it would be the same as getting a sugar fix.

It's not the caffeine you should be worrying about, that aspartame can do fucked up shit to your body and brain...

Maybe you should take up drinking coffee or tea.

Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar. There's barely any of it in the products it's used in which is why it has so few calories.

FWIW I think it tastes awful.

Actually hailifax nailed it. . . . there is no scientific proof that aspertain or phenofeltroics (sp?) ; the two artifical sweetners in diet soda have any detramental health risks for humans when injested in the amounts found in diet soda.

Well other than like normal soda it can damage your teeth.

I read some recent articles about studies showing that it might not be an effective weight-loss tactic, though. Basically, artificial sweeteners still "fool" your body into thinking it is getting high calories, and it retains them form other sources, or something like that.

http://abcnews.go.com/...d=4271246&page=1

Personally, I am a severe caffeine junkie, completely addicted. However, I've always been fine with just black coffee. No calories, tastes awesome, is more economical than most other drinks. Only drawbacks are slight yellowing of teeth, risk of ulcers in some cases, and my students telling me that I talk too fast.

personally if i drank soda i would rather have sugar. but soda, diet or regular is foul shit.

i'm not convinced consuming aspertame in any quantity can be good for you. i'll have to look it up, but there were several studies i sent off to my brother (who has type 2 diabetes and drinks buckets of diet soda) that it is not a good substitution for those with diabetes.

i think i sent this to my brother....he's also overweight and on high blood pressure meds
http://www.healthcentral.com/...80/trouble-diet-soda

personally if i drank soda i would rather have sugar. but soda, diet or regular is foul shit.

i'm not convinced consuming aspertame in any quantity can be good for you. i'll have to look it up, but there were several studies i sent off to my brother (who has type 2 diabetes and drinks buckets of diet soda) that it is not a good substitution for those with diabetes.

i think i sent this to my brother....he's also overweight and on high blood pressure meds
http://www.healthcentral.com/...80/trouble-diet-soda

This is just talking-out-of-my-ass judgemental anecdotalism, but here's my take (and JT512 will probably be in to tell me how RONG I am shortly): people who go for diet sodas already have an addiction to sweets, they binge on it, and it's easy for them to relapse into sugary shit.

Personally I know nobody who has shed weight and kept it off by drinking diet soda in lieu of regular soda.

This is just talking-out-of-my-ass judgemental anecdotalism, but here's my take (and JT512 will probably be in to tell me how RONG I am shortly): people who go for diet sodas already have an addiction to sweets, they binge on it, and it's easy for them to relapse into sugary shit.

Personally I know nobody who has shed weight and kept it off by drinking diet soda in lieu of regular soda.

i like a quarter pounder with cheese, some mcnuggets, and large fries.........with a diet coke please

Actually hailifax nailed it. . . . there is no scientific proof that aspertain or phenofeltroics (sp?) ; the two artifical sweetners in diet soda have any detramental health risks for humans when injested in the amounts found in diet soda.

Well other than like normal soda it can damage your teeth.

Based on my body weight I was told I would have to drink something like 100 cans of diet soda a day for a week to ingest the amount of aspartame that injected into a labratory animal (in a single dose) and caused it have cancer.

Actually, what it says in the 2007 article:
"For animals fed at the 2,000 ppm level, there was a significant increase in the incidence of lymphomas/leukemias and malignant mammary tumors...approximately the equivalent of a 45-pound child drinking 5 cans of diet soda or a 150-pound adult consuming 14 packets of sweetener per day."

How many packets of sweetener does the average can of diet soda contain?

But if you look at it this way:
5 cans per 45lb person = 15 cans per 135lb person

So, a lot of soda. Maybe not 100 cans per day. but a lot.

Also, these focused on prenatal exposure. Chad, don't get pregnant!

Sorry to be a party pooper on Aspartame, but I have a toxicology midterm next week. At the top of one of my assigned 2007 Environmental Prospective readings is:

Aspartame Cancer Risks Revisited
Prenatal Exposure May Be Greatest Concern

In March 2006, EHP published the first compelling experimental evidence for the carcinogenic effects of aspartame at a dose level within range of human daily intake [EHP 114:379–385; Soffritti et al.]. A second animal study by the same research team now indicates that the carcinogenic effects of aspartame are magnified when exposure begins during fetal life [EHP 115:1293–1297; Soffritti et al.].

and from the December 2010 American Journal of Industrial Hygiene:
Aspartame administered in feed, beginning prenatally through life span, induces cancers of the liver and lung in male Swiss mice.

Conclusions:
On the basis of these results, together with previous carcinogenicity bioassays conducted on rats in our laboratories, APM should be considered a multiple site, transspecies carcinogenic agent. A re-evaluation of the current regulations on APM remains, in our opinion, urgent.

I just skimmed the paper. It's pretty interesting. I'm not great with statistics but I've been reading a lot of papers related to diet lately so I'm starting to get familiar with that type of analysis.

One of the more interesting tidbits was that the coats of the rats that were fed aspartame turned yellow in a similar fashion to rats that were fed methanol in their water. Methanol is one of the compounds that aspartame breaks down into in the gut.

The increase in cancer rates is certainly statistically significant but I'm not convinced at how significant the absolute increase in cancer is. I guess that's why they recommend further study and not an outright ban.

They sneak it into a few foods that I eat but not a whole lot. I'm not all that concerned with the amounts I consume.

I think the concern is geared toward the harm it might have on the developing fetus.

Can't stand the taste of the stuff myself. I don't drink soda & if I can't pronounce the 'food' ingredient on the label, I am not going to put it in my body.

Massachusetts? Hopefully not Boston, otherwise you won't be able to eat anything since you clearly can't pronounce any of the ingredients correctly. :)

Massachusetts? Hopefully not Boston, otherwise you won't be able to eat anything since you clearly can't pronounce any of the ingredients correctly. :)

I thought Bostonians drank "seltzah".