I would try to avoid anything with artificial sweetners, and caffeine. I like how cola companies say they add caffeine for "flavor enhancement." Bullshit...caffeine is bitter and these drinks are supposed to be sweet.
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Is Diet Coke Dangerous? (Aspartame related)
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radioheadrule83
Banned
I love snopes! 
I tell you what else I've been drinking a lot lately. Smoothies! We got a smoothy maker this week and I'm getting all sorts of fruity stuffs that I wouldn't touch normally. Tastes far better than any softdrink I've ever bought.
Does anyone else not eat some fruits - not because they don't like the taste - but because they don't like the texture, or how they pop/squirt in your mouth n stuff? That really makes me balk for some reason. Gotta love these amazing inventions..
I tell you what else I've been drinking a lot lately. Smoothies! We got a smoothy maker this week and I'm getting all sorts of fruity stuffs that I wouldn't touch normally. Tastes far better than any softdrink I've ever bought.
Does anyone else not eat some fruits - not because they don't like the taste - but because they don't like the texture, or how they pop/squirt in your mouth n stuff? That really makes me balk for some reason. Gotta love these amazing inventions..
radioheadrule83 said:I love snopes!
I tell you what else I've been drinking a lot lately. Smoothies! We got a smoothy maker this week and I'm getting all sorts of fruity stuffs that I wouldn't touch normally. Tastes far better than any softdrink I've ever bought.
Does anyone else not eat some fruits - not because they don't like the taste - but because they don't like the texture, or how they pop/squirt in your mouth n stuff? That really makes me balk for some reason. Gotta love these amazing inventions..
I heard smoothies will disolve an entire set of dentures in mere hours ;p
Alcibiades
Member
I'm going to try to stay away from some of this stuff soon, don't want any kidney problems with stones and stuff...
now, when I go to out to eat, I try to get lemonade, powerade, or sprite of they don't have those other options, am I going the right route, or is sprite bad too (these are at fast food places or subway)...
also, recently I've been getting those Pepsi iTunes promotion bottles, is Mountain Dew as bad as Pepsi in terms of danger of kidney stones, or is it ok, cause I've been trying to stick with Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew Code Red...
I've been looking for Sierra Mist, but can't seem to find bottles of that with the promotional caps...
any help would be appreciated
now, when I go to out to eat, I try to get lemonade, powerade, or sprite of they don't have those other options, am I going the right route, or is sprite bad too (these are at fast food places or subway)...
also, recently I've been getting those Pepsi iTunes promotion bottles, is Mountain Dew as bad as Pepsi in terms of danger of kidney stones, or is it ok, cause I've been trying to stick with Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew Code Red...
I've been looking for Sierra Mist, but can't seem to find bottles of that with the promotional caps...
any help would be appreciated
efralope said:
Sprite and Coke are essentially the same thing in dietary terms. Many 'energy drinks also contain artificial sweeteners. Genuine lemonade shouldn't be a problem, but if it's a mass produced product then it might be. It's best to stick to fruit juices/mineral water or even fruit flavoured water.
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ddkawaii said:
Artifical sweeteners have always given me problems. When I was younger, the effects were so noticable that I would actually be scared of going back to them. When I was like 16 years old, I was drinking a diet root beer, and when I was halfway done with it my heart started beating extremely fast and I had serious breathing problems (no, I was not at a strange party). I instantly stopped drinking it, and the effects went away like 20 minutes later. I seem to be more tolerant of diet sodas now, however the effects will still end up giving me serious problems if I keep drinking them, however it isn't as instant (I just learned this late last year, actually). I've learned that if I stay away from diet soda/artificial gum for a long time and then come back to them, at first, it doesn't bother me. It's only if I keep drinking diet sodas and/or chewing artifically sweetened gum.
Anyway, after drinking diet soda for a couple weeks, I end up getting dizzy, occasionally will get a headache, my heart beats a little faster and my vision gets a little darker, and worst of all I have a really, really hard time breathing whenever I'm physically active or tired. I also find it harder to concentrate and my mood changes. I breathe in, and even though I can breathe in completely it feels like I could always use some more air. Like my chest is bruised, or something. Really weird. It might sound like a heart problem to you, but I'm certainly not at risk for that. Furthermore this never, ever happens at any other time. It ONLY happens after I am consuming artifical sweeteners for extended periods of time. If I were to drink a diet coke right now, I'd probably start getting the same problems, because it has only been a couple months. But if I wait another six, I could probably drink diet coke for a week and probably not feel the effects of it yet. I could chew a dentyne ice today and probably be fine, because it doesn't have as much sweetener as a glass of diet coke would. I think it seriously has to do with how your body breaks down the chemical. In fact I read that aspartame and similar sweeteners get almost completely absorbed in your tissue because your body mistakes it for a real substance... this could explain a lot of things. Doing a google search for aspartame symptoms is unbelievable. But I've learned my lesson, I'm never going back to aspartame (or ANYTHING artificial) and I'll chew real gum, thanks.
