1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,720
Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

2
00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:09,119
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

3
00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,200
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

4
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

5
00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:26,520
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

6
00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:27,600
Speaker 2: my name is Noel.

7
00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,720
Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our

8
00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:35,920
Speaker 1: super producer Paul. Mission control decands. Most importantly, you are you.

9
00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,120
Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this the stuff they

10
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: don't want you to know. Who doesn't love a bit

11
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:48,920
Speaker 1: of sweetness, even your faithful correspondence here at Conspiracy Stuff.

12
00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,240
Speaker 1: You know, we can have a bit of a sweet

13
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:57,040
Speaker 1: tooth at times. We don't always say no to a

14
00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: treat or two, right, isn't that correct?

15
00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:00,920
Speaker 3: Yeah?

16
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, We've been making some fun little desserts at the

17
00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,479
Speaker 4: house because of like TikTok videos. The kid found this

18
00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:09,959
Speaker 4: thing called a lemon posset where you basically pull the

19
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,120
Speaker 4: guts out of a lemon, cut it in half, and

20
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:14,720
Speaker 4: then you mix it with sugar and heavy whipping cream,

21
00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,319
Speaker 4: and then it sets like a crim breulet, and then

22
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:18,840
Speaker 4: you flame the top of that thing.

23
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:19,440
Speaker 3: If you have a.

24
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,480
Speaker 4: Blow torch or a propane torch, which everyone should and

25
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,080
Speaker 4: it's fabulous and it's not something I would normally think

26
00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,600
Speaker 4: to do. But boy, Hattie, were those delicious sounds good

27
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:28,800
Speaker 4: to me?

28
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:33,480
Speaker 1: Matt, Matt, do you have a do you have a

29
00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:34,400
Speaker 1: go to sweet?

30
00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:39,640
Speaker 2: Yeah? It used to be chocolate until we found out

31
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:40,440
Speaker 2: about that stuff.

32
00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,000
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, what do we find out about chocolate? We

33
00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:48,680
Speaker 1: lost chocolate, chocolate canceled. Well, it's heavily linked to us

34
00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:49,800
Speaker 1: the slave trade.

35
00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:54,400
Speaker 2: Well and heavy metals, you know, Oh yeah, the heavy metals.

36
00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:59,080
Speaker 2: Some manufacturers of dark chocolate accidentally get heavy metals in

37
00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,080
Speaker 2: their products, not all of them. That's what we found out,

38
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:04,360
Speaker 2: and it just turned me off to the whole thing.

39
00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 2: So honestly, that day my sweets are see four smart

40
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:12,959
Speaker 2: energy drinks. Now that's my say.

41
00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,480
Speaker 1: I'm still you know, I don't personally have too much

42
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,400
Speaker 1: of a sweet tooth unless it's a ritualized thing like

43
00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:23,120
Speaker 1: a Halloween. It all eat some candy, but usually if

44
00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,880
Speaker 1: I'm consuming something like that, it'll end up being soda.

45
00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: I'm a sucker for soda. I was more bothered by

46
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:35,320
Speaker 1: the slavery aspects of chocolate. But there are definitely, to

47
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,919
Speaker 1: be fair, there are you know, conci and just ethical

48
00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:43,679
Speaker 1: chocolate companies that have a closer eye on their supply line.

49
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,400
Speaker 1: In tonight's episode, we are looking at things that are sweet.

50
00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 1: We are following up on a recent development in a

51
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 1: long running story this show has examined a multiple points

52
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: in the past. Matt in a recent Strange News segment,

53
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:08,320
Speaker 1: and we talked briefly about a statement by for the

54
00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:10,760
Speaker 1: sake of convenience, we'll say, a statement by the World

55
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:16,560
Speaker 1: Health Organization that appear to confirm some long running rumors

56
00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:20,960
Speaker 1: about something called aspartame. But first off, we have to

57
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,960
Speaker 1: ask ourselves what is aspartame. Here are the facts.

58
00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 4: Aspertame not to be confused with asparagus, not that anyone

59
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 4: would ever do that, and I'm an idiot. It's also

60
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:33,639
Speaker 4: known by some brand names that you may be more

61
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,680
Speaker 4: familiar with, things like nutri Suite or Equal or something

62
00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:42,840
Speaker 4: called Canderall, which sounds even more nefarious than aspartame. Canderrall,

63
00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,000
Speaker 4: like I feel like it. I don't know why that

64
00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:46,120
Speaker 4: sounds scary to me.

65
00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:48,960
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I get it. But there are also a

66
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:53,920
Speaker 2: bunch of other internationally known brands that we don't even

67
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 2: have a list of right here, right now, that might

68
00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,360
Speaker 2: you might know of in your country where you're listening.

69
00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:03,680
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yeah, the brand names may appear very different.

70
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 1: But wherever you are in your neck of the global woods,

71
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 1: when you run into maybe at a restaurant, you run

72
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,720
Speaker 1: into those little packs where they have the like the

73
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:18,000
Speaker 1: creamer and then the sugar and the artificial sweetener odds

74
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:23,239
Speaker 1: are one of those things contains aspartame. It's a dipeptide

75
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,520
Speaker 1: and it's used in so much stuff as a substitute

76
00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,159
Speaker 1: for natural sugar. And it makes a lot of sense

77
00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:32,800
Speaker 1: because it packs a heck of a punch. It's something

78
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:38,120
Speaker 1: like estimates range between one hundred and sixty to two

79
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,719
Speaker 1: hundred times sweeter than sucross your average table sugar.

80
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,400
Speaker 3: It's like what the atomic bomb is to TNT well.

81
00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:48,760
Speaker 2: And it's funny. That was part of the original pr

82
00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,719
Speaker 2: for aspartame. It's one hundred and eighty times sweeter than sugar.

83
00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:57,800
Speaker 1: It's more efficient, you know. They say to the businesses,

84
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:01,960
Speaker 1: it's sweeter. They say to the kid, and holy crap,

85
00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,719
Speaker 1: I lucked out. Says James M. Schlatter in nineteen sixty five.

86
00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:09,960
Speaker 1: Our buddy, James, this this is funny. This is a

87
00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:14,279
Speaker 1: little bit of dare we say, ridiculous history he creates

88
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:20,919
Speaker 1: aspertame or he discovers aspartame's current use completely by accident.

89
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,679
Speaker 1: It sounds a little weird. This is a true story.

90
00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:27,520
Speaker 1: He was trying to make an anti ulcer drug for

91
00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:34,400
Speaker 1: his boss's GD Searle and Company currently Pfiser now or

92
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:39,039
Speaker 1: became Phfiser. He mixed this aspartame together wish wish wish

93
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:41,880
Speaker 1: whish wish, and then he bumped his hand or something

94
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,080
Speaker 1: on the mixture. It spills on his hand and he

95
00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:49,800
Speaker 1: doesn't think about it even though still, yeah, until you

96
00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 1: had lap standards.

97
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 4: Yeah right, give a little lick, you know, just to

98
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:55,520
Speaker 4: be just to be safe, just to make sure you

99
00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,760
Speaker 4: didn't get any like caustic chemicals on your hand. Doesn't

100
00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:00,240
Speaker 4: give it a lick, just to just to make sure

101
00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 4: you're all. That's no, that's not what you do. It's

102
00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:05,000
Speaker 4: not protocol. But he did do this, whether by some

103
00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,040
Speaker 4: you know, automatic behavior. Gave his finger a lick and realize, boy,

104
00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 4: that is a sweet uh, that is a sweet treat.

105
00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:18,279
Speaker 4: That finger there, Yeah, finger licking good. And he decided

106
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:19,560
Speaker 4: to explore this further.

107
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,080
Speaker 1: Well, let's let's talk about this a second, because the

108
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:28,919
Speaker 1: The statement comes from JD. Searle and co. Themselves, and

109
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,400
Speaker 1: then you'll see a couple different versions of this. He

110
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:33,840
Speaker 1: spilled this on his hands. He didn't bother to wash

111
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,960
Speaker 1: his hands, apparently, and sometime passed, we don't know how much.

112
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,039
Speaker 1: But later that day he was doing that thing I

113
00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,719
Speaker 1: always associated with teachers of a certain generation. But he

114
00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:46,920
Speaker 1: was either going to turn a page on a book

115
00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,000
Speaker 1: or he's picking up a piece of paper, and he

116
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,479
Speaker 1: did that thing where you like, lick your finger, I

117
00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,320
Speaker 1: guess to what does it make the paper stick to

118
00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:54,800
Speaker 1: your finger?

119
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 4: It gives you a little more traction, I guess, and

120
00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,120
Speaker 4: being able to kind of turn turn the page.

121
00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:01,039
Speaker 3: That that makes a lot of sense.

122
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:03,760
Speaker 4: So but even that in and of itself is kind

123
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,880
Speaker 4: of a weird sort of like tick, you know, for

124
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,800
Speaker 4: a lot of people like doing that because it's it

125
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:11,200
Speaker 4: does a little bit of good, but it doesn't do

126
00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,440
Speaker 4: a whole lot of Yeah, and that's when he realizes

127
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:15,120
Speaker 4: that there's.

128
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:15,680
Speaker 3: Something going on.

129
00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. So this guy wasn't a finger liquor. Humanity

130
00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:25,320
Speaker 1: may have never discovered this application of aspartame. He knew

131
00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,280
Speaker 1: he was onto something like you said no, and his

132
00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,800
Speaker 1: old bump and lick led to gd E serle in

133
00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:36,760
Speaker 1: company's most popular product ever. They started calling it nutra sweet,

134
00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,440
Speaker 1: and it's been off to the races.

135
00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,080
Speaker 3: I mean, let's just analyze this branding real quick. The

136
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:47,280
Speaker 3: nutra prefix, it almost implies healthful nutritional sweet.

137
00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:48,960
Speaker 1: Doesn't promise it, Yeah, it.

138
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,600
Speaker 3: Doesn't promise it. But this is also a time been

139
00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:53,360
Speaker 3: correct me if I'm wrong.

140
00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:55,240
Speaker 2: Where sugar was.

141
00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,800
Speaker 4: Like just really being pushed already, and it wasn't. It

142
00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,280
Speaker 4: was like considered like a gave you pep or whatever, right,

143
00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,080
Speaker 4: Like that was a big part of the branding or

144
00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:09,200
Speaker 4: the marketing of sugar. Was this Was there a need

145
00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:14,760
Speaker 4: being filled for a like less caloric sugar. Were people

146
00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:16,600
Speaker 4: even screaming for this or was this just kind of

147
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:17,840
Speaker 4: like Okay.

148
00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:21,320
Speaker 2: The diet craze was in full effect, Okay, full full

149
00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,400
Speaker 2: effect from the fifties onward of just like you need

150
00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:28,920
Speaker 2: to eat more healthy, you need to have less again, sugar, fats,

151
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:30,560
Speaker 2: all the stuff you need to have, all this less

152
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:32,960
Speaker 2: stuff in your diet eat more healthy. One of the

153
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,720
Speaker 2: ways you could do that is to not eat sugar.

154
00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,079
Speaker 2: And there are all kinds of substitutes already being created.

155
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,760
Speaker 2: Some of which have fallen by the wayside because you

156
00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:43,840
Speaker 2: know health.

157
00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:48,600
Speaker 1: Dangers and also, let's not forget that one of the

158
00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,200
Speaker 1: big things you can do and once you're business, working

159
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:56,160
Speaker 1: with economy of scale, you can create the need, right,

160
00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:01,800
Speaker 1: So you can through various initiatives, you can accelerate certain

161
00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:08,400
Speaker 1: diet conversations, you can you can magnify certain studies and

162
00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:10,160
Speaker 1: kind of sideline other ones.

163
00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:12,800
Speaker 2: So can we can we just say really quickly, when

164
00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 2: we're talking about the diet craze that was happening, just

165
00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:18,440
Speaker 2: to give a little more context about when aspartame kind

166
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:23,960
Speaker 2: of came to be. The two prevailing let's say alternate

167
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:30,719
Speaker 2: sugars were saccharine and something called cyclamate back before aspertain

168
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:31,559
Speaker 2: became a thing.

169
00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,360
Speaker 1: And those were those were also kind of touted right

170
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:43,320
Speaker 1: as these futuristic solutions to the problem of healthy eating. Yeah,

171
00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,200
Speaker 1: I mean, by hook or by crook. Fast forward to

172
00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:50,560
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, more than six thousand products in the

173
00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:56,440
Speaker 1: market in the US alone, I believe contain aspartame. And

174
00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,720
Speaker 1: it's a lot of it is stuff you would expect,

175
00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:01,920
Speaker 1: but I would posit that a lot of it is

176
00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:02,840
Speaker 1: going to be a surprise.

177
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,800
Speaker 4: I was surprised by a toothpaste, which it does make

178
00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:10,040
Speaker 4: sense because toothpaste does have a minty sweet quality to it,

179
00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:12,800
Speaker 4: but it would be counterproductive for it to contain sugar,

180
00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,640
Speaker 4: one would imagine. So why not have this sort of

181
00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:20,760
Speaker 4: sugar free sweetener in there that supposedly would not contribute

182
00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:22,719
Speaker 4: negatively to your mouth health, or.

183
00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:25,520
Speaker 2: Why not just not make it sweet? I don't know

184
00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 2: if you guys have ever used a lot of the

185
00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,280
Speaker 2: toothpaste you can find, at least for a while there

186
00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:34,880
Speaker 2: in Britain, but it's it's it's the baking soda stuff.

187
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,439
Speaker 2: It doesn't taste great, but it feels medicinal in your

188
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,959
Speaker 2: mouth when you're brushing your teeth, rather than like you

189
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:42,319
Speaker 2: having a sweet treat.

190
00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:43,320
Speaker 3: I agree.

191
00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:47,840
Speaker 1: The baking soda stuff also may not be the silver

192
00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:52,280
Speaker 1: bullet solution it's touted as. And you know another thing, Yeah,

193
00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:56,080
Speaker 1: it's just become sugar and things tasting sweet is very

194
00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:59,040
Speaker 1: normalized in the US. Shout out this, celest Headley. But

195
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:03,439
Speaker 1: the the thing that gets me about that we're talking

196
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,560
Speaker 1: about these dentifices is who is doctor number ten? I

197
00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:10,960
Speaker 1: love nine out of ten dentists or whatever, So I

198
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,199
Speaker 1: love the idea that there's this unhinged tenth dentist somewhere

199
00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:20,000
Speaker 1: and a bummer and he's saying, don't brush your teeth ever,

200
00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,199
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You can't buy me off

201
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:31,240
Speaker 1: big big Colgate anyway. That is one example. Yeah, toothpaste,

202
00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:37,120
Speaker 1: yogurt obviously, chewing gum, ice cream pretty much your favorite

203
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:41,440
Speaker 1: breakfast cereal unless you purposely buy one that is healthy

204
00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,840
Speaker 1: or you've explicitly read the ingredients. Cough drops that's a

205
00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:50,719
Speaker 1: similar thing too, right, Cough drops are almost there's a

206
00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,920
Speaker 1: Venn diagram with cough drops and candy in the US.

207
00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,480
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the a lot of things

208
00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:01,480
Speaker 1: that are sold as though they are drops are pretty

209
00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:07,800
Speaker 1: much just sugar, right, like Luden's cherry drops. Those are

210
00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:08,560
Speaker 1: pretty sugary.

211
00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:10,760
Speaker 4: You can tell the difference too. I mean, I think

212
00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:12,920
Speaker 4: we've gotten to the point where most people can really

213
00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,000
Speaker 4: detect those diet flavors. And that's why things like coke

214
00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:19,200
Speaker 4: zero are popular, because it's like the diet drink that

215
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:21,800
Speaker 4: doesn't have the diet kind of chemically flavor. And I

216
00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:28,040
Speaker 4: think that chemically flavor is largely associated with aspartame, and

217
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:30,520
Speaker 4: some people even dig it, you know, like diet coke

218
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:32,440
Speaker 4: is so popular, and I think a lot of that

219
00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:35,600
Speaker 4: has to do with the flavor that aspartame in parts.

220
00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:39,160
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan of Gatorade zero, and for whatever reason,

221
00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,120
Speaker 4: it does not taste sugar free or diety to me

222
00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:45,240
Speaker 4: at all, and that is because it's sweetened with sucralose

223
00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:51,480
Speaker 4: and aka sulfate potassium, which are two other artificial sweeteners.

224
00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,160
Speaker 4: But aspertain I think has been around so long people

225
00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:56,120
Speaker 4: kind of can clock it when it's there.

226
00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:01,080
Speaker 1: And we're hoping, by the way, that this is not

227
00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,400
Speaker 1: the episode where we absolutely ruin diet soda for people,

228
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,880
Speaker 1: but we'll see your mileage may vary.

229
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:10,959
Speaker 2: We I disagree. I really hope this ruins diet soda

230
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:12,200
Speaker 2: for you specifically.

231
00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:17,880
Speaker 1: Okay, Mat, Matt has batten for you specifically from upstairs

232
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:23,040
Speaker 1: as we speak. So we had this earlier conversation with

233
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,440
Speaker 1: official friend of the show, now veteran journalist Celeste Hedley,

234
00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:32,280
Speaker 1: creator of a podcast called Big Sugar, And we know

235
00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,160
Speaker 1: that the natural sugar industry has a ton of very

236
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:41,720
Speaker 1: disturbing socioeconomic, environmental, and public health problems. So it's no

237
00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:46,400
Speaker 1: surprise that now, just as back then a few decades ago,

238
00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:50,480
Speaker 1: people would want to rid themselves of natural sugar. Even

239
00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:57,080
Speaker 1: without clever pr and Bernese level interference, the market was

240
00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:02,839
Speaker 1: ready for these artificial sweeteners. And you know, aspartame seemed

241
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,080
Speaker 1: to solve a lot of the problems that sugar had

242
00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:07,680
Speaker 1: in one go. And if you look at the pros

243
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,040
Speaker 1: and cons, you could see there's a lot of validity

244
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:12,720
Speaker 1: to the argument I would say.

245
00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,000
Speaker 4: I mean, not only because of the health issues, but

246
00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:20,640
Speaker 4: also because of the absolute monstrous history of.

247
00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:22,480
Speaker 3: The big sugar industry.

248
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,360
Speaker 4: You know, we again listen to Celeste podcast lists of

249
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,400
Speaker 4: the episode for a bit of a kind of a

250
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:33,920
Speaker 4: bullet point list of what those monstrous sins are. But

251
00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:36,760
Speaker 4: let's maybe focus on the health side and let's go

252
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,760
Speaker 4: maybe into some pros and cons. One is weight control,

253
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:46,000
Speaker 4: aspartame is non nutritive meeting, maybe that's whe they got

254
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,239
Speaker 4: the neutro from, because it's it's not that it is nutritious,

255
00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:54,960
Speaker 4: it's that it has absolutely no nutritional value. Yeah, exactly,

256
00:14:55,080 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 4: non nutritive, meaning that it has negligible caloric content. And Ben,

257
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:04,160
Speaker 4: you found that the WHO and its report does dispute

258
00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:05,240
Speaker 4: this to some degree.

259
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:10,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, last I believe it was last year in twenty

260
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:16,320
Speaker 1: twenty two who came out with some research that appeared

261
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:22,280
Speaker 1: to contradictor caveat this idea that this stuff is always

262
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,840
Speaker 1: good for weight control. And we run into this whenever

263
00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:31,600
Speaker 1: we hear conversations about aspartame research, in particular because there's

264
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:36,640
Speaker 1: a lot of money writing on aspartame remaining a legal additive.

265
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,960
Speaker 1: It's also not a carbohydrate, so it can be helpful

266
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:46,080
Speaker 1: for preventing and or managing diabetes. And unlike regular sugar,

267
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 1: it doesn't increase your possibility of tooth decay because sugar

268
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:56,200
Speaker 1: in your mouth is fantastic for bacteria, right, and the

269
00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:02,600
Speaker 1: bacteria produce the damage to your teeth, so aspartame doesn't

270
00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,800
Speaker 1: do that. You might have heard those three things and thought, dang, guys,

271
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,960
Speaker 1: I'm sold. You sounded weird at the front. But this

272
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,720
Speaker 1: is the best ad for aspartame i've ever heard. Well,

273
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,800
Speaker 1: hold your badgers, because there are some there are some

274
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:21,680
Speaker 1: cons to the pros of aspartame.

275
00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:24,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to point to you with those

276
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,240
Speaker 2: pros to turn it into a con a little bit

277
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,160
Speaker 2: kind of what the who was disputing. One of the

278
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,520
Speaker 2: big pieces of research that came out gosh over the

279
00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:38,120
Speaker 2: past ten years was that artificially sugared drinks, So artificially

280
00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 2: sweetened drinks and other products could it still caused weight

281
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:48,080
Speaker 2: gain in people and it had nothing to do with

282
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 2: the sweetener itself. I think it had more to do

283
00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:54,800
Speaker 2: with other things that a person is consuming when they're

284
00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,040
Speaker 2: drinking those drinks. To my knowledge, there was no actual

285
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,960
Speaker 2: correlation between the artificial sweetener and weight gain, but it

286
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:06,080
Speaker 2: was like it was more habit based kind of thing.

287
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:10,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you're you're absolutely right, and we're not attempting

288
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:15,120
Speaker 1: to link those It goes to the first con which

289
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,720
Speaker 1: is increased hunger. The idea that sobbing out sugar for

290
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 1: aspartame can somehow leave people a little more famished. This

291
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,080
Speaker 1: isn't one hundred percent confirmed, but there's no chloric content,

292
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,920
Speaker 1: so you're getting all the sweetness with none of the heft, right,

293
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,479
Speaker 1: So it is quite possible that the same thing that

294
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:41,040
Speaker 1: was advertised as weight control actually just leaves people feeling

295
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:47,800
Speaker 1: hungrier and then of course they eat more. So also,

296
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:50,440
Speaker 1: a lot of these studies I think they're having prop

297
00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 1: we'll get into it, but there's a problem that arises

298
00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:57,399
Speaker 1: in the world of medicine nutrition when you try to

299
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,200
Speaker 1: make one size fits all recommendations, and we'll we'll see

300
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,760
Speaker 1: how that goes hilariously wrong.

301
00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,240
Speaker 4: It's also interesting to point out that there's a study

302
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:14,160
Speaker 4: from the Permanente or published in the Permanente Journal by

303
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:21,720
Speaker 4: Carol Bartolato that looked at how consuming artificial sweeteners in

304
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:26,680
Speaker 4: general can affect your sense of taste overall, because we're

305
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:31,479
Speaker 4: talking about this like dark matter level of concentrated punch,

306
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:33,240
Speaker 4: you know, when it comes to like the amount of

307
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:38,160
Speaker 4: sweetness that's packed into a small amount of substance. And

308
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,440
Speaker 4: they found that, you know, the point on first of all,

309
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:42,160
Speaker 4: that some of the sweeteners can range from one hundred

310
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,159
Speaker 4: and eighty to as high as thirteen thousand times sweeter

311
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,119
Speaker 4: than sugar, and that ninety five percent of participants in

312
00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,600
Speaker 4: the study found that sweet foods and drinks tasted sweeter

313
00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,200
Speaker 4: or too sweet. Seventy five percent found that other foods

314
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,520
Speaker 4: tastes the sweeter. Ninety five percent said moving forward they

315
00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:00,000
Speaker 4: would use less or even no sugar. So I mean

316
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,199
Speaker 4: this can affect your brain chemistry in a way, like

317
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,000
Speaker 4: the way you perceive tastes.

