Afternoon!

Here are two new articles about an Italian study on sweeteners & the link to breast cancer.

http://cspinet.org/new/200706251.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19424599/

In one of them Splenda is rated safe.. but the aspartame in diet soda and other diet stuff is not.

I drink diet coke now, and was wondering if anyone knows a diet soda made with splenda?

Coke actually has a Diet Coke made with Splenda-

Is that the one called Zero?

yes, they do, but it is a little bit different.

no.....it's just regular diet coke, but it has a yellow oval on it that says splenda on it. NOt all stores carry it, and you can't always get it in all the containers. DH used to drink it.......we always found it in 2 liters and cans.

Its nearly impossible to find Diet Coke with Splenda anymore. I think they are phasing it out.

Diet Rite is made with Splenda, as are the Diet Hansen's sodas. Other splenda-sweeted drink options include Lipton Iced Teas (tastes like Nestea powder), SoBe Lean drinks, and a few others.

How funny, I just bought the lipton ice tea the other day.

I will look for that diet coke up here, but I doubt they have it.
I don't think I have seen Rite soda up here. I remember in CA all growing up that was the soda my grandma always had at her house :P

I have a problem with rat cancer studies, and this one in particular. Lab rats are bred for their susceptibility to cancer. The cancer rate in domestically bred rats (no matter their diet) is extremely high.

In this study only the highest dose studied was associated with an increase in cancers and was equivalent to 2.5 cans for a 50 lb child and 7.5 cans for a 150 lb adult. They faulted other studies (which didn't find increases in cancer rates) for stopping the study at 2 years (the average rat life expectancy) killing the rats and examining them after death rather than allowing the rats to die naturally and then examining the rats for cancer after their deaths.

So, this tells me that there was no increase in cancer during the rats' normal life spans. The increases were only seen in rats that lived beyond their natural life expectancy AND had been consuming the equivalent of 7.5 cans of soda per day all of their lives.

I'm not discounting the study, I'm just not panicking over my artificial sweetener use, and will keep my eye out for future research.

Good points, Colleen. Often times, the media gets a hold of a study such as this one and scares the sh(t out of the public. Remember the saccharin scares? As one of my old teachers used to say, "everything in moderation......" But seriously, these studies are often manipulated and rarely show "proof," they mostly show correlations. It is good to be aware though, and if these types of studies raise awarness, then that is good.

I don't have an opinion on aspartame safety - my body doesn't react well to it (I get really, violently ill) so I'm well-versed on products that don't have it.

I would think that would result in quite a strong opinion!