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1 philosophus invidius  Apr 25, 2015 8:39:52am

Fine, but is there any evidence that drinking Diet Pepsi is better for you than regular Pepsi? If not, then Diet Pepsi is a marketing ploy that manipulates consumer desires.

2 KingKenrod  Apr 25, 2015 9:03:18am

Aspartame fear-mongers will just move on to the next thing. Every artificial sweetener is under attack in this manner, mostly by people supporting alternative natural lifestyles or hawking bullshit diets and therapies.

Pepsi had a sucralose cola (Pepsi ONE) that it discontinued last year. They will probably lose Diet Pepsi drinkers who don’t like the new formulation without replacing them with people who want an “aspartame free, but still artificially sweetened” cola. Sucralose tastes much more like real sugar, something many diet cola drinkers like myself aren’t going to like (I haven’t liked any of the sucralose sweetened colas).

3 Lumberhead  Apr 25, 2015 9:16:06am

re: #1 philosophus invidius

If you are concerned about calories then, yes, Diet Pepsi is better for you than regular Pepsi. Of course, water is better than both but many people (myself included) enjoy sweetened sodas more than water. Coke Zero is my preference and I’d be disappointed if they changed it for no good reason.

4 KingKenrod  Apr 25, 2015 9:21:16am

re: #1 philosophus invidius

Fine, but is there any evidence that drinking Diet Pepsi is better for you than regular Pepsi? If not, then Diet Pepsi is a marketing ploy that manipulates consumer desires.

WHO recently released a nutrition guideline that sugar should be no more than 10% of a person’s daily calorie intake, based on evidence that over-consuming sugar is bad for you. I think the evidence is mounting that eating too much sugar is really bad for you.

5 philosophus invidius  Apr 25, 2015 2:05:33pm

re: #4 KingKenrod

I’m not disputing that regularly drinking sugared soda is bad for you. I’m asking whether drinking diet soda in the same amounts in it place is shown to be any better for you. And some studies say its not. For Vox to treat the cancer studies and other studies regarding diabetes etc. as the same is misleading. In the first case, there is compelling evidence that something is not a danger, and in the second case there is no compelling evidence that there is a danger. Those are very different since the latter is consistent with saying that there is no compelling evidence that it is not a danger—that is, the jury’s still out.

6 Timothy Watson  Apr 25, 2015 5:10:46pm

re: #5 philosophus invidius

I’m not disputing that regularly drinking sugared soda is bad for you. I’m asking whether drinking diet soda in the same amounts in it place is shown to be any better for you. And some studies say its not. For Vox to treat the cancer studies and other studies regarding diabetes etc. as the same is misleading. In the first case, there is compelling evidence that something is not a danger, and in the second case there is no compelling evidence that there is a danger. Those are very different since the latter is consistent with saying that there is no compelling evidence that it is not a danger—that is, the jury’s still out.

Did you actually read the article?

As for whether aspartame and other sweeteners contribute to weight gain, as some people seem to fear? There’s no clear evidence here. Some researchers have found that artificial sweeteners promote weight gain, while other studies show they actually help with weight loss. “More often than not,” Carroll explained, “this is because people wind up overcompensating for the calorie savings they think they’re getting by switching beverages (think of the person who orders dessert as a reward for having diet soda). But in those cases it’s not the diet beverage that caused weight gain; it’s dieters’ behavior.”

7 SteveMcGaziBolaGate  Apr 25, 2015 6:10:49pm

re: #6 Timothy Watson

I wonder if anybody even read the first frickin section!

“On Friday, Pepsi announced that it would remove the artificial sweetener aspartame from all diet sodas sold in the US and replace it with sucralose.

The reason? Flagging sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, consumer surveys had showed ‘the presence of aspartame to be the number one reason that Americans are scaling back on diet colas.’”

Fuck the fucking science. If people aren’t buying your shit, that’s all the science you need.

8 LoonRadio  Apr 25, 2015 8:48:03pm

re: #3 Lumberhead

Scott Pilgrim?

9 philosophus invidius  Apr 25, 2015 9:03:02pm

re: #6 Timothy Watson

Did you actually read the article?

Did you read and understand my comment? Your quote from the article exemplifies the exact point I was making.

There’s no clear evidence here.

The quote there by Carroll is not an analysis of the various studies, but rather pure speculation.

10 SteveMcGaziBolaGate  Apr 26, 2015 8:19:25am

re: #5 philosophus invidius

Your suggestion that the jury is still out seems to be based on the difficulty of proving a negative. I think that the science in this arena has proved the negative (artificial sweeteners cause no harm). I don’t think people really read the ingredients list in such detail that they keep track of which sodas have which sweetener.
My wife uses a lot of these sweeteners in coffee and tea and she can tell the difference between them. She doesn’t like the yellow kind, and she prefers to mix the pink and the blue ones. One of these days I’ll check out which is which.
In my experience with diet sodas, I had a hard time finding one that either wasn’t revolting or didn’t leave an after taste in my mouth all day long. I finally settled on PA Dutch diet birch beer, which is almost as good as the original (and had no after taste). It was spectacularly carbonated (a two liter bottle blew up once in a new fridge that wasn’t set up right to keep it from freezing - it truly exploded and not only blew the door open but the cap and 3 inches of plastic bottle were lodged in the plastic of the door!) Short story long, I took about 1250 calories out of my daily intake for over two years and didn’t lose an ounce! I went back to regular Coke and I haven’t gained any weight either. No attempt at science here, it’s just frustrating.

11 philosophus invidius  Apr 26, 2015 9:22:01am

re: #10 SteveMcGaziBolaGate

Your suggestion that the jury is still out seems to be based on the difficulty of proving a negative.

Yes and no. Science has sufficiently established many “negatives,” and I take it that science has come close enough to proving that aspartame does not cause cancer. So, no, I’m not falling back on some such alleged principle that we can’t prove a negative.

But the same quality of evidence does not exist for the claim that aspartame is safe in other regards, e.g. weight gain and diabetes. To the contrary, there is some evidence, inconclusive to be sure, that it might be associated with such health problems. This does not mean that we should conclude it is unsafe. That is how the article wants you to interpret such claims, and that is a pure strawman. The author aims to flatter the enlightened, pro-science sensibilities of its readers without actually, you know, understanding science or risk management.

The only actual scientist quoted in the article who is familiar with these things sums things up by saying

“The advice I give: we need to cut back on all the sweeteners we’re using.”

Does that sound like she is saying that she knows artificial sweeteners are safe and a good alternative to sugar?

I will agree with the article, however, that sucralose is not known to be safer. But who cares if they switch to sucralose? How is that a surrender to the forces of unreason?

12 philosophus invidius  Apr 26, 2015 9:33:16am

I will also add that the risk posed to people with phenylketonuria is actually serious. Why expose them to this extra risk?


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