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What's the worst ingredient in energy drinks?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Let's start with artificial sweeteners. There is a long history of health controversies related to artificial sweeteners, although with the exception of cyclamates they are all still approved by the FDA.

But if you read the National Cancer Institute's position on artificial sweeteners, you could summarize it like this: Almost every artificial sweetener out there is really, really bad for rats. But we haven't proven that it's bad for humans yet, so what the heck, pour it in.

I stopped consuming artificial sweeteners after reading an amazing article in The New Yorker magazine (summarized here). Unfortunately the full text of the article is not available online, but the author interviewed a chemist who invented one of the main artificial sweeteners. The author asked the chemist if he ever consumed the stuff, and the guy's response was like, "No way! Are you kidding me? Once you know what it's made of you'd never eat it!"

Fun fact: Did you know Donald Rumsfeld (yes, that Donald Rumsfeld) was the CEO of GD Searle Company when the company got NutraSweet approved by the FDA? Now that's scary.

Aside from being made of nasty chemicals, artificial sweeteners have been conclusively proven to make people crave more sugar and gain weight.

So get off the pink packets. And the yellow ones and the blue ones, too. Remember: Friends don't let friends drink artificial sweeteners.

Here's a nice summary of literature on artificial sweeteners.

By: phix Permalink