Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to cell damage
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 27 May 2007

A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

The problem - more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.

Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.

He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.

"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) backs the use of sodium benzoate in the UK and it has been approved by the European Union but last night, MPs called for it to investigate urgently.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat chair of Parliament's all-party environment group said: "Many additives are relatively new and their long-term impact cannot be certain. This preservative clearly needs to be investigated further by the FSA."

A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was "limited".

Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date.

"The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe," he said. "By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."

He advised parents to think carefully about buying drinks with preservatives until the quantities in products were proved safe by new tests. "My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts," he said.

Coca-Cola and Britvic's Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain sodium benzoate. Their makers and the British Soft Drinks Association said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government.

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health - Independent Online Edition > Health

i knew it!

I Cant Believe You Guys Care More About The Left's Sense Of Humour Than This!

mitochondria are my favourite organelle. fact.

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

i love your red dots, Eve. that's soo sexy.

It should come as no surprise that Diet Coke has become so popular with the image conscious and incredibly famous -- after all, Coke crafted this beverage specifically for them.
By 1980, Coke had determined that nearly 20% of people were drinking diet sodas, a market that was dominated by the saccharin-
flavored Tab. At the same time, sales of Jane Fonda's videotaped workout were all the rage, triggered by a boom in VCR sales, in the same way that sales of the George Foreman grill have been intensified by the rise of the no-carb Atkins revolution. With sugar-free and caffeine-free sodas already hitting the market, both Coke and Pepsi smelled opportunity and made aggressive moves towards new diet colas in the spring of 1982.
Coke launched Diet Coke in July 1982 with a $100 million ad campaign, putting the swooshy wave trademark on a product other than Coca-Cola for the first time since 1886, when the company was formed. With an up and coming newcomer, Pepsi, boasting strong sales for 7-Up and rolling out caffeine-free sodas, the move had Coke supporters doubting the company could pull it off.
"If they adulterate the name of Coke, they have lost their minds," said a member of Coke's bottling committee to The Wall Street Journal. "It breaks my heart, but if they put $100 million behind it, they'll create a market for it."
And create a market they did -- especially in New York, one of Diet Coke's first markets and the target of a $12 million marketing blitz. Coke threw a gala launch party at the Radio City Music Hall, filming a commercial with the Rockettes, then busing guests over to the West Side Pier, which had been redone to look like a New York City street fair. Once there, guests ate hot dogs, tasted that wild, new diet soda and cheered when fireworks spelled out "Diet Coke" over the waters of the Hudson River.
Diet Coke was an instant smash. By Christmas of 1982, it had become the third most-popular soda in New York City, trailing only Coke and Pepsi in sales. Giddy and stunned Coke execs told Wall Street that Diet Coke was on track to become the second most popular beverage in the company's history after six months on the market, despite only being available in a third of all U.S homes. Hoping to deal a knockout blow to Pepsi's diet vision, Coke kicked production into overdrive and pushed Diet Coke in two-thirds of the U.S by the end of January 1983.
A year after being introduced, Diet Coke became the best selling low-calorie soft drink in America -- a position it has never relinquished. By 1986, Diet Coke -- or Coca-Cola Light, as it is known abroad -- was the most popular low-calorie beverage in the world, served in 61 countries.

One of the active ingredients in Diet Coke is aspartame, better known as NutraSweet, which was approved for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration about 20 years ago, paving the way for the diet soda boom.
In the years since, a number of people have begun to attack NutraSweet, claiming that aspartame can be broken down into three amino acid components, aspartate, phenylalanine, and methanol. All three can be broken down into smaller entities, called metabolites, which can be toxic. For example, methanol, or wood alcohol, can spontaneously become formaldehyde, while phenylalanine can decompose into diketopiperazine, which is a carcinogen.
In fact, conspiracy theorists credit NutraSweet for causing everything from multiple sclerosis to Gulf War syndrome, but say that "aspartame disease" is what hits most people. Symptoms of aspartame disease include headaches and dizziness … and about a billion other things. In February 1994, the Department of Heath released a list of 92 symptoms that occurred when people had an adverse reaction to NutraSweet, one of which was death.
The fine folks at AspartameKills.com are at the forefront of this expose. While their Website explains the horrors of aspartame in greater detail, their essential view is that Donald Rumsfeld and the NutraSweet people ignored the potential health risks to push approval of their wondrous sweetener. While some of what's on AspartameKills.com is notable and perhaps convincing, their tendency to dismiss government officials as Nazis makes them difficult to trust.
Now, according to a study by the NutraSweet folks, "the safety of aspartame and its metabolic constituents was established through extensive toxicology studies in laboratory animals, using much greater doses than people could possibly consume." Of course, as the tobacco industry has shown us, corporations with billion dollar products have trouble accepting that their products may be unhealthy. Can't trust NutraSweet either.
Some independent studies appear to show that aspartame is safe, though. The fine folks at the University of Minnesota's school of public health studied the effects of long-term, hard-core aspartame use in 108 volunteers. In the study, every day for 24 weeks, half of the subjects were given a placebo and the other half were given the same amount of aspartame found in 10 liters of Diet Coke. The Minnesotan researchers discovered no differences between the two groups.
Then again, a story from Oxygen magazine on the dangers of aspartame poisoning says that 90% of the independent studies conclude that it's dangerous. Conspiracy theorists note that the National Soft Drink Association initially opposed the approval of aspartame and say the government won't listen to their concerns.
All of this begs the question: Is it safe to be addicted to Diet Coke?
We have no idea. All we know is it tastes great with heroin.


From the very beginning, Diet Coke inspired missionary-level zeal in drinkers.

Tab's Bittersweet Legacy.
Diet Coke's path to glory was paved by the long-forgotten Tab, whose bitter, saccharine flavor first hit the market in 1963, and can be considered the gateway drug to diet colas.
But in 1982, the year that Diet Coke made its splash, Tab was the fifth-most popular soda in the U.S., pushing 237 million cases. Today, Tab flounders in saccharin hell, selling just 3.8 million cases in 2002, a 98% plunge in just 20 years. More of a niche throwback than anything else, Tab competes with Fresca for the geriatric market, clinging to a tenuous existence, popular in places like Memphis, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. (That said, Steven Brill is a fan of Tab, which tells you all you need to know.)
Until Diet Coke rolled along, Tab was one of the bigger success stories in beverages, with a solid brand name and a small degree of cultural cache. As one of the few diet beverages on the market, Tab had developed a loyal following among women, with its sloganista jingle: "Tab, Tab cola, for beautiful people." After Diet Coke had launched, Coke tried to save Tab by touting its "crisp, sassy, not-too-sweet taste," which is about as inspirational as "it's not *that* bad, try it."
Still, Coke execs were excited about reviving Tab. "We believe Tab can become the No. 2 selling low-calorie cola in food stores, just behind Diet Coke," said Sergio Zyman, senior vice president of marketing, to The Wall Street Journal. "And we're not smoking
any weed when we say that."
Who knows what they were smoking?

American audiences were hooked on the sweeter taste of Diet Coke, buying cases and ignoring headlines over the possible health risks of NutraSweet. Despite being the only other diet alternative from Coke, Tab's tinny taste failed to inspire drinkers to stay and by 1984 wasn't even one of the ten most popular sodas in the U.S. anymore.
Tab's legacy as a diet cola pioneer is largely forgotten, but it will live on as a major factor in Diet Coke's rise to dominance. Tab's loyalists were Diet Coke's first coverts, helping spread the gospel of diet soda across gender lines.
"I began my addiction with Tab as a fat kid in high school in the late 70's, but like my fellow male followers, had to drink in the shadows given the diet drink's strong female focus," said Curtis Steinhoff, director of public relations for Riester-Robb in Phoenix, Ariz. "When Diet Coke was introduced in the early 80's while I was in college, and well on my way to a slimmed-down figure, I was able to come out of the closet as a diet soda supporter. Diet Coke has always been my drink of choice."


The Future of Diet Coke Comes with a Twist.
Diet Coke remains the drink of choice for legions of loyal addicts, and Coke has hopes to keep them hooked with a slew of flavored versions. While this move is nothing new for the company -- it added Diet Cherry Coke in 1985 -- the company has become more aggressive over the last few years.
In 2001, it added Diet Coke with Lemon, which was roundly mocked for tasting like Lemon Pledge, forcing Coke to reformulate the beverage. In 2002, it added Diet Vanilla Coke, and at the turn of this year, Diet Coke added its fourth flavor, Diet Coke with Lime, which is selling well. Like any good competitor, Pepsi has aped Coke's moves, debuting the lemon-flavored Pepsi Twist and Pepsi Vanilla months after Coke entered the market.
But this isn't to say Pepsi can't innovate. It recently changed the Diet Pepsi can to an appealing light blue. And it has launched a new ad campaign with Jason Biggs as a pitchman, a move that has boosted sales, but won't become a cultural touchstone the way those
sizzling 1994 Diet Coke ads made Lucky Vanous a household name. Nonetheless, Pepsi's working hard to steal diet drinkers from Diet Coke, even if it means using non-diet colas to do it. At the end of the summer, the soda maker will stake a claim on a whole new product category, the "mid-calorie" cola, with the launch of the 12-ounce, lower carb, 70-calorie Pepsi Edge.
With the Atkins revolution against carbs, diet colas are booming again, the strongest segment of the non-alcoholic beverage market in 2003. This has only helped Diet Coke, which has boosted market share to 9.4% from 9% the year before. And while Diet Pepsi's sales were strong last year, allowing it to become the sixth most-popular drink -- Diet Coke drinkers are hopelessly addicted.
"I have been told 'if you knew what was in them, you would never have another one,' but I don't care," says Janis Chamoun, director of marketing at the Regis Corporation, who has six to eight cans a day. "I don't smoke, don't drink coffee, don't eat junk food. My Diet Coke addiction is my only vice. When I ask for a Diet Coke in a restaurant and they say, 'Is Diet Pepsi okay?' I say, 'No, just make it water then.' And then I make a note not to go there again."

What an ironic response.
It reminds me of Corker's blatantly holding a diet coke can in a picture for Live Through This.
Cokes are shit in general, everyone knows that. You dont even have to know the science bit.....

If Diet Coke can destruct the piece of my DNA where it's been decided I get my fathers' hereditary disease, I'm 100% for it.

Christ, everything we eat, drink and are generally exposed to is harmful these days.

that's TOO creative. Your nobel is under the mat. (dies.)

fascinating.

the question is: at what dose does this happen at? the equivalente of a glass of fizzy drinks or the equivalente of 10000000000000000 gallons?

its like hearing about people being concerned about contraceptive pills and the drinking water, when you have to drink like 10.000 gallons of water a day to get the same amount of drug that are in one tablet.

we should give it to large amounts of people and commit genocide