Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health – Independent Online Edition > Health — Somebody better follow up on this one fast! Curiously this news is not getting much play. I wonder why?
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 Parkinsons.
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.
found by Bubba Martin
anything about Artificial Sugars, and the same…
Its amazing the Food problems that have come about, and NEVER given to the NEWS to publish in the USA.
What’s up with the name-calling in this article? It’s as if someone purposely wants harm these companies….
Buba I have seen this on several news sites. Every thing we put in our body has both good and bad effects. This is why it is important we watch what we eat.
Does anybody think that drinking sodas is good for you …hellllo!
Something that is so mass produced and for the least amount of money possible…. YeahRight !
Years ago, my wife (bless her sainted soul) got us into the habit of brewing iced tea a gallon at a time. We drink either coffee or our own brewed tea almost exclusively now both at home and on the road. Self-brewed tea has a number of dietary advantages — it has no sugar (or sugar substitutes unless you add them yourself), no preservatives, and almost no calories. Even better, it tastes great and quenches thirst much better than soft drinks.
Give it try! But be forewarned. Once you become accustomed to the quality and taste of brewed tea, the commercial stuff will taste absolutely vile.
Tom
6,
I know persons that drink a CASE aday…
Every developer in the world is screwed.
Stick with beer and you’ll be better off.
I’m no all organic health nut, but you do have to wonder about some products whose ingredient labels look like chemistry research experiments.
I LIKE these statements…
QUOTE.
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”.
END:
The tests were designed LONG ago and havent changed, 1 bit.
I just checked the label on a bottle of no-name brand diet cola – it has potassium benzoate and aspartame.
So I guess I’m safe – except for the brain tumors.
“I know persons that drink a CASE aday…”
That would be 2¼ gal.
I hate soda anyway. causes indigestion too. I hate people who drink soda and nothing else. did you know if you stop drinking soda, hjuice, and anything unnecessrily processed and sweetened altogether you will lose like 5, 10, 15 lbs depending on how much of that shit you usually consume?
#2, not all soft drinks carry said additave
We interrupt this blog for a special announcement,
This just in,… scientists have determined that living causes death!
Film at 11….
“Professor Peter Piper, a professor of……..”
———————————–
My doctor Humpty Dumpty, says the article is bogus.
11,
Aspertaine… FUN stuff.
It is said that at reaching 90F degrees temp, that it turns into an arsinic substance, and can poison you with Parkinsons Type symtems.
after seeing this referenced in several places I decided to look up sodium benzoate to see what it’s used for. Surprise, it’s used to kill bacteria, fungi, and yeast. It seems it’s just doing what it’s supposed to do – keep Fanta from fermenting into something else. The only “news” here is that someone figured out how it’s killing yeast.
No one drinks Fanta nor Pepsi.
…drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.
Now, if just James Hill would read this article…
#19, lakelady,
[to] keep Fanta from fermenting into something else
Why those scurvy slimedogs. Just think of what college kids could be drinking now — Fantequila !!
This stuff cracks me up. In order for this stuff to work, you have to take a substance that everybody feels guilty like soda and then scare the crap out of people. Put in high fructose corn syrup and everybody thinks, corn and fructose, no big deal. If you read the studies on HCFS, they are a shitload scarier than this sodium benzoate crap. Here is just one refering to said studies:
http://www.newstarget.com/003002.html
However, sodium benzoate just sounds so much worse. The power of words just amaze me.
I wonder what the peanut gallery here thinks of this study, http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Nutrition-Vitamins/2007/7-03-21-JAMAReview.htm, VITAMINS CAN KILL YOU!!
For the life of me, there are two things to keep in mind with regards to one’s health, There is stuff you absolutely do not need (like HFCS) or stuff that you do need but in the right amount. If you are anemic, you need iron. If you have hemachromatosis (i.e. too much blood), iron is poison. But the public has been trained to ask and to think, “Is X good for you?”. The correct answers are No or it depends on who “you” are.
Hey, even salt is dangerous. Think of it this way: if too much salt gives you high blood pressure, then a salt-free diet will kill you because you will have no blood pressure.
I say bullcrap.
This is another one of those stories where the benefits have been taken for granted and the adverse effects blown out of proportion. We don’t know how many people have been saved from food borne illnesses simply because of these preservatives. If someone drinks more than two gallons of soft drink, then that is there problem, and they probably do have a problem.
#24,
If brains were made of dynamite, then you still wouldn’t have enough to blow your own nose. Salt is a class of chemical combinations, but I think you are referring to sodium chloride or table salt. It isn’t the salt that is harmful, it is the sodium, which unfortunately is added to food as both a flavor enhancer as well as a preservative.