Anyone want diet coke?

[sangie]

I totally agree Tracey! I am in research and for my own personal interest I have done a lot of research into artifical sweeteners. Safe to say that we avoid it in this household. Of course, as some have mentioned, the occasional treat is fine but I worry about those people who drink 'diet' drinks all day thinking that this is better for them?

[*charmalea*]

i avoid fake foods too ... except for the odd choccy , but i rarely eat packet foods and when im shopping i always check the preserviteves and additves and avoid any that i dont know .... 90% of the time my diet is great .. i have soft drink about once a month if that ...

i agree , you dont have to go so far are growing your own veges and raising cows to get meat , just eat healthy and aviod fast foods , you will feel sooo much better for it

[Bathsheba]

Choccy doesn't have to be fake If you eat the real stuff, preferably dark, not milk, then it can be good for you in small amounts. The real stuff is often expensive, but worth it. The thing with eating the real stuff is that there is more of the naturally occuring chemical that makes us want it... but less fat and sugar. My favourite diet book (that is really an anti-diet book) "Why French Women Don't Get Fat" recommends a piece of real chocolate a day! It is a very "pro" no fake food book!

[LimeSlice]

I recently read a National Geographic (will have to dig it up to find the edition) where one of their journalists paid to have a chemical test done on his body (to test for these cost US$15k) and found that the levels of certain chemicals in his body was incredible high, even for someone who had been exposed in an industrial situation (which he hasn't) they affect the brain, fertility, everything!
There was evidence he had found regarding a 2 yo girl who had so much lead in her system it looks like confetti in her intestines on the x-ray - she is TWO. This is not uncommon apparently.

But then the thing that really scares me is that of the tens of thousands of chemicals released upon the public every year in the US, they only have to be tested for side effects if they are already known to have harmful side effects (no that is not a typo) To prove they are bad, they have to know they are bad already! Hello?!?!
This includes things that go into foods.

Companies recently have been using the "no artifical preservatives" meaning the preservatives we use are natural...Well so is crude oil, doesn't mean I want to eat it.

My favourite example of well meaning people producing products for human consumption is the development and release of the first contraceptive pill...It was supposed to be wonderful, thousands of women took it, and then a year or so down the track, massive consequences including many deaths resulted -- oh, ooops!
They are now having anecdotal evidence of similar problems with the Cervical cancer "vaccine" - something which has now become a standard immunisation for adolescent girls - with less than 10 years of testing.

I just find it scary that governments, companies, medical professionals and the general public continue to accept these chemicals in their food, carpets, toys, immunisations, medications, paints, cleaning products ... without ever thinking that the people that produce these things aren't always testing them, or for that matter, really care to test them.

ETA: Cailin - im not sure exactly how the link you posted does anything but reinforce the point of my argument? Any for someone who has lived with the affects of progressive MS every day of my life, I can tell you that anyone who is diagnosed with the disease looks VERY seriously and vigorously into anything and everything that is could alternatively be...and diet is the first thing they look at in terms of treatments. If you have MS syptoms a year after being diagnosed with MS, then you have MS.
Oh, and the report I posted actually says "MS like symptoms" not MS itself.

[Ginger]

but i LOVE diet coke!!! damn it