Health warnings

[Moses Yoder]

The thread on Diet Cokes got me wondering how many people don't care about health risks (or perhaps think they are overrated) and just do it anyway. Like smoking for instance. Or using artificial sweeteners. Let's just start with those two and see where it goes.

For instance, here is an article on aspartame, an artificial sweetener;

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...-imagined.aspx

And here is one on smoking;

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...s_cig_smoking/

And yet, even after reading these I bet there are still people here who drink aspartame and smoke cigarettes. Just wondering.

[Mike Circo]

Everything in moderation, and good genes. That's my motto.

My grandfather lived to be 96. Retired twice and worked until he was 88. He smoked cigars, drank martinis every night. Ate salty food, fatty food, red meat, potatoes and even (gasp!) beer. He was never sick a day in his life. My mother is the same way.

My Sister however is a dietition and eats "right", she is always tired, "coming down with something", having stomach issues and has blood pressure issues too. I have none of that, and eat "wrong".

Life is too short to worry needlessly. If you deny yourself all good things, you will add maybe a couple of years to your life. But those are at the end and not really good years anyway ;-)

[David Weaver]

I wouldn't put any weight on anything from that first site. The guy who runs that site thinks HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and generally has a whole lot of other unsubstantiated ideas to sell himself and his stuff.

Smoking is known, the mortality adjustment for a smoker is a known measurable thing, and is somewhere around 2 or a little north of 2 (meaning that in general, if 3 out of 1000 non-smokers would become deceased at a given age, approximately 6+ smokers out of 1,000 would become deceased).

I'd go to wikipedia for an unbiased assessment of aspartame. It may have links to bad things (I personally get migraines if I drink aspartame in more than a small quantity, not always, but with noticeably higher frequency), but at least you have a better chance of getting reasonable information and citations without an agenda.

[Moses Yoder]

I wouldn't put any weight on anything from that first site. The guy who runs that site thinks HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and generally has a whole lot of other unsubstantiated ideas to sell himself and his stuff.

Smoking is known, the mortality adjustment for a smoker is a known measurable thing, and is somewhere around 2 or a little north of 2 (meaning that in general, if 3 out of 1000 non-smokers would become deceased at a given age, approximately 6+ smokers out of 1,000 would become deceased).

I'd go to wikipedia for an unbiased assessment of aspartame. It may have links to bad things (I personally get migraines if I drink aspartame in more than a small quantity, not always, but with noticeably higher frequency), but at least you have a better chance of getting reasonable information and citations without an agenda.

So essentially you are saying you make your decisions based on things called "scientifically proven facts" and you believe it is possible to do something without bias.

If you have a wife, does her input influence you at all? For example, I would be happy to partake of aspartame and die fat and happy at a very young age but my wife believes otherwise. I do have to say I would not smoke though; all of the smokers I have known in my life have come to miserable ends, not happy at all. So I guess my decision paradigm hinges on personal experience.

[Jerome Stanek]

So essentially you are saying you make your decisions based on things called "scientifically proven facts" and you believe it is possible to do something without bias.

If you have a wife, does her input influence you at all? For example, I would be happy to partake of aspartame and die fat and happy at a very young age but my wife believes otherwise. I do have to say I would not smoke though; all of the smokers I have known in my life have come to miserable ends, not happy at all. So I guess my decision paradigm hinges on personal experience.

By that thinking I would stay away from water as everybody that died had been drinking water at one time or another so water is dangerous.

[Moses Yoder]

By that thinking I would stay away from water as everybody that died had been drinking water at one time or another so water is dangerous.

I agree absolutely, we had our water tested a few years ago and found it to be safe. So far, in my personal experience, it has been relatively safe. What you say is very true though; it has small bits of poisinous substances in it that will make me age faster and eventually die. In my experience water is not as bad for you as smoking. For instance, in comparing my wife's grandfather and grandmother she smoked and he does not. The last ten years of her life she was not able to breathe well, and she died probably 10 or 12 years ago now. He did not smoke, is over 90 years old now and in fine health and has no problems breathing, still drives himself. They both drank city water at about the same rate. This is my personal experience.

