Danger of "No added sugar" labels

[haleheart]

A fiend of mine who is a pathologist has informed me that drinks and sweets with "no added sugar" are dangerous because they contain cancer causing ingredients like chemical sweeteners such as aspartame, splenda and others and that these are proven to accelerate the growth of tumours and leukemias as well as contribute to all kinds of mood swings, temper tantraum, adhd etc. Her exact words were, "its crazy, people are trying to save their childrens teeth by giving them cancer causing food and drinks". The world has gone mad. Sugar is safe and has been around for ever and as long as you dont overdose on it is is a good natural product which is good for you in many instances. The big manufacturers have a lot to answer for. These sweeteners have been banned in some countries and other countries have tried banning them. Just have a look on the internet at the dangers of sweeteners". I have looked at this. Im a nutritional therapist and I have a child too. I am currently trying to find a professional in the childrens health area to confirm the above. Watch this space. Meantime, look out for labels with "NO ADDED SUGAR" and read the back of everything. I advise all my clients to eat and drink only natural products - we did nto evolve on chemicals, so if nature didnt provide it - I wouldnt touch it.

I've just been looking at the peer reviewed scientific papers (ie proper research) on Pubmed (go ahead, anyone can use it), and study after study fails to find any risk in aspartame intake in humans.

Yes, if you feed rats (note rats, not human cells, humans etc) very, very high doses of aspartame, thousands of times higher than humans ingest from their diet, there is a small additional risk of contracting cancer in some studies. But you have a greater additional risk from eating barbequed meat due to the carcinogens created by burning the meat.

Scaremongering is a wonderful thing eh

Just about anything will cause cancer in big enough amounts.

Doesn't burnt toast cause cancer, too?

Yes cmot I remember last time this came up on MN I had a good look too, and there wasn't any strong evidence there at all for aspartame - there is a lot of scaremongering about it. However I do still avoid it because of my reaction to saccharine, which may not make total sense but I'm still not keen.

It is true that as far as cancer goes, it's also important to avoid burnt food, and keep processed meats like bacon, salami and ham to a minimum.

I know there re lots of arguments about this but all I know is that umpteen years ago when they introduced "one cal" lemonade my mother and I started to suffer with awful stomach cramps.

We eventually traced it down to the nutrasweet in it which I think is aspartame so I was very careful about allowing dd to have any. However she got older, started having stuff at parties/school etc and seems OK.

Ds on the other hand for some reason was really difficult to potty train and nursery kept reporting very runny poos (we thought it was awful). He also complained of tummy ache. one year on holiday was especially bad, you know what its like when you are away, all the places to eat in a seaside town are junky with fruit shoots as the drinks with q children's meal.

We decided to eliminate aspartame from his diet as an experiment and in about a week he was SO much better.

Hmm, just had a dig, and diarrhea is a common side-effect of aspartame, for some people.

blurgh you had a dig and found diarrhoea

:-P

I avoid sweeteners now. I used to be a real Pepsi Max addict (which has aspartame) and had at least one a day but I found it was sending my blood sugar levels haywire or at the very least increasing my carb craving and have been much better off without it. I think aspartame is banned in Germany, or at least not very common, I don't like the other sweeteners and found it tough to get Pepsi Max when I lived there.

I try to avoid sugar as well so I tend to just not eat sweet things, but when I have cough sweets I do tend to go for the sugar-free version of Strepsils mostly because they stay in the mouth for a long time so it's bad for my teeth otherwise.

I said this years ago.

The dangers of sugar are : Tooth decay (so brush regularly) ;
Weight gain (so take plenty of exercise and don't eat sugary things ALL day)

If you observe sensible habits, a moderate percentage of sugar in the diet isn't going to do much to your/your childs health

The dangers of aspartame etc may include cancer, memory problems,digestive problems and more, much of which is unknown in the long-term (I am concerned about how it may effect mental development in young children, following a study in the US). Better the devil we know than the one we don't, in my view.

Oh, and aspartame is actually cheaper than sugar, so manufacturers prefer to use it, more profitable.

I don't know about any supposed links to cancer, but I tend to avoid drinking anything like this because a)I don't like the idea of consuming so many chemicals and b)it doesn't actually quench my thirst.

