GMO Food, Artificial Sweeteners and Processed Foods

[Drekce]

My Mother in law is always ranting to my wife and I about the "scary dangers" of GMO, processed foods and artificial sweeteners. I just deleted yet another email from her pointing to some blog where the author went on about the horrors of Splenda.

I'm frankly tired of it. I don't buy into conspiracy theories. I don't think the Government is hiding the truth of the dangers of Aspartame. I think GMO crops are a great result of science, not something to be scared of. I try and research this stuff myself, and avoid blogs and forums on the subjects like the plague. I simply don't see what al the fuss is about. The "natural is always better" crowd is deluding themselves, and they are such zealots that they won't even consider science that shows otherwise...

 

[mmntech]

Here's my take on this. If you want want to be a vegan who eats only natural, organic, non-GMO produce, go ahead. More power to you. However, just be appreciative that you live in a country where you have that choice.

There have been concerted efforts by environmental organizations to push organic and non-GMO farming on the developed world. To put it bluntly, it is paternalistic, racist, and it's killing people. Then there are people like Norman Borlaug, who few have ever heard of. The man who saved a billion lives by introducing high yield GMO plants to third world countries. The fact that Monsanto owns and is very protective of patents on GMO seeds is a big issue, but not a science one. People need to stop confusing the two.

As for artificial sweeteners, I think the debate is still out on that. There's been a lot of controversy over aspartame but no conclusive research. Over 100 regulatory committees have deemed it safe. Saccharin, the original artificial sweetener was known to cause cancer in lab rats. Any diet product probably isn't good for you. I think a lot of the weight gain commonly associated with diet soda probably is more psychological. Junk food consumption of any sort should be in moderation. Pop isn't meant to be a replacement for water, nor sweets a replacement for food.

 

[TridenT]

My Mother in law is always ranting to my wife and I about the "scary dangers" of GMO, processed foods and artificial sweeteners. I just deleted yet another email from her pointing to some blog where the author went on about the horrors of Splenda.

I'm frankly tired of it. I don't buy into conspiracy theories. I don't think the Government is hiding the truth of the dangers of Aspartame. I think GMO crops are a great result of science, not something to be scared of. I try and research this stuff myself, and avoid blogs and forums on the subjects like the plague. I simply don't see what al the fuss is about. The "natural is always better" crowd is deluding themselves, and they are such zealots that they won't even consider science that shows otherwise...

Was expecting something else in this thread... Glad to see it went the other way. :thumbsup:

 

[uclaLabrat]

Here's my take on this. If you want want to be a vegan who eats only natural, organic, non-GMO produce, go ahead. More power to you. However, just be appreciative that you live in a country where you have that choice.

There have been concerted efforts by environmental organizations to push organic and non-GMO farming on the developed world. To put it bluntly, it is paternalistic, racist, and it's killing people. Then there are people like Norman Borlaug, who few have ever heard of. The man who saved a billion lives by introducing high yield GMO plants to third world countries. The fact that Monsanto owns and is very protective of patents on GMO seeds is a big issue, but not a science one. People need to stop confusing the two.

As for artificial sweeteners, I think the debate is still out on that. There's been a lot of controversy over aspartame but no conclusive research. Over 100 regulatory committees have deemed it safe. Saccharin, the original artificial sweetener was known to cause cancer in lab rats. Any diet product probably isn't good for you. I think a lot of the weight gain commonly associated with diet soda probably is more psychological. Junk food consumption of any sort should be in moderation. Pop isn't meant to be a replacement for water, nor sweets a replacement for food.

And there it is.

A friend of mine actually posted a really interesting article on FB that was essentially a meta analysis of a slew of experiments run by monsanto which showed....essentially nothing, and that the experiments needed to be run in a legit study, not cobbled together.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Eat enough, but not too much. Move around some every day. Beyond that, The length and quality of your life will probably be determined more by your genetic predispositions than whatever effects things like splenda or GMO foods have. We just have too much time on our hands and too much dubious "information" at our fingertips.

 

[Jeff7]

Most of what needs to be said about GMO foods can be summed up with "Monsanto."
One organization holds an immense amount of influence in that field, and it also extends into the regulatory agencies that are intended to safeguard consumers. You can look at China, or look at our own country's history of unsafe products before proper regulations were put into place and enforced, to know that many companies do not give a damn about the health or welfare of their customers.

