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Comment by pfdietz | Hacker News Reader

Sucralose-6-acetate, however, an impurity found in sucralose and produced in vivo from sucralose, is genotoxic.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37246822/

I would avoid sucralose. I have a suspicion it may be responsible for the observed increase in colon cancer in younger age groups.

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Did we just start adding this chemical in the ast five years? I can think of any other widespread roll out of a new technology in the same period.

The increase is cancers in younger age groups was noticed earlier than that, and the cancers can't be expected to occur instantly upon exposure to a carcinogen.

Where does the confidence that it is due to sweeteners come from? This isn‘t about your comment in particular, more of a general observation.

Many people instinctively attribute this rise in colon cancer to diet products, almost pretending as if it is the only thing that has meaningfully changed over the past 40 years or so. Others like to point to changing consumption habits in people drinking more sugary beverages.

It is almost as if everyone is projecting their personal believes into this. But the truth seems frustratingly simple: we really just do not know yet

> Where does the confidence that it is due to sweeteners come from?

Probably from your inability to read what I actually wrote. The word "suspicion" does not connote confidence.

I'm still expecting the cause to be HPV and increase in anal sex. Some studies seem to point that way (and other studies that say it might not), but it hasn't been proven yet. However it would make sense, considering that it leads to cervical cancer, throat cancer, etc.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9610003/

Not an expert on this by any means, just went down this rabbit hole when deciding if I should be asking about my son getting the HPV vaccine when it was first made available to males, and before it was broadly recommended for men.

A rise in meat (esp red & cured meats) consumption and a drop in vegetable consumption would also do it, particularly if it were disproportionately occurring in certain cohorts.

12% of Americans eat half the nation's supply of beef, and members of that group are disproportionately male and disproportionately middle-aged.

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