[Quackers]

At long last a country that has sense and bans one of these nasty diet drinks....

Venezuela Bans Coke Zero Over Health Fears - Yahoo! News UK

[DevilsAdvocate]

Can't say i've ever tried this stuff! Relentless FTW

[Jamo]

Never tried it, but I don't think this is just to do with ingredients, there is probably else something behind it! There are hundreds of other products containing sweeteners.

[OllieC]

Isn't it a similar story in America with Pepsi Max? I read something about their food regulatory body not allowing some of the ingredients used... doesn't stop me being hooked/fully dependant on the stuff though. :P

[speckytecky]

Originally Posted by Quackers

At long last a country that has sense and bans one of these nasty diet drinks....

Venezuela Bans Coke Zero Over Health Fears - Yahoo! News UK

Thanks Quackers.

Been banging on Additives Out about the fact some additives have been rushed to dubious approval since my now 14 year old daughter had a rash which we firmly believe was from consuming one of them in 1997.

Could we hope that where Venezuela boldly treads governments with lesser backbone follow? After all all we as consumers want is a cast iron assurance that what we consume is safe and not going to trigger health problems.

[srochford]

Originally Posted by speckytecky

Could we hope that where Venezuela boldly treads governments with lesser backbone follow? After all all we as consumers want is a cast iron assurance that what we consume is safe and not going to trigger health problems.

You're simply never going to get it - almost everything you can eat or drink could cause a problem for some people.

A trivial example is peanuts; for the vast majority of the population they're completely safe but for a tiny minority they can be fatal or have very serious effects even in tiny quantities.

Banning Coke Zero is probably just political - there are lots of reasons to object to the way the Coca Cola corporation behaves but it's often difficult and expensive to do anything about it. Objecting to a new product on "health" grounds is easy and probably gives the Venezuelans an easy way to get at the company.

[localzuk]

Ha, the govt of that country hates western companies - especially Coca Cola. So, not surprising.

[Batman]

I can't stand the taste of these artificially sweetened drinks, but one does have to remember that these kinds of products are inherently bad for your health anyway. I tend to think that real sugar is probably better for your body than artificial sweeteners but still the drink is not then without its problems.

[localzuk]

Originally Posted by Batman

I can't stand the taste of these artificially sweetened drinks, but one does have to remember that these kinds of products are inherently bad for your health anyway. I tend to think that real sugar is probably better for your body than artificial sweeteners but still the drink is not then without its problems.

Well, sugar just requires exercise to remove the effects of, and brushing your teeth. How do you counter the bad parts of sweeteners? I do not know.

[tech_guy]

Hugo Chavez is a gold-plated moron. The man is a complete idiot.

[sparkeh]

I am hooked on Diet Coke.

Anyway got any evidence that its geuinely bad for you?
I really am interested.

[Simcfc73]

I thought it said Coventry.... would be a better story

[speckytecky]

Originally Posted by sparkeh

I am hooked on Diet Coke.

Anyway got any evidence that its geuinely bad for you?
I really am interested.

Mark, Just Google Aspartame (E951 the sweetener now often combined with other dubious sweeteners such as Ascesulfame K).

For me at least enough eminent scientists (Dr Erik Millstone at Sussex University, Dr Vivian Howard at Liverpool University) EFSA’s Review of Ramazzini’s Second Aspartame Study Shows Sellout | www.DORway.com and trustworthy politicians such as Roger Williams BioTech IMC | Commendations to Cambridge grad Roger Williams MP for Aspartame Banning Speech Norman Baker and my own constituency MP Michael Ancram QC view these synthetic sweeteners with deep scepticism to convince me that at the very least deeper research is needed.

Good point made earlier that some people will be allergic to diverse foods and substances - peanuts being the example given.

Back in the early 80's my son (now 33 years old) used to trip on ordinary Cola - used to climb up on walls and just leap off etc. Then mid 80's along came Aspartame which certainly seemed to receive rushed and dubious FDA approval which resulted ever since in Betty Martini in the USA and many others campaigning against it ever since. At the very least we, the public, deserve an assurance that approval studies were indeed thorough.

People with a genetic condition PKU are unable to consume aspartame hence the PKU warning that must be carried on all products it contains. It's my belief that other people than those suffering PKU are also affected by it and other additives.

[CyberNerd]

Originally Posted by tech_guy

Hugo Chavez is a gold-plated moron. The man is a complete idiot.

He has done a lot of good work promoting open source software, the default position for Venezuelan government software purchasing is now that Open source should be procured whenever possible and proprietary software only when necessary.

I believe that a lot of public sectors would benefit enormously from adopting this ideology.