<p>Just this last weekend, I was telling several people how dangerous dihydrogen monoxide is. It kills more than 5000 people every year, and countless more are injured. And yet, it can be found in every household in the world!</p>
<p>(I have a manifesto about DHMO that I used to read to students at the beginning of the year in chemistry. It’s a shameless example of how obfuscation can be used to inspire fear in those who don’t understand science. Thank you, Starbright, for the reminder.)</p>
<p>I have found that my B.S. degree has been very helpful when it comes to understanding many things in everyday life!!</p>
<p>
I think a BS detector is almost as valuable.</p>
<p>Hunt, I wholeheartedly agree!!!</p>
<p>“The dose makes the poison.” - Paracelsus, sometime in the 1500’s</p>
<p>Anything is toxic if consumed in sufficient quantity.</p>
<p>I get headaches if I consume a lot of aspartame - like 5 or 6 cans of diet soda.</p>
<p>“Well, don’t drink 6 cans of diet soda a day, dumb-a**!” I hear you say.</p>
<p>I don’t drink diet soda (or regular soda) any more.</p>
<p>The conspiracy theories are fun because they hit a lot of hot buttons - Donald Rumsfeld, government corruption, corporate shenanigans, influence-peddling, etc.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what is being said about splenda? Good, bad or is the jury still out?</p>
<p>Fwd: Aspartame Submission from Prof. Woodrow C. Monte to EFSA:
While Science Sleeps: A Sweetener Kills 241 p – Ch 12 Autism and other
Birth Defects 26 p – 740 </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/While%20Science%20Sleeps%20-%20Chapter%2012%20(ref).pdf[/url]”>http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/While%20Science%20Sleeps%20-%20Chapter%2012%20(ref).pdf</a></p>
<p>Download Chapter 12 of the book “While Science Sleeps”</p>
<p>A compelling must read full of shocking facts</p>
<p>[Dangers</a> of Aspartame & Methanol](<a href=“http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/]Dangers”>http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/)</p>
<p>Aspartame is indeed 11% methanol (wood alcohol), which the human body
quickly turns into formaldehyde via the ADH enzyme, concentrated in
many tissues: Rich Murray 2011.11.02</p>
<p>Aspartame is indeed 11% methanol (wood alcohol), which the human body
quickly turns into formaldehyde via the ADH enzyme, concentrated in
many tissues: liver, kidney, brain, retina, skin, prostate, breast,
womb, muscle – forming cumulative micro lesions and a wide variety of
symptoms.</p>
<p>Other methanol (formaldehyde) sources include wood and tobacco smoke,
dark wines and liquors, fruits and vegetables heated in sealed metal
and glass containers, and aspartame, as well as a variety of products
ranging from medicines to new carpet, drapes, and furniture to mobile
homes.</p>
<p>People vary enormously in individual vulnerability.</p>
<p>Folic acid can protect many people.</p>
<p>See while-science-sleeps.com/references/pdf/586</p>
<p>Prof. (retired) Woodrow C. Monte.</p>
<p>Amid health fears, Diet Coke sweetener [aspartame] in safety
spotlight, Sean Poulter, UK Daily Mail 2011.05.27</p>
<p>Seiclan, this site has info about Splenda as well as other sweeteners: </p>
<p>[Sugar</a> substitutes and the potential danger of Splenda](<a href=“http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx]Sugar”>http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx)</p>
<p>It certainly hasn’t been definitively proven harmful. I wouldn’t use it, though.</p>
<p>Good lord, RichMurray. You are quoting a book, not a peer-reviewed article. Anyone can write a book and say whatever they like. Especially when fear sells and most of the audience is not educated enough to make their own judgements. </p>
<p>Methanol? </p>
<p>How about the joint study by the UN, the World Health Organization and the ILO which reviews the extensive research on this topic and notes that methanol is a naturally occurring substance, of which only a tiny portion of exposure comes from ingestion of food. How about that the quantity of methanol in aspartame is much lower than that found in fruit juice? </p>
<p>Or do you believe its one big conspiracy theory that this Woodrow guy has uncovered? </p>
<p>[Methanol</a> (EHC 196, 1997)](<a href=“Methanol (EHC 196, 1997)”>Methanol (EHC 196, 1997))</p>
<p>
</code></pre>
<p>I’m not a fan of aspartame and do not eat any sugar substitutes, but in defense of the substane I have to say this: one has to eat a bowl of it and metabolize it all at once to get a lethal dose of methanol. Anyone taking Chem 101 can calculate the amount (assuming that it all will be converted to methanol right away).</p>
<p>Really, RichMurray? How about providing peer reviewed research instead of a book link? There are books that state aliens built the pyramids and that aliens gave the ancient Greeks a technology boost. Anyone can write a book and claim what they want. Does not make it true. Don’t believe junk science.</p>
<p>
beep…beep…beepbeepbeep</p>
<p>Of course, nutty theories saying that aspartame is bad don’t necessarily mean that it’s OK</p>
<p>I know several people (DH among them) who insist that aspartame gives them bad headaches. I have no reaction whatsoever to it, but I hear the headache thing frequently.</p>