318
00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,800
Speaker 1: Well, that's also that can also be said, or that

319
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:13,840
Speaker 1: kind of habituation can also be said of salt. We've

320
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:15,840
Speaker 1: probably there are probably a lot of people in the

321
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 1: audience this evening who, perhaps due to medical advice, or

322
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:24,320
Speaker 1: perhaps due to some other factor, decided to lessen the

323
00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:30,560
Speaker 1: amount of salt they eat. And then they went somewhere

324
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 1: and they tasted salty food again, and they thought, this

325
00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 1: is crazy because your body is no longer used to it.

326
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: And that's what happens when That's why when a lot

327
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,560
Speaker 1: of people travel to the US, as we discussed previously,

328
00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:44,600
Speaker 1: they're not used to that much sweetness, be it sugar,

329
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,080
Speaker 1: be it corn syrup, which is great. I can't wait

330
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 1: for a corn episode. That's gonna it's gonna be the

331
00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:53,960
Speaker 1: next food we ruin. I don't know what's gonna be

332
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,200
Speaker 1: left at the end of this. I don't know what's

333
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:56,960
Speaker 1: going to be left.

334
00:19:57,359 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 3: Just jealous and sludge.

335
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:05,040
Speaker 4: Well, yea so pertained free gelatine sludge.

336
00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:08,199
Speaker 1: There is one. There is one another con that is

337
00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:16,680
Speaker 1: one hundred proven. It's a rare disorder called uh phenyl catinuria.

338
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 1: And if you have this condition street named PKU, you

339
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:26,639
Speaker 1: cannot metabolize a certain amino acid phenyl. Phenyl is always

340
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:31,240
Speaker 1: funny when we try to do this fenylalanine. Fenylalanine.

341
00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:35,600
Speaker 4: I think that is a noble effort, my friend, and

342
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:36,399
Speaker 4: it's a tough one.

343
00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:40,760
Speaker 1: Absolutely, aspartame contains this amino acid, and so if you

344
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 1: have this condition PKU, then you can't eat things that

345
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:49,159
Speaker 1: contain aspartame. That's why you see these weirdly specific warnings

346
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 1: on things like kool aid packets. That's when I first

347
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: saw it as a kid, you know. And then of course, uh,

348
00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:00,240
Speaker 1: right before we go to break, there are there's one

349
00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,000
Speaker 1: more big con. For decades, people have been claiming to

350
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 1: experience any number of uncool side effects as a result

351
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:11,439
Speaker 1: of consuming aspartame. Stomach pains, disneys, vomiting, nausea, mood changes

352
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 1: to your point, nol, headache, memory loss, diarrhea, and you know, cancer,

353
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:18,800
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, cancer.

354
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,200
Speaker 2: You we'll learn more about that in just a moment,

355
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:23,840
Speaker 2: but for now, we're going to take a quick break

356
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 2: and we'll be right back with more aspartain.

357
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:37,639
Speaker 1: Here's where it gets crazy, Okay, Matt, this is something

358
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:43,520
Speaker 1: you brought. You brought to Strange News just a few

359
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 1: days ago, a few weeks ago. Editing is weird, publishing

360
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: is weird. But the World Health Organization who you might

361
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,919
Speaker 1: be saying, no joke left behind. They came out and

362
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 1: released what appeared to be a bombshell statement confirming a

363
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 1: lot of rumors that have been circling around aspartame. At

364
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,639
Speaker 1: least they appear to the way it was reported in

365
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:05,679
Speaker 1: the news.

366
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:10,199
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say the reporting, it's definitely the kind

367
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:14,320
Speaker 2: of thing that the outlets want to gain your share

368
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 2: of the attention for this announcement, because the announcement isn't

369
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:23,400
Speaker 2: that much of a bombshell. The announcement is really it's

370
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 2: a shift in thinking, right, and it's a shift in

371
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:32,560
Speaker 2: classification of aspartame as a substance. But ultimately it doesn't

372
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 2: mean much. There's not going to be any real effect

373
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,960
Speaker 2: on the manufacturers or the consumers.

374
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 1: Right, it's not even a non binding resolution. It's not

375
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 1: a resolution. Well it's July fourteenth, twenty twenty three. They say,

376
00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I don't want to accuse like

377
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: the quote unquote mainstream news of being hyperbolic or alarmist,

378
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: but they played a little fast and loose with some

379
00:22:57,920 --> 00:22:59,680
Speaker 1: of the headlines. And you see this in all kinds

380
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: of health reporting. You know, depending on the year, coffee

381
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,200
Speaker 1: is either terrible for you, or I means you'll never

382
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 1: have a heart attack again. Fat is bad or fat

383
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: will save you, et cetera, et cetera. The statement that

384
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 1: who makes is the result of a group project. So

385
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:23,160
Speaker 1: get ready, folks, for some long names and very weird acronyms,

386
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 1: awkward acronyms, aquanyms. We'll get there.

387
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 3: That's true. Here we go.

388
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 4: Who the World Health Organization or who teamed up with

389
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 4: a group called the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Fortunately,

390
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 4: there's no fun way to pronounce that IRC. That's not fun,

391
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 4: so let us call it the iar C. In addition

392
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,080
Speaker 4: to them, the who also paired up with the Food

393
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:55,959
Speaker 4: Agriculture Organization or FOUL or FAO like fo shwortz.

394
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 3: That's fun. Who also has a.

395
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 4: Joint X Committee on Food Additives JEKFA if only it

396
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 4: was jeffka checkf was pretty good, and they run in

397
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 4: coordination with the FAO Food Agriculture Organization. So if you

398
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 4: really think about it, not only one organization, but three

399
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 4: different branches of said organization, the whhow have looked into

400
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 4: in depth aspartame and it's side effects or by products

401
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 4: and all of them?

402
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:31,920
Speaker 3: It gave them pause at the very least.

403
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 4: They said, we need to take a minute and look

404
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 4: a little deeper at what's going on with this stuff.

405
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And in truth, guys, they're really just analyzing

406
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 2: research that has been done in the past and more

407
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 2: recent research studies on aspartame. That's really what they're doing.

408
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 2: They're analyzing stuff and results.

409
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 1: Right. Well, it might be presented as a bombshell public statement,

410
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,920
Speaker 1: and it definitely is a shift. It's not as though

411
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:06,120
Speaker 1: a damning news study emerged. If you read the press release,

412
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: which again is freely available online, then you will see

413
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: there's even some descent amid those three different groups working together.

414
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: IARC or IRC said, they're the ones you say aspartame

415
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 1: is quote possibly carcinogenic to humans and our pals Jeffka.

416
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: They reaffirmed what they see as the daily acceptable intake.

417
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: The daily acceptable intake of aspartame is forty milligrams per

418
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: kilogram of body weight for everyone in the US. That's

419
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:45,680
Speaker 1: forty milligrams per like two point two pounds of body weight.

420
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,879
Speaker 1: And so what this tells us already is the public

421
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: statement is still arguing it's okay to consume this essentially moderation.

422
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 1: The Cancer Research Group says it can cause cancer, but

423
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: the Food Safety Group says, yeah, you can still eat it.

424
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:04,880
Speaker 1: And honestly, forty milligrams per kilogram or per two point

425
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 1: two pounds, that's a lot of aspartame. So they're not

426
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 1: saying no one should have this stuff at all involved

427
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,919
Speaker 1: with them. They're not saying it's on the level of

428
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 1: previously acknowledged dangerous substances like the litamite or so on.

429
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: But they are saying there's some scary stuff in the research.

430
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:31,120
Speaker 1: And they also specify what types of cancer aspartame may

431
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: be associated with. Uh.

432
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, Basically they said your liver might be at risk,

433
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 2: you might get liver cancer if you consume too much aspartame,

434
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 2: And I think they say it a little weirdly in

435
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 2: the statement, but basically, it also increases it might increase

436
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 2: your chances of getting other types of cancer. But they're

437
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 2: not very specific about.

