4 ms·

Yeah, it's a frequent target of the naturalistic fallacy. But to me the most honest criticism of it is not liking the taste. Health-wise, almost certainly bett

by rcxdude 6mo ago

Yeah, it's a frequent target of the naturalistic fallacy. But to me the most honest criticism of it is not liking the taste. Health-wise, almost certainly better than the sugar it's replacing.

doublerabbit 6mo ago
Sugar please. I can't stand the taste of aspartame. They've started using Dextrin to replace sugars in confectionary (Mars Galaxy minstrels) and they taste awful. I liked Pepsi more than Coke but now that in the UK is using Aspartame in Pepsi it ruins the taste tenfold.
- hagbard_c 6mo ago
  Sounds like aspartame is a boon for your health if its addition means you eat fewer Mars bars and drink less sweetened bubbly water. Hooray for aspartame!
  - soopypoos 6mo ago
    freedom is unhealthy
    - hagbard_c 6mo ago
      It certainly can be. You're free to jump off a cliff but you'll have to suffer the consequences.
      - soopypoos 6mo ago
        maybe I like the consequences
        hagbard_c 6mo ago
        In that case feel free to jump. Eat candy bars, drink sweetened coloured preserved bubbly water and do all those other things you want. Isn't freedom great? As long as your freedom does not curtail another's feel free to do what you want within the bounds of the law. I'll even go so far as to add that some laws can be violated without consequences because they're outdated, superfluous, bought and paid for by those who stand to profit from their establishment or otherwise not conducive to a thriving society. Of course there is that problem with the consequences of your and my freedom: if you decide to indulge in too much freedom and as a result of that incur large medical bills from cliff-jumping, the mentioned candy bar and sweetened water diet and other similarly unhealthy habits it would not be fair to limit my freedom to do what I want with my hard earned money by claiming the tax payer (where I live) or insurance customer (where most people on this forum live) need to pay for your habits. As it stands this is the case but it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe there should be extra insurance premiums for habitual cliff jumpers and candy bar customers? Of course this is not easy to implement since it would not be fair to those eating one of those bars every other month or people who jump from 2 m high cliffs.
Cthulhu_ 6mo ago
And as always, too much of anything isn't good for you either. A sugary soda on occasion won't do much harm, but some have several a day or it's the only thing they will drink.
ChrisRR 6mo ago
I much prefer sucralose to aspartame
- atombender 6mo ago
  [dead]
- bitwize 6mo ago
  Sucralose is a genotoxin: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12251854/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12251854/
mint5 6mo ago
But why does everything need to be sweet? Most things don’t need sweetened and shouldn’t be sweet. Of the things that do benefit from sweeteners, they always need like 1/5 the level added. Americans have been trained to love saccharine levels of sweetness. People can easily handle and enjoy lower levels of sweetness if they just do it for a few weeks to recalibrate from candy land.
- midiguy 6mo ago
  It's not that everything has to be sweet, but rather that, for example, Coke really isn't Coke without sweetness and people just happen to enjoy Coke. And if you're going to enjoy a Coke, Coke Zero or Diet Coke is better for your health. Of course there are other things like coffee that really are not defined by sweetness and can be perfectly enjoyed unsweetened.
  - cyberax 6mo ago
    A guy on the Internet recently reverse-engineered the Coke formula and published the recipe. I always liked Diet Coke, the regular one is just too sweet for me. So I replicated the recipe, and I actually liked unsweetened Cola! It feels a bit tea-like, but also more acidic. Kinda like coffee but without the bitter undertone. If you like Coke drinks, I highly recommend it.
    - JCattheATM 6mo ago
      There are lots of cola recopies, why is this guy confident he has Coke's?
      - cyberax 6mo ago
        He used chromatography and mass spec to match the chemical composition, along with taste tests. Many people also tried this recipe and can't tell the difference in blind tests between it and various types of Coke.
    - MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago

by rcxdude 6mo ago

Yeah, it's a frequent target of the naturalistic fallacy. But to me the most honest criticism of it is not liking the taste. Health-wise, almost certainly better than the sugar it's replacing.

doublerabbit 6mo ago

Sugar please. I can't stand the taste of aspartame. They've started using Dextrin to replace sugars in confectionary (Mars Galaxy minstrels) and they taste awful. I liked Pepsi more than Coke but now that in the UK is using Aspartame in Pepsi it ruins the taste tenfold.

hagbard_c 6mo ago
Sounds like aspartame is a boon for your health if its addition means you eat fewer Mars bars and drink less sweetened bubbly water. Hooray for aspartame!
- soopypoos 6mo ago
  freedom is unhealthy
  - hagbard_c 6mo ago
    It certainly can be. You're free to jump off a cliff but you'll have to suffer the consequences.
    - soopypoos 6mo ago
      maybe I like the consequences
      - hagbard_c 6mo ago
        In that case feel free to jump. Eat candy bars, drink sweetened coloured preserved bubbly water and do all those other things you want. Isn't freedom great? As long as your freedom does not curtail another's feel free to do what you want within the bounds of the law. I'll even go so far as to add that some laws can be violated without consequences because they're outdated, superfluous, bought and paid for by those who stand to profit from their establishment or otherwise not conducive to a thriving society. Of course there is that problem with the consequences of your and my freedom: if you decide to indulge in too much freedom and as a result of that incur large medical bills from cliff-jumping, the mentioned candy bar and sweetened water diet and other similarly unhealthy habits it would not be fair to limit my freedom to do what I want with my hard earned money by claiming the tax payer (where I live) or insurance customer (where most people on this forum live) need to pay for your habits. As it stands this is the case but it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe there should be extra insurance premiums for habitual cliff jumpers and candy bar customers? Of course this is not easy to implement since it would not be fair to those eating one of those bars every other month or people who jump from 2 m high cliffs.

Cthulhu_ 6mo ago

And as always, too much of anything isn't good for you either. A sugary soda on occasion won't do much harm, but some have several a day or it's the only thing they will drink.

ChrisRR 6mo ago

I much prefer sucralose to aspartame

atombender 6mo ago
[dead]
bitwize 6mo ago
Sucralose is a genotoxin: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12251854/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12251854/

mint5 6mo ago

But why does everything need to be sweet? Most things don’t need sweetened and shouldn’t be sweet. Of the things that do benefit from sweeteners, they always need like 1/5 the level added. Americans have been trained to love saccharine levels of sweetness. People can easily handle and enjoy lower levels of sweetness if they just do it for a few weeks to recalibrate from candy land.

midiguy 6mo ago
It's not that everything has to be sweet, but rather that, for example, Coke really isn't Coke without sweetness and people just happen to enjoy Coke. And if you're going to enjoy a Coke, Coke Zero or Diet Coke is better for your health. Of course there are other things like coffee that really are not defined by sweetness and can be perfectly enjoyed unsweetened.
- cyberax 6mo ago
  A guy on the Internet recently reverse-engineered the Coke formula and published the recipe. I always liked Diet Coke, the regular one is just too sweet for me. So I replicated the recipe, and I actually liked unsweetened Cola! It feels a bit tea-like, but also more acidic. Kinda like coffee but without the bitter undertone. If you like Coke drinks, I highly recommend it.
  - JCattheATM 6mo ago
    There are lots of cola recopies, why is this guy confident he has Coke's?
    - cyberax 6mo ago
      He used chromatography and mass spec to match the chemical composition, along with taste tests. Many people also tried this recipe and can't tell the difference in blind tests between it and various types of Coke.
  - MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago