4 ms·

I think that there's some weird sort of moralization aspect to alternative sweeteners or just a 'too good to be true' attitude. In how many other areas would we

I think that there's some weird sort of moralization aspect to alternative sweeteners or just a 'too good to be true' attitude. In how many other areas would we spend so much time looking at such scant evidence and taking it seriously?

Pxtl 5y ago
I agree. You saw it with Trump's Diet Coke habit - it somehow was tied into the many ways he is a complete garbage human, as if it was one more petty vice to pile onto the long list of his vices.
hellbannedguy 5y ago
I've always thought they tasted terrible.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  They taste different to cane sugar / corn syrup but good/bad is subjective and something you get used to. I used to not like it but now my taste adjusted it and now I don't like the "real sugar" flavor.
- caturopath 5y ago
  It's a big category. Aspartame has a really distinctive taste, but lots of sweeteners like sucralose and allulose not so much.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    I can recommend tagatose.[1] It tastes and feels indistinguishable from ordinary table sugar to me. [1] - https://www.wired.com/2003/11/newsugar/ https://www.wired.com/2003/11/newsugar/ [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagatose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagatose
- notJim 5y ago
  You get used to it after a while. I actually sometimes prefer a Coke Zero because of its unique taste (though I try to avoid soda altogether.)
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  Their taste is definitely odd. It’s sweet but not really, and often leaves a soapy aftertaste. The only way I can deal with it personally is if the food in question is flavorful enough to drown out the strangeness, in which case it probably didn’t need sweetening much anyway.
- AuryGlenz 5y ago
  I agree, but maybe that’s because it gives me a headache. At least, I think it does. I can never remember which sweeteners do - some do, some don’t. I don’t eat them enough to keep track.
goda90 5y ago
I've seen lots of concern about preservatives, colors, and flavorings in foods as well, but sweeteners have a more pronounced role as replacements for sugar. This makes them far more visible in general.
- frickinLasers 5y ago
  Aspartame also rapidly "breaks down into residual components, including aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol, and further breakdown products including formaldehyde and formic acid" on ingestion. [1] Even with no smoking gun for cancer, why would anyone tempt fate after reading that? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Metabolites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Metabolites
  - losethos7 5y ago
    Just love how you selectively quote that paragraph. The following sentence is: In some fruit juices, higher concentrations of methanol can be found than the amount produced from aspartame in beverages. In other words, all of those compounds are fairly simple small molecules and will be found abundantly in nature. There is no indication that aspartame leads to the breakdown of larger quantities then many "natural" foods.
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      Damn bro your first comment got insta-killed, I wonder whose mad Anyway, not everybody gets o-chem in their lives, but we all have an opinion on the news. All I want to know is what does it say about my biology that aspartame tastes like shit to me.
  - akiselev 5y ago
    That’s some weapons grade FUD you got there. First the dose makes the poison and second, all of those compounds are naturally occurring in humans as part of our metabolism. The pathways responsible for metabolizing proteins and keeping us alive produce them.
  - 5y ago

Pxtl 5y ago

I agree. You saw it with Trump's Diet Coke habit - it somehow was tied into the many ways he is a complete garbage human, as if it was one more petty vice to pile onto the long list of his vices.

hellbannedguy 5y ago

I've always thought they tasted terrible.

Gigachad 5y ago
They taste different to cane sugar / corn syrup but good/bad is subjective and something you get used to. I used to not like it but now my taste adjusted it and now I don't like the "real sugar" flavor.
caturopath 5y ago
It's a big category. Aspartame has a really distinctive taste, but lots of sweeteners like sucralose and allulose not so much.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  I can recommend tagatose.[1] It tastes and feels indistinguishable from ordinary table sugar to me. [1] - https://www.wired.com/2003/11/newsugar/ https://www.wired.com/2003/11/newsugar/ [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagatose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagatose
notJim 5y ago
You get used to it after a while. I actually sometimes prefer a Coke Zero because of its unique taste (though I try to avoid soda altogether.)
kitsunesoba 5y ago
Their taste is definitely odd. It’s sweet but not really, and often leaves a soapy aftertaste. The only way I can deal with it personally is if the food in question is flavorful enough to drown out the strangeness, in which case it probably didn’t need sweetening much anyway.
AuryGlenz 5y ago
I agree, but maybe that’s because it gives me a headache. At least, I think it does. I can never remember which sweeteners do - some do, some don’t. I don’t eat them enough to keep track.

goda90 5y ago

I've seen lots of concern about preservatives, colors, and flavorings in foods as well, but sweeteners have a more pronounced role as replacements for sugar. This makes them far more visible in general.

frickinLasers 5y ago
Aspartame also rapidly "breaks down into residual components, including aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol, and further breakdown products including formaldehyde and formic acid" on ingestion. [1] Even with no smoking gun for cancer, why would anyone tempt fate after reading that? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Metabolites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Metabolites
- losethos7 5y ago
  Just love how you selectively quote that paragraph. The following sentence is: In some fruit juices, higher concentrations of methanol can be found than the amount produced from aspartame in beverages. In other words, all of those compounds are fairly simple small molecules and will be found abundantly in nature. There is no indication that aspartame leads to the breakdown of larger quantities then many "natural" foods.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    Damn bro your first comment got insta-killed, I wonder whose mad Anyway, not everybody gets o-chem in their lives, but we all have an opinion on the news. All I want to know is what does it say about my biology that aspartame tastes like shit to me.
- akiselev 5y ago
  That’s some weapons grade FUD you got there. First the dose makes the poison and second, all of those compounds are naturally occurring in humans as part of our metabolism. The pathways responsible for metabolizing proteins and keeping us alive produce them.
- 5y ago