So, ds (almost 2) drinks milk, water (both still and sparkling), apfelschorle (apple juice with fizzy water - but only juice and water, no additives at all - very common drink here in Germany) and masses and masses of tea (herb, fruit or redbush) both hot and cold.
He's also allowed to have juice but doesn't seem to like it much, prefers to have the actual fruits iyswim.
He tends to drink because he's thirsty, rather than for the taste, which I think is great, as he's not expecting the drink to have a fabulous sweet flavour.

We don't have any coke or lemonade or similar at home, so even when he's older, he will only get stuff like that as a "treat" when we're out, which is how we have it.

A doctor once told me you have to consume at least half a metric tonne of sweetner a week to get cancer from it. Look at the cancer research site and they confirm it. info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/dietandhealthyeating/foodcontroversies/

I do think it's strange that folk don't let their kids have tea or coffee (ooooh can't let them have caffiene, that could damage them), but then go and buy 'no added sugar' squash etc. filled with chemically produced sweetners.

BTW DS (who is now 9) used to be allowed occasional fruit-shoots when he was about 3 or 4, but my CM and I both discovered he was much less prone to melt-down tantrums without them, which is when I stopped all aspartame in his diet.

Try reading this

Okay, it MIGHT be flawed research. but if there is any doubt, why fill your child with unnecessary synthasized stuff?

There's no evidence that aspartame causes cancer in humans

Um, that's on mercola. AKA shitenet.

He publishes articles talking about the marvellousness of this or that supplement and then - sells them!

I have had a look about and found nothing but alot of scaremongering tbh, alot of sources say that it may be harmfull if ingested in large doses reguarly. (SO like most things then)

I can see parents point if thier chid does have a reaction to aspartame and similar then yeah keep em off it.

But seriously, giving your child juice is not going to give them cancer!

scaremongering

Okay, but I still have to ask ...

why fill your child with unnecessary synthasized stuff?

because when you're tried every other drink going, and your DC still isn't drinking more than a couple of oz of fluid a day you resort to desparate measures.

Then as it's still a battle to get them to drink enough of anything when their sibling(s) turn up they see them drinking those things and (generally) want the same.

Sometimes you'll be lucky (DS2) and they'll drink anything but plain water, other times they'll be just as blooody awakrd as your oldest DC.

And as you already have child that is already not drinking enough, and therefore probably dehydrated you don't really want to risk having another one to add to your troubles

Can I just say re what clumsymum said

< I said this years ago.

The dangers of sugar are : Tooth decay (so brush regularly) ;

Brushing teeth will remove acid forming bacteria but that alone (that is mainly for gum health) will not prevent tooth decay, cutting down or eliminating sugar is the only way of preventing tooth decay.

White sugar is pretty thoroughly processed, too. Ditto white flour.

(And no, my kids don't generally get sweetener, afaik, I don't think we have any in the house. But I don't think it's Eeeeevil. Just processed.)

I've only read the OP but it reminded me of when I was in Boots this morning. Unfortunately DS does like a flavoured drink (I usually buy the high juice apple and blackcurrant squash you can get).
Every single drink they had was "No added sugar"!! I couldn't believe it! In the end DS was causing such a fuss and I really needed to change up my 10 pound note for playgroup that I just bought him the "no added sugar" Ribena
Of course it's my own fault for allowing him to have flavoured drinks but still, there should be a choice ffs! I hate the thought of those chemicals going through his blood stream Would much prefer him to have sugar

Its very difficult to prove if one substance does cause cancer, as the trials are so difficult to be free from bias, and it is so multi factorial. Cancer occurs usually because of a complicated mix of genes and environment. I have read some research that says these artificial sweeteners can cause cancer in animals at high doses, and in vitro cause cell mutuation - my take on it is that it might just be the thing that tips a cell into becoming a cancerous cell, in an otherwise adverse environment. It will probably be years until there is concrete proof, along with other things like parabens, non-organic food etc but I don't want my child to be part of that trial so I believe its safer to serve natural,food with no additives and preservatives.

Why take the risk? They taste better too.

burnt anything I think, nqc

Gosh, what about burnt artificial sweeteners?