 

[DrPizza]

Most of what needs to be said about GMO foods can be summed up with "Monsanto."
One organization holds an immense amount of influence in that field, and it also extends into the regulatory agencies that are intended to safeguard consumers. You can look at China, or look at our own country's history of unsafe products before proper regulations were put into place and enforced, to know that many companies do not give a damn about the health or welfare of their customers.

If you're implying GMO foods are unsafe, please back that assertion with peer reviewed research.

 

[jagec]

Any diet product probably isn't good for you. I think a lot of the weight gain commonly associated with diet soda probably is more psychological.

It creates a caloric expectation which is not met, so there is some physiological basis for it. This is easily avoided by rationally choosing not to eat more just because you "still feel a bit hungry".

Of course, anyone with good eating habits isn't drinking diet soda to begin with, so...

 

[LegendKiller]

Here's my take on this. If you want want to be a vegan who eats only natural, organic, non-GMO produce, go ahead. More power to you. However, just be appreciative that you live in a country where you have that choice.

There have been concerted efforts by environmental organizations to push organic and non-GMO farming on the developed world. To put it bluntly, it is paternalistic, racist, and it's killing people. Then there are people like Norman Borlaug, who few have ever heard of. The man who saved a billion lives by introducing high yield GMO plants to third world countries. The fact that Monsanto owns and is very protective of patents on GMO seeds is a big issue, but not a science one. People need to stop confusing the two.

As for artificial sweeteners, I think the debate is still out on that. There's been a lot of controversy over aspartame but no conclusive research. Over 100 regulatory committees have deemed it safe. Saccharin, the original artificial sweetener was known to cause cancer in lab rats. Any diet product probably isn't good for you. I think a lot of the weight gain commonly associated with diet soda probably is more psychological. Junk food consumption of any sort should be in moderation. Pop isn't meant to be a replacement for water, nor sweets a replacement for food.

i know who norman borlaug is. i used to do it for 3 departments located in borlaug hall.

 

[clamum]

My mom has believed aspartame causes cancer (she says "in lab rats") for years. I could tell her it's a bunch of bunk conspiracy crap but she wouldn't listen. Diet pop tastes like rancid anus anyway.

 

[uclaLabrat]

My mom has believed aspartame causes cancer (she says "in lab rats") for years. I could tell her it's a bunch of bunk conspiracy crap but she wouldn't listen. Diet pop tastes like rancid anus anyway.

hard to believe, it's a fucking protein...not to say it isn't possible, but it's highly unlikely

 

[Matthiasa]

Eh it has caused cancer in lab rats it is just in doses no human could possible manage.

 

[Brainonska511]

hard to believe, it's a fucking protein...not to say it isn't possible, but it's highly unlikely

Please don't insult proteins by classifying aspartame as one. It's merely a dipeptide.

 

[Crono]

Processed foods can be too much of a good thing if you're stripping out all the fiber from carbohydrate rich foods. Definite increase in type II diabetes because of this, though the increase in our consumption is to blame as well.

I have no problem with GMO foods themselves, but all the crops designed to be pesticide resistant means we are indeed using more pesticides, a good number of which are carcinogenic. There are ways of growing foods organically without using excessive amounts of pesticides or at all, but I recognize that our industrial scale of farming means that right now it's more efficient and economical to do things the way they are being done right now.

Artificial sweeteners I don't have a problem with, though there are natural ones like stevia and blue agave nectar that are several times sweeter than sugar with less calories, and can taste better than aspartame or even sucralose (prefer it tastewise) depending on how they are used.

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind here, I just think there are more nuances and personal choices to be made than most people would assume without some consideration and due diligence.

 

[Slew Foot]

My mom has believed aspartame causes cancer (she says "in lab rats") for years. I could tell her it's a bunch of bunk conspiracy crap but she wouldn't listen. Diet pop tastes like rancid anus anyway.

Youve tried rancid anus?

 

[gotsmack]

I am against the type of GMO where they inject genes from a fish into a tomato. The thing is that there isn't enough testing and these types of products are pushed into the market in order to provide a return when the end results aren't fully understood.

