0:01

Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from

0:03

how Stuff Works dot com.

0:11

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh

0:13

Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,

0:15

and there's Jerry. The three

0:18

Musketeers together again after

0:20

so long, so many

0:22

weeks of holidays and

0:26

time off and rest and relaxation,

0:28

back at it again, which

0:31

which makes this stuff you should know that's right

0:35

hard to come back for you. No,

0:37

No, I think it was just long enough and everything

0:39

was just satisfying enough that I'm ready.

0:41

I'm glad to be back at you. You're

0:44

one of those weirdos. It's like I need

0:46

to work right exactly, like

0:48

my skin falls off. I've always said

0:50

I would be a great lottery winner, Oh

0:53

yeah, or retiree. Yeah,

0:56

lottery winner is better. I

0:58

guess it's it's the same thing. It's a tree.

1:00

It doesn't have to sweat it right exactly,

1:03

which is nice. Man. I

1:05

just should tell people that we were discussing with Jerry

1:08

um the word dulcet soar

1:10

as your voice, Yes, dulcet

1:13

tones. You didn't know the definition. I looked it up. Oh

1:15

oh yes, I said sweet and soothing.

1:18

But then in parentheses says often

1:20

used ironically. I

1:23

don't know what that is. It's a back in the

1:25

compliment. I guess, Jerry, were you using

1:27

it ironically? She

1:30

actually, she didn't even nod. She's just sort of moving

1:32

her face around. Her

1:34

skin falls off to when she doesn't work. That's

1:37

weird, weird. So

1:39

sweet and new Guinea

1:41

is what you said. That's uh,

1:44

almond Joy's that's right, Mars

1:47

bars Almond Joy's coconut

1:49

sweet and soothing. Okay, I'll

1:52

take that. Yeah, I still prefer muppety

1:54

tenor. It's the greatest of all time. It's

1:57

very eye opening for me. What

2:00

oh that was it a article about

2:02

us muppet eat dinner good

2:06

stuff? So chuck. Yes,

2:09

I know that you. Um, you're

2:11

a health conscious dude.

2:14

At the very least you're conscious of healthiness,

2:17

right, I have to and for

2:19

a very long time I made the switch, and

2:22

um, one of the things that I learned

2:24

was that one of the easiest ways

2:26

you can lose weight very quickly

2:29

is to just cut like sodas

2:31

out of your diet. Yeah. See, my problem

2:33

is I don't even drink SODA's right,

2:36

So there's like a there's a whole step right there. Yeah,

2:39

that's removed from you. That's fine, that's

2:41

good, but in a way, right,

2:44

but I mean there's just no low hanging fruit as

2:46

it were, right as far

2:48

as using corporate buzz speak ghosts unless

2:50

you count gallons of booze, that's

2:53

not low hanging, my friend, that's the top of the tree. That's

2:55

last. She so um,

2:59

when you stopped drinking soda, you

3:01

you really do, like the pounds just fall

3:03

off. It's insane, but

3:06

you still want soda, right, I mean it's

3:08

like the craving still there. And

3:10

the um soda industry knew

3:13

this, and they said, hey, we don't want to lose a bunch of revenue,

3:15

let's start making diet

3:17

sodas. And apparently originally

3:20

they made them

3:22

almost exclusively for people with diabetes.

3:25

UM. Around the post World

3:27

War two era, you could

3:29

find diet sodas with basically

3:32

an inscription or something like that, like

3:35

it was inscribed on every hand

3:37

who would say something like for people

3:40

who must uh watch

3:42

their sugar allotment or something like that. Right,

3:45

and then as the soda industry is like, oh wait, wait,

3:47

we can really like make

3:50

weight loss an issue here and like help

3:52

promote weight loss by saying

3:54

for people who wish to watch

3:58

their sugar intake right,

4:00

and just that little tiny switch

4:03

changed everything, and like the diet soda

4:05

industry was born, so people have aggressive

4:07

nudge in the right direction, pretty much like,

4:09

hey, don't you think you should be washing

4:12

your sugar intake chibs? You

4:14

know, that's what's that's what's between the lines.

4:17

So we've got these awesome diet

4:20

sodas that are sweetened with artificial

4:22

sweeteners. But of course there's

4:24

nothing can possibly just be just

4:27

good or just great because

4:29

there's apparently we're starting to learn

4:31

huge, massive problems with

4:34

artificial sweeteners as well, problems

4:36

so much that, um, they may be worse

4:38

than than sugar, it turns out

4:40

in a lot of cases. Yeah, I

4:42

mean, when have we

4:44

found and replaced something natural

4:47

with something synthetic and

4:49

have it been nothing but like a win win.

4:54

I mean, I'm sure there's something, but it seems like there's always

4:56

some kind of downside. I guess maybe

4:58

like a robotic arm

5:01

just better than the real arm, and what depends

5:03

on the arm that it replaces. It could

5:05

be he's saving up for your robotic arm

5:07

transplant. Sure, all right, I'm

5:09

tired of being weak on my right side, so you can

5:11

crush those Coke zero cans exactly

5:14

with more bigger. Oh well, I'm not drinking

5:17

anything any longer. After researching this, I'm

5:19

like, yep, I'm done with diet soda

5:21

all together. Oh

5:23

yeah, like like through

5:26

not a this is in a phase or anything like

5:28

that. I'm sure over the course of my life

5:30

I will have like a giant

5:32

like Coke zero at a movie or something like

5:34

that, but I'm I'm generally just totally

5:37

done with that. What are you going to constantly

5:39

be drinking? Then? Well, to be honest,

5:41

I'd already kind of started. I was drinking um,

5:43

like mineral water a lot more, and

5:46

I found, like once you just kind of

5:48

switch over, the water,

5:51

which used to just be disgusting, is

5:53

actually kind of refreshing like

5:55

this regular like like filtered

5:57

water with ice. So funny,

6:00

because you know, my history has always been

6:02

heavy on the water. Sure, I know, like

6:04

you're totally ahead of the game. It

6:06

turns out well by accident, but I just I've

6:09

always loved the water. That's just how your taste

6:11

is always run well, and that's I was just raised on

6:13

it. You know, I've said it before. Like milk and water. We

6:16

just didn't have a lot of sodas in the house, and it just never

6:18

really grabbed hold of me in that way, you know,

6:21

right, But mixing milk and water, that's

6:23

good. Then then you have fat

6:26

free milk. Yeah, pretty much, at

6:28

least thin milk. Now, drink whole milk. I'm

6:31

all about it. So I'm off of the diat

6:34

soodas forever. Wow. Well that's

6:37

good for you. It is good. But if

6:39

I want to brush my teeth or use

6:42

mouthwash US takes,

6:44

or take certain vitamins or something

6:47

like that, I'm still running

6:50

the risk of encountering artificial sweeteners

6:52

because they're everywhere. Now. Yeah,

6:54

well, let's back up a bit. Then that

6:57

was a nice old school intro. By the way, thank

6:59

you. That's what you get after you

7:01

take a nice Christmas You've been rehearsing

7:03

that one for weeks.

7:06

Yeah, you woke up Christmas

7:08

morning and you means just like, shut up. I'm

7:10

like, no, I gotta practice. Um.

7:13

All right, Well, we're talking about

7:15

artificial sweeteners, but what we're really talking about,

7:18

at its essence is sweet the sensation

7:21

of sweetness. Um. And

7:23

if you go back and listen to our I

7:26

think pretty good episode on Taste from

7:28

many years ago. Uh, we

7:30

break it down pretty well as

7:32

far as the receptors on our tongues, so we

7:34

don't really need to rehatch that. But did you did

7:37

you go back and listen to it doesn't really hold up. Yeah,

7:39

it's not bad, um.

7:42

I mean we get to the point there's not as much shenanigans.

7:46

A lot of people prefer those. Yeah, we've

7:48

added a lot of filler over the years. It's

7:50

okay, um, But the

7:52

the level of sweetness that we taste, it's gonna depend.

7:55

You know, those they're those receptors

7:57

on our tongue and they interact with those

7:59

mala fuels and they have to fit, you know, the shape

8:01

has to fits that weird thing that

8:04

nobody really knows is going

8:06

on on their tongue, that

8:08

strange interaction is happening. Yeah, I remember

8:11

from the Taste episode, like one of the theories

8:13

is that it's the whole thing

8:15

is happening on the quantum level. I

8:18

remember correctly. Uh

8:20

So, how much sweetness you're

8:22

gonna taste, the level of sweet is

8:25

gonna depend on your own receptors and

8:27

how they're binding to that sweet sensation.

8:29

So these artificial sweeteners, what they

8:32

do is they found a way to elicit

8:34

that same response as as

8:37

we get from sugar, and basically

8:39

that that's it. Some of them are, I

8:42

mean, obviously they're generally

8:44

a lower calorie version of sugar, although

8:46

we'll get to some that aren't later. Uh.

8:49

And the reasons for that is some of them, they're all different.

8:51

But some of them are so sweet,

8:53

like hundreds and even thousands of times sweeter

8:56

than sugar, that they just need

8:58

to use tiny, tiny bits of it, so

9:00

it's basically no calorie. Other

9:02

times we don't even synthesize and absorbit

9:04

and metabolize it, so that makes it no

9:06

calorie. Yeah, you get the taste, but then

9:09

it just comes out of your pee or your poop.

9:11

Yeah, but so no calories

9:13

exactly. I thought that was pretty interesting because

9:15

I've never really stopped and thought about why those things

9:18

are no or low calories. It

9:20

makes perfect sense. Yeah, like the idea

9:22

that something is so sweet you need

9:24

to use so little of it too, that you

9:27

subvert the calorie uh

9:29

system, the calory system. It's like, well,

9:31

you can't even count that low. That many

9:33

decimal places beneath one calorie.

9:36

And the weird thing is to me is when

9:38

you look at the histories of some of these artificial

9:40

sweeteners, UM,

9:43

and it's a little scary is that a lot of them

9:45

were discovered by accident

9:47

from these dumb scientists who

9:50

are like trying to trying to discover

9:52

something else or work on something else, and they're

9:54

like, oh, let me look my finger and get a piece of paper,

9:56

or let me smoke a cigarette and not wash

9:59

my hands, and they're like, oh, my hand tastes sweet.

10:01

Yeah, I mean, and it really it drives

10:03

home two things that chemists aren't

10:06

really fixed on their UM their

10:08

survival they have low survival skills. And

10:11

then too that um, all these artificial

10:14

sweeteners are in most cases

10:16

extraordinarily they're synthetic

10:18

compounds, you know, like um,

10:21

saccharin was or is

10:23

a derivative of coal tar that

10:25

was accidentally discovered when they were trying to find

10:27

a new die. And

10:29

then I believe asper tame

10:32

was a nonstarter ulcer

10:34

drug. Yeah, and the dude was literally

10:36

picking up paper and like licked his finger and

10:39

said, well, that's in the how LSD

10:41

that was an accident too. It was it was

10:43

are no scientists washing their hands anymore. No,

10:46

apparently now, at least not the chemists.

10:49

Oh yeah, I guess so chemistry. I don't

10:51

want to throw all of science under the snow.

10:53

It's just the chemists who don't care where they live

10:56

or die. Uh So anyway,

10:59

saccharin would is one of the first or

11:01

I guess d first artificial sweetener

11:03

way back in nineteen eighteen seventy

11:06

nine. Yeah, way back in nineteen

11:08

seventy nine. Uh

11:11

in eighteen seventy nine. That that was a

11:14

scientist who did not wash his hands before

11:16

dinner and notice it tasted

11:18

sweet, and said, I think I have a new

11:20

discovery on my hands. Yeah, literally

11:22

on my hands, Yeah, and

11:24

on my tongue. I'm boy, oh boys

11:27

sweet. Yeah, And it's fine to think of

11:29

that. Yeah, there's a lot of chemicals and compounds

11:31

out there that we may have no clue actually

11:34

taste sweet because we just haven't

11:36

accidentally run across him yet because

11:39

everyone's washing their hands now. Yeah. And plus

11:41

also, sugar has

11:44

just such great pr that you tend to think

11:46

that it has the market cornered on the

11:48

sweet sensation. But no, it's it's

11:51

just one of many things that elicit that.

11:53

Yeah, Uh. And the reason, well, there's

11:55

a lot of artificial sweeteners. We're only gonna go over

11:58

a handful in detail, but the res and there

12:01

are, I mean, there are a couple of reasons. One is just good

12:03

old fashioned competition, of course, uh.

12:06

And another is you can't use them all in the same

12:08

way. Like some hold up under baking,

12:10

some don't. Uh. Some you

12:12

can just dust in a throat lozenge,

12:15

and another might be good in a cake batter,

12:17

you know. So it kind of depends

12:19

on its use as to some are good and ice

12:21

cream and others aren't. Yeah, but you you

12:23

hit it on the head though too. I mean, like there's a

12:26

lot of competition, like aspar Tame

12:28

is owned by Monsanto now, and

12:30

like anytime those guys get in on something,

12:32

there's that means it's automatically big business.

12:34

So there's a lot a lot

12:36

of money to be made. And one of the reasons

12:39

why also that it

12:41

is such big business because it's

12:43

very frequently much cheaper to

12:46

produce this stuff, these artificial

12:48

sweeteners, than it is to

12:50

to um process sugar. Right,

12:53

So say it takes like eight

12:55

cents worth of sugar to sweeten uh.

12:58

Two. Leader of coke in might take

13:00

three um since

13:03

worth of aspartame to sweeten

13:05

coke zero. And if you're making

13:08

you know, millions upon millions

13:10

of two leaders of this stuff a year, that

13:12

adds up pretty quick. Yea. And

13:14

in fact, there was actually a British company. I didn't

13:16

see which one it was, but they it

13:18

was found that their orange drink, which

13:21

was not being marketed as diet or sugar

13:23

free or anything, was basically

13:26

made up of artificial sweeteners.

13:29

I didn't look it up, I just

13:31

ran across it. Somewhere was the orange orange

13:33

like soda in Great Britain and

13:36

Great Britain. Okay, call

13:38

it shame made. Well.

13:41

The reason I asked is because you know, my one

13:43

weakness is like once a month I'll get the old

13:46

fan of orange. Yeah, the Nazi

13:48

drink. So I'm okay with that

13:53

shaming me. Uh

13:56

well, So these things are pretty controversial, um

13:59

since literally least since the

14:01

first ones came around. UM.

14:04

People started like with anything that's new

14:06

and synthetic, they're gonna be a certain

14:08

segment of people are like this is great. In another

14:10

segment they're like, well, I don't know about this. Let's

14:12

look and see what's going on in your

14:15

body and what if it's not so good

14:17

for you? And how do we know? Right? People

14:19

concerned with health? Yeah, that's an

14:21

easier way to say it in public health. Yeah,

14:24

yeah, there's um it does kind of

14:26

seem to be like Chuck, where at this point

14:29

in history where there

14:31

is a lot of this stuff out there. I think

14:34

I saw a two thousand and sixteen articles. So

14:36

there's like products in the US

14:38

using one at least one of the five

14:41

approved artificial sweeteners by the

14:43

FDA. So there's tons

14:45

of products out there and not enough

14:48

medical literature to

14:50

to really strongly show one

14:52

way or the other that yeah,

14:54

these things actually are pretty

14:56

safe, and like all these fears are just

14:58

a general public this trust of science

15:01

and change and unnatural

15:03

nous and we don't also

15:05

have anything to show the other way to that.

15:08

Um No, actually these things are pretty unsafe

15:10

because it seems like every study that

15:12

you find has a contradictory

15:15

study with just completely opposite

15:17

finding. It's pretty frustrating. Yeah,

15:19

they're like even they're they're canceling

15:21

each other out. It is frustrating.

15:24

It does seem though that the at least based

15:26

on the reporting that I'm seeing or

15:28

have seen in research. It seems

15:31

like a body of um

15:33

medical literature is mounting that's

15:35

showing that this stuff is pretty

15:38

problematic. Actually yeah,

15:40

I mean if you just uh throw

15:42

science out the window and start perusing

15:44

the internet, which everyone

15:46

should do, right at least

15:48

once a day. If you go on websites though and and internet

15:51

forums and look around, um people

15:53

will blame I mean, just

15:56

about any disease you can think of on

15:59

aspartame a big one that's getting a lot of the heat,

16:01

but all kinds of artificial sweeteners, um

16:04

ms, brain tumors, dizziness,

16:07

Alzheimer's, like all

16:10

kinds of problems. People are saying,

16:13

well, you know this didn't start happening until

16:15

I started eating or drinking this which

16:17

contained this. Right, Yeah, it's anecdotal,

16:21

extremely anecdotal. And like you said, when

16:23

you look at the real studies, and we're gonna get

16:25

to some of these and of course some are

16:28

are mounted by the very company

16:31

selling them. And I had

16:33

a thing on Facebook last week about these

16:36

company back studies and whether or not we should

16:38

even listen to them, and most people chimed

16:40

in that we're in in the biz and said,

16:42

you know what, it doesn't mean it's junk

16:44

science. Um, A lot

16:46

of these studies wouldn't even be done if it wasn't

16:48

for these companies funding them.

16:51

But I still like raise an eyebrow anytime

16:53

I see like, Nope, Coca

16:55

Cola debunks study that says it's

16:57

bad for you with our

17:00

own study. You know, like,

17:02

how can you I'm not even a big cynic and

17:04

you just have to sort of wonder if that's

17:07

complete BS or not. Yeah. Well, the FDA,

17:09

for its part, if you go to their website on

17:12

their Q and A. As far as them

17:14

defending their the things that they've approved,

17:18

they kind of well, I'll just read it

17:20

says all all consumer complaints related

17:22

to the sweetener have been investigated as

17:24

thoroughly as possible by federal authorities

17:26

for more than five years, in part under f d

17:28

a's uh ARMS

17:30

system or ARM system Adverse Reaction

17:33

Monitoring system. In addition, scientific

17:35

and that's where people can submit their own beefs

17:37

basically right and say like, hey,

17:40

I'm dizzy and just drink of tab yeah

17:42

exactly. Uh. In addition, scientific

17:45

studies conducted during aspertames preapproval

17:47

phase I failed to show that it causes any

17:49

adverse reactions and adults are children. Individuals

17:52

who have concerns about possible adverse reactions

17:54

to aspertame or other substances should contact

17:56

their position. Basically, Hey, if you're

17:58

not feeling good, maybe it's on

18:00

you. Yeah, why don't you

18:03

stop being so metabolically weird?

18:07

Yeah? And and since you brought

18:09

up the f d A, there's a lot

18:11

of concerns about how just

18:13

how much oversight they're bringing to

18:15

the table um And from

18:18

there's this Washington Post article

18:20

I found, it sounds like

18:22

like not much at all. There's

18:24

this um separate track. It's basically

18:27

like an expedited track that company

18:30

who's looking for FDA approval for their

18:32

food item can submit. And

18:35

rather than so ideally, there's this

18:37

f d A review process where the FDA

18:40

says, let us see your

18:42

studies. We're gonna do some research. Who might

18:44

do some testing ourselves. It's gonna take forever.

18:47

You're gonna lose a bunch of money while you're sitting there

18:49

waiting to go to market. But we will know

18:52

pretty pretty conclusively that

18:54

it's safe for humans to use.

18:57

Although even even that's not necessarily

18:59

true. But that's like the ideal situation

19:02

that we'll get maybe close to yes,

19:04

this is safe for humans. Well they've basically

19:07

done away with that and created

19:09

this fast track program

19:11

where you can submit for generally

19:14

regarded as safe status. Yeah.

19:16

That was is when everything

19:19

kind of there was a big sea change there. Yeah,

19:21

and they did it because business was like,

19:23

guys, you're taking so long.

19:26

This is so slow. This process is

19:28

killing us. It's costing us so much cash.

19:30

We want to go to market faster. It

19:33

was like, we don't have enough people, right, what

19:35

do we do? So instead of hiring

19:37

more people, they just made it easier for the

19:39

companies to get this stuff passed. And the way

19:42

that they did that was the FDA

19:44

said, how about this, you

19:46

guys, go study the medical literature,

19:49

write a review of what you find, and

19:51

we'll read your review and then

19:53

we'll give you approval. So don't you don't need to

19:55

submit your data anymore. Just

19:57

give us your your findings, your fine

20:00

things in a summary and

20:03

that should speed things up. And it did in a

20:05

big, big way, and it proved the FDA

20:07

was so toothless that apparently now a

20:09

lot of companies are releasing food additives

20:12

into the food supply without even

20:14

talking to the FDA about it. It It said in this article

20:17

that the UM the one of

20:19

the Deputy Commissioners for Food

20:21

at the FDA, he said, we simply

20:24

do not have the information to vouch for the safety

20:26

of many of these chemicals. The FDA

20:28

is just like, oh, well, there's a new food additive

20:30

out there. I hope it goes I hope

20:32

it goes well for everybody. Yeah, and

20:35

in the I don't know if in the FDA's defense or but

20:37

what they said initially was the reason we did this

20:40

is we thought that people were doing

20:42

this anyway and just introducing new chemicals without

20:45

like submitting for approval at all. He said,

20:47

so maybe if we streamline this process, they'll

20:50

at least do that. And that

20:52

just hasn't worked out how they hoped.

20:55

Nope, it's like UM Citizens

20:58

United Ruling. Oh

21:00

yeah, you know, all right, well let's

21:03

take a break. I need to go. I'm

21:05

I'm angry now, sorry, I

21:07

need to go smash. We'll

21:09

be back right after that. Okay,

21:31

we're back. Chuck, you feeling better? Yeah?

21:34

That ming vos Man. That was like an original.

21:37

Yeah, well that was real. It's Connor.

21:39

Now that's gonna come out of Jerry's pay,

21:42

let's you get some super glue? Oh

21:44

yeah, I like that. That Brady Bunch

21:47

episode. I'm always said, don't play ball

21:49

in the house. Did they break something? Yeah,

21:51

they broke a vase playing basketball in

21:54

the house, and um they tried

21:56

to glue it back together and then Mrs Brady

21:58

used it for some flat was from a

22:01

bunch of leaks. That's so them.

22:03

I love those. What are you doing playing basketball inside?

22:05

Anyway? And it's dumb, just

22:08

you know, horseplay, rough housing. The use

22:10

I mean they're outside was a studio set

22:12

with astro turf, like it's always it's

22:15

always perfect weather. Yeah, and

22:17

that one little quarter drive away. Yeah,

22:20

I bet it would be so disappointing if you could go see

22:22

a recreation of that set today, you

22:25

know. Uh yeah,

22:27

it's like I said at the

22:29

Cheers bar once, the real the

22:32

not the one in Boston, but the where they

22:34

shot the TV show, Okay, And

22:36

it's just everything is just always smaller, you know. And

22:40

in She's

22:42

tiny, she was like in my beer

22:44

mug. Yeah,

22:47

I was gonna say the one in Boston. It's like

22:49

nothing like the set, So I thought that's where

22:52

you were going. I didn't realize you've been on the actual set.

22:54

Yeah, that's when I did my famous extra

22:56

stint on Dear John and

22:59

Cheers was next door. I okay,

23:01

I don't another story. Yeah, yeah, when my brother

23:03

he worked on Dear John, and I went out to visit him and

23:06

he got me on as an extra. I played a bus boy

23:08

in a restaurant scene. Yeah. I'd love to

23:10

get a copy of that. Actually, impost it. Yeah,

23:12

I want to see that. It was pretty good. That

23:14

was my first encounter, like real encounter with

23:16

a film business, and I was like, this is a weird

23:19

thing to do. This is the life for me. I'm

23:22

gonna play bus boys all my life and one day

23:24

I'm gonna have a short lived t failure of

23:26

a TV show myself. All

23:31

right, So where were we?

23:33

We were talking about a TV show? Oh no,

23:35

no, no, we were talking about

23:37

coming back from the break. And I wanted to mention you said earlier

23:39

that when we first

23:41

intro that sometimes this stuff like

23:44

does more harm. And this this one per

23:46

Due University study I

23:49

thought was really interesting because it found that

23:51

drinking sugar or eating

23:53

and drinking sugar free stuff

23:56

with diet drinks

23:58

mainly UH can actually mess

24:00

with your body's ability to

24:02

naturally count calories, because it it

24:05

just messes up what the body recognizes

24:07

as real sweet and real calories,

24:10

which can make that which can make you fatter.

24:13

Right, Yeah, Apparently there's been a

24:15

number of studies, including like really

24:17

really good longitudinal longitudinal

24:20

studies like the San Antonio Heart Study,

24:22

that have found that, um, like,

24:25

high levels of diet soda intake

24:28

are correlated with obesity,

24:31

meaning everything else equal, the

24:33

person who drinks more diet soda

24:36

is likelier to be obese, which makes

24:38

zero sense. It's it's pretty

24:40

confounding, right. The whole reason, or one of the

24:42

big reasons people drink diet soda is

24:45

so they can lose weight, But it turns

24:47

out that they're actually more

24:49

likely to be obese. And I should say compared

24:52

to people who don't drink diet diet soda, not

24:54

compared to people who drink non diet

24:57

soda. That's not to say, like,

24:59

yeah, diet coke drinker is more

25:01

likely to be obese than a coke drinker. It's

25:03

a diet coke drinker is more likely to be obese

25:06

than somebody who just drinks water. And

25:08

this produced study really like gives

25:10

some insight to that. Basically, we our

25:13

body tells us how many calories we need

25:15

to take in, and part of that

25:18

is based on how sweet something is. So

25:20

once we start drinking and ingesting

25:23

these artificial sweeteners, it just

25:25

it goose everything up. It basically

25:27

says that our body doesn't associate

25:30

sweetness with higher calories anymore. Yeah,

25:32

right, because with with something like

25:35

artificial sweetened soda. Right when

25:37

you when you eat food, your

25:40

body has a couple of pathways that it

25:42

rewards you for saying, hey, good job,

25:44

eat you ate food. I'm gonna make it so that you

25:46

want to eat food again. And

25:48

one is the gustatory pathway or

25:50

gustatory component, which is like the

25:53

taste, the smell, the

25:55

the sensation that you get from eating

25:57

like good food or like something

25:59

sweet and delicious, and that

26:01

just activates your limbic system like crazy,

26:03

Your reward pathway goes nuts. Right, But

26:07

when you eat stuff, you also

26:09

have the second component, which is

26:12

um where you're satiated, the

26:14

feeling that you get that great pleasant

26:16

feeling of being like nice and pleasantly

26:18

full from eating, right, and

26:21

that counters that gustatory

26:23

excitement. So normally

26:25

when you eat food, you

26:28

you get the excitement from the taste

26:30

of it, and then ultimately you'll also get

26:32

the nice, pleasant feeling from being full from

26:34

it. Not so with an artificial

26:37

sweetened soda. Instead, you

26:39

get the excitement your sugar rushes

26:41

going off, but you're never gonna get full.

26:44

And since we're nothing but junkies

26:46

as far as like our brains are wired,

26:48

we're just gonna keep drinking more and more and more because

26:51

that sugar center is going off and we're never getting

26:53

full, so it's never counteracted. We

26:56

just always crave more and more and more. Yeah,

26:58

And of course, like you said, these ease, there's always

27:00

an opposite one that it was debunked

27:03

as flawed um by

27:05

the National Soft Drink Association. Yeah,

27:09

so then you try they just said wrong.

27:14

But that's not that produced studies not the only study.

