Time Magazine article

[NoNo]

Laugh all you want, but I don't trust any of those "just like sugar!" sweeteners. If I want something sweetened, I'm going to use sugar, not a sugar-like substance created in a lab. No one knows what the long term effects of these newer, "safer" sweeteners are. Why take the risk? Oh, that's right. The FDA has never approved something that later turned out to be harmful.

[Owlie]

Laugh all you want, but I don't trust any of those "just like sugar!" sweeteners. If I want something sweetened, I'm going to use sugar, not a sugar-like substance created in a lab. No one knows what the long term effects of these newer, "safer" sweeteners are. Why take the risk? Oh, that's right. The FDA has never approved something that later turned out to be harmful.

I agree with you on the sugar substitutes, really. (Trichlorinated sucrose...yum... ) At least I know what real sugar does. I took the DHMO comments to be in response to your comment about them being "pure chemicals" because, well, sugar is a chemical as well...

<..and so the chemistry major slunk back into the shadowy corner of the lab, to only be seen during events offering free food>

[witeowl]

Laugh all you want, but I don't trust any of those "just like sugar!" sweeteners. I

For the record, I wasn't poking fun at your aversion to artificial sweeteners. People avoid all sorts of products for all sorts of reasons.

I just wanted to point out the folly behind what appeared to be a fear of chemicals. Everything is chemicals. We are chemicals. (Well, to a point...)

That's all.

[smilingcat]

Sadly many people will fall for the humor as real. Dihydrogen monoxide => hydrogen hydroxide (going up from potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide so its only natural to call it hydrogen hydroxide).

It's almost as bad as one of the techs at my office telling me about HHO fuel technology.

well whether you add chlorine or fluorine to the end of the sugar molecule or any other thing, its probably a not a good thing. If its not natural, your body may not know what to do with it. Sometimes, your body may break it down in most unexpected way and it may be quite disastrous. Something benign turns into carcinogenic substance. Chlorine is a very strong radical and fluroine more so. If they were to become free radicals in your body oh my

anyway... I stay away from ALL artificial sweetners. I think they are all bad. Mind as well drink soft drink with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is very bad. just my 2cents.

[OakLeaf]

If they were to become free radicals in your body oh my

And remember just 15 or 20 years ago when the medical community reacted to the idea of "free radicals" and "acid-forming foods" as though we were discussing "dihydrogen monoxide."

[NoNo]

My point wasn't just that artificial sweeteners are bad, but that they play into the notion that you're somehow having something healthier because it doesn't have sugar in it. And my friend is a perfect example of what the Time article was talking about. He works out several times a week, and the rest of the week he plays ice hockey. You'd think someone like that would be in decent shape, but he's a large boy Why? His diet, quite frankly, sucks. But he honestly thought he was having something decent because the marketing has taught him that sugar is evil. Well you're still taking in empty calories! Stop trying to get your vitamins from scientifically created "fruit-like beverages", and just have some water and eat an apple. Try eating some vegetables. Just don't think you can eat cookies and snacks and get all the nutritional value you need because things have been fortified with some vitamin or another. Of couse, when I told him that, he told me to "F*** off!" Maybe some people don't want to hear the truth, or they already know it but don't have the guts to make the change. All I know is my IBS has pretty much disppeared since I started eating real foods, and the less pain I'm in the happier I am!

[witeowl]

Of couse, when I told him that, he told me to "F*** off!" Maybe some people don't want to hear the truth, or they already know it but don't have the guts to make the change.

Personal choice does not equal "lack of guts". I know how sugar affects me and choose to ingest artificial sweeteners because I do better without the highs and lows. Other people choose not to exercise. Other people choose to drink or smoke or play video games. Whatever. I can't judge them, can I?

Also, was this unsolicited advice? I know I get pretty irate when on the receiving end of that, no matter how well-meaning the giver.

[witeowl]

Sadly many people will fall for the humor as real.

True. That is why I pointed out to Wikipedia in this case (which openly points out that it's an old hoax). People did very much fall for it as real years ago when it started as a petition years ago. And that, really, is the point, isn't it?

I'm not going to eat hemlock just because it grows and is a completely natural, unprocessed food. I'm also not going to stop using sodium chloride just because it sounds a little scary.

People are free to make decisions about what they ingest as they see fit. But they need to be educated about the decisions they make, and they need to know what they're saying before they attempt to impact others' decisions.

[Jolt]

For the record, I wasn't poking fun at your aversion to artificial sweeteners. People avoid all sorts of products for all sorts of reasons.

I just wanted to point out the folly behind what appeared to be a fear of chemicals. Everything is chemicals. We are chemicals. (Well, to a point...)

That's all.

Exactly! That said, there are chemicals that our bodies are well equipped to handle (such as sugar in moderation) and those that they aren't. Artificial sweeteners fall into that second category, and they just play into the craving for unnatural levels of sweetness rather than solving any problems. It's better to learn to eat naturally sweet things like fruit when we want something sweet, and stay away from the sweetened processed foods.