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This one seriously hits home for me, I'm a Dr. Pepper Addict, Yikes!
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.
My father had severe Parkinsons disease. They linked his problems to soda immediately, and this was in the 80's. He drank chemically sweetened sodas several times a day.
I admit to drinking coke classic far too often until they began putting high fructose corn syrup in the stuff. I stopped cold turkey then because I avoid anything with that stuff in it.
I think that the whole soda thing is a shame. Course, if you throw the bums out, you need to first fill up [replace] with something wholesome or that old devil will come back on you.
Thankfully, my addictions do not include sodas although I drink the occasional coca-cola. I'm rather fond of the unsweetened iced tea I make, part green tea and part raspberry zinger.
My Daddy has been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome. If you'll notice on this link I'm posting ... one of the things it states is
quoted
"What causes MDS?
The use of DNA-damaging drugs, exposure to radiation, and contact with
benzene
are all possible causes of myelodysplastic syndrome, aplastic anemia, and acute myelogenous leukemia. The people most likely to come into contact with benzene
are those who work in industrial settings."
If you click on the link "Display at Risk Jobs/ Exposure)." you'll find the following info.
quoted
"At Risk Jobs include:
· Industrial plant workers who use solvents
· Painters
· Chemical Workers
· Gasoline distribution workers
· Refinery Workers
· Shoe / Leather workers
· Rubber Workers
· Pesticide Manufacturing
· Printers
· Paper and Pulp
· Adhesive production
· Newspaper Press Workers
· Truck Drivers
· Barge Workers
· Dock Workers
· Tankermen
· Offshore Workers
At Risk Exposure - anyone who works around the following:
My Daddy worked for a trucking firm as an accountant for 25 years. Even though he had a desk job and was inside, I still believe he was exposed to these hazadous chemicals.
I dropped soda's a little over a year ago, with the occasional Diet Coke from time to time. I found an organic Ginger Ale that I like to mix with my red wine in a homemade wine cooler kind of thing that I use when I need to mix with a soda.
It is still so startling to me to see years after inclusion in foodstuffs, and after being identified as GRAS, that we find out later how dangerous these things are. We seem to be terribly short-sighted when it comes to putting stuff in our foods!
Went to K-mart the other day (boycotting Wally world) to grab some cheap gardening shoe - noticed that the whole deptmart reaked - bought some anyway - stuck them out door for a couple of days - they still smell - off gassing the glues I suspect...that can not be healthy...
Being on this subject :) I would encourage more reading about sweeteners allowed in the USA yet not allowed in other countries due to their negative, cancer causing effects.
WHY is it the FDA would not approve Stevia for a replacement of Sugar as other countries have? Very good reading if you google FDA & Stevia...just as interesting as the Parabens still being allowed in the USA...Hmmmmmmmmmm...
beelady,
Who is going to do the fiancing for stevia safety tests ..?...certainly not the present sugar and sugar substitute companies. It's the same thing for so many good health nutrients. Hey, the system doesn't want cures...they want treatments!!
What is so odd with the past Stevia ban in the USA is that many US based companies (coca cola, wrigleys etc) have been using Stevia in products being shipped to other countries that ban the artificial sweeteners. Yet they don't offer the Stevia sweetened gum & drinks etc., here - in the USA where sugar is obviously a problem for young & old alike...promise I will step off the soap box LOL :)
Must mention that the Stevia ban lasted for several years before someone realized that the test results they used were misrepresented ;) Hmmmmm again!