<p>I just don’t care too much for the taste, though I do have the rare diet soda.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some diet soft drinks no longer contain aspartame. They have been reformulated in the past few years and now are sweetened with sucralose (Splenda) or a sucralose/acesulfame K combination instead.</p>
<p>If your husband is game, you might like to try a little test, by having him drink aspartame-sweetened diet soda on several occasions and sucralose-sweetened diet soda on several other occasions, without letting him the label on the can. If he only gets headaches when he drinks the aspartame-sweetened soda, it probably is the aspartame that’s responsible. But if his headaches show a different pattern, maybe the headaches have a different cause (caffeine? drinking something that’s too cold?).</p>
<p>Interesting article in BU Today about the effect of artificial sweeteners on teeth. It has to do with the acidity of these products.</p>
<p>[Sugar-Free</a> Doesn?t Mean Worry-Free | BU Today | Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/sugar-free-doesn’t-mean-worry-free/]Sugar-Free”>http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/sugar-free-doesn’t-mean-worry-free/)</p>
<p>The article doesn’t mention aspartame specifically. However, aspartame is known to be very acid-forming in the body. As I have gotten older, I’ve found that I start to have unpleasant physical symptoms if I veer even the slightest bit toward acidosis.</p>
<p>[Acid</a> Forming Foods and Alkaline Forming Foods](<a href=“http://www.anti-aging-today.org/nutrition/alkaline-acid-foods.htm]Acid”>http://www.anti-aging-today.org/nutrition/alkaline-acid-foods.htm)</p>
<p>Did the reporter who wrote this piece fail Chem 101 AND Journalism 101?
</p>
<p>**Neither xylitol nor sorbitol are acids <a href=“just%20check%20their%20pKa%20values”>/B</a>!!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Goodness… It is not the sweeteners that make these products acidic!!! It is citric, ascorbic, etc. acids other truly acidic additives. </p>
<p>The authors of the study never say that they found a “link between widely used *sugar substitutes *and dental erosion”. What they found is that *sugar-substitute containing products *can harm dental enamel due to the presence of other compounds! From the article: “Conclusion We concluded that polyol-based sugar-free products may decrease dental caries incidence but they may bring another dental health risk, dental erosion, if they contain acidic flavouring. There is a need for properly conducted clinical studies in this area.”</p>
<p>The reporter even quotes the authors:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Precisely! Lesson of the day: if one wants to be a science reporter, s/he needs to have at least some basic understanding of the subject.</p>
<p>I believe the acidity of aspartame is 4.5 - 6.0, which is an acidic pH.</p>
<p>What is the difference between pH and pKa? How does one find out the pKa value of substances?</p>
<p>I think the research showed that the foods with artificial sweeteners plus acidic components are more potentially harmful to teeth than foods with acidic components only, though I agree that the article was not very clearly written.</p>
<p>“I think the research showed that the foods with artificial sweeteners plus acidic components are more potentially harmful to teeth than foods with acidic components only”</p>
<p>That apparently was not the conclusion. I do not have the access to the journal, but judging from the abstract, the authors did not compare “foods with artificial sweeteners plus acidic components” with “foods with acidic components only”. Additionally, the article only focused on foods containing sugar alcohols. Here is a link to the abstract of the original paper:</p>
<p>[Are</a> sugar-free confections really beneficial for dental health?](<a href=“http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v211/n7/full/sj.bdj.2011.823.html]Are”>http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v211/n7/full/sj.bdj.2011.823.html)</p>
<p>pKa is a measure of a compound’s acidity; pKa is numerically equal to the pH at which half of the molecules is dissociated and the other half is protonated (take a look at the equation linking pH and pKa):</p>
<p>[Acid</a> dissociation constant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKa]Acid”>Acid dissociation constant - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>“I believe the acidity of aspartame is 4.5 - 6.0, which is an acidic pH.”
The lower the pKa, the stronger the acid. According to Wiki, pKa of aspartame has been reported to be in the range of 4.5-6.0, which does makes aspartame a weak acid. However, it is not the most dangerous for tooth enamel component of diet drinks.</p>
<p>That was a terribly written article.</p>
<p>Some of us here can’t eat sugar - or honey or whatever. For people like me, aspartame (and other artifical sweeteners) are the only thing standing between me and unsweetened iced tea, which I hate. You’ll get my Sweet 'n Low when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.</p>