Aspartame is some bad Sh!t dude! Don't drink too much of the stuff because it can mess you up, BAD!!! When I need to loose weight I stop drinking juice and soda nad start drinking water and flavored water. Well, after about two weeks of drinking flavored water I get really sick, I mean really sick! My body just cant take the amount of Aspartame and it seems to start shutting down. Anyway, I stay away from that stuff, it is pretty controversial, and at higher temps becomes poison.
Eh, with the amount of aspartame that is consumed in this world, the amount of attention aspartame has received (from FDA, etc), and the resulting lack of any remotely conclusive results indicating aspartame is dangerous, I'm not worried about drinking diet soda.
Plus, every one of those aspartame kills sites, not one of them looks legitimate. They either lay on the information so much for the scare effect, or they are trying to sell you something for healthy living (book/movie).
Plus, every one of those aspartame kills sites, not one of them looks legitimate. They either lay on the information so much for the scare effect, or they are trying to sell you something for healthy living (book/movie).
D
Deleted member 4784
Unconfirmed Member
My father has Parkinson's Disease and one of the recent studies being conducted in relation to the illness that I've read of are the chemicals and chemical byproducts contained in artificial sweeteners. Some medical institutions suspect that 6-Dichlorofructose -- a chemical produced through artificial sweeteners being metabolized or "broken down" in the body -- poses potentially harmful affects to neurological functions in the brain associated with dopamine production or intake in circumstances of long-term exposure (in this case, digestion of Diet Coke). The scary part is that no long-term studies have been done relating to how the body may react or adapt to 6-Dichlorofructose in the body until now. Personally, I'm inclined to stay away from anything that is suspected of having potentially toxic reactions to neurological functions whether there is scientific proof of the danger or not. IMO, the fact that it is being suspected of having links to Parkinson's Disease is reason incriminating reason enough for someone to steer clear of it.
D
Deleted member 4784
Unconfirmed Member
Many drinks contain Splenda. I know that Clearly Canadian and Fruit2O are among them off the top of my head. Most sodas these days are making the move to Splenda.
marko said:
Some of the most serious effects of aspartame et al are generally regarded as being long-term in nature; Parkinson's and Alzheimer's for example. The FDA is more generally more concerned with short-term risks, and long-term risks take longer to study in any event. It's a bit of self-defeating situation actually, where they can approve something after ten 10 years when most people will be consuming the product for the majority of their lifetime.
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mightynine
Member
AstroLad said:
Hells yeah, Type 1 in the hizzy!
By the way, I recommend anyone who wants something that is excellent to go seek out the Sugar-free Ready to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies that Pillsbury just put out. Holy hell, they are so wrong but they are so good.
Hey Stro, how limited are your carbs in your diet? My A1C levels are way too high, and I probably need to look into something like yours.
mightynine said:
They are very limited relative to the average person's diet. I eat around 6g for breakfast, 12g for lunch, and 12g for dinner. I follow Dr. Bernstein's plan and highly recommend his book "The Diabetes Diet" (simpler, quicker version) or "The Diabetes Solution." Basically Bernstein was a Type 1 who was on the verge of serious complications decades ago, back when the medical community recommended a high-carb diet for diabetics (which is still sadly somewhat the case) and there was literally very little hope for them to avoid kidney, eye, etc. problems; he came up with this diet on his own, just monitoring the effects of different foods, etc. (he was also one of the first people to regularly monitor his blood sugar since meters weren't widely available at the time).
It breaks down to a few very simple principles though. #1- The Law of Small Numbers. When you eat fewer carbs, the room for error is less. FDA packaging only requires accuracy within about 15-20%; and even beyond that it's still it's very hard to know how many carbs are truly in something. When you're taking in, say 10 grams for a meal and you need 1 unit of humalog to keep your sugar normal, then if it's really 8 grams or 12 grams, you will miss your target by a relatively small amount and generally keep healthy sugars. If however you think you are eating 100g, and it's really 80g or 120g, you have a greatly increased danger for both a seizure on the low end or unhealthy high blood sugars otherwise. It's a very simple idea, but at the same time literally millions of diabetics would be able to avoid amputations, blindness, etc. if they knew about it and could follow it.
The other thing is that you can't eat any fast-acting carbs (no sugars, no starches). For example, the only major source of carbs for me are Wasa Fiber Rye crackers (which I put cheese or jelly (I'll explain that later) on), other than that I have veggies (though no carrots or potatoes or other super-starchy veggies, lots of salad), some cheese, meat etc. There's actually a lot of stuff you can still eat even w/o eating fast-acting carbs (though it is stricter than, say, Atkins). The reason for this is to keep postprandial (after-eating) levels low. Most diabetics have higher postprandial levels even when on insulin and taking the right amount, because they are eating carbs which increase their levels quickly (bread, candy, pasta, etc. etc. etc.), so the only real solution is to just eat the levels and take the damage that comes along with it or risk low blood sugars by taking more insulin than you really need between now and the next time you eat... or just avoiding the problems caused by fast-acting carbs altogether. Now the timing and everything is highly dependent on what insulin you are taking (e.g. regular or humalog) and your own body's metabolism, so Bernstein lays out a plan for figuring out how and when to take insulin.
