Artificial sweeteners and health problems?

[bandXtrb]

Let's forget about taste for this thread.

There has been talk about adverse health effects with artificial sweeteners. Is there any reason to believe that they will cause health problems like cancer? I read that phenylalanine (used in Equal) is an enzyme found naturally in high-protien foods like meats, and so is not some kind of "weird chemical." Not sure about saccharin (used in Sweet & Low).

And would there be a reason to choose one sweetener over the other besides taste?

 

[Electric Amish]

I really don't think anything has been proven.

As a matter of fact, I thought Saccharin was just taken off the "May cause cancer" list.

amish

 

[bandXtrb]

<< At a 1985 Senate hearing, then-FDA Commissioner Frank Young supported an extension of the moratorium, noting that FDA has less concern about saccharin than in 1977. The Commissioner added that "the actual risk, if any, of saccharin to humans still appears to be slight."

And, on December 21, 2000, President Clinton signed a bill that will remove the warning label that had been required on saccharin-sweetened products since 1977. Government, scientists and industry are now all in agreement on saccharin's safety.
>>

 

[ElFenix]

maybe if you injected a lab rat with a diet coke junkie's lifetime intake of nutrasweet every day it would get cancer. or maybe the cancer is from getting injected all the time. or maybe its the flourescent lights in the lab room. or maybe its the hugely unrealistic amount of exposure its getting to a chemical it might be designed and completely capable of taking in small dosages.

 

[Electric Amish]

<< maybe if you injected a lab rat with a diet coke junkie's lifetime intake of nutrasweet every day it would get cancer. or maybe the cancer is from getting injected all the time. or maybe its the flourescent lights in the lab room. or maybe its the hugely unrealistic amount of exposure its getting to a chemical it might be designed and completely capable of taking in small dosages. >>



Yeah, that's about my take on it.

amish

 

[Nefrodite]

heh actually i think the tests involved injecting far more sweetner then anyone could possibly consume through soda huge doses of most anything is a poison


remember, some crackpots just released their study that anything from pie to frenchfries cause cancer

 

[RU482]

Hell, the amount of sugar in soda x2-3 cans a day for 30 years has a greater (or at least equal) chance of giving you cancer

 

[Nefrodite]

like diabetes

 

[pyonir]

everything causes cancer.

 

[jhu]

I read that phenylalanine (used in Equal) is an enzyme found naturally in high-protien foods like meats

it's an amino acid that's found in high protein foods. the only problem is people who have pku and can't completely digest phenylalanine so the metabolites build up and cause mental retardation

 

[alrocky]

You sure Equal has that? Was it Equal or another sweetner that was has a so-called left-handed or mirror image sugar molecule? (has the same taste of regular sugar but not the calories)