438
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 4: It well, and they're also not trying to come out

439
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 4: and be incredibly heavy hand about these things. You know,

440
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 4: they're they're they're throwing in some caveats and they're trying

441
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 4: their best to not sound alarmist, you know, like if

442
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 4: you if you consume the stuff one or two times

443
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 4: that you're doomed. That's not the prognosis here.

444
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think the one they point to

445
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 2: for liver damage. I don't know if I'm going to say, right,

446
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 2: hepatose cellular carcinoma. That's the type of liver cancer they

447
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:24,879
Speaker 2: point to.

448
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: And they're saying again, just like we articulated earlier, they're saying,

449
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,400
Speaker 1: there's enough research out here that we want to give

450
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:40,400
Speaker 1: you a heads up. And we're doing this not necessarily

451
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: because we think aspartame is villainous. We are doing this

452
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 1: as WHO because cancer is terrible and we want to

453
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 1: stop people from getting cancer in any situation when at

454
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: all possible. They have a quote from doctor Francesco Bronca,

455
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: who is the director of the Department of Nutrition and

456
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: Food Safety over it who or who they don't like

457
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: to be called who, which is sad because it's so fun,

458
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: But doctor Bronco gives some context about cancer and says, quote,

459
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 1: cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally.

460
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:20,679
Speaker 1: Every year, one in six people die from cancer, and

461
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: so if we look at it from their perspective, this

462
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: is another tool or another piece of research to help

463
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: in the larger fight against cancer. At least the way

464
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:35,600
Speaker 1: it's presented in that press statement. You know, it's like

465
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: they're saying cancer is the main thing we're worried about.

466
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: Also Aspertain might lead to developing cancer. Yeah, where I'm

467
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 1: just finding out because I feel like if you look

468
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 1: at different news outlets, they presented it in these these

469
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: very short, you know, to three minute maybe five minute

470
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: newsburst where they just said Aspertain cancer. We'll be right

471
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: back with a dog who thinks he's in hotter.

472
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I did see a lot of people, you know,

473
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 2: break it down once they got back from their break

474
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: after teasing it like that, you know what I mean,

475
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 2: they got you to stick around, and then they just

476
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 2: broke it down and said, actually, there's nothing to worry about.

477
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,959
Speaker 2: It's they the w a HO has said that it's

478
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: possibly carcinogenic, and they you know, gave it one bump

479
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 2: up in the four level I think it's four levels

480
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:33,719
Speaker 2: of carcinogenic substances or food additives. That the way they

481
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 2: classify them. And we talked about this in that last episode.

482
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 2: It's now classified as to B.

483
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: To B but.

484
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 3: Definitely a question.

485
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is still this is still important. We

486
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: have to also ask ourselves. Is this kind of thing misleading?

487
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: That's a reasonable starting point. Jokes about caffeine reporting aside,

488
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: history has shown more than one scientific report has been

489
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: twisted by news organizations to get people in a panic.

490
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: And so shout out to all the scientists in the crowd,

491
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: fellow conspiracy realists. We know this stuff has to drive

492
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: you crazy, like what is it? There? There have been

493
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: these almost like urban folklore, tall tales that all about

494
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: something being horrible for you that ultimately end up being

495
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 1: based on a study done to lab mice or lab rats,

496
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: and they just pump them so full of a cartoonish

497
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: amount of a substance that no human would ever reasonably

498
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: ingest it.

499
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, we certainly mentioned that in the past.

500
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 4: And to your point, Matt, you know, with your body weight,

501
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 4: how many cans of diet coke you'd have to consume

502
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 4: to even get anywhere close to these.

503
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 2: Levels, well to the levels that the FDA and the

504
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 2: WHO and all these other organizations agree is the safe level.

505
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 2: And you know, because they say it's safe, then hey,

506
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 2: that's what we should be going by. Just do you

507
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 2: trust them? That's the big question.

508
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: Have you looked up everybody's CV their previous organizations, associations,

509
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 1: the boards, and other places that they have membership on.

510
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 1: So we're just gonna call these different acronyms. Who For

511
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: the sake of simplicity, we gave you the big stat

512
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: forty milligrams per kilogram of aspartabe every twenty four hours,

513
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 1: forty milligrams every two point two pounds if you're in

514
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 1: the US, If you math that out again, to get

515
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 1: past the level that this group says is safe, you'd

516
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: need to be slugging probably a little more than a

517
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: twelve pack of diet soda per day. And that does

518
00:31:56,640 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 1: seem like a lot. No judgment, people can get stressed

519
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 1: out and can get thirsty. But there's something else tricky

520
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: about this. That recommendation I think can be a little

521
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 1: bit misleading because that's forty milligrams per kilogram of body

522
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: weight a day in that trans in that soda example.

523
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: That assumes no other intake, And it's kind of hard now, right,

524
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,520
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to know without doing a lot

525
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: of due diligence whether something you're consuming has aspertain in it.

526
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: So you could drink those nine to fourteen cans think

527
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: you're okay.

528
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 4: It's very similar to to how you bique as sugar is.

529
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 4: You know, we talked with Celeste about, you know, her

530
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 4: attempts to live a sugar free lifestyle and how a

531
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:56,360
Speaker 4: expensive it was and b just incredibly confusing and convoluted

532
00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 4: it is to even figure out what has sugar in it.

533
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 4: Very similar with this because it's just become so ubiquitous.

534
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 2: Guys, I don't think it's tricky at all. We are

535
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 2: consuming a craft ton of aspartame, even if you're specifically

536
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 2: avoiding diet soda drinks.

537
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, that's but that's what makes the calculation tricky

538
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: as well.

539
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 2: You say, well, what I mean is it's going in you.

540
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if you're trying to avoid it.

541
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: It's in there along with all the other stuff that

542
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: the FDA has said is totally fine here in the States.

543
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: We've got to mention them in a second too. So

544
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: one of the problems is the research keeps going back

545
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: and forth, and so many reliable sources that you can

546
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: read on aspartame will say studies are conflicted, or studies

547
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 1: are ongoing, and things like that. In twenty thirteen, the

548
00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: WHO crew nice, the WHO crew can clude that there

549
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: was absolutely no problem with aspartames. So this can for

550
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 1: a couple of us, this might look like everything's on

551
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 1: the up and up. That's how science works. You do

552
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:16,760
Speaker 1: the science, and then the science tells you what is happening.

553
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: It doesn't fit your pre existing expectations. So the good

554
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: thing about solid science is that getting something wrong and

555
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 1: then figuring out what you got wrong. That's progress. That's

556
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: super cool. The other side of it is what if

557
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 1: the money is interfering with some of these decisions and

558
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: the way that they are conveyed to the public.

559
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, what if the studies are being bankrolled by a

560
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 2: trade group who is representing the manufacturers of artificial sweeteners.

561
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 1: That's a problem, surely a hypothetical problem.

562
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 2: Matt, No, no, and we will talk about it in

563
00:34:58,680 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 2: a moment.

564
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I sugar's got lobbies. Fake sugar's got lobbies.

565
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: They're fake lobbies though they're one hundred and eighty to

566
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 1: two hundred times sweeter than existing lobbies.

567
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:13,799
Speaker 3: If only does that mean that they're like they're just

568
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 3: really nice.

569
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 4: They like they just that's how they get people just

570
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 4: to do what they want. It's just by you know,

571
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 4: killing them with kindness.

572
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:26,719
Speaker 1: That and the liver cancer. Yes, the FDA US Food

573
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: and Drug Administration is a bit looser, and they say, look,

574
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:36,840
Speaker 1: you can go hog wild, buddy, fifty milligrams per kilogram

575
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 1: of body weight for aspartame and your g to G

576
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 1: my friend, live your life, pop that next diet, you know,

577
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: doctor pepper or whatever.

578
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 2: Well, can we when we talk about that FDA and

579
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 2: what they say, Oh, I was almost gonna rhyme there.

580
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy four is when they approved aspartame for using foods.

