Giving up Diet Coke!

Willsnarf1983

Aspartame

heres just one article on if its bad, its not conclusive that it IS bad for you but i'm trying not to take the risk

Will

ZTD

This also covers monosodium-glutamate AKA "hydrolysed vegetable protein"
I've also got this It's huge - I thought I'd ordered a telephone directory by mistake - but it has big writing...

Or just have a search on "aspartame" in Amazon...

MikeyB_2

ZTD wrote:

OK, diet coke contains:

• Aspartame
• Phosphoric Acid
• Caffeine

Aspartame contains

• Aspartic acid - this is a toxin which kills brain tissue under certain conditions
• Methanol - this is "meths" which can cause blindness and brain damage again
• Phenylalanine - this is what you're warned about on the bottle - certain people can't excrete it and its dangerous to them

Phosphoric Acid leaches calcium out of your bones and teeth, which weakens them.

I think it is worth stating that the issue of whether Aspartame has any negative effects is by no means a settled upon scientific fact and so to present the effects above as the gospel truth and the likely future experience of every Coke drinker is a little disingenuous and smacks somewhat of the "science" scares and urban legends I keep receiving by email (see the Snopes links below)

I especially baulked at the line about Phenylalanine as it is not the ingrediant that causes the problems as such, but an existing condition (phenylketonuria) of the potential drinker (hence the warning label) and so it is as wrong to place the blame at Coke's door for that one as it would be to blame Tate & Lyle for producing sugar because it has a bad effect on diabetics

These articles contain arguments and "evidence" both for and against the use of Aspartame so judge for yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

Oh and Diet Coke contains less Citric acid than orange juice (and a lot less sugar!) and only contains 0.2-0.3% Phosphoric acid
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp

anniestar

Well done Willsnarf, keep up the good work. Best of luck to EVERYONE trying to quit. Keep posting will be great to see your progress.

ZTD

MikeyB wrote:

I think it is worth stating that the issue of whether Aspartame has any negative effects is by no means a settled upon scientific fact and so to present the effects above as the gospel truth and the likely future experience of every Coke drinker is a little disingenuous and smacks somewhat of the "science" scares and urban legends I keep receiving by email (see the Snopes links below)

The effect of Methanol on the brain (and eyes) is established as a scientific fact.

The effect of Aspartic Acid on the brain is also established as a scientific fact. You can introduce it to a sample of brain cells and watch them burst open (given sufficient concentration). Or if you prefer larger-scale experimentation, you can inject it directly into the brain of a dog and watch it convulse and die.

The controvesy comes in as to whether it is transported across the blood-brain barrier. Even given a perfect blood-brain barrier (as likely as perfect skin), there is evidence that given chronic exposure, it does migrate across. Not withstanding that, there are important structures in your brain which don't benefit from the blood-brain barrier, and which you can't live without.

MikeyB wrote:

I especially baulked at the line about Phenylalanine as it is not the ingrediant that causes the problems as such, but an existing condition (phenylketonuria) of the potential drinker (hence the warning label) and so it is as wrong to place the blame at Coke's door for that one as it would be to blame Tate & Lyle for producing sugar because it has a bad effect on diabetics

The line was

Phenylalanine - this is what you're warned about on the bottle - certain people can't excrete it and its dangerous to them

which is almost exactly what you said except I said what it (phenylketonuria) was and didn't name it, and you named it but didn't say what it was.

Aspartame contains Phenylalanine. Sorry - but it does. Would you wish me to pretend otherwise?

MikeyB wrote:

Oh and Diet Coke contains less Citric acid than orange juice (and a lot less sugar!) and only contains 0.2-0.3% Phosphoric acid

That much?! So for Willsnarfs's original consumption he was drinking 28 ccs of pure phosphoric acid every week.

Yowsers!

Oh...data sheet for citric acid for completeness.

jackieb

I have really cut back on this. Not diet coke but pepsi max. Since i've had the recycling box for plastics it dawned on me how much we were using every week. Every bottle averaged about a £1. When the empty bottles are just there, you can't help but notice. It's saving me more than £5 a week.

Willsnarf1983

day number 8 done and dusted!!!

bit of bad news i gotta pop some pills for a month which means no beer for me which now means the only stuff i drink is



Water and the odd full fat drink which is kinda limiting as only 9 days ago i drunk

Beer
Diet coke
Water

oh i am still drinking my pt of milk in the morning as well!!

but its allllright!

Will

ZTD

This depends on whether you like sweet or tart drinks, but you can get some carbonated water in the one litre bottle sizes and stick 2 perforated segments of a lemon in along with a pinch of salt.

Takes overnight to diffuse into the water (if you put it in the fridge), but is very nice.

Willsnarf1983

ZTD wrote:

This depends on whether you like sweet or tart drinks, but you can get some carbonated water in the one litre bottle sizes and stick 2 perforated segments of a lemon in along with a pinch of salt.

Takes overnight to diffuse into the water (if you put it in the fridge), but is very nice.

i'm not a water flavoured fan in all honesty, rather have it straight lol

cheers for the idea thou!

Will

Willsnarf1983

Hello

11 days now no diet coke or diet anything, drinking lots more water which is good

Will

Total Money Saved= £26.40