Also, they tried to push GMO crops onto the 3rd world decades ago. The end result was that after the farmers took out loans to buy these seeds they didn't yield the expected output and a whole bunch of farmers committed suicide.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102944731

I am NOT against GMO. I am against the low level of testing (for gene manipulation) that is present today. When you change the basic biology of a plant there should be VERY thorough testing before feeding it to the masses. Until we have better testing, I will try to avoid GMO.

I also don't like the lobbying of these companies to try to hide the fact that they're "enhanced". Like how when you buy milk if the cows aren't treated with hormones to produce more milk and the dairy processor wants to advertise this, they have to say on the label that the hormone has not been proven to impact human health. WHY do you need to say this when you are NOT USING THE HORMONE? This makes no sense.

I also don't like synthetic pesticides since that stuff builds up in the body.

I think it was Fern that wrote up a nice post about this issue a few years back. Maybe he'll come in and give his 2 cents.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Please don't insult proteins by classifying aspartame as one. It's merely a dipeptide.

yeah, and how many people know what a dipeptide is? :biggrin:

Protein is a word most can understand.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Youve tried rancid anus?

I hear its delicious with honey.

 

[JimmiG]

GMO's are not a problem for me.
Processed foods are too salty (sodium nitrite).
Artificial sweeteners, regardless of whether or not they cause cancer, are disgusting and pointless. Just eat less sugar, problem solved.

 

[Red Squirrel]

All this crap is getting really bad. Whether or not GMO and what not are bad for us is debatable, but just the fact that they do this is what annoys me. Why not just keep it natural the way nature intended. Well I know why: so they can make more money, but I still say it's BS. They need to stop fucking with our food.

As for diet pop there is zero point to consuming it. If you want to get healthier drink the real stuff and just drink less of it, or cut it out completely.

 

[Sulaco]

All this crap is getting really bad. Whether or not GMO and what not are bad for us is debatable, but just the fact that they do this is what annoys me. Why not just keep it natural the way nature intended. Well I know why: so they can make more money, but I still say it's BS. They need to stop fucking with our food.

As for diet pop there is zero point to consuming it. If you want to get healthier drink the real stuff and just drink less of it, or cut it out completely.

Sooo, because you don't understand it and it doesn't seem like something Mother Nature would serve to the fairies in Fern Gully, diet soda, which has NO fat, NO sodium, NO sugar, and NO calories, is somehow worse than drinking a sugared, fattening, calorie-laden soda? But just drink less?

This is exactly the mindset that perpetuates nonsense myths beyond the realm of science.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sooo, because you don't understand it and it doesn't seem like something Mother Nature would serve to the fairies in Fern Gully, diet soda, which has NO fat, NO sodium, NO sugar, and NO calories, is somehow worse than drinking a sugared, fattening, calorie-laden soda? But just drink less?

This is exactly the mindset that perpetuates nonsense myths beyond the realm of science.

So you rather put chemicals in your body that are not naturally meant to be consumed, and are barely tested? I mean, soft drinks in general arn't good for you to begin with, but don't make it worse by putting even more crap in you. Has nothing to do with not understanding. The very fact that there are some potential speculation that it causes cancer is reason enough to stay away from stuff like that. Whether or not it's true is non issue here, the fact that it could should be enough to not consume it. i'm also speaking more in general here. There's lot of unnatural crap we do to food and we really don't know what it could be doing to us.

Even the simple foods like wheat, which should be good for us, are so genetically modified that there are all sorts of potential effects it could be doing to us and we don't really know about it. There's actually a whole documentary on that called Wheat Belly. I have yet to watch it myself but we were talking about it at work. One of my coworkers actually can't eat that GMO stuff. He only figured that out recently, he stopped and he feels way better and does not get the shits all the time. Of course all these effects could differ from person to person, as I eat a lot of stuff that has corn/wheat and GMO stuff and I don't have any issues. I would still rather eat the natural stuff but it tends to be harder to find, if it's even available.

Really these days the only way to get away from this crap is to make your own food from scratch including the harvesting process, but nobody aint got time for that. These companies know this. They don't have your health in mind, as long as it does not cause any direct health effects that could lead to a lawsuit, they really don't care.

