There has always been a chorus of people claiming that their version of fitness or nutrition is more morally upright than yours. This kind of moralizing is, of course, shenanigans. It’s at the heart of everything from fat phobia to fad diets. It is on my mind because aspartame is expected to be named as a possible carcinogen by the WHO. We’ll get their ruling in about two weeks but, while we wait, let’s talk about who’s reacting—and why.
PepsiCo—and this may come as a real shock—has some “serious concerns” about the opinion. To be clear, there is some merit in this take—even if it’s tough to trust who it’s coming from. The risks of sugar for some may outweigh the risks of artificial sweeteners… Even if—and this is a complicated idea to swallow—there winds up being a proven carcinogenic effect. It’s weird to read that sentence but it’s true. Context is everything. If you are struggling with Type II diabetes, for example, a marginal risk is better than a substantial risk.
There is a tendency to lean toward the “naturalistic fallacy” in health circles—that the more natural something is, the better it is for you. The thing is that nature has been trying to kill us in subtle and not so subtle ways since the beginning of time. We’ve done our own fair share of damage. It’s all part of our elaborate little waltz.
This mushroom, straight from Nature’s bosom, is called Destroying Angel—and not because it’s good for your tummy.
I imagine—because I refuse to actually check—that there are legions of fit-fluencers shouting about the aspartame controversy from the social media rooftops. Many have been telling you, for years, that artificial sweeteners are poison. This news item will feel very validating for them. Yet… it’s the dose that makes the poison. It appears that the data the WHO is looking at is based on mouse studies. The aspartame levels associated with risk are—at their lowest—still well above the equivalent of 12 to 36 cans of diet soda per day. This would be the most concerning variation but it may not be the most accurate. The dosage required to create risk may, on the other side of the estimates, be as high as ~1,200-2,200 cans of diet soda a day (4 grams per KG of bodyweight), which would be quite a feat.
Another red herring is the discussion of insulin release—which occurs even through artificially sweetened drinks. Insulin has been painted as a hormone to avoid—and linked directly to fat gain. In other circles, the explanation is that since insulin is being released regardless, just drink sugar-sweetened drinks. Insulin = fat gain is based on an incomplete understanding of physiology. The truth is much more nuanced and much harder to remember. The cartoon version is simple, has a villain, and is easy to drop into the comments section. That’s is the kind of stuff that grifters chug with glee.
Insulin, if we can oversimplify a bit less, can be thought of as a transporter—or maybe a lock and key system. I can imagine the Magic School Bus loading up with sugar to deliver it to fat cells for storage. When insulin is released without carbohydrates, the bus still makes the trip—but it’s empty. So, insulin—on its own—is not connected to fat gain in any direct way. Insulin is your friend and helps with everything from energy regulation to muscle gain.
I’m not sure how to cap this email off—other than to say that if you like drinking soda and would prefer to keep your calories lower, then you can probably just keep on living your life without any extra stress.
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