Also, he is very strict about numbers. To him, diabetics should strive for 85 average at all times. Now you can find doctors who say 120 is okay or even some that say 140 is okay if it's within a few hours of eating, but studies have shown that at a 120 average, damage still occurs, and most non-diabetics average between 80-100 with a very slight postprandial increase. The fact is most doctors simply accept it as fact that type 1s will have problems, which is why the fucking ADA guideline is still a mind-blowing 7.0 (not that there is anything mind-blowingly bad about people who get a 7.0, but if you look at the studies it is nowhere near a safe number for avoiding long-term complications). My most recent A1C (and really my A1C target also) was 4.7. It's been about 3 months, so I'm due, I may go to the doc to get it or just get the home test (20 bucks, but saves me having to wait for hours and then days), which I think even Bristol-Myers makes now (used to be only a small company, Metrika). I did a home test once before a lab one and I think there was .1 difference, so I recommend them if it fits your lifestyle. Anything below 5.1 is good. To some people this seems crazy at first, but seriously if you follow Bernstein and even just the general principles I talked about above, it's almost impossible not to get around a 5.0. It's just a matter of readjusting thinking and expectations and not listening to the people who say 7.0 is "ok" and then expect you to come in in 20 years to get your dialysis but at least you had a good time along the way.
There are what I eat carb-wise:
Amazingly, a lot of people know about them and eat them (non-diabetics), but I had never heard of them before Bernstein. They are pretty good if you put something on them. Bernstein also recommends a few other brands if you want to know which ones I can find them.
As you know, there are a decent amount of "sugar free" things out there. To me, sugar free can be bullshit. If it's "sugar free" but has more carbs than the equivalent sugar product, the only benefit to me as a diabetic is that it will take three hours for my blood sugar to soar rather than two. It's still made with fast-acting carbs that act only marginally slower than sugar. Same with "Sugar Alcohols" which is the biggest hoax in food labeling. Yes, they will make your blood sugar go up as much as sugar (though, again, a little slower), no I have no fucking clue why they're not required to be counted as carbs. What you want in a carb-free product is 1-2g per serving at most (servings can vary, but this is a good benchmark for me at least), hopefully with 0 sugar. Some of this Atkins stuff has like 24g vs. say 32 for a regular chocolate bar, first of all it's all fast-acting so it's out, second of all, how the fuck is this low carb, what it is is lower carb, but that means nothing? You'd seriously be better off eating half the real chocolate bar.
There's a place I discovered just a few months ago and I am absolutely in love with their products- www.waldenfarms.com. Here is the jam I was talking about:
There are tons of flavors of fruit spread, and I guess they have a tiny bit of fruit in them (like drops), but 0g on the label and I have eaten half a jar of this stuff w/ ZERO impact on my blood sugar (which is very sensitive btw). I highly recommend the Apple Butter (which tastes fucking amazing, seriously just as good as any sugar product I've ever had). The fruit spreads obviously aren't exactly the same taste as a sugartastic fruit spread, but imo they are different but good. I recommend the Apricot, Strawberry, and Raspberry. Also they have chocolate and marshmallow dip if you can believe it. Zero carbs. Again, it won't be putting Hershey's out of business any time soon, but for a diabetic who usually only eats sugar-free Jello and drinks diet soda for a sugar fix, it is a God-send. There are also other little tricks like e.g. you can put american cheese slices into the microwave for about 45 seconds and they become crispy like break and are good as hell; I use two to make sandwiches all the time. I even have a pizza "recipe" that has ~1g of carbs that uses this, the no-carb ketchup from Walden, Hormel Pepperoni, mozarella cheese, and oregano. It smells and tastes almost exactly like real pizza. I am truly proud of this creation since, again, it has almost no effect on my blood sugar.
Anyway, hth, feel free to ask if you have any questions. I have been doing this for 6 months now and I'm feeling great.
The formaldehyde thing is totally overblown. The actual possible amount of formaldehyde that you could possibly metabolize from a can of diet coke could be described as a trace of a trace at best.
Aspartame is so powerfully sweet that only a very small amount is needed to flavor anything. There's only 200mg of it in a can of pop.... this is 0.007 ounces. I'd wager we probably ingest more than that of much more harmful chemicals out the air and such.
That being said, if quitting diet soda makes you feel better by all means do it. Saves you money and all that to boot
Aspartame is so powerfully sweet that only a very small amount is needed to flavor anything. There's only 200mg of it in a can of pop.... this is 0.007 ounces. I'd wager we probably ingest more than that of much more harmful chemicals out the air and such.
That being said, if quitting diet soda makes you feel better by all means do it. Saves you money and all that to boot
mightynine
Member
Astro, thanks for the info. Been dealing with this stuff for over 10 years, but of course, I only saw my A1C levels go up after I left home to go to college...damn, almost eight years ago.
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