 

[Sulaco]

So you rather put chemicals in your body that are not naturally meant to be consumed, and are barely tested? I mean, soft drinks in general arn't good for you to begin with, but don't make it worse by putting even more crap in you. Has nothing to do with not understanding. The very fact that there are some potential speculation that it causes cancer is reason enough to stay away from stuff like that. Whether or not it's true is non issue here, the fact that it could should be enough to not consume it. i'm also speaking more in general here. There's lot of unnatural crap we do to food and we really don't know what it could be doing to us.

Even the simple foods like wheat, which should be good for us, are so genetically modified that there are all sorts of potential effects it could be doing to us and we don't really know about it. There's actually a whole documentary on that called Wheat Belly. I have yet to watch it myself but we were talking about it at work. One of my coworkers actually can't eat that GMO stuff. He only figured that out recently, he stopped and he feels way better and does not get the shits all the time. Of course all these effects could differ from person to person, as I eat a lot of stuff that has corn/wheat and GMO stuff and I don't have any issues. I would still rather eat the natural stuff but it tends to be harder to find, if it's even available.

Virtually anything consumed in excess can be dangerous. Drinking an excess of water can kill you. The jury is still out on the long term effects of consumption of thousands of all-natural foods, as well. I'm not going to abstain from everything simply because God himself has not descended from a cloud to personally vouch for the true long term effects of [insert food item here]. You make an educated decision based on the science and clinical testing at hand/

In moderation, there is not a shred of evidence linking diet soda to anything nefarious.
I just find it amusing you (and to be fair, many others) dismiss diet soda as "just as bad" as sugared soda. There are ~150 calories in every can of sugared soda. Just drinking two diet sodas instead of regular is 300 calories right there, not to mention sugar and fat.

That's...measurable.

 

[Screech]

I always find these sorts of discussions interesting, primarily because on the anti-GMO side you generally have two camps. One of these are people who are simply against modification of any genetic code because nature, or we shouldn't do that, or it goes against god's will, or GMOs are evil, or blah blah blah which tend to just be asinine. The other tends to be a bit more moderate and often is not that GMOs are inherently bad but that 1) they are not tested enough and 2) are pushed by huge multinational corporations (well, corporation, really, lets be realistic). I disagree outright on point 1; for some people no amount of research will ever be 'enough'. I personally couldn't care if I eat gmo food, all I care about is price. That said, point 2 is the funnier one. It is to a great extent true because years and years of legal wrangling and shenanigans on the part of the anti GMO crowd has led to a situation where the only people who have the money to do the research as well as sell the product and then fight about it in court for months/years/decades will be the huge 'evil' multinational(s).

And don't get me wrong, monsanto has done some terrible shit, but that doesn't make GMOs bad.

 

[Ancalagon44]

So you rather put chemicals in your body that are not naturally meant to be consumed, and are barely tested? I mean, soft drinks in general arn't good for you to begin with, but don't make it worse by putting even more crap in you. Has nothing to do with not understanding. The very fact that there are some potential speculation that it causes cancer is reason enough to stay away from stuff like that. Whether or not it's true is non issue here, the fact that it could should be enough to not consume it. i'm also speaking more in general here. There's lot of unnatural crap we do to food and we really don't know what it could be doing to us.

Even the simple foods like wheat, which should be good for us, are so genetically modified that there are all sorts of potential effects it could be doing to us and we don't really know about it. There's actually a whole documentary on that called Wheat Belly. I have yet to watch it myself but we were talking about it at work. One of my coworkers actually can't eat that GMO stuff. He only figured that out recently, he stopped and he feels way better and does not get the shits all the time. Of course all these effects could differ from person to person, as I eat a lot of stuff that has corn/wheat and GMO stuff and I don't have any issues. I would still rather eat the natural stuff but it tends to be harder to find, if it's even available.

Really these days the only way to get away from this crap is to make your own food from scratch including the harvesting process, but nobody aint got time for that. These companies know this. They don't have your health in mind, as long as it does not cause any direct health effects that could lead to a lawsuit, they really don't care.

I hope you never put paracetamol in your body. Or aspirin. Or alcohol. All three are poisonous and not meant to be consumed - not naturally anyway. The only reason they are commonly used is because they are safe enough in low doses, and because the benefits are seen to outweigh the drawbacks.

Your friend is probably allergic to gluten, not GMO.