27:16

There have been plenty of other studies that have looked into

27:18

this and have found the same thing that

27:21

that there's there's that our bodies

27:23

are being tricked, that we're no longer associating

27:26

sweet foods with high calorie

27:28

foods, and that it's leading to eating

27:31

more high calorie foods. So that if you eat

27:33

something that actually is sweet and has

27:35

calories. You're gonna eat more of it than

27:38

you would have before because your brain is not used

27:40

to saying I've got enough calories

27:42

from this, I can stop eating it now, playing

27:46

tricks on your body. Yeah. And plus also

27:48

apparently with these these things that are

27:50

three hundred five hundred seven thousand

27:52

times sweeter than sugar,

27:55

which is what our body is used to, is some

27:57

form of sugar. Um, the

28:00

the sensation of sweetness

28:03

is amplified, and so it kind

28:05

of mutes sweetness and other things

28:07

like fruit or any any

28:09

other complex tastes, like in vegetables.

28:12

So we end up just craving more and more sweet

28:14

stuff because everything else tastes terrible

28:17

compared to this ultra sweet

28:19

stuff that we're eating and drinking.

28:22

And if you stop drinking like like

28:25

soda or diet soda or whatever, stop

28:27

eating junk food for even just like a week or

28:29

so, when you go back to it,

28:31

it's amazing how sweet that stuff

28:34

actually is. It's it's

28:36

like a smack in the face, but

28:38

you realize, like, wow, I've really been used

28:40

to this for a while, because I don't remember it tasting

28:42

this sweet. Yea, and my headaches are are now

28:44

gone because I'm drinking this again exactly

28:48

well, and the other thing too. And I know we covered a little

28:50

bit of this and the high fruit dost corn sir it. But

28:52

part of the problem is is

28:54

the ubiquity of this stuff. It's um,

28:58

I think which one was it was

29:00

it aspartame that's in Yeah,

29:02

aspertain is in six thousand, more

29:04

than six thousand products like

29:07

soft you know, soft drinks of course, gum

29:10

uh, puddings, dessert mixes, gelatin,

29:13

frozen desserts, fillings, yogurts

29:15

uh, and then and you know, of course people just dump it right

29:17

into their coffee too, and it's

29:19

purest form. But um,

29:23

unless you're really a stickler about looking at food

29:25

labels, you're getting way

29:27

way more then the

29:30

maximum recommended levels that you should

29:32

be ingesting of this stuff, because it

29:35

might be like I said in the I got a sore

29:37

throat, so I took the cough drop and now chewing gum.

29:39

Now I'm using toothpaste, and it's all

29:41

over the place right exactly. And that's

29:43

another part of the problem where even if

29:46

the FDA is doing its job and

29:48

does all this research and looks at

29:50

the medical literature, Um, they

29:52

may say, Okay, this stuff is safe

29:54

at this level. This is the maximum recommended

29:57

amount that a person should have and still

29:59

be within the safe zone per day. So don't

30:01

put more than this in your soda.

30:04

Okay, great, go forth and prosper.

30:07

And then that soda becomes a success

30:09

and other people start using that sweetener, and then

30:11

it's like you said, like with aspartain, it's everywhere,

30:14

so that the people are getting that amount just

30:16

from that that that soda

30:19

with aspertain that they're drinking, but they're also getting

30:21

it from all these other places, and the levels rise

30:23

very quickly. Yeah, and some folks

30:26

get I mean, there's a definite um

30:28

soft drink addiction problem.

30:31

Um, even with the diet SODA's I've known

30:33

people who literally drank

30:35

like a couple of two liters

30:37

a day of this stuff. Sure. Yeah,

30:40

like just constantly drinking soda all

30:42

day long, from the moment they get up till the moment

30:44

they go to bed as diet. So

30:46

it's no big deal exactly. And

30:49

Um, there's actually a study that I came across.

30:51

Um. I didn't see where the study was from, but this

30:53

is it was mentioned on this um Harvard

30:56

Health blog um. It

30:58

was a rat study where rats

31:01

were given the choice between oral

31:03

saccharine and intravenous cocaine

31:06

um after they've been acclimated to both,

31:08

and they tended to choose the saccharin. Wow,

31:10

that's crazy, Yeah slightly.

31:12

Did they go round and round? Sorry,

31:16

then they're probably like, I've heard about that cocaine.

31:20

I'm not doing that, but I will do this Sacharin.

31:22

By the way, there's a h

31:25

an audio interview on YouTube

31:27

with the drummer from the band

31:29

Rat that's like an hour and

31:31

twenty minutes long that you

31:34

should, I mean, try and get through fifteen

31:36

or twenty minutes of it. But the way

31:38

I saw it is someone said this

31:40

is the Donald Trump of of eighties

31:43

hair metal? Was it a contemporary

31:45

like today? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. He basically

31:48

has a new group that does Rat songs,

31:50

and I think it's he's just the drummer that's

31:52

the original member and

31:54

and just goes off for like an hour

31:56

and a half about how great they are and

31:59

about how that to the real stuff, and

32:01

how they sound better than the original Rat ever sounded,

32:04

and and and it's really something like

32:06

I've never heard someone

32:09

who was more full of themselves than this, dude.

32:12

It was hysterical, was really wonderful.

32:14

Well, how many songs could they possibly play?

32:16

They just play round and round like like

32:18

twelve or thirteen times at a show. They had

32:20

a few hits. All I remembers round

32:22

and Round? No they uh,

32:25

well, I'll think on it.

32:30

I'll bet your thinking of Cinderella or docin

32:32

No, I

32:35

think Doc can have more hits than Rat. Now

32:37

they had lay

32:39

it down? Remember that one? No, can

32:42

you sing it? Sure? You do? Lay it down right

32:44

now? And

32:46

then they had wanted Man No

32:50

Man Now, and then You're in Love

32:52

No, and way cool Jr. They had I

32:55

would say for genuine sort

32:57

of hits, I really honestly,

33:00

I remember round and Round and that's it. Well,

33:02

they were a little bit pore your time too. Round

33:05

and Round was a pretty good song. Though. It's a great

33:07

song. Rat

33:11

what's that? Should we should just end the show?

33:15

Actually, let's take a break and then we're gonna

33:17

come back and talk specifically about some of these sweeteners.

33:20

Is that sound good? It sounds sweet.

33:42

I can't believe you don't remember You're in love? Well,

33:45

you're not thinking it, so how could I possibly

33:48

remember it? And lay it down? Those were two

33:50

big, big hits. I

33:53

mean, I'm telling you, like, I was paying a lot

33:56

of attention to eighties hair metal when

33:58

it was when it was out. Bet you'd

34:01

probably be like, oh, I know that song. M um.

34:04

Alright, remember remember Striper, the Christian

34:07

hair metal band. I saw a Striper and concert,

34:09

my friend, did you the fabulous Fox

34:11

Theater in I did awesome?

34:14

Uh? Well it was they

34:18

had. They had more than one hit, didn't

34:20

they. Yeah, I was. I

34:22

was way into that in my early youth group days.

34:24

Strip they rocked about as

34:26

tough as you could get. I don't know about

34:29

that, but they definitely rocked, for sure.