581
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy four. Originally, can we just go ahead and

582
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 2: talk about how it was? Then that approval was taken

583
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 2: away for a little bit a year later? Do tell

584
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:15,799
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy five, in July, Alexander M. Schmidt, who

585
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 2: was the FDA commissioner, he was hearing a bunch of concerns.

586
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 2: This is from I guess people in the scientific community

587
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 2: as well as people who were just consuming aspartame. People

588
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 2: were complaining about this stuff. So he actually made a

589
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 2: task force that looked into aspartame. So the FDA investigated

590
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 2: this stuff right after it approved it, literally a year

591
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 2: after it approved it, and found that there were problems.

592
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 2: And they found that the studies that the original company

593
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,040
Speaker 2: that created the substance had submitted to the FDA because

594
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 2: remember GD Searle is testing its own product and saying, hey,

595
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,360
Speaker 2: these appear to be the safe levels for this product.

596
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:58,280
Speaker 2: We want to sell.

597
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 3: The FDA then, you.

598
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 2: Know, in seventy four approved and said, yeah, that's fine,

599
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 2: looks great. GD Searle, your internal studies are perfect. And

600
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:09,480
Speaker 2: then a year later they were like, oh, geez, I

601
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 2: don't know, and it ended up getting taken off of

602
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 2: the market for a little while, and then it only

603
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 2: got put back on the market when somebody knew got

604
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 2: appointed to the FDA.

605
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: Yes, and this is part of the public private revolving

606
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 1: door danger that we see so often. We should go

607
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:26,719
Speaker 1: ahead and say it. I was gonna save this for

608
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: the end. But the head honcho over GD Searle, when

609
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,760
Speaker 1: our buddy James decides to lick his fingers in a lab,

610
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 1: that guy's name was Donald Rumsfeld, who you may recognize

611
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:44,439
Speaker 1: from a later turn in the world of American politics. Now,

612
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 1: guilt by association is a dangerous thing, and it's not

613
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,160
Speaker 1: proof of anything on its own, you know. That's why

614
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:56,240
Speaker 1: you see a lot of a lot of conspiracy theories.

615
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,439
Speaker 1: The one to simply scare people. Say, you know who

616
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,879
Speaker 1: else like this the Nazis, you know what I mean? Like, oh,

617
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't think Oreo is part of this,

618
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: like it is part of Nabisco's ultimate endgame to take

619
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: over the world and turn everybody into you know, a

620
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 1: mixing brands here Tournam into keip Lorelves. Well, guess what,

621
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: Nabisco was Himmler's favorite snack cookie or whatever. And that's

622
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: easily just those elves.

623
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 3: Were vaguely Nazi ish.

624
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's just something in the eyes. Right. So,

625
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: Like with that being said, guilt by association is not enough.

626
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,399
Speaker 1: It does not on its own conspiracy proof. However, Matt,

627
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: the timeline you're talking about about this getting pulled and

628
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 1: then every and then it's oops, no worries, everything's fine.

629
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:01,160
Speaker 1: After the FDA undergoes a new regime chain, of course,

630
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:06,240
Speaker 1: that's suspicious. It should be suspicious, right or are we crazy?

631
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: Is this the one?

632
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 2: No, it's crazy suspicious. When Rumsfeld rolls in in nineteen

633
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 2: seventy seven, he's all about Aspertame because he knows that

634
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 2: company needs a win. And you can even you can

635
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 2: see quotes of him talking about how he puts heaps

636
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:20,880
Speaker 2: of it in his coffee.

637
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 1: And well, let's talk a little bit more about Rumsfeld

638
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,800
Speaker 1: two in a bit. I guess, just for due diligence,

639
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:32,360
Speaker 1: we do want to mention the people on the manufacturing side.

640
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:36,280
Speaker 1: As we alluded to earlier, aspartame is a big, big, big,

641
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 1: big business. So in arto official sweeteners are as well.

642
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 1: So it should come as no surprise that there are

643
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 1: trade groups for this stuff. And these trade groups are

644
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:50,839
Speaker 1: pretty prominent in Washington. They're pretty prominent in any conversation

645
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,279
Speaker 1: involving this. They want to be part of it. We're

646
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 1: talking about folks like Kevin Keene, who is the interim

647
00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: president and CEO of the American Beverage Association. He talked

648
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 1: with MPR. Oh American Beverage Association aba IS. It's members

649
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 1: are people like Pepsi COO and Coca Cola all these

650
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 1: other people who make beverages or companies. Excuse me, so

651
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 1: on the heels of this news from who Keyen speaks

652
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:24,440
Speaker 1: with MPR and says, quote, consumers should take all this

653
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,839
Speaker 1: compendium of science, the overwhelming weight of the science, and

654
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: be confident moving forward that aspartame is a safe choice.

655
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: So that's what the manufacturers say. No one's saying. No

656
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:42,239
Speaker 1: one from the soda manufacturing world in particular is say,

657
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 1: you know, just on the off chance we can make

658
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: this a little less dangerous for people, that's what we're

659
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 1: gonna do. To date, zero companies have said that.

660
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 4: And of course, I mean again, no one is saying that,

661
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 4: you know, aspartame is as carcinogenic as something like to

662
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 4: or radiation. I believe we talked about when the story

663
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 4: first hit that the category that it's being placed in

664
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 4: some other you know, another item that exists in that

665
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 4: category is pickled vegetables. So I mean it's this sort

666
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 4: of might be carcinogenic.

667
00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a broad category, you know.

668
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 4: I don't think anyone's raising the flag or sounding the

669
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 4: alarm about pickled vegetables, you know, and then not to

670
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 4: draw any false equivalencies, y'all call it. Correct me if

671
00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,600
Speaker 4: I'm wrong, But that was the way I saw it.

672
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 4: It was in the same category.

673
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's also the question of to what

674
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 1: degree it does something function as a carcinogen, right, like

675
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: do we We don't seem to have any universally agreed

676
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:58,359
Speaker 1: science saying that above this certain level or at these

677
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 1: certain thresholds, you were experts sent more likely to have

678
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:05,480
Speaker 1: this liver cancer. They're saying it's an indicator, and you

679
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: have to respect the scientists trying to be fair. But

680
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:11,239
Speaker 1: also given the problems, given the controversies we're going to

681
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 1: talk about, we have to ask questions, right, So good

682
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 1: on the scientists for being reasonable here. There's because you

683
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 1: want to look at the cancer side of this too.

684
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 1: A lot of cancer is still incurable, a lot of

685
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:33,720
Speaker 1: cancer still is caused for various reasons that people can't

686
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 1: fully understand. So doctor William Dahout or Dahoot Dahut of

687
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 1: the American Cancer Society had a great quote about this, saying, quote,

688
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 1: the bottom line is that there is not current evidence

689
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:55,000
Speaker 1: that definitively leads ingestion of aspartame to cancer. However, since

690
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 1: there is a possible link, it is certainly reasonable to

691
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:03,360
Speaker 1: limit one's intake until more definitive studies are available. So

692
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,399
Speaker 1: this guy is saying some very smart like, hey, why

693
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 1: not just avoid it.

694
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 4: I had mentioned off the air that my godmother, who's

695
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 4: very fancy New York lady, has what's called a concierge doctor,

696
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:19,680
Speaker 4: something that I wasn't aware of until she brought it up,

697
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 4: which is worth pay extra and you can basically get.

698
00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:24,839
Speaker 3: This person on the phone with any questions you might have.

699
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 4: And she saw the news about aspartame being recategorized and

700
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 4: some new research going into it, and asked her concierge

701
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 4: doctor what to do, and her doctor suggested that she

702
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 4: just switched to sugar, which I thought was very odd

703
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,240
Speaker 4: and interesting, but that's what she said.

704
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,880
Speaker 2: That's an interesting guidance because you know, I kind of

705
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 2: agree it felt a little off.

706
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 1: Maybe he was just trying to get off the phone.

707
00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:51,800
Speaker 3: Maybe.

