Artificial sweeteners
Started by sozme
No. There is some biochemical reaction/metabolite from using aspartame, but I don't remember the reaction. We talked about it in undergrad biochemistry. But, you need to eat like an ounce or something of aspartame at one time for the methanol to build up enough to kill you.
I think we figured it out to be like 15 to 20 packets of sweet and low at one time.
There's a good amount of mouse model evidence that they alter gut microbiota composition/function in negative ways, amounting to unanswered questions about the impact of artificial sweeteners in humans.
In reality, they may be fine in small quantities, but they should not be consumed in appreciable quantities. I've learned more about toxicology than I expect to learn in med school, and chemicals should account for a very small part of our consumption. That to me seems logical, regardless of what is taught.
There's also some preliminary evidence regarding artificial sweeteners negatively affecting satiety. In addition, observational data has shown that those who drink diet beverages don't end up with any lower of a risk of metabolic syndrome (etc) and may end up higher. That said, observational data has a lot of confounders and the satiety evidence has no clear mechanism at this time (and lots of proposed ones).
Regardless, I love diet sodas (especially diet mt. dew), and while I've significantly cut back, I feel it's like most things in life: everything in moderation. Regular soda is just too syrupy after 20 years of drinking diet.
Everything in moderation
I believe aspartame breaks down into phenylalanine so it could be a issue if someone has PKU.
RIP @iBro
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