So maybe the huge worry people had after the news that WHO would classify it as cancerous was a little too much. I think the media could have reported on it in a bit more responsible way.
14 cans of soda a day, even diet soda, can’t possibly be safe or good for you. Especially since aspartame is also linked to kidney and liver failure and is even worse for you than ibuprofen in that regard; and you wouldn’t normally take 14 ibuprofen in a single day.
How much did Coca-Cola pay for this PR? I swear, ever since the first news that aspartame is linked to cancer, there have been way more articles trying to convince people it ain’t that bad. It’s a corporate smokescreen.
I’ve been on a low sugar diet for 3 years, to try to curb my binge eating disorder. Sugar was a huge trigger. I recently looked into how many low and zero sugar products use aspartame and every thing I buy to adhere to my diet has it in it. I’m introducing a bit more regular sugar into my diet so I stop consuming so much aspartame. It’s going well. I haven’t binged since the start of this, and hopefully it stays that way.
You need a huge amount of aspertame to cause issues. Sugar is very unhealthy and it’s in everything. I’d recommend sticking to sugar alternatives. If you’re adding sweetener yourself, to coffee or whatever, there are other options though. I like stevia, which you can even grow and extract yourself without too much trouble. Ragardless, unless you’re consuming absolutely massive amounts of aspertame, you’ll be OK. (Maybe switch to water from soda though. That’ll help regardless.)
Not a shock.
Food scares are almost always over blown (except obviously tide pods).
People thought MSG was going to kill everyone. People thought Cholesterol was the key to good health. Even fat in moderation is perfectly fine.
But Fish will kill you with mercury, uncooked pork will kill you with everything (which is unlikely to happen in the first place, but also most pork you get is already cooked, at least sausage and hams). Salmonella is definitely going to kill you. Your kitchen is going to burn down, Fried food will end your life, and all processed food is bad.
Remember Supersize me? Remember the guy who ate two big macs a day for multiple years. That SINGLE guy should have been the end of the entire documentary, because he basically showed “Yes you can eat McDonalds in moderation and have a healthy life.” But instead “McDonalds is going to kill you with super sized food.”
The fact is you’re probably more likely to get Ebola than most of these things actually contributing to your death… though speaking of disease myths…
These things rush in, kill a business or a company, and then are forgotten, and then 10 years later new science comes out and goes “Btw it wasn’t as bad as people thought… try it out”
Everything in moderation as long as it isn’t straight up poisonous.
And even then, small amounts will make you immune. No seriously, I saw it in a documentary called the Princess Bride.
As a side note, i don’t think the skinny guy from Super Size Me who eats 2 Big macs a day is a picture of exemplary health. Dude is either a genetic outlier or he will drop dead of a coronary one day.
All of those could be explanations. Here’s another one.
Big macs are 583 calories… two big macs are about 1100 calories… aka perfectly reasonable in a healthy diet. I forget if he ate two a day or two in some meals, but a nutritionist would ok that Calorie count.
Morgan Spurlock pushed “no one can eat here and be healthy” but he constantly pushed for combo meals ate in one sitting, and supersized every time they asked. That’s like someone going into a bar and saying yes every time the bartender goes “Want another one” and then going “OMG I’m so wasted and got alcohol poisoning” he set the rules up to make sure he failed, because no one is saying eat a combo meal at Mcdonalds for three meals a day.
The thing is it WOULD be interesting if he looked into why he can maintain a reasonable weight while eating it… but of course they didn’t because that would prove Mcdonalds isn’t the worst thing ever. Morgan had two goals. Prove Mcdonalds is unhealthy (And ignore contrary evidence) and make an entertaining documentary. He did the later, but I feel like he never even came close to the former because his methodology was shit.
I think it’s incumbent upon adults to see media blitzes as probably exaggerated and studded with misinfo.
If you don’t buy the initial wave, the accuracy of news goes way up.
The problem is most people aren’t doing that, and even those who do get second hand/rumors/stories from other people and eventually succumb to misinformation.
I’ve heard many times that X is cancer causings. I wish it was one wave that you could ignore but this shit gets repeated entirely too often, and even if it’s not, the misinformations operates outside of the individual, because downstream products (diet coke) moved away from this because of bad PR.
About the MSG hysteria, it’s not even rooted in actual medical data, just run-of-the-mill xenophobia, which in itself is absolutely wild to me. It’s like a whole chunk of the population collectively decided to develop the palate of a toddler, turning up their nose to “foreign” food.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate “Researchers, doctors, and activists have tied the controversy about MSG to xenophobia and racism against Chinese culture,[62][63][64][65][66] saying that East Asian cuisine is being targeted while the widespread use of MSG in other processed food hasn’t been stigmatized.[67] These activists have claimed that the perpetuation of the negative image of MSG through the Chinese restaurant syndrome was caused by “xenophobic” or “racist” biases.[68][69]”
I didn’t dive deep on MSG just to not sound like I’m ranting about that specifically but you nailed it. It was more about Chinese restaurants (at least that’s how I heard it) and I remember my parents saying we don’t go to Chinese restaurants during the hysteria.
Sucks because I love Chinese food, and Thai, Korean, Japanese and more.
Even the tide pod thing was over blown. No one was actually eating them, it was just a meme.
I agree, but the “Tide pods are bad don’t eat them” is true… (Though almost all media hysteria is over blown, it’s a constant.)
Supersize Me: “Wow, if I eat garbage at a 3000+ calorie rate a day, I’m gonna feel like shit! Please give me awards and adoration and play me in every high school health class!”
Don’t forget TV shows, more documentaries and more.
Morgan Spurlock did VERY well for himself based on that completely bias “Study”. Sadly that became the style of documentary for a while (and potentially still is). Fuck the facts, let’s make entertainment!