708
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 1: Let me be honest, A lot of those concierge concierge

709
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 1: medical services, they're not created equally, I don't think.

710
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 2: So. Okay, hold on, all the three of us, who

711
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,240
Speaker 2: has experienced with a consierge doctor.

712
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:09,760
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I have associations with there you go, Okay, Okay,

713
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 1: Just in general, I mean, doctors aren't created equal, you know,

714
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:13,839
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of them.

715
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 4: When you go and see one in person, they're doing

716
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 4: everything they can It gets you out of the room

717
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:18,759
Speaker 4: as quickly as possible so they can move on.

718
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:20,919
Speaker 3: Because it's about volume. You know, it's a numbers game.

719
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 1: You know. One thing this reminds me we've got to

720
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: go to an ad break. But one thing that is

721
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,719
Speaker 1: never not hilarious to me. We all know how if

722
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 1: you've worked in production, people in various aspects of production

723
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: will roast other professionals, like they'll have jokes about gaffers,

724
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:43,279
Speaker 1: or they'll have jokes about you know, director of photography, sorry, doc,

725
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: et cetera. Doctors, like doctors that I hang out with,

726
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 1: they have the same kind of jokes about other specializations.

727
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 1: You know. For instance, I've got some good friends who

728
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 1: have been oh or surgeon. Oh are they er surgeons?

729
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:04,799
Speaker 3: Excuse me?

730
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 1: So let's kick you up.

731
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 3: That was from what's it called Rushmark? Excuse ah?

732
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 1: So they so they will have these crazy inside judgy

733
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 1: things to say, you know, like pediatrics aren't real doctors,

734
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: right one one surgeon, I guess, and you know, we're

735
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,879
Speaker 1: having a few drinks and she had said, she'd said, yeah,

736
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 1: what are they going to do, Ben, What are they

737
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:34,279
Speaker 1: going to do if someone has a heart attack on

738
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 1: the plane and they says they're a doctor, are they

739
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:38,879
Speaker 1: going to stand up and say, well, I can look

740
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,280
Speaker 1: at his feet, which is sick.

741
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 4: It's what you call specialization, though, and I feel like

742
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,840
Speaker 4: that's a bit dismissive and missing the big picture.

743
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,360
Speaker 1: I think so too. I think maybe a pediatris wronged

744
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:52,759
Speaker 1: her at some point in your life and set her

745
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 1: upon this this very strange, comedic path.

746
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,240
Speaker 4: Perhaps they missed an ingrown toenail that they got exacerbated

747
00:45:59,280 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 4: over time.

748
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:00,440
Speaker 2: Mmm.

749
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,839
Speaker 4: Yes, now I sound dismissive, and I interest you all

750
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 4: kinds of stuff.

751
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 3: Health is very important, y'all.

752
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 1: Hell, hath no fury like a woman corned foot corns. Okay,

753
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: we're going to break. We've returned. So there's that idea.

754
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:27,120
Speaker 1: You know, it seems very reasonable. If you are concerned

755
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: about exposure, or if perhaps you have other complicating existing

756
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:38,680
Speaker 1: factors that may make you more vulnerable, two that may

757
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: mark people were vulnerable to getting cancer, then why not

758
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: just avoid this stuff if you can?

759
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 3: You can?

760
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:48,560
Speaker 1: You can already tell yourself. Look, I may not get

761
00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of it out of my diet, but

762
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: just for my peace of mind, I'm going to avoid

763
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 1: it when I can. I feel like that's not crazy.

764
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:00,440
Speaker 1: That's a very reasonable goal, you know what I mean.

765
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:04,680
Speaker 1: Just read the label on the stuff. I mean, obviously,

766
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: if you try to cut all sweet things from your

767
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,399
Speaker 1: diet in the United States, you're gonna have a very

768
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,400
Speaker 1: very hard time. Shout out to celest.

769
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:14,840
Speaker 2: Because let's talk about a real, like a serious concern,

770
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 2: because this actually affected well me, it affected me personally

771
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:24,400
Speaker 2: and probably you guys as well. According to the American

772
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:29,719
Speaker 2: Academy of Pediatrics, consumption of beverages that contain aspartame and

773
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 2: other artificial sweeteners jumped two hundred percent between nineteen ninety

774
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,120
Speaker 2: nine and twenty twelve. Hey, and guess what. I was

775
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 2: in high school at that time, and you know what

776
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 2: they had all over my high school surge surge and

777
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 2: soda machines and diet coke and all. That's when I

778
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 2: started drinking diet sodas.

779
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 3: It was CONTRAVERSI.

780
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 1: I drink diet sodas as a high schooler.

781
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,439
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I was overweight and I wanted to drink

782
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:01,879
Speaker 2: diet soda rather than drink something that had a bunch

783
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 2: of sugar in it.

784
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:05,200
Speaker 4: Well, that was smart, But because the powers that be

785
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:09,760
Speaker 4: certainly weren't making those the more attractive choices. The machines

786
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 4: certainly weren't emblazoned with the diet brand. It was just

787
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 4: and Surge the green energy drink. You know, I mean

788
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 4: that's pretty gross if you think about it, the way

789
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 4: those companies were able to get embedded in public schools

790
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:24,480
Speaker 4: that speaks volumes.

791
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 3: You think lobby had to do with that.

792
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: Yes, one hundred percent it did. Also, you ketchup is

793
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:33,480
Speaker 1: not a vegetable. We should also point out, you know,

794
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:37,680
Speaker 1: I think we said it in the past, diet in

795
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 1: front of something doesn't mean anything at all. Really, there

796
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:50,399
Speaker 1: is no FDA legal language about what a product has

797
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaker 1: to do to have the word diet in there. They're

798
00:48:54,120 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 1: communicating to us that it is somehow purportedly more healthy,

799
00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 1: but unfortunately that's not the case. And with these explosions

800
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 1: of artificial sweeteners and things, we see all kinds of

801
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 1: sugary beverages pop up. I'm thinking about the real low

802
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,359
Speaker 1: rent ones that I just hated as a kid. They

803
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: were these plast They were these neon colored plastic barrel

804
00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:24,920
Speaker 1: things with a little foil top. I can't remember the

805
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 1: name of them. I'll find it, but they were disgusting

806
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 1: because they were chock full of artificial sweeteners and colors

807
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:35,799
Speaker 1: and artificial colors. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think

808
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: those were nature colors. I'm the worst person to guess,

809
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 1: but then look right to me. And if they looked

810
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: off to me, I'm sure everybody else was like, what

811
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:49,040
Speaker 1: the hell is this? But because we are based in

812
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: the United States, the unfortunate truth is right now, responsibility

813
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 1: falls to the consumer. The corporations pass that on to you,

814
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 1: and the people that are in their pocket do the

815
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: same thing. So right now, the main thing you and

816
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:10,920
Speaker 1: your loved ones, unfortunately have to do is read every

817
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:14,239
Speaker 1: ingredient label because, like you said earlier, Matt, not much

818
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 1: is going to change immediately. The research and the effects

819
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:19,719
Speaker 1: of this stuff will continue, but you're not going to

820
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:21,600
Speaker 1: see it leaving the market. And we're talking about this

821
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:24,120
Speaker 1: off air. I don't think it'll ever leave the market

822
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:27,880
Speaker 1: unless there's a legal ban on it unlikely at this point,

823
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:31,359
Speaker 1: or unless the public votes with their dollar and makes

824
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 1: it unprofitable to sell things with aspartame in them.

825
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:40,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you've got really powerful forces trying to ensure

826
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 2: none of that stuff ever happens, to make sure aspartame

827
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:48,360
Speaker 2: and neotame and saccharin and stevia and monk fruit and

828
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:53,240
Speaker 2: sucralose and cyclomide and pollols and all of those artificial

829
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 2: sweeteners remain on the market for all time and remain

830
00:50:56,840 --> 00:51:01,840
Speaker 2: popular and remain thought of pauseively by the American public

831
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:05,839
Speaker 2: and the international public because it is all a bottom line.

