altoidsaddict
2004-05-09 06:55 pm UTC (link)

Ew, I can't stand diet zealots. I like to say that the word "diet" isn't in my vocabulary. Fortunately, the word "fat" is, so I live with few philosophical contradictions. Heh.

The thing I can't stand the most is that they assume everyone wants to lose weight, and MUST DO IT THEIR WAY OMGWTFBBQ! This goes double for the Atkins/anti-Atkins camp. My mom is on South Beach and I fail to see how vegetables and meat are a bad diet, but it did annoy me when she treated it like a religion, like, I know food restriction of any kind is not going to work on me.

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	gal_montag 2004-05-09 07:08 pm UTC (link)
	Y'know. On Atkins, it's not like you can drink non-diet soda. And that diet doesn't actually work for everyone. And additionally, everything causes cancer, right down to the cancenogen filed air we breathe. So I guess I can't care whether aspertame causes cancer or not. (Reply to this)

	nicolae 2004-05-09 07:54 pm UTC (link)
	"I don't believe in the Atkins diet." That's like saying...you don't believe in TABLES. facepalm (Reply to this)(Thread)

calluna
2004-05-09 08:33 pm UTC (link)

Wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in, say, tables. ... either the gods are there whether you believe or not, or exist only as a function of that belief, so either way you might as well ignore the whole business and, as it were, eat off your knees.

There's a Terry Pratchett quote for every situation. ;)

And I'm sure she meant believing it works, not that it exists...

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	nicolae 2004-05-09 08:40 pm UTC (link)
	Hee! Yup, that was EXACTLY what I was thinking of. And regardless of what she meant, she SAID teh dumb. Or, um, wrote. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sarajayechan 2004-05-09 07:58 pm UTC (link)
	Soda wank? Now I've seen it all. ...Not really, though. I haven't seen wank over ballpoint pens, socks, tampons, "Married with Children"...a bunch of stuff. But really. SODA wank?! Yes, too much diet soda is bad for you, but like all things, it's fine in moderation. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	panthea 2004-05-09 09:02 pm UTC (link)
	Moderation? Whassat? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	notapirate 2004-05-09 11:47 pm UTC (link)
	Icon love! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	panthea 2004-05-15 02:17 am UTC (link)
	Thanks! In return, I offer... icon... confusion? Oooh, how appropriate. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kyuuketsukirui 2004-05-10 06:07 am UTC (link)
	There was tampon wank a while back. Same girl who believe milk is rape. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	coyotegirl 2004-05-10 06:39 am UTC (link)
	OMG U LUSR IT'S POP!!!1! cough (Reply to this)(Parent)

janegraddell
2004-05-10 08:59 pm UTC (link)

Actually, I witnessed a low-grade wank about whether it's better to give your small child diet soda or regular soda. As I recall, it began during a discussion of an article about bad eating trends among toddlers, and someone said that she saw a woman refuse the offer of a diet soda for her child, saying that she only gave them regular soda (or maybe it was the other way around, I don't really remember). The general response was that it's better not to give a kid the soda, like, at all, but if one were stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing to drink but diet or regular soda, then, yeah, regular soda might possibly be slightly better for the kid. Maybe.

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	25th_of_april 2004-05-10 02:05 am UTC (link)
	This may be wanky all on its own, but it really bothers me that people automatically assume that anyone drinking diet pop is doing it because they're diet-crazy or something. Imena, I'm sure many people are like that, but many people who drink diet pop aren't. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kyuuketsukirui 2004-05-10 06:11 am UTC (link)
	nodnod Most regular soda makes my teeth feel all fuzzy and sugary and I drink so much, I'd be brushing my teeth all day if it weren't diet. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: 25th_of_april 2004-05-10 06:29 am UTC (link)
	Same here, and I get queasy from that much sugar all at once. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eljuno 2004-05-10 09:26 am UTC (link)
	I drink diet sodas as a rule (Mmmmdiet Coke). My dad is diabetic and has been the better part of my life. I've NEVER had sugared soda in the house. Me asking for a Diet Coke is like someone asking for 2% milk because that's what they were raised on. Everything else tastes funny. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	munchkinott 2004-05-10 03:04 am UTC (link)
	What this situation needs is a packet of Pop Rocks and an extreme Conservative Republican with a hard on for statistics. I'm just sayin'... crosses the wanks (Reply to this)(Thread)

	sarajayechan 2004-05-10 04:27 am UTC (link)
	DUCK AND COVER! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wakkymse 2004-05-10 07:34 pm UTC (link)
	watches as the wank explodes, leaving everyone covered in ~~marshmallow~~ splooge -lee (Reply to this)(Parent)

musette
2004-05-10 04:52 am UTC (link)

Haven't we had the "omg diet soda KEEL U!!!1!1one!1!" study disproven often enough by now? For it to actually give you cancer, you'd have to drink more diet soda than is physically possible, good lord.

