this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023

5 points (100.0% liked)

World News

38188 readers

1978 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]

Recommendations

How to spot Misinformation and Propaganda

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Aspartame is safe in limited amounts, say experts after cancer warning (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So maybe the huge worry people had after the news that WHO would classify it as cancerous was a little too much. I think the media could have reported on it in a bit more responsible way.

top 23 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Not a shock.

Food scares are almost always over blown (except obviously tide pods).

People thought MSG was going to kill everyone. People thought Cholesterol was the key to good health. Even fat in moderation is perfectly fine.

But Fish will kill you with mercury, uncooked pork will kill you with everything (which is unlikely to happen in the first place, but also most pork you get is already cooked, at least sausage and hams). Salmonella is definitely going to kill you. Your kitchen is going to burn down, Fried food will end your life, and all processed food is bad.

Remember Supersize me? Remember the guy who ate two big macs a day for multiple years. That SINGLE guy should have been the end of the entire documentary, because he basically showed "Yes you can eat McDonalds in moderation and have a healthy life." But instead "McDonalds is going to kill you with super sized food."

The fact is you're probably more likely to get Ebola than most of these things actually contributing to your death.. though speaking of disease myths...

These things rush in, kill a business or a company, and then are forgotten, and then 10 years later new science comes out and goes "Btw it wasn't as bad as people thought... try it out"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

About the MSG hysteria, it's not even rooted in actual medical data, just run-of-the-mill xenophobia, which in itself is absolutely wild to me. It's like a whole chunk of the population collectively decided to develop the palate of a toddler, turning up their nose to "foreign" food.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate "Researchers, doctors, and activists have tied the controversy about MSG to xenophobia and racism against Chinese culture,[62][63][64][65][66] saying that East Asian cuisine is being targeted while the widespread use of MSG in other processed food hasn't been stigmatized.[67] These activists have claimed that the perpetuation of the negative image of MSG through the Chinese restaurant syndrome was caused by "xenophobic" or "racist" biases.[68][69]"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't dive deep on MSG just to not sound like I'm ranting about that specifically but you nailed it. It was more about Chinese restaurants (at least that's how I heard it) and I remember my parents saying we don't go to Chinese restaurants during the hysteria.

Sucks because I love Chinese food, and Thai, Korean, Japanese and more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a side note, i don't think the skinny guy from Super Size Me who eats 2 Big macs a day is a picture of exemplary health. Dude is either a genetic outlier or he will drop dead of a coronary one day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All of those could be explanations. Here's another one.

Big macs are 583 calories... two big macs are about 1100 calories... aka perfectly reasonable in a healthy diet. I forget if he ate two a day or two in some meals, but a nutritionist would ok that Calorie count.

Morgan Spurlock pushed "no one can eat here and be healthy" but he constantly pushed for combo meals ate in one sitting, and supersized every time they asked. That's like someone going into a bar and saying yes every time the bartender goes "Want another one" and then going "OMG I'm so wasted and got alcohol poisoning" he set the rules up to make sure he failed, because no one is saying eat a combo meal at Mcdonalds for three meals a day.

The thing is it WOULD be interesting if he looked into why he can maintain a reasonable weight while eating it.... but of course they didn't because that would prove Mcdonalds isn't the worst thing ever. Morgan had two goals. Prove Mcdonalds is unhealthy (And ignore contrary evidence) and make an entertaining documentary. He did the later, but I feel like he never even came close to the former because his methodology was shit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Supersize Me: "Wow, if I eat garbage at a 3000+ calorie rate a day, I'm gonna feel like shit! Please give me awards and adoration and play me in every high school health class!"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don't forget TV shows, more documentaries and more.

Morgan Spurlock did VERY well for himself based on that completely bias "Study". Sadly that became the style of documentary for a while (and potentially still is). Fuck the facts, let's make entertainment!

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Everyone knew McDicks is bad for you. It was an entertaining doc. That's why people loved it. Also, most Americans are 100% ignorant to nutrition. Count your blessings it's a no brainer for you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Won't effect the US, even if it causes cancer. EU has prohibited food additives which are carcinogenic, but we don't because the poor, poor food producers might have to pay farmers more and pay a couple pennies to make food that doesn't kill people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Safe in limited amount, so just like normal sugar then. Just don't drink liters of soda each day. (Or even better, don't drink soda but water instead)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So actually no. It isn't really safe. Coca-Cola and the rest of the beverage industry is just as bad as big tobacco.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Everything is technically unsafe. When we say "safe" we always mean "in moderation"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sodium cyclamate is a superior sweetener taste-wise anyway, nothing comes even close. And I’m prepared to die on that hill.

Why don’t brands use it I wonder?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's still banned in the US, so brands that want to use it would have to have US specific formulas or not desire to sell there.

That's a lot of brands, for sure, but depending on where you are, they might not be the brands you see.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am in the US and have purchased stevia many times.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Does stevia contain sodium cyclomate?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m still not eating it. It tastes terrible or makes my mouth go numb depending on the type. There is a serious hole in the market to be filled by quick low calorie snack foods that are shelf stable and don’t involve sugar alternatives. Most stuff is just too sweet any way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

No one is out here forcing you to suck down aspartame. That's your right not to ingest it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

14 cans of soda a day, even diet soda, can't possibly be safe or good for you. Especially since aspartame is also linked to kidney and liver failure and is even worse for you than ibuprofen in that regard; and you wouldn't normally take 14 ibuprofen in a single day.

How much did Coca-Cola pay for this PR? I swear, ever since the first news that aspartame is linked to cancer, there have been way more articles trying to convince people it ain't that bad. It's a corporate smokescreen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been on a low sugar diet for 3 years, to try to curb my binge eating disorder. Sugar was a huge trigger. I recently looked into how many low and zero sugar products use aspartame and every thing I buy to adhere to my diet has it in it. I'm introducing a bit more regular sugar into my diet so I stop consuming so much aspartame. It's going well. I haven't binged since the start of this, and hopefully it stays that way.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You need a huge amount of aspertame to cause issues. Sugar is very unhealthy and it's in everything. I'd recommend sticking to sugar alternatives. If you're adding sweetener yourself, to coffee or whatever, there are other options though. I like stevia, which you can even grow and extract yourself without too much trouble. Ragardless, unless you're consuming absolutely massive amounts of aspertame, you'll be OK. (Maybe switch to water from soda though. That'll help regardless.)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for making me feel a bit better. How tf do you grow stevia tho??? I want to do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's just a plant that naturally tastes sweet, but not from sucrose/glucose. You can probably find one at a hardware store that sells plants or other plant sellers.

To extract it you put the leaves in alcohol (vodka is fine) and wait 2 days, then cook off most of the alcohol.