34:31

I don't know about that. Well,

34:33

they definitely wore a lot of spandex. Their drummer

34:36

played sideways. That was his big trick. They

34:39

set up. They set it up completely sideways

34:42

on the stage. He's

34:44

not actually playing sideways then, No,

34:47

no, no, he's playing straight ahead. He just has

34:49

the drum kit sideways. That was the

34:51

gimmick. Huh Yeah, that in religion

34:53

pretty good? All

34:55

right, So let's talk about Sacharin. Let's

34:59

that was it's actually the Latin word for sugar

35:02

um. And that was the one we said earlier, which

35:04

is the O g uh discovered

35:07

by two chemists named

35:09

John's and Hopkins. Well,

35:11

that's it. That's so two guys claimed

35:13

it. One was definitely in the

35:16

lab because he was the one who uh

35:18

licked his well, he ate a bread roll.

35:21

I guess that was sweet

35:24

and he was like, I don't think this is supposed

35:26

to be sweet, and came to realize it was soaking

35:29

the coal tar that was on his fingers.

35:33

Yeah, oh, I thought you meant it was sitting in a little pool of cold

35:35

tar. And he like, notice it.

35:38

He was warming it up on the bunts and burner.

35:41

Uh so, yeah, that an accidental discovery.

35:43

And it is three hundred times sweeter than sugar.

35:46

Yeah, and this is one of the ones that

35:49

is no calorie because his is not

35:51

metabolized by the body at all. And

35:53

it is very famous, well I don't know, but famous,

35:56

but the drink tab,

35:58

the soft drink tab um.

36:01

It was very famous for being

36:04

sweetened in a big way

36:06

by saccharin. Right, which

36:08

means that from the

36:11

I think nine seven till

36:13

nineteen nine seven,

36:15

maybe there was a warning

36:17

label on tab that said, quote

36:20

use of this product maybe hazardous

36:22

to your health. This product contains

36:24

sacharin, which has been determined to cause cancer

36:27

and laboratory animals. Do you

36:29

remember that warning label on it? Yeah? And

36:31

um, you can also still find I mean, it's

36:33

not like it went away. It's that is what sweeten

36:35

low is. And if

36:38

you drink fountain diet coke or

36:40

pepsi fountain pepsi, you're

36:42

gonna have saccharin in there. Yea.

36:45

And Emily was big on the fountain diet cokes.

36:47

She's like, it's just not the same form can and

36:50

I called it you. I was like, it's because of sacharin.

36:53

Sure what she's off fers

36:55

now too though, Yeah, that'll do it. But

36:57

but what's weird? So I've read this really great

37:00

post on today I found out, which is an

37:02

excellent website by the way,

37:04

um and they they wrote about the discovering

37:06

sacharin and then the controversy, the health

37:09

controversies of sacaran, and the case

37:11

they make is that it's it's

37:13

it's basically the victim of bad

37:16

science reporting, public public

37:19

fear basically, and

37:21

that if you're a rodent, yes you should not be

37:23

drinking tab because

37:25

there there there was discovery of

37:28

bladder cancer and other types of cancer,

37:30

but specifically bladder cancer in

37:33

lab rats that were being fed sacharin

37:36

and um. I guess before they figured

37:38

out exactly why, the media

37:40

went and extrapolated it onto people, and

37:43

so in the public's mind it became,

37:45

uh, sacharin will give you bladder cancer.

37:48

And then by the time they went and researched what

37:50

was going on. There's like the specific

37:53

I think, the specific parts

37:55

of rat urine um

37:58

we're combining with the saccharine

38:01

to form these things called micro crystals

38:03

in the bladder, which is tearing up the

38:05

bladder lining so frequently that

38:07

as the cells were regenerating, the potential

38:10

for them to to grow out of control

38:12

and become tumors was increased, and so

38:15

the lab rats were getting um

38:17

bladder cancer. The thing is is the

38:19

lab rats urine is not the same

38:22

as humans urine

38:24

um, and so we just don't

38:26

get bladder cancer too

38:29

from tab apparently or from saccharin.

38:31

Well. Yeah, and one of the things, I mean, I

38:33

never really knew this how they exactly tested. I

38:36

figured because it was a rat, they would just give them,

38:38

like, you know, a few drops or

38:40

something because they're tiny. But they

38:42

apparently dose these lab

38:44

mice and rats with lots of

38:46

these additives, large

38:48

large doses, and apparently that's

38:51

to compensate for the fact that they don't

38:54

use a lot of mice and rats. Yeah,

38:57

which I'm not I don't follow

38:59

the logic there, there isn't any.

39:02

And then they follow it up with, Wow, that that

39:04

seems to have really gotten on top of you. How about

39:06

some intravenous cocaine to pure per cua.

39:10

Well, they also said that large doses compensate

39:12

for possibilities that rodents maybe less

39:14

sensitive to it. Yeah, but I've also

39:16

read elsewhere that the stuff

39:18

that there, they're the tests

39:21

they're conducting at least on humans too,

39:23

are are not real

39:26

world tests. It's like, Oh, you just

39:28

drank a twelve ounce diet

39:31

coke and now we're going to base all

39:33

of our medical recommendations on the impact

39:35

that has on your body. They're not taking

39:37

into account, like you said, the guy who drinks

39:39

to two leaders or two twelve packs

39:42

of diet coke a day thirty

39:44

years right exactly, and the like,

39:46

this stuff is generally just too

39:48

new for us to have any

39:50

like studies on long term effects of

39:52

them, so we really just don't know. I

39:55

mean it's I don't like, I don't

39:57

want to foster um paranoia

40:00

fear, yeah, or paranoia or even

40:03

just yeah, fear paranoia.

40:06

But like, the jury is still out

40:08

as far as I'm concerned. Agreed. UH.

40:11

For its part, though, sacharine was removed from

40:14

the n I h S list of carcinogens,

40:17

and they did remove that warning label

40:19

in the late nineties. Like you said, yeah, and I

40:22

should say, I'm not specifically talking about

40:24

sacarin. I'm talking about artificial sweeteners in

40:26

in general. Yeah, totally, the jury is still out.

40:29

But onto aspartame, that's one of the big

40:32

targets these days. UM

40:34

Equal Nutra sweet and neutral Taste

40:37

are the brand names that it's sold under. And

40:39

this is UH. It's a derivative

40:41

of a couple of amino acids, um

40:44

aspartic acid and Finni

40:47

lalaleena. Yeah,

40:52

it's been around since nine Uh.

40:55

And this was a chemist named Jim Schladder

40:58

Um a part of a company that which is now Fighter.

41:01

And he was the one that was licking his finger to pick

41:03

up paper and studying an anti

41:05

ulcer drugs and went, hey, I taste

41:09

undred times sweeter than sugared at me, right,

41:11

and so that's what it's used for.

41:15

Oh yeah, well I don't think they treat ulcers

41:17

with it anymore. No. But the weird thing

41:19

about UM aspartame is

41:21

more in how it's broken down in the

41:23

body. I think, um,

41:26

yeah, because it is metabolized. Yeah,

41:28

And this just blew my mind. I had no idea

41:31

that something like that could break down

41:33

into methanol in your body. Yeah,

41:36

wood alcohol. Weird.

41:38

I mean that's one of three things. Is spartic acid, uh

41:41

and then finnil l laen la la nine

41:44

and methanol is what it breaks down into. That's

41:47

just crazy, right. And So if

41:49

you UM do not have

41:51

this disorder called p KU or phenol

41:54

keto neurea UM,

41:56

it's the wood alcohol you have to pay attention to.

