Off-Topic Question for you Smart Sciencey Kids

[Brickhouse]

I am trying to cut down on refined sugar so I eat a lot of things with "Equal" or "Sweet and Low" in them.

I heard once that these break down into formaldehyde in your body and kill you slowly.

Any thoughts on this? Should I prepare for an early grave?

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[TTSD]

Originally posted by Brickhouse
I am trying to cut down on refined sugar so I eat a lot of things with "Equal" or "Sweet and Low" in them.

I heard once that these break down into formaldehyde in your body and kill you slowly.

Any thoughts on this? Should I prepare for an early grave?

Formaldehyde? Don't remember about that.. but there was that whole scare about saccharin back in the days which was proven to be a xeno-specific thing for rats.

But if I remember.. the body DOES produce a certain amount of formaldehyde and has mechanisms to deal with it. I forget.. probably one of the p450 pathways.. so long ago.. sigh.

 

[jlee9531]

even if it did......what could it do? a couple years?
bleh...

but yeah the body does have mechs to deal with formaldehyde so im sure its not something to worry about. we are products of adaptation and evolution.....are we gonna let sweet and low bring us down?

HELL NO!

 

[tygrwds]

Never heard of this rumor...but I'd choose Sweet 'N Low over Equal anytime.

 

[ewing]

If you want formaldehyde, drink lots of alcohol. Or drink a little alcohol with antabuse...it inhibits the enzyme that yada yada...

 

[vixenell]

Aspartame does many things, but you'd have to drink an insane amount daily to even notice an effect.

I actually did research on it waaaay back. It doesn't kill lab rats, but it screws up their memory skills. So keep that in mind before opening can #5.

 

[petersongator]

Aspartame is actually an amino acid dimer (phenylalanine and aspartic acid), so it can't harm you. It does produce a small amount of methanol during its metabolism, but not enough to do harm.

 

[Bones2008]

Ok there's been a long history of aspartame and the FDA. The FDA actually banned aspartame until a former executive of the company that developed it became head of the FDA. Then, magically, all of the sudden aspartame was okay again. In large amounts, aspartame has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats. How these results apply to humans isn't known. However, if there is a carcinogenic effect, I would imagine that the more you use it the more risk you're at for developing problems. This topic is actually discussed pretty frequently in ethics classes and the like because of aspartame's sketchy history with the FDA.

 

[Spacekat]

The rat-cancer thing is true, but humans would have to consume 50 pounds (yes, 22.7 kilograms) of aspartame a month to achieve a similar level of exposure.

So unless you're eating Equal straight from the can on a daily basis, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

 

[ATPase]

So will my 36 oz. a day of Diet Mountain Dew give me cancer? I guess I should switch to coffee...

 

[Brickhouse]

Originally posted by Spacekat

So unless you're eating Equal straight from the can on a daily basis, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

uh-oh. . . .


honestly though, you guys n' gals are the best.

 

[Cerberus]

Isnt smoking formaldahyde supposed to get you high or something? Could be a b.s. urban legend but it seems like i've read about it in News of the Weird.

 

[NRAI2001]

Originally posted by Spacekat
The rat-cancer thing is true, but humans would have to consume 50 pounds (yes, 22.7 kilograms) of aspartame a month to achieve a similar level of exposure.

So unless you're eating Equal straight from the can on a daily basis, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

I guess that means i should start worrying.