Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation

> Aspartame has always been under a cloud of doubt

But this is almost entirely due to alarmists who were never using good science to justify their perspectives (just like with MSG). The reality is that aspartame is one of the most studied substances in history and it's effect on humans is very clear.

My main question is, if I drink ~3 glasses of soft drinks per day, should I get the one with sugar or the one with aspartame. Currently, I get the one with aspartame with thinking that (1) given the amount of sugar in this amount, I'd be running 100% full of my daily sugar norm, and (2) there are no conclusive evidence of aspartame being actually bad. Would the sugary drink be a better choice?

Another thing that irks me (though less so), is that occasionally somebody says for an aspartame drink that "you're drinking that poison?", when clearly, we would know if it really were poison.

And yet we've been dissatisfied with and flavoring our water for longer than we have recorded history.

I do!

Problem is, those low sugar beverages are often low sugar thanks to aspartame

I would really like a low sugar soft drink, not artificial but one with like 1/4 the amount of real sugar. It would probably taste fine, I don't get why everything needs 32g in it!

I can imagine that. If I drink a lot of diet soda, I get a bit wired but also tired in a weird way. It's like my body expects some sugar to fuel the caffeine's stimulation.

I get sleepy if I have too many vitamins/minerals (eg: a whole PowerBar or entire Orgain drink), so maybe it's the minerals, perhaps Magnesium?

[Magnesium helps my wife sleep better, but she can only take it at night or it makes her sleepy. I take half in the morning, and I think it helps because we're likely not getting enough in our mineral-depleted foods.]

Harm reduction is important.

Normal sodas are pretty acidic - coke has a pH of around 2.5

Soda water has a pH of 5-6.

Your saliva has a pH of around 6-7.

Water, of course, is at 7.

Remember we're dealing a log scale here, and that going from 2.5 to 5.5 isn't a 2x improvement - it's closer to a 1000x reduction in the amount of acid. If replacing soda with soda water is what gets them to stick to it, that's what they should do.

I switched from sparkling to plain water a few weeks ago (for other reasons).

I’m drinking significantly less than I was when drinking sparkling.

So again, the question now becomes is it better to be fully hydrated drinking “acidic” sparkling water, or is it better to only drink plain water and be dehydrated? (Rhetorical question)

From that same study:

>The increased amounts of calcium, phosphate, and fluoride in the drinks limited the severity of erosion by changing the solubility of the enamel [82]. The decline in enamel’s surface microhardness and mineral loss were both dramatically halted by the addition of CaGP to the carbonated drinks.

Most seltzer water has fluoride in it, and your tap water has fluoride in it (if you're making your own at home).

Also the methodology in this study was purely in vitro, not real world conditions. Notably, the lack of saliva.

>Under normal circumstances, human saliva forms a physical barrier, a film, and prevents direct contact between the tooth enamel surface and acidic beverages, thus protecting teeth from erosive attack by acids [45,84,85,86]. However, the erosion tests were carried out without saliva

Also, seems like the study was more on soft drinks in particular and not "other acidic drinks" which may include seltzer water.

>Soft drink consumption during meals was linked to mild to severe tooth damage [65]. No matter when they were consumed, other acidic meals and beverages were not linked to tooth damage [40].

Anyway, net is this: I'm not saying sparkling water carries absolutely no risk, but linking a study like this and cherry picking quotes to make it sound like sparkling water is going to destroy your teeth is misleading.

If drinking sparkling water helps you kick your soda habit, please definitely make the switch. It's so much better for you. The increased risk from drinking sparkling water compared to still water is not worth worrying about if sparkling water provides a quality of life increase for you.

Everything in healthcare is about moderated risk and counterbalancing it against lifestyle.

To arrive in the bladder, the CO₂ would have to be absorbed into the blood stream first. Which it isn't, it is just burped out from your stomach. Also, CO₂ which is dissolved into the blood stream is removed through your lungs, and the blood CO₂ level is very tightly controlled by various regulators and reflexes. You would know instantly through your suffocation response that your blood CO₂ is elevated.

Why would that be? I'm no biologist but I'm quite sure the CO2 won't make it all the way to the bladder, when drinking plain carbonated water.

If gases show up in your urine, something has gone seriously wrong.

One refrain seems to be that "added sugars" are bad but then that's not quite true afaik either, because sugar is sugar whether it's "added" or not.

To a first approximation, "sugar is bad for you" seems to be a succinct lie-to-children[1] default, from where exceptions can be established. Whole fruits with lots of sugars (as opposed to e.g fruit juices with a comparable amount) are purportedly less-bad because they're accompanied by enough fiber to slow digestion and make the sugar less bioavailable.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie-to-children