41:58

But if you have PK, you then

42:00

you've got a big problem with the phenyl alanine

42:03

because you're you're missing an enzyme

42:06

that breaks that down, and

42:08

uh, it can build up in your brain and

42:10

create brain damage in you. So

42:13

people who have UM p KU or

42:15

phenel ketoeurea UM can't

42:18

have aspartame at all because

42:20

of that. But for people who

42:22

do not have p KU, you still have

42:24

to worry about the methane, although that

42:26

would alcohol if I'm if I remember correctly.

42:29

Isn't that the stuff that the US government

42:31

used to poison the illicit

42:34

um alcohol supply with and a

42:36

bunch of people went blind and died back

42:39

into prohibition. I

42:41

think it was wood alcohol, And it's

42:44

just so toxic. And normally

42:48

when we when we consume

42:50

something that has would alcohol in it, um

42:53

there it's in the presence of ethanol,

42:56

and that's it's absorbed

42:58

differently. The out the ethanol kind

43:00

of like um uh

43:03

neutralizes it a little bit. But

43:05

in aspertame, we're it's breaking down

43:07

into methanol without

43:09

the presence of ethanol, and so we're absorbing

43:11

this toxic component. Um

43:14

just straight up. Yeah. Ten percent

43:16

of asport tame is absorbed as methanol, and

43:18

the e p A says, uh,

43:20

there's a recommended limit of seven point eight

43:22

milligrams per day of methanol and

43:25

drinking one leader of an aspartame

43:28

sweeten beverage contains fifty six

43:30

milligrams of methanol.

43:33

Well of well

43:36

as what is that saying fifty six milligrams

43:39

of absorbed methanol or fifty six milligrams

43:41

of aspartame. I

43:44

think I don't know. I think

43:46

that means methanol. That's

43:48

how I took it eight times a recommended

43:50

amount in one leader of

43:52

an aspertame sweet and beverage. That's not good.

43:55

Well, and like you were saying, how the ethanol

43:57

counterbalances it, it's the same as the

44:00

UH amino acids. They're naturally part

44:02

of our diet, but usually when we

44:04

consume it there it's counterbalanced by other

44:06

amino acids, and in

44:08

the case of aspartame, it

44:10

doesn't have those, so it's just consuming it

44:12

on its own, right, So you're getting it

44:14

in very high doses basically. And

44:17

there's been at least one study that is linked

44:20

um types of different types

44:22

of cancers in female

44:24

rats to aspartain consumption.

44:28

Right, but again, no official studies show

44:30

any official problems, well none

44:33

that the FDA is pointing to. Like that

44:35

was Europe. They're overprotective.

44:38

Yeah, but this is one of the ones too, that

44:40

that arms program where you can call

44:42

in and report things. I

44:44

think it counts for sevent of

44:47

all complaints. They're like, I'm dizzy,

44:49

I got headaches, I've got seizures, got

44:51

fatigue. It's

44:53

killing me. It's killing me, Doc, you

44:57

gotta do something. What's next?

44:59

Super lows sucralose like splenda,

45:03

So sucralos is um. Splenda's

45:06

marketed or it was marketed

45:08

with the kind of slogan made from sugar,

45:10

so it tastes like sugar, right, And apparently they got

45:13

sued by the sugar industry because,

45:16

um, I guess people thought

45:18

that splenda was natural. I think

45:20

there was a um there

45:22

was some sort of pole that found like fifty seven

45:24

percent of people thought that splenda

45:27

was a natural artificial sweetener

45:29

and it's not. It's actually you

45:31

take a sugar molecule and then you take

45:33

out three of the hydroxyl groups,

45:36

hydrogen and oxygen groups, and you

45:38

replace those with chlorine. This is always

45:40

a good move. That's no longer sugar. Nope,

45:43

that's not sugar anymore. It's not natural

45:45

either. So what what you have? A sucralose

45:47

and sucralose is um six

45:50

hundred times sweeter than sugar and

45:52

it's not metabolized by the body, so

45:54

it's calorie free. But there

45:57

have been studies that have found that it

45:59

might not be my bablized by the body, but it's

46:01

absorbed by the body has been found in

46:03

the blood immediately after drinking

46:05

a can of sucralow sweetened soda,

46:08

and it's also been found in breast milk too, from

46:10

mothers who have drank uh sucralose

46:12

sweeten drinks. Yeah, and sucralose

46:15

is one of those you're gonna find because it holds up to heat,

46:17

so you're gonna find it in a lot of baked

46:20

goods or you

46:22

know, like process baked goods or in um.

46:25

The I was about to call them kits. What

46:27

are they called the

46:30

easy bake covin? No, you know when

46:32

you got to make a cake and you get the

46:34

stuff mix, Yeah, the mix, not

46:36

a kit. I like kit though, that's good. I

46:38

need a cake kit. I

46:42

don't. I don't know what you mean, pal book And it's

46:44

been a long day, please leave me

46:46

alone. But Splenda is

46:48

one of the biggest, um probably

46:51

heaviest used sweetener.

46:54

Just like I was gonna call it over the counter

46:56

sweetener. But when you just use it for a sweetener

46:58

alone, to sweeten sweeten your tea

47:00

or your coffee or whatever. Yeah, like you see

47:02

a lot of splendid because as that little green leaf on it.

47:07

No, it's Splendid. I thought Splendid

47:09

was the yellow one. Oh, Stevie

47:11

is the one with the green Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. You're

47:13

right. Yeah, Stevie actually is natural.

47:15

It comes from a plant. Okay,

47:17

alright, I feel much better

47:20

about the green leaf. Yes, super loser.

47:22

Splendis sugar with chlorine.

47:25

Oh yeah, Splendid that yellow packet, that's right. Yeah,

47:27

sweeten load was pink Yep, Stevia

47:30

has got the green leaf. I used to dump that Sweeten

47:32

loan in my iced tea when I was a kid because

47:34

I knew no better. Did you really,

47:36

wow? Well, because you know you put

47:39

sugar in cold iced tea, it

47:41

does nothing but just go to the bottom.

47:44

I know. It's absolutely frustrating.

47:46

And then I was like, oh wait a minute, I'm from Georgia.

47:49

I need to be drinking sweet and tea,

47:51

which is, while they're brewing it, they dump in a

47:54

full one pound bag of sugar so

47:56

much like they say down here, that the straws

48:00

us to stand straight up in the tea. And that's how you

48:02

know when you have enough sugar in your sweet tea. Yeah.

48:04

I don't drink sweet teo much anymore, but boy, I

48:06

love it. Yeah, I do too. It's

48:08

really good. UM

48:10

so super lose uh. For it's

48:14

worth isn't as controversial in the public

48:16

sphere as aspartame is UM.

48:19

But there was a report the FDA

48:22

that said it's approved, but it

48:24

did cause minor genetic damage and mouse

48:26

cells. But it was minor and

48:28

weekly muta genetic may

48:31

cause may cause light cancer.

48:36

Uh. And like you said, they weren't

48:39

they sued by the sugar industry, didn't you say that? Yeah,

48:42

I don't know what the outcome was. I

48:44

don't know. I haven't heard that slogan in a while. So

48:46

I bet the sugar industry one. Yeah,

48:48

now it's just splenda, you know the deal. Yeah,

48:52

you know. We used to say just

48:54

think, just think, think hard, google

48:57

it. Uh. And then finally

48:59

we have sugar alcohols, which I

49:01

wasn't super familiar with. Actually I

49:04

am, because I up until

49:06

this week showed a lot of sugar

49:09

free gum and

49:11

UM. A lot of it is is sweetened

49:14

with sugar alcohols, which is it's um.

49:16

It's where you take a sugar and you add a hydrogen

49:19

atom to it. So there's

49:21

stuff like um sorb at all zylas

49:24

all um a

49:26

thir tall. I

49:30

even practiced that one therapy.

49:32

Yes, thank you, had a little trouble with it.

49:34

But um, they don't have calories

49:37

because they're not typically absorbed by

49:39

the body, although some

49:41

some actually do have just about as

49:44

money calories as sugar, so you

49:46

do have to kind of watch it. Um.

49:48

But sugar

49:50

alcohols typically are used

49:53

less for weight loss and more

49:55

for um like uh sugar

49:58

or blood sugar control, like among people

50:00

with diabetes. Because

50:03

so it might have the calories, but it doesn't it

50:05

doesn't have the glycemic load that that sugar

50:07

does. UM, and even some

50:10

artificial sweeteners too. But

50:12

they taste really really good. They're they're

50:14

about as close to sugar as you can possibly get,

50:16

UM and still have fewer calories or whatever.

50:19

The problem with them is that they

50:21

can um. They're like

50:24

butterfish.

50:27

They caused the anal leakage.

50:32

Yeah, I'm gonna bring that up every

50:34

chance I get. You know, I

50:36

think we have our first great band name of too,

50:40

not antal leakage, but glycemic load

50:44

only. No one wants to hear that. No,

50:46

it's like diarrhea planet. Oh

50:49

yeah, did poop

50:51

knife? Is

50:54

that what it was? You're telling diarrhea Planet

50:56

to to change the knife and they yeah, they

50:58

tweeted never never,

51:01

who are you? Um,

51:03

yeah, so that lacksative effect. Um, if

51:05

you have a daily

51:07

dose of fifty grams or twenty

51:10

grams, fifty grams of the sorb at all or

51:12

twenty grams of the man at all has to be

51:14

labeled that it has a lacksative effect. Yeah,

51:17

But the Center for Science and the Public

51:19

Interest says no, no, no no, Only ten grams

51:21

of sorb at all can make you poop

51:23

your pants, So maybe you guys should lower

51:25

it for that warning. And the FDA

51:27

said, look, man, we're taking a nap

51:30

away. They're like, why can we just have people on

51:32

the verge of pooping their pants? But not quite right?

51:37

Oh dear, yeah, I saw

51:39

an alternative to all this, you know, Oh

51:42

what real sugar. That is one

51:44

alternative. And the thing is is, yeah,

51:46

the the upshot of all this is,

51:49

well, maybe sugar is not so bad. We're fine,

51:51

sugar is pretty bad for you,

51:53

and so is like high fruit toast corncerpt

51:56

But there are plenty of like natural forms

51:58

of sugar too, like unref fine

52:00

raw demorerra sugar or

52:02

honey. There's a lot of places you can

52:04

get sweetness that aren't necessarily

52:07

bad for you, right, Um,

52:10

but then if you're super hip with

52:12

the science too, you might be in favor

52:14

of what are called sweet tasting proteins. And

52:16

these are actually pretty cutting edge from what I've seen.

52:19

There's seven that have been identified

52:21

so far. All of them come from plants

52:23

that grow in the rainforest. And

52:26

um, they are proteins. They're not

52:28

carbohydrates, their actual proteins. So

52:30

they they yeah,

52:33

yeah, the Paraguayan and sweet chicken, Paragua

52:35

and sweetbird. Yeah they

52:38

they they So they're not gonna they're not gonna

52:40

raise your glycemic index like

52:42

your blood sugar. They're not going to lead

52:44

to weight gain. Um, they're they're

52:47

just proteins. And apparently some of them are quite

52:49

sweet, and they're looking into using

52:51

those as an alternative to the

52:54

artificial sweeteners, which were the alternative

52:56

to sugar, so they can decimate the rainforest and

52:58

yet another way, well hopefully

53:00

this will help them protect the rainforce something. No,

53:03

no, no, this is where our sweet comes from. Stop

53:05

cutting it down. Okay, keep

53:07

keep your fingers crossed. They're crossed.

53:10

Okay, that's all I got. That's all I got. So

53:13

that's artificial sweeteners everybody.

53:15

If you want to know more about those, you can tact

53:17

those words in the search bar at how stuff works

53:20

dot com and um

53:22

the nooid will appear. And

53:24

since I said noid, it's time for listener

53:26

now, I'm

53:29

gonna call this warmed

53:31

my heart over the holidays, Scotch

53:35

Hi, Yeah, that too, Hi, Josh and Chuck

53:38

Um, Grace and I'm seventeen years old

53:40

and the oldest of three sisters, Lily

53:44

Rose ten great names.

53:47

We started listening to your podcast in two thousand nine

53:50

when our parents split up and we moved a state away

53:52

from our dad. As a tradition, now

53:54

we always listen to a podcast of yours to

53:57

this very day when we are traveling between

53:59

the two states with our dad. It's

54:01

been such a fun way to pass the time during road trips.

54:04

Your podcasts have been the source of so

54:06

many interesting conversations, such a

54:08

wonderful way to bring our family together over the years.

54:11

For instance, all three of us girls

54:13

vividly remember the Vulture episode for no

54:15

apparent reason, and found the Haunted House

54:17

episode oddly cool. Uh.

54:19

Lily, who was the fifteen year

54:22

old she enjoys the Halloween story

54:24

episodes. Rose ten thinks

54:26

it's funny when you guys get off track. God

54:29

bless you, Rose uh. And I really like to

54:31

annoy my friends with all the useless facts that I

54:33

now know. We are such hardcore

54:35

fans that we even had marathons of

54:37

your TV series Whoa. And

54:40

we have literally been a fan of you guys since you started.

54:43

Thanks for being a part of our childhood.

54:46

Love the Harvey family. That's

54:48

fantastic and they fantastic. It

54:51

was great. And they sent a picture of

54:53

Dad and behind the wheel Uh

54:56

driving with it looks like Grace

54:58

upfront and Lilian Rose in the back and

55:01

they were all just smiling and

55:03

just just they just had this lovely

55:06

aura about them. Thanks to us,

55:10

No thanks to the Vulture episode. Anyway,

55:12

I love the Harvey family now they're they're tops on my list.

55:14

Yeah, thanks a lot, Harvey family for writing

55:17

in. We appreciate that big time. And the old

55:19

man Harvey, you're doing the right thing, sir, yep,

55:22

keep both hands on the wheel, that's right. If

55:25

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55:27

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55:29

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55:35

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