I don't drink pop (well maybe a can a month, if that) but I had a few questions about the 'diet' kind. Now I always thought that diet pop still contained some sugar since you need something to sweetin it. I think aspartame is used (which I know there is a debate about its safety). Does anyone know how much aspartame is used and if the body metabolizes the aspartame like normal sugar?

If it's not, does that mean that it's okay for someone to drink two cans of pop a day even if it's diet?

What do y'all think?

Hi CC,

Aspartame is the most common, but not the only sweetener used in sodas. You can find out by reading the label.

Aspartame and most other non-sugar sweeteners are NOT metabolized much like sugar--this is the source of their value. Otherwise, why bother? aspartame, saccharine and cyclamates, the substitutes in longest consumer use, are used in vey small quantitities in most any consumer product. There was a period when there was much worry over their health effects, but after decdes of huge expense, the research has come up empty--there does not seem to be a cancer risk or anything like that.

Sugar alcohols such as glycerol (or glycerine), and maltitol and sorbitol are metablized partially like carbohydrates, but rarely completely, and render fewer calories than sugar per gram. Some artificial sweeteners, such as sucralose (splenda is one brand name) are metabolized normally, but it is between one and two hundred times as "sweet" to the taste buds as is sugar, so very little is used/ So little sucralose is used in most consumer products that its calories or carbs and food value can, for all practical purposes, be ignored.

Aspartame is a complex molecule, combining two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid. There are some who say it gives them headaches or blurry vision, but the most exhaustive studies do not find much of anything in the way of health effects. You have to decide for ourself (personally I drink diet drinks with it all the time, but that's me).


sean

Thanks Sean! That was such a great answer...you really know your stuff! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif