• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

The End Of Diet Soda???

arthwollipot

Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
arthwollipot
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
107,760
Location
Ngunnawal Country
OMG Aspartame!

Is this the End of Diet Soda? Huge Study links Aspartame to Major Problems, Sales Drop...

As concerns about health epidemics plague the nation, demand and sales of diet soda have plunged as consumers try to make better choices. As we reported yesterday, aspartame–the main sweetener for diet soda–is one of the most dangerous ingredients used in our food supply, causing seizures and a host of other health issues.

In a new study done over ten years and sampling 60,000 women, it was shown that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day have much higher cardiovascular disease rates and are more likely to die from the disease.
Click to expand...

I can see quite a few problems with this article, so I thought I'd let it loose here for the skeptics to play with. How many fallacies can you spot? Go!
 
I would suggest you look at the credibility of the site it's on...
 
I did notice one interesting thing in the university's press release:
Based on self-reported consumption of diet drinks over a three-month period, the researchers divided the 59,614 study participants into four consumption groups: two or more diet drinks a day, five to seven diet drinks per week, one to four diet drinks per week, and zero to three diet drinks per month.
Click to expand...

Am I missing something really obvious, or did they not include anyone that had 8-13 drinks a week? Seems a little strange.

I was going to look at it more, but it seems my old university finally wised up and cut off my account, so I don't have free journal access via their library anymore. Either that, or I forgot the password for good this time.
 
Correlation to cardio vascular problems does not mean causation. it could actually be the reverse causation : people which tend having cardio vascular problem (due to obesity for example) tend to drink more soda or switch to diet soda.

Also aspartame does not cause seizure. At least review have found no correlation.

"one of the most dangerous ingredients used in our food supply" unfounded statement.

And that's only the quoted paragraph.
 
There may well be problems with artificial sweeteners in general potentially 'confusing' the body's systems by not being associated with high-calorie sugars, but the rest of it seems to be correlation without evidence of causation. Aspartame is one of the most closely monitored dietary additives of recent years, and - apart from PKU sufferers - seems to be relatively harmelss. See Aspartame Safety Evaluations.
 
Diet soda might be bad for you; I am not completely positive on the subject. But that site is a quack site. Note this new and featured article:

10 American Foods that are Banned in Other Countries

Author: Dr. Mercola.
Click to expand...

Googling Dr Mercola turns up his website, but it also turns up his Wikipedia entry, which notes that he's a garden-variety quack: HIV doesn't cause AIDS, is an anti-vaxxer, anti-sunscreen (other than of course, "natural" sunscreens), anti-microwave, etc.
 
Here's the actual paper. I don't have access unfortunately. From the abstract they did control for other CVD risk factors. I'd note there appears to be no differentiation between different types of sweeteners though, so if there is a problem there's no indication if it's aspartame, acesulfam K, stevia, or whatever.
 
arthwollipot said:
...

...

In a new study done over ten years and sampling 60,000 women, it was shown that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day have much higher cardiovascular disease rates and are more likely to die from the disease.
Click to expand...
I can see quite a few problems with this article, so I thought I'd let it loose here for the skeptics to play with. How many fallacies can you spot? Go!
Click to expand...

As many people with permanent troubles to control their weight drink diet soda, and many people with metabolic syndrome drink diet soda because the sugared soda makes them thirsty no matter most of them are doing nothing about their health, and given metabolic syndrome increases the risk of heart disease -more in women than in men-, I have no problem to qualify the quote within the quoted post as yet another case of "people who consult doctors show a higher mortality rate during the next 10 years than people who don't" until somebody call my attention upon new evidence.

By the way, aspartame is not in the paper.
 
I don't care about the supposed health risks, aspartame should die because it tastes like ass.

Asspartame.
 
The association persisted even after researchers adjusted the data to account for demographic characteristics and other cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index, smoking, hormone therapy use, physical activity, energy intake, salt intake, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. On average, women who consumed two or more diet drinks a day were younger, more likely to be smokers, and had a higher prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and higher body mass index.
Click to expand...

But if they controlled for other risk factors, maybe it doesn't matter?

Anyway, it doesn't seem that the researchers themselves concluded that the "association" was a causative one. The quack website strongly implied it, but here's what the researchers themselves say:

“We only found an association, so we can’t say that diet drinks cause these problems,” Vyas says, adding that there may be other factors about people who drink more diet drinks that could explain the connection.

“It’s too soon to tell people to change their behavior based on this study; however, based on these and other findings we have a responsibility to do more research to see what is going on and further define the relationship, if one truly exists,” he adds. “This could have major public health implications.”
Click to expand...
 
Aepervius said:
Correlation to cardio vascular problems does not mean causation.
Click to expand...
It does when you want people to agree with you. "People who did A had B happen, therefore A causes B!" Oldest trick in the book. :)
 
Puppycow said:
But if they controlled for other risk factors, maybe it doesn't matter?

Anyway, it doesn't seem that the researchers themselves concluded that the "association" was a causative one. The quack website strongly implied it, but here's what the researchers themselves say:
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention the bit "more research is needed" they used, a common shield.

The fact is that if such a paper had been submitted as a thesis it would have been rejected entirely. If someone knows a school that wouldn't do so, please tell me so we can cross it out of our list.

O papermaniac tempora, o mores!
 
Aepervius said:
Dare I ask how you know what ass taste like ?


;)
Click to expand...

imagination2.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom