it with a huge glass of water and a double shot Latte or chugging a soda.

Food usually helps too as I tend to get busy and forget to eat enough during the day.

Distilled water isnt that good for you, it is essentially dead with none of the trace elements and ionic properties of living water. If your going to drink distilled open it up dump out about an inch or two then recap and shake it like crazy, at least then the osmotic pressure and oxygen are at somewhat more normal levels. A really good built in or brita filter changed often enough is a good choice though!

[edit on 5-4-2008 by gluetrap]

Anyone know what CocaCola Zero contains?

I'll do some research.

Aspartame is the sweetener found in Coke Zero. Here's some more info on what is in the different blends in different countries:

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by HaTaX


Exactly right, it's amazing how little people know about what they eat. For example, a lot of the edible substances have a bad habit of sticking around in your stomache a lot longer than if you ate the actual thing (sucrose instead of sucralose) so, since it's sticking around in your body longer, not only is it not really keeping your body healthy, it increases the more of it you eat. But this is just part of the problem, the other part of the problem is that americans are eating way too much when it comes to portions and are not bothering to look at labels. Example, you're only supposed to be eating foods that have about 7% sodium in them, and yet if you look at canned soup, it has 21% and up. In essence, if people paid closer attention, then we might not be in as bad a shape as we are right now.

It is sad and it stinks because technically I've had to completely change my eating habits, I drink only water and milk, I only eat the right portions of home cooked food and I no longer am allowed to buy junk food unless it's the ONLY thing left. Otherwise, everything is home cooked. But on the plus side, I've been loosing a lot of weight and I do feel alot more energizend than before. So even though it's hard to adjust, it was well worth it.

Originally posted by AcesInTheHole

Originally posted by MouseOnMars

Why would a corporation or company of any kind attempt to KILL it's customers?

I'd ask the ciggarette companies that one, or makers of alcoholic beverages. These things kill people on a regular basis.

This whole thread is full of some goddamn nebulous and ignorant statements, it pisses me off. And yours is pretty much the king of crime as far as this thread is concerned.

Despite the fact that A: the tobacco industry as a whole has only recently really understood the health effects of it's product, and B: it's people's free choice to damage their health with cigarettes if they get something out of it, and C: tobacco contains nicotine, which relates to a point I made in my original post about addictive additives, you entirely overlook this and go right on ahead with your theory that it's all the same crap.

Where the hell is the scientific evidence that Aspartame harms anyone? Or MSG? Or freezer bags or plastic bottles? I've been using all of the above for most of my life and I'm fine. I find it pathetic how people will totally inconvenience themselves every time there's any kind of health scare over some kind of product by completely cutting it out of their lives. They're such sheep. Like the guy who quit peanut butter in the 80s.. what the hell were you thinking man? You quit peanut butter for christs sakes? You're as bad as the Y2k theorists, only there's no deadline after which all the normal, intelligent people can point at you idiots and laugh about how goddamn wrong you all were.

This forum is about DENYING ignorance, not embracing it and making sweet love to it down by the MSG intolerance fuelled fireplace. Just telling me to "go right ahead and drink more of that stuff and prove us all right" doesn't solve or prove any goddamn thing except that you're an ignorant asshole who isn't content unless he's spreading some kind of stupid health myth/rumour.

And as for that guy who said that people on MSG and Aspartame are more stupid or whatever, I'm beginning to wonder if a symptom of Aspartame withdrawal is being totally blind to any kind of reason or logic. If you're not going to present your evidence, then I'm not going to buy into your crackpot theory. Especially when you people seem unable to differentiate between allergy and toxic reaction. And especially when you throw mud at me just because I won't change my mind based on a thread full of anti-aspartamers who want to talk amongst themselves about how they all agree that aspartame is bad.

So sling away, monkeys.

[edit on 6-4-2008 by MouseOnMars]

[edit on 6-4-2008 by MouseOnMars]

[edit on 6-4-2008 by MouseOnMars]

Originally posted by ford2007shelby
You know to me it seems like people really want to believe that everyone is out to get them. How could this conspiracy be, the diet industry is huge and how could they keep a cap on it with so many people involved. there is always going to be a disgruntled worker that would spill the beans. Just my thoughts and I'm crazy. hahahah

Maybe the beans have been spilled and Joe Six Pack just doesn't care... Seen it happen many times.

reply to post by neformore


I totally agree with you and yes it is absolutely the aspartame. My doctor has told me I shouldn't consume caffeine, citrus, alcohol or cheese. I consume all of them on a regular basis. If anything was going to trigger a migraine then it SHOULD be Vodka Redbull! However the only drink that I am aware of triggering a migraine almost immediately is DIET COKE!

just thought i would throw this out there
www.sciam.com...

sorry if someone already said this... i didn't read the whole thread