It uncovered eight WHO panelists involved with assessing safe levels of aspartame consumption who are beverage industry consultants who currently or previously worked with the alleged Coke front group, International Life Sciences Institute (Ilsi).

Their involvement in developing intake guidelines represents “an obvious conflict of interest”, said Gary Ruskin, US Right-To-Know’s executive director. “Because of this conflict of interest, [the daily intake] conclusions about aspartame are not credible, and the public should not rely on them,” he added.

  • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Around 20+ cans of coke a day which the majority of people don’t do.

    This guy has never met an American. Ever heard of a Big Gulp? We literally had private companies engineer bigger soda cups to handle how much fucking soda Americans drink.

    • jonsnowman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      I dont necessarily disagree with your overall point about Americans drinking a lot of soda, but I don’t think pointing out that a company makes a cup a little smaller than 3 cans of soda is a very strong counterargument to the claim that it takes 20+ to be harmful…

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        The largest Big Gulp is 50oz and when I was a kid, people leaned on free refills for them. A 50oz is almost a whole 2-liter.

        You’re not wrong, it’s not the best example, but I’ve seen people go through numerous Big Gulps a day.

        Hell, when I worked overnight as a security guard, one of my fellow guards who drink an entire 2-liter of Mountain Dew to himself every night.

        It’s hard for me to think about because I can’t even get through a whole 16oz without stopping halfway because it’s too syrupy.

    • Madison_rogue@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      A Big Gulp is 30 ounces, 20 cans of coke is 240 ounces of soda. That’s a lot of Big Gulps. That said the Double Gulp, the largest size 7-11 offers, tops out at 50 ounces. Yet you’d have to drink almost five of those to reach 20 cans.

      in 2018 The United States consumption of soda per capita was 38.87 gallons per year, or 13.6 ounces of soda per day. Which was down from 45.5 gallons per year in 2010.

    • DarkWasp@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is fair lol. I’m Canadian and when I was 17-20 I’d consume around 4-6 cans a day which was a crazy amount to myself and most people. 20+ seems nuts just financially.

      • CIWS-30@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Agree. Even recently, I would have up to 5-6 cans worth myself (have since cut down a lot), but alongside the financial cost, there’s also the acid eating away at your stomach lining and the excess caffeine to worry about alongside the Aspartame.

        Frankly, given the stomach issues and acid reflux that too much soda can give you, I would imagine that people (even sodaholics) would have to stop much sooner than 20 due to all the other issues involved with sodas before the problems with Aspartame would even come into the picture.

        Not to say that I’m not leery of Aspartame, but diet Soda has other major issues beside it.

    • ours@lemmy.film
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Remind me of the “Parks and rec” joke about “child-sized soda”: it’s the size of a small child!