re: PuttaDaForkDown

Congrats to you and your wife Bham! You will most definitely be pleasantly surprised by your results with your Dr. I guarantee it.

In other news, here's an interesting read on aspartame.

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"Taste Receptors Where?!
© by D. Eric Walters

We all know about taste buds on the tongue. But recently scientists have discovered taste receptors in an unexpected location: the lining of the small intestine.
Yes, sweet taste receptors have been found on intestinal epithelial cells. Fortunately, they aren't connected to our sense of taste. They are sensing the contents of the digestive system, in order to control and assist in the absorption process.

Glucose is absorbed in the intestine by a transporter called SGLT1. But when the sweet receptors in the intestine sense a high level of sweetness, they trigger the movement of a second transporter, GLUT2, to the cell surface. This doubles or triples the rate of sugar absorption [1]. The effect is seen with sugar and with the high potency sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame-K. In earlier times, when calories were scarce, this mechanism undoubtedly increased the efficiency of the digestive system. It made sure that sugar absorption was maximized. But now, when we have excessive calories available in our diet, it may contribute to obesity.

Think about the stereotypical "dieter" who has a diet soft drink with the french fries. The starch in the fries is broken down to glucose, and the artificial sweetener increases the supply of transporters, so that the glucose is more efficiently moved into the body!

There is another problem that arises with overconsumption of sweets. In experiments with mice, Margolskee and his colleagues showed that a diet high in carbohydrates will, over time, double the amount of the SGLT1 transporter that is present in the intestinal cells [2]. The artificial sweeteners acesulfame-K and saccharin also increased SGLT1 levels, suggesting that the taste receptors control the amount of transporter. Aspartame did not do this, but rodents cannot taste aspartame. Besides, aspartame is rapidly digested, so it would probably not affect glucose absorption, even in humans.

References
[1] Mace et al., J. Physiology (London) 582:379, 2007.
[2] Margolskee et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:15075, 2007."

All About Sweeteners

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And this guy did some serious research and lab testing on artificial sweeteners.
LINK


More food for thought. I still don't trust aspartame or other artificial sweeteners but it's something to think about.

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Thank you God.

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So THAT's how everyone knows what shite tastes like.. "it tastes like shite!"

275/230/175 01-03-11

Well, held thru the weekend, now time to drop some more. Gotta be careful of the Easter bunny.

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Help me out on this, with a pure focus on weight loss (not other health effects).

How does the consumption of aspartame affect weight loss? I always here not to consume it when on a diet but no one ever explains (or I dont listen lol) how it affects weight loss and why. I know the other health concerns.

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The 2002 DANDR Atkins the book says in many tests it slowed or stalled weight loss. In all reality, I don't really think it's all that bad.

The fact that aspartame is digested by your body is what makes it so controversial. After you eat or drink an aspartame-sweetened product, aspartame breaks down into its starting components: phenylalanine, aspartate, and methanol. Methanol itself is not harmful, but enzymes in your liver break it down into two compounds. Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in the body. The big debate is whether there's enough of these toxins produced from the methanol in aspartame to damage your body.

Aspartame is approximately 40 percent by weight aspartic acid. Aspartic acid acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Some claim that aspartame hypes the hormonal system causing hunger, anxiety and insomnia. DKP is formed in liquid aspartame-containing products during prolonged storage.

The caveat in this is we, humans, in all likelihood will never ingest enough aspartame quickly enough to actually have these problems. There were lab tests where lab rats were given doses of aspartame and the rats developed cancer and, of course, died. But for a human to ingest the equivalent of that dose, we'd have to partake in a whopping 50 lbs. of aspartame in one dose to have the same effect.

So is it not the best thing we can have? Definitely. Will it kill us? Probably not. Am I going to stop drinking diet sodas? No, but water is the best thing to drink anyway and that's primarily what I drink now. But all of this is cause for concern about what you're putting in your body.

Are you trying to make Hulk do your chemistry paper?

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Just curious as I am a diet soda addict and that aint going to change :P

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i was too. and i haven't touched a carbonated beverage for over a year now. so never say never my friend.

i've been doing fine with just coffee, water, powerade zero and the occasional beer..oh yeah and the sugar-free lemonade at chickfilas is off=the=charts delicious.

you will do yourself a favor by eliminating this from your diet. i know you might not be ready for this right now..but i used to get MAJOR aspartame headaches from my 2-liter of diet coke a day habit. and i've never felt better in my life not drinking that shite anymore.

i abuse coffee in much the same way now but other than the occisional caffiene headaches coffee has done me right.

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So does Atkins pinpoint any logical reason for the observation that is slows weight loss? Ie does it muck up insulin production or anything?

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In the book, no. He just states that through lots of testing, the majority of people had their weight loss slow or stop. But it is something that varies from person to person. Some people can have lots and it won't affect them in the least. Some people it causes slow loss, no loss, or gain. If you want to have drinks with aspartame, it's best if you just give it a test drive. There really is no answer in the form of chemistry or human digestive science to determine why this happens (that I can find). Enzymes in the digestive tract break aspartame down into ordinary food component parts-phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Each of these are then metabolized just as it would be if derived from other dietary sources. Broccoli has some of those in it, I think the methanol and phenylalanine.

What is most likely the cause of the slower loss, stalls or gain? People drinking drinks with aspartame and then eating other things that they're not supposed to.

And I drink 1 coke zero or equivalent a week. Or if I want some alcohol I'll make a jack and coke zero or sprite zero and vodka. Pure alcohols (bourbons, vodkas, gin, stuff like that) have no carbs. Be be warned, while the alcohol is in your system your body will burn that for energy. Once it's burned all of the energy you will go back into ketosis, but it does slow your weight loss for that time period.

People are such assholes man. I left my lunch at home again so I ran to McD's.. my driver side window doesn't roll down so I get down.. I ordered my food, 2 mcdoubles plain no buns and a side salad.. when the lady at the front counter announced the food so I would pick it up, some dude behind me laughed out loud and said "you really came to mcdonalds and didn't get no bread?!" I looked him and said "you come for the bread? Sounds like you're the one with fricked up priorities" and walked out.

Why do people feel the need to do that kind of shite?

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personally.....I never make any "special orders" when I go to a fast food restaurant.....

none.

just gives them a reason to #### with your food...

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have you ever worked in fast food? They're not out to get you

Plus most places have open kitchens where you can see everything they do, including this McD's

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no I never have.......

but I don't trust them.....

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Well I don't blame you, but I worked at McDonalds when I was younger. The thought of spitting in someone's food never crossed my mind, and once in a blue moon we joked about it. Nobody ever did that that I saw.

Worst thing I saw was one day a customer ordered extra mustard.. so they put an extra squirt like we're supposed to. The cust came back through and was yelling that we didn't give him extra mustard, we need to remake the sandwhich, etc. and just generally being an a-hole. So the guy that made his burger put about 100x too much mustard on the burger It was soggy with mustard