Diet Soda will Not Kill Me

I drink diet soda. I love it. I don’t drink alcohol, smoke, or gamble, so I need something as a vice. So when I see folks posting negative information about aspartame I start looking at the facts. Full disclosure, I work with physicians, scientists, nurses, administrators, and other professionals who research all the available information on the chemicals, medications, and poisons used to create the everyday products we all use. When I get the chance I always ask the question about Aspartame. In short, this is what I get “Aspartame is not harmful. It pretty much turns into methane in your system.” By the way…so does broccoli and cauliflower. So the danger isn’t to me…just passers by.

In fact I pulled this out of a medical database:

Normal Dosage

A) MAXIMUM DOSE

1) Ingestion of aspartame 50 milligrams/kilogram/day has no toxic effects and has been established by the FDA as the acceptable daily intake. This amount is equivalent to a daily consumption of approximately 17 twelve-ounce cans of 100% aspartame sweetened soft drink by a 70 kilogram (154 lb) person (Anon, 1987).

I’m not sure about you, but 17 cans a day of anything would make me hurl. That’s almost two gallons of liquid. I’m pretty sure I’m OK with my 2 cans a day. Since this is the science I’d like you all to please stop telling me I’m going to die from diet soda while you eat tons of sugar, fried foods, pastry, alcohol, fat, grease, cooking oils and saturated fats. On the list of things that can poison to the body I think I’m OK. And if you smoke…well…forgive me if I don’t take your advice on healthy living.

Just to provide more support for the facts you can go to this article on WebMD that provides insight http://www.webmd.com/diet/sodas-and-your-health-risks-debated?page=4. Basically, these studies are alarmist drivel. Even the studies that state that your brain processes the sweetener as sugar are not really studies, but opinions from researchers based on personal bias.

Articles about diet soda causing people to be fat are very amusing. What they leave out are the dietary choices people make while drinking diet soda. Many people think if they have the diet Coke, they can then have the Twinkies. This is how they gain weight. In fact “legitimate” studies (more than 1000 people…not 10) show that switching from sugar sodas to diet soda has a greater improvement on weight loss than switching just to water. The reason: carbonation fills you up and water does not.

Does this mean that some people can’t have an allergy to the chemical? Of course not. I have allergies to stupid people. Taken in small doses I’m OK. However too many cause me to have an overwhelming desire to beat them about the head and neck with a baseball bat. I’m taking medication for the issue, but even the best drugs in the world can’t cure everything. Besides…some of them really need a whack in the head.

Oh I’m sure there will be nay sayers. I can even tell you who they will be before they half-assed read this article. However they’re just like the people who think vaccines are killing their children even though all of the “science” around the issue has been disproven over…and over…and over…again…and again…and again. Never let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy.

If you still have difficulty with this just keep in mind, none of what I posted is my opinion. It is science, based on pure scientific findings and not on half-baked articles in non-medical journals based on studies of 100 people or less who had so many major physical problems it was impossible to tell what was killing them in the first place. In fact, all scientists will tell you that unless you discount other lifestyle factors you will never get a complete study of anything. This is why I’m always amused when someone states that diet drinks are linked to stroke, cardiac arrest, impotence, cancer, and diabetes and then when I read the study I find that it was a study of 50 people, all who are 100 to 300 pounds overweight and are all on a constant diet of bacon fat and lard. Of course they’re going to have a heart attack. With those types of study subjects I could say Sesame Street caused their heart attack. It wouldn’t make it true!

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