[Steve Meliza]

When I was growing up my mom fed us margarine because it was said to be healthier than butter. One night I saw a news cast about a little red wine being good for your heart, then the next night a story about a little red wine increasing the risk of cancer (or something like that). I refuse to attempt to stretch my days out a little by having a miserable existence and refuse to leave before my time by being a slob without any self control. Have moderation in ALL things and enjoy the time that you have been given.

[Ryan Mooney]

Have moderation in ALL things and enjoy the time that you have been given.

Personally I'm trying to cut back on moderation... .... ...

That water is in fact dangerous stuff!!!! : http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

[Myk Rian]

It's the chemicals that are put in everything we eat. Our bodies don't know what to do with them.
Margarine is one molecule short of being plastic. Really.
As a result we have cancers that are totally un-explainable, illnesses for no reason, we need energy drinks to stay awake. The list is endless.
Our Grand-parents didn't grow up with those chemicals. They smoked and drank, and lived into their 80s and 90s.

EDIT: Let me add all the above ground nuclear blasts that were carried out. Poisoned ourselves right good with that, we did.

[Jay Jolliffe]

We've been being poisoned by the food corps for a long time & there still figuring out ways to due more damage.....

[David Weaver]

So essentially you are saying you make your decisions based on things called "scientifically proven facts" and you believe it is possible to do something without bias.

If you have a wife, does her input influence you at all? For example, I would be happy to partake of aspartame and die fat and happy at a very young age but my wife believes otherwise. I do have to say I would not smoke though; all of the smokers I have known in my life have come to miserable ends, not happy at all. So I guess my decision paradigm hinges on personal experience.

This is a really odd line of reasoning. My wife doesn't determine whether aspartame does or doesn't have any significant health effects. If she harrassed me about eating it, that might influence me but even if that was the case, that wouldn't point me toward a quack who sells supplements and books for advice above and beyond the entire body of study data. The reason why I would ignore conclusions from the first site is not a difficult concept. I didn't know who the guy was, but the way his site is laid out with self promotion and pushing of goods, as well as the tone of his arguments in his "article" was enough to make me look him up on wikipedia. The fact that he has some medical-type training and can still be that emotional and biased is even worse, I thought for sure I'd find out he was a quasi doc and not someone with any kind of medical credentials.

[David Weaver]

They smoked and drank, and lived into their 80s and 90s.

Actually, if they smoked or drank, they lived less long than current smokers and drinkers, and if they were non smokers, they lived less long than current non-smokers. What they didn't do was worry about whether or not the lead arsenic they were using to poison grasshoppers, etc, would get in their food supply.

[Ole Anderson]

If our combined leadership put all the energy into anti-smoking that has been brought to bear on the gun issue post the Sandy Hill shooting, just think how many more lives would be saved than were lost in that tragedy. Using an example of folks that live to a ripe old age regardless of their bad habits to support your bad habits is like saying there is no global warming because it sure is cold today. There ya go, smoking, guns and global warming. That ought to continue the discussion, and they all can affect our long term health.

[Belinda Barfield]

So, where do you all stand on GMOs, antibiotics, and growth hormones? Do you buy/eat strictly organic? I drink diet coke. I eat grass fed beef, and pork, from animals raised by friends who do not use antibiotics and hormones. I buy produce, when I can, from the local Farmer's Market from another friend who is a seed saver and only grows heirloom varieties. I buy eggs from free range chickens from either friend. If you buy your groceries from a typical store, it is ludicrous to think that there are more harmful chemicals in a diet coke than there are in the produce, grains, and meat that you consume.

[Fred Perreault]

One of the least noticed items might be the quality of the irrigation water that is used in the vegetable growing areas. Tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage and other greens are grown in areas with known slightly to moderately contaminated water. Of course, that won't be a serious issue in a few years because there won't be any water in those areas for irrigation. California, New Jersey, Florida, and other states are going to have to choose between farming water and drinking water.... and then there are the slaughterhouse issues. My veggie garden has gotten bigger every year for the past few years.