Has anyone noticed that only the generic sodas use Splenda? And that the difference between Splenda and Aspartame is huge?
I say this as I drink a diet soda flavored with Splenda.
But diet soda creeps me out in some way. It's got flavor, but no calories. How is that POSSIBLE? Is there a negate-effect somewhere, so that every Diet Pepsi we drink, a star winks out of existence?
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Splenda tasts a lot like sugar flavored soda...it has the sweetness and not the bitterness that aspartame has.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Aspartame sounds like an amino acid. Why would anyone drink an amino acid? Splenda sounds better, but it's more something a metrosexual would drink...
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I hate how people have been calling Splenda "the healthy alternative" or crap like that. It's not healthy; we just don't know what it does yet.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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It's simple, pH, Splenda is packaged in yellow and Aspartame is packaged in blue.
*grin*
I think that Splenda's supposed to be made from natural ingredients. It tastes nasty to me, but to each her own. I like aspartame (equal, natrasweet) because it dissolves better than sugar in iced tea and doesn't have an aftertaste (to me--qualifier alert!) like sugar does.
I prefer using generic/offbrand aspartame because it is cheaper than Equal(tm) and tastes the same.
(edited to mutter about people who reply faster than I *mutter*mutter*)
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I'm telling you. For every aspartame flavored diet soda we consume, there's a star winking out somewhere in the universe and the people warmed by that star are cursing our aspartame drinking ways.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Aspartame apparently also has the added side-benefit (sarcasm) that it slows one's metabolism down. Thus, if one drinks Nutrasweetened diet drinks at one's meals, it can result in weight gain rather than loss. Cool, eh?
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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I wouldn't doubt it. That's why I only have the fattening sodas. I figure dying of a high cholesterol is probably about as bad as dying of cancer, and normal sugar tastes better, anyway.
I will use honey on things like my cereal, though.
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what if artificial sweetener is really made out of little tiny sugar people and the cancer is their way of getting back at us?
Posts: 1658 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:what if artificial sweetener is really made out of little tiny sugar people and the cancer is their way of getting back at us?
Or what if cancer is actually the sugar people's fountain of youth and they think they're helping us by giving it to us?
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I had a friend whose mother went crazy because she had too much Nutrasweet (aspartame) in her system.
Of course, she drank 24 diet pepsis a day.
Moderation, my friends, moderation in all things.
My friend's mother had to switch to *shudder* Tab. I think that is sweetened with saccharine. I use the word 'sweetened' to mean 'not sweetened in any way conceivable', of course.
She is still crazy.
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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I have heard that aspartame is fairly addictive, but this is hearsay and I have not read any reputable documents confirming such. All the same, I would not use it.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Oh, if that scares you, you should know soy protein isolate also slows the metabolism. It depresses the thyroid. So all those energy bars...
Splenda is sugar bound with chlorine, so it can't be absorbed.
Aspartame is a synthetic amino.
All sweet things make you want more sweets, even if they don't raise insulin. They can make you hungrier. Unless you are one of those people who easily transmutes sweet stimulus into fantasies about Viggo Mortenson.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Moose man done gained back over half of the weight he lost when he was on a strict Atkins diet, so maybe Moose don't know so much.
I used to say that saccharine caused cancer, aspartame caused brain damage, and sugar caused fat, and I choose fat. But so far, sucralose doesn't seem to cause anything except sweetness, so I'm ok with Diet Hansen's, because fat ain't all that pleasant, either. And once I'm out of stocking candy, I'm gonna Atkins it again. Exactly what I'm not supposed to do, I realize, but until I get a job, I can't afford to buy larger size pants.
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Just remember to keep chocolate in your diet (the real stuff, as lightly sweetened as you can tolerate with enjoyment).
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote: Honey is NO heathier than sugar, btw. It's a popular myth, but it just ain't so.
I know, but it's more natural. I get my honey from a special honey dealer place, not from the store. And, besides, I think honey tastes better; it's just not as...what's the word...as sugar.
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Sorry, it's the "former science teacher" thing striking again.
I prefer the taste of honey too. I'm just used to students who are convinced that honey (or fructose, or some other alternative for white sugar that still IS sugar) is significantly more healthy.
But I'm with you on the taste! I use honey in my tea, in whole wheat bread, and lots of other stuff.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Swish a berry in your mouth, and anything sour you eat for about a half an hour tastes sweet. It's a long-chain protein that attaches to taste buds and activates the sweet sensors when something acidic touches it. I've given people straight lemon juice and they thought it was lemonade.
Not used in the U.S., but popular in Japan. Non nutritive and no funny taste.
Posts: 173 | Registered: Jun 2002
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Splenda is a structural isomer of regular sugar (three hydrogen/carbon groups are switched) that cannot be metabolized by the human body. Our enzymes don't fit it, so it passes through unmetabolized.
FDA-approved since 1999. Long-term studies still pending.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Sorry I got here late. CT is exactly correct, and I would be surprised that Splenda could have many long-term health concerns considering its chemistry.
Nutrasweet on the other hand frightens me. I lecture my wife about intake and will not let my children drink Nutrasweet containing products.
Interesting facts:
Coca-Cola petitioned the FDA to not let aspartame become approved because its own in-house data was alarming. This was done very quietly, but some references can be found on the web if you search.
Aspartame is metabolized with methanol or "wood alcohol" as a by-product. This in itself is not dangerous in lower amounts. Certain fruits have the same catabolism pathway. But for the aunties that drink a case of Diet Pepsi a day, the consequences can be very debilitating.
I recommend that no one drink Nutrasweet products, and if you feel compelled to anyway, to limit your intake to one serving per day.
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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This is another HIGHLY INFORMATIVE conspiracy posts on an artificial sweetener called Stevia. It is not FDA approved, and for good reason. It would cause the Nutrasweet market to end up like the saccharin market, and we as Americans are SUPPOSED to worship the dollar.
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Most toxic levels of aspartame mimic the broad-rangings symptoms of Lupus. Often, initial diagnoses of Lupus are ruled out by lab testing and analysis, and later the problem is found out to be excessive aspartame consumption.
Lupus is a disease that affects the immune system. We can think of the immune system as an army within the body with hundreds of defenders (known as antibodies). They defend the body from attack by germs and viruses. In lupus, however, the immune system becomes overactive and creates antibodies that attack healthy tissues in the body, such as: the skin, kidneys, lungs, heart and brain. This attack induces inflammation, causing redness, pain, and swelling.
More people have lupus than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined. The Lupus Foundation of America estimates that between 1,400,000 and 2,000,000 people reported to have been diagnosed with lupus. For most people lupus is a mild disease. For others, it may cause serious and even life-threatening problems.
Definition taken from The Lupus Foundation of Greater Washington
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Sorry Rivka, I read your post but skipped the links. You can have the credit on that one! Aside from the entire art. sweetener debate, I just LOVE the nexusmagazine website. Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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