this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
126 points (93.8% liked)

News

23276 readers
3985 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
dezmd@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
Blackbeard@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
126
Revealed: WHO aspartame safety panel linked to alleged Coca-Cola front group (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Silverseren@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago

Okay, corruption like that should be corrected. Regardless, there's no scientific evidence that aspartame is harmful. Let alone a biochemical reason for why a dipeptide of two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, that dissociates in the stomach into its constituent components and some byproducts would be harmful in the first place.

Unless you have phenylketonuria, but you have much bigger problems in that case and, if that is the case for you, kudos on being at an age and capability to read and understand this post, you are incredible.

Edit: Also, just noticed the part about US Right To Know, which is a well known anti-science group that's been pushing pseudoscience and fearmongering about other topics, such as biotechnology, for years. So them being involved here raises questions.

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Aspartame, when it hits your intestines, immediately decomposes into 40% phenylalanine, 40% aspartic acid, and 20% methanol. Phenylalanine and aspartic acid are nutritious amino acids, otherwise known as protein. Since aspartame is so much sweeter than sugar, it's used in quantities small enough to make the methanol intake levels from a can of diet soda lower than what you would get from a cup of fruit juice.

There's no real danger.

[–] naught@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

From the reporting I saw, it can be a problem if you drink like gallons of the drinks every day, which can actually happen irl, but is not common. Worth pointing out but not a cause for concern

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're drinking gallons of anything over a longer time, you'll have problems.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

If you keep drinking then it all works out. Can't have any problems if you're dead taps temple.

[–] naught@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

water 😎

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even that. Your kidneys don't like to be overworked.

[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There was this woman few weeks ago that drank like 3 gallons of water in 20 minutes and died. Water toxicity is, weirdly a thing.

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

If you drink water faster than your kidneys, lungs, and sweat pores can expel it, your body gets out of homeostasis and can't maintain proper function

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

At that point the amount of water taken in and the acids in the soda will cause far more of a problem

[–] blackberries33@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well, aspartame is a sure fire way to give me a migraine, so I don't believe your explanation.

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aspartame isn't what is giving you the migraine. It's either psychosomatic or something else in the beverage you drank. Unless you receive a migraine when you drink fruit juice.

As to whether you believe me or not, uhh, I don't know how to nicely put this. Factual reality doesn't change just because you feel it should be different. The metabolic products of aspartame and its digestion are well understood. It never reaches your bloodstream intact.

[–] blackberries33@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is no way for me to know if you are an expert or an otherwise trustworthy source of information on this topic. You are a random person on the internet, who did not cite any sources. I should not automatically believe any explanation you offer.

There is no need to be condescending.

[–] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I don't think you should, but I do think that Googling the metabolism of aspartame would be warranted if you want to be educated on the subject, rather than discarding it.

https://www.greenfacts.org/en/aspartame/l-3/aspartame-3.htm

That's your information on the metabolism.

As to amount you'll intake, the average can of diet soda contains 0.18g of aspartame according to Wikipedia.

According to the UK, fruit juice contains an average of 140mg/L of methanol naturally, due to fermentation of sugars in fruits. That means that 12 oz of fruit juice will contain an average of .05g of methanol, while an average soda would contain .036g of methanol.

Here are the other metabolites of aspartame:

Phenylalanine (essential amino acid) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylalanine

Aspartic acid (non-essential amino acid) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartic_acid

Amino acids are proteins. The difference between an essential and a non-essential amino acid is that while our bodies require both to live, we produce non-essential amino acids but must intake essential amino acids through our food.

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know what, I get a migraine when I spend more than 10 minutes with my mother-in-law. Just because you don't, doesn't mean she can't give you cancer.

[–] blackberries33@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

I did not say anything about cancer. I said migraine.

[–] ReallyKinda@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Broo I knew something was off about that saga. Pretty bold, Coke.

[–] Apeeksiht@lemdro.id 1 points 1 year ago

Just drink black coffee.