Alternatives not so healthy

I have taken a thread a little off topic today but though it would be interesting if people know of "healthy alternatives" that have proven to be just as damaging. One that springs to mind for me is aspertame, supposedly a better alternative to sugar. I had a friend who drank drinks that contained aspertame. He was quite addicted to diet coke. He was always ill in one way or another. Especially with ear infections, colds and other nasal problems. I showed him so links to aspertame just in the hope he would read them. After he read them he stopped drinking diet coke and moved away from anything with aspertame. He phoned me a few months later saying he could smell again. Apparently he lost his sense of smell 10 years ago. In the past 2 years he has had zero colds, infections or the like where he would usually have 3 or 4 a year. Some lasting for weeks.

Something else that recently shocked me was flouride. Flouride is a waste product of aluminium smelting. In effect a waste product but this waste product can be broken down by the human body hence a possible reason to put in our drinking water. What better way to dispose of waste.
Anyone else have anything we should know but maybe don't?

I hear wanking can make you go blind

"I hear wanking can make you go blind" who said that ![](upload://nXzNBAACFMemirV1148YTO7ENey.gif)

Sum Sub wrote:

I hear wanking can make you go blind

LOL! Sum Sub!

I've had a look on the line and there is no proof👍

snapper wrote:

"I hear wanking can make you go blind" who said that ![](upload://nXzNBAACFMemirV1148YTO7ENey.gif)

Stevie Wonder!

I don't bother reading up on these consiracy type scare tales. Media always has to 'shock' us with something. The internet is a wonderful place for people to go insane that everything and anything is actually seriously damging to your health. Well, so is believing everything you read online! :p

Things like aspartame. It doesn't take reading up on it to realise that, go figure, drinking ten cans of diet drink a day is no healthier than drinking ten cans of a sugary drink. And yet there are people who don't realise that, and so drink ten cans of diet drink a day. People who may not even have drank one can of sugary drink a day. Then they wonder why their health is deteriorating. They'll go looking online for something, anything, that proves it is not their own behaviours that are to blame when in fact, it is. And so another thing is labelled unhealthy, rather than just people and their habits being called unhealthy and another 'healthy alternative' shall spring up only to then be labelled unhealthy. Like that flower based sweetener they are using in coke now. Only a matter of time before that is labelled unhealthy because some people will guzzle it...

Healthy alternatives are only really healthy if used in moderation. Which they generally aren't, otherwise people would have just used the origional thing in moderation!

He still has an addiction to sugary drinks minus the aspertame!

Stuburns wrote:

He still has an addiction to sugary drinks minus the aspertame!

I have a family member who is addicted to fizzy drink (coke specifically), they moved from the sugary version to diet and there they have stayed. Actually they drink whatever version they can buy. Also knew a guy who got addicted to full fat coke and became morbidly obese in a couple of years from drinking so much of it, that all started because his parents never let him drink soft drinks. It's shocking how addictive fizzies are!

To clarify, I wasn't having a dig at your friend in my previous post (or my family member), was just using the example given of aspartame :)

Chocolate makes you fat

Didn't think you were Lovebird😊. I also read an article on aspertame of someone who was diagnosed with ME. This person had 13 out of 15 characteristics of ME. This also covered side effects of aspertame. Which then was cut out of their diet and all the symptoms went.
I agree about everything can be related to something or other but you can only have a starting place of things to cut from your diet to find what could possibly be causing problems. After all people aren't that unfortunate to be constantly ill with things we consider trivial.
Everything in moderation though, you are perfectly correct with that.

I guess it's just a case of everything in moderation!

I drink quite lot of Diet Coke, I never used to; but I have got my addiction back to it. - The thing that bugs me is when everyone goes on about how bad it is for you. I have my sister, mum and dad nagging me about it constantly. My opinion, unless you are 100% healthy, don't cause harm to the enviroment, then don't harp on about what I do. I.e My mum drinks at least 40 cups of tea a day, and smokes a lot. My dad drinks at least 40 cups of coffee a day and drives EVERYWHERE. My sister drinks beer like it's going out of stock, every weekend! Yet whenever they see a can of diet coke in my hand they go on and on for ages about how bad it is for me.

Healthier. Key component being -er.

Cocaine is healthier than meth, and rolling tobacco is healthier than cigarettes, but that doesn't make it good for you....

Pretty much everything is fine in moderation, and you have to remember that in stuff like fizzy pop, there are so many ingredients that can couse different things, or cause something from other foodstuffs, that while it may appear to be one thing, it could be a variety that just happen to be solved by removing that aspect.

It's all relative *shrug*

Lovebirds_x do you mean Stevia (plant based sweetener. If so that's already under a large scale attack.

My biggest peev is all that is branded as being 'low' in something, being 'reduced' in something or being part of a brand such as Weight Watchers. In some cases these claims are genuienly true, but in many it's a switch in ingredients e.g if it's low in fat they up to the salt content to make it taste better. In other cases brands such as Weight Watchers for a worse nutritional value in fat, salt, sugar or calorie content than a standard brand. It's all a marketing scam that preys on consumers whom don't read labels and buy something because it says it on the front it's 'low x' or has 'reduced x'. Thirdly, claims that something is 'lighter' is often due to simply putting less in the packet, it's identical other than that.

Summary, read the label, don't be caught out by scams and if you watch what you eat you can have whatever you like i.e cake is fine, just not every day.

JSKM wrote:

Lovebirds_x do you mean Stevia (plant based sweetener. If so that's already under a large scale attack.

My biggest peev is all that is branded as being 'low' in something, being 'reduced' in something or being part of a brand such as Weight Watchers. In some cases these claims are genuienly true, but in many it's a switch in ingredients e.g if it's low in fat they up to the salt content to make it taste better. In other cases brands such as Weight Watchers for a worse nutritional value in fat, salt, sugar or calorie content than a standard brand. It's all a marketing scam that preys on consumers whom don't read labels and buy something because it says it on the front it's 'low x' or has 'reduced x'. Thirdly, claims that something is 'lighter' is often due to simply putting less in the packet, it's identical other than that.

Summary, read the label, don't be caught out by scams and if you watch what you eat you can have whatever you like i.e cake is fine, just not every day.

+1

Big brands like Walls pork sausages are a great tasting sausage but cheaper store brand sausages contain a lot more pork.

FrozenAngel wrote:

I guess it's just a case of everything in moderation!

I drink quite lot of Diet Coke, I never used to; but I have got my addiction back to it. - The thing that bugs me is when everyone goes on about how bad it is for you. I have my sister, mum and dad nagging me about it constantly. My opinion, unless you are 100% healthy, don't cause harm to the enviroment, then don't harp on about what I do. I.e My mum drinks at least 40 cups of tea a day, and smokes a lot. My dad drinks at least 40 cups of coffee a day and drives EVERYWHERE. My sister drinks beer like it's going out of stock, every weekend! Yet whenever they see a can of diet coke in my hand they go on and on for ages about how bad it is for me.

I only ever drink diet coke or tea.

never ever drink diet drinks yuk !

I also hate it when you read some thing that say " no added sugar" only to have to read the very very small print to find out they have replaced the sugar with something even worse !