That and Atkins, frankly, is a bad idea long term. We're designed to be omnivores and you can't expect to eat like that forever and not have your body chemistry severely fucked up.

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wakkymse
2004-05-10 12:58 pm UTC (link)

Was it even a study? To the best of my knowledge, most of the "aspartame ~~makes the baby Jesus cry~~ causes every serious ailment known to man" was the product of one person who misread the exiting medical documentation on it and started wanking furiously about it a few years ago. (The rest comes from people advocating macrobiotic diets, who would prefer you didn't eat anything sweet at all -- even sugar.)

Aspartame really is dangerous for the few people that have phenylketonuria. It'll cause an MSG-like headache in some people, but stopping consumption of it makes it go away in that case. And the methanol thing Martini goes on about is a red herring; fruit juice has more methanol, and our bodies can handle the (relatively tiny compared to, say, windshield washer or Sterno) amounts just fine.

-lee

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musette
2004-05-11 12:33 am UTC (link)

Hmm, you may be right. I thought it was a study, because I seem to remember there being statistics about how to consume the equivalent amount of aspartame to what they were giving the test animals, you'd have to like... live on aspartame and never sleep or something. I don't remember where I heard that though, so lord knows.

Aspartame is dangerous the way MSG is dangerous to people with a sensitivity to it is or say, peanuts to someone with a peanut allergy. But ya know, that's a distinction I don't expect the wankers to be able to make.

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wakkymse
2004-05-11 03:09 am UTC (link)

Ah, then it might have been...medical studies like those are usually totally understated unless someone whines and screams about them (like the aforementioned person profiled on Snopes). The macrobiotic site seems to be riding Martini's coattails, using stuff she dug up to strengthen their position that you should 1) only be using natural sweeteners like honey, cane syrup and such 2) even then, only in small amounts.

If you want to see teh_crazeh in action, Martini's own site is a hoot. I didn't mention it in my OP because I forgot. x.x

As for the sensitivity, I've read something that said it may actually be caffeine causing it, but I know I get it when I drink diet soda sometimes, and I never even noticed it when I was drinking a lot of regular soda. I have to drink a LOT of diet soda (2l or more) to get this to happen, though, and it's usually more annoying than painful. I'm still not gonna give up my Diet Coke With Yummy Fruit Flavors. :D

-lee

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	Re: musette 2004-05-11 05:57 am UTC (link)
	Wow, teh crazeh is putting it mildly. boggles I've never had bad reactions to aspartame, and MSG makes me totally ill, so I've always been skeptical of the badness of it. Not that it's impossible, but like you said, it'd take a /lot/ to have that reaction in most cases. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mirabellawotr 2004-05-10 01:04 pm UTC (link)
	That and Atkins, frankly, is a bad idea long term. I kind of wondered about that. If my vague notions of what's involved in Atkins are correct, it sounds like the royal road to gout. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: musette 2004-05-11 12:34 am UTC (link)
	And craptastic cholesterol and, in the case of my aunt, stroke like symptoms from potassium deficiencies. It works short term, but it's far from being the be all end all. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2004-05-18 03:49 am UTC (link)

you can't expect to eat like that forever and not have your body chemistry severely fucked up.

Well, your body chemistry will adapt. In fact, that's how the Atkins diet appears to make you lose weight... while your body adapts to the chemical changes a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates produces, you lose more weight. As soon as your body adapts, however, you will start gaining again... unless you consume fewer calories than you expend, which is the central point of weight loss anyway. Also note that you're allowed more carbohydrates the longer you're on the Atkins diet... how interesting. (I'm getting most of this from an article that was published in a recent issue of Skeptical Inquirer... Lord knows I'm not intelligent enough to actually understand most of what's going on at a chemical level, so I'm conveniently leaving it out here.)

Also, Atkins can put you at greater risk for gout, among other things. How... pleasant.

- DrWorm

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	vassilissa 2004-05-11 09:33 am UTC (link)
	that diet soda gives her gas. Uh, well, yeah. Regular soda, too. They're carbonated. (Reply to this)