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Comment by gggvvff | Hacker News Reader

Aspartame.

I only upvoted you because Aspartame is such an interesting case - no other food that I can think of has had such vitrol thrown at it, yet every single scientific study has shown no effect on blood sugar, the chemical is simple, the two compounds it breaks down to in the liver are already present in the body and its properties are well known.

Yet people still hate it.

From my limited life experience:

It tastes bad to the average male, it leaves a bad after taste that is really noticable. Females don't seem to notice the after taste.

I used to feel that way and I am male, but I've found that now that I've consumed a lot, it no longer has that effect.

I don't notice any bitterness, but I've been drinking Diet Pepsi for something like 20 years.

Wait what? No. "Average" and "me and my buddies" aren't the same.

It is if you preface the discussion by saying in my experience. That limits the group to people I've had contact with that the word average would apply.

Aspartame has been extensively studied and no adverse effect has been found. Why do you think that? Is it because "scary chemical"? And is it worse than sugar?

http://www.cibr.es/ka/apps/cibr/docs/aspartamo-opinion-efsa-... is a European Food Safety view.

If I'm reading that correctly, they say there's no problem at the current doses, no?

I don’t know about the chemical itself, but it’s sold as a substitute for sugar without the ill effect, and likely has a similar metabolic effect to sugar.

It can't have a similar metabolic effect to sugar. For one, it's a peptide, not a carbohydrate. Also, in the quantities it's consumed in, there are very few calories.

Now, for phenylketonurics it's problematic, but they have severe dietary restrictions anyway.

The only problem I'm aware of with aspartame is that consumption of any sweetener is associated with weight gain, possibly due to changes in the brain's association between taste and calorie intake.

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