832
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:09,319
Speaker 2: It is all publicly traded money. It is all I'm

833
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,640
Speaker 2: just gonna say it. It's all lobbying money for massive

834
00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 2: manufacturers of these end products and these sweeteners that are

835
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 2: just saying, hey, we will give you money for your

836
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 2: election campaign if you, you know, side with us and

837
00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 2: protect us.

838
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 4: And the optics of it all is also very interesting

839
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:33,040
Speaker 4: because a lot of times companies will just rebrand something like,

840
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,840
Speaker 4: you know, Domino or whatever, the sugar company back to

841
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 4: big sugar. You know, they'll put out a product that

842
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,919
Speaker 4: looks like it's sort of like the craft beer that's

843
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:44,920
Speaker 4: actually put out by Anheuser Busch. Domino will put out

844
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:48,799
Speaker 4: a product that says like Urbinado sugar, all natural, and

845
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:50,839
Speaker 4: it's like a little bit more brown and it comes

846
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:53,279
Speaker 4: in like a plastic sea through thing instead of the

847
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:55,680
Speaker 4: big sugar bag. But then you look at the fine print,

848
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:58,879
Speaker 4: it's still the same company. And I would wonder if

849
00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:03,239
Speaker 4: some of these other sweet alternatives are also being There

850
00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:06,719
Speaker 4: are interests, you know in the larger you know, more

851
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:09,800
Speaker 4: more known legacy brands that are maybe trying to pivot

852
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:11,840
Speaker 4: and still hold out of that market share.

853
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, you know what I mean, like the

854
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:19,160
Speaker 1: idea we talk about this, the the illusion of diversity

855
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:22,879
Speaker 1: in branding. I mean, check out young foods odds are

856
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:25,319
Speaker 1: they own something that you thought was its own thing

857
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:27,440
Speaker 1: or young brands excuse me?

858
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 3: Uh?

859
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 1: And we see this in other industries. We see this

860
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:35,759
Speaker 1: in Blackwater or Academi or x. We see this in

861
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:44,239
Speaker 1: Exfinity or Comcast. It's a common tactic and there are Look,

862
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:47,040
Speaker 1: we we do know that there have long been rumors

863
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 1: and maybe you could even say outright conspiracy theories in

864
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 1: the pejorative sense about artificial sweeteners in general, aspertainment specific,

865
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 1: and a lot of those don't hold up this grutiny.

866
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:06,480
Speaker 1: But there's a grain of truth, there's a there's a

867
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:10,759
Speaker 1: daily required intake of truth in a lot of these things. Yes,

868
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:17,920
Speaker 1: Donald Rubsfeld was running gd Searle when when aspartain was discovered,

869
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: he wasn't in the lab that day, you know what

870
00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:24,120
Speaker 1: I mean, he wasn't slapping James around and being like

871
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:25,120
Speaker 1: make it sweeter.

872
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:30,319
Speaker 2: No, but he did get into the White House right

873
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 2: before Aspertain got approved to be put in SODA's And

874
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 2: the dude was literally from the company that made aspartame,

875
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,359
Speaker 2: and the president he was working for appointed a new

876
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:46,320
Speaker 2: guide to the FDA whose sole purpose was to deregulate everything.

877
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 1: See. And also there was this one conspiracy theory when

878
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:54,879
Speaker 1: he gave a shout to Skeptoid, which had a good

879
00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:58,239
Speaker 1: compilation of these there's one conspiracy theory. Then when you

880
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:00,560
Speaker 1: eat aspertame, you don't have to worry about the cancer.

881
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:02,879
Speaker 1: You have to worry about the fact that it transforms

882
00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:05,320
Speaker 1: into formaldehyde when you're in your body.

883
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:06,160
Speaker 3: Is that true?

884
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is true. Right, that is.

885
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:11,239
Speaker 1: True that I wanted to shout that out because it

886
00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: is true. But it's true. Whenever you digest methanol, your

887
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:20,839
Speaker 1: body naturally creates formaldehyde as a byproduct, a very very

888
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: small amount.

889
00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 3: Okay.

890
00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 4: So I was gonna ask, like, why don't you get

891
00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 4: like high, Like, isn't formaldehyde like a thing that people

892
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,200
Speaker 4: like abuse?

893
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:32,080
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly.

894
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 1: I I have heard that, I've seen it in films.

895
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:42,640
Speaker 3: Fluid is formaldehyde, right, Okay.

896
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:45,279
Speaker 1: I think traditionally there, and we have a lot of

897
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:49,239
Speaker 1: people in the funeral profession, so you can please do

898
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: right to us and tell us the difference here, uh,

899
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: and tell us if people really do smoke wet and

900
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:56,800
Speaker 1: if it means that, I thought it meant smoking cannabis,

901
00:54:56,880 --> 00:54:58,360
Speaker 1: least with formaldehyde.

902
00:54:58,400 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 3: And I just as soon as P.

903
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,520
Speaker 1: Is a PCP. Okay, here, let's figure it out.

904
00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 2: I think to get wet. I didn't know you like

905
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:07,960
Speaker 2: to get wet.

906
00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:14,960
Speaker 3: Oh, it could be smoking wet I believe is fromaldehyde.

907
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:19,800
Speaker 1: Smoking wet is uh can apply to any various fluids

908
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,600
Speaker 1: or additional substances added to a joint.

909
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 4: Okay, and a and a shirm stick is a joint

910
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,280
Speaker 4: embalming fluid. And there's actually a song by a rapper

911
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 4: named Jo Felony.

912
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:34,360
Speaker 3: Called sherm stick.

913
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:38,520
Speaker 2: No, just don't I don't smoke.

914
00:55:40,200 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a plot point. It was a plot

915
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 3: point in an episode of.

916
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 4: Six feet Under actually, because you know, obviously that show

917
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 4: revolves around a funeral home and one of Claire's ne'er

918
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 4: do well boyfriends steal some embalming fluid and the selling

919
00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:55,040
Speaker 4: joints laced with formaldehyde.

920
00:55:55,320 --> 00:56:00,360
Speaker 1: Good thing. Donald Rumsfeld was Champanee aspartame. What if he

921
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:03,840
Speaker 1: worked for a company that, you know, made it possible

922
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 1: to smoke wet What if he got in the White

923
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:08,440
Speaker 1: House and he was like, let's make sure more children

924
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 1: in high schools are smoking wet he would say smoking

925
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: wet cigarettes.

926
00:56:14,200 --> 00:56:17,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, disgusting. I wish you'd lay the blame on him.

927
00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 2: But it's literally a stakeholder to profit from a giant company,

928
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:26,400
Speaker 2: a drug company, a drug.

929
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:32,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and feel further away from the consequences, right, Like, Hey,

930
00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:35,680
Speaker 1: I'm just the savvy investor, you know what I mean.

931
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 1: Don't put this stuff on me. That's not my job. Yeah,

932
00:56:40,120 --> 00:56:44,040
Speaker 1: the formaldehyde thing is true, aspartain actually does this in

933
00:56:44,239 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 1: far smaller amounts and a lot of common foods. And

934
00:56:48,719 --> 00:56:50,480
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we say, is aspertain

935
00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 1: good for you?

936
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:51,720
Speaker 3: No?

937
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:55,760
Speaker 1: Not, especially is it definitely going to give you cancer? Well,

938
00:56:56,719 --> 00:57:02,840
Speaker 1: it's definitely linked to answers. And the US has repeatedly

939
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:06,520
Speaker 1: played fast and loose with consumer safety standards, you know

940
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:10,799
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like tobacco was just fine for a

941
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,600
Speaker 1: long long time, and so were fossil fuels et cetera,

942
00:57:14,640 --> 00:57:17,200
Speaker 1: et cetera. And there's a ton of money depending on

943
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 1: aspartame remaining legal. It doesn't necessarily mean there's a provable

944
00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:28,040
Speaker 1: point A to point B two point ce conspiracy afoot.

945
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:34,080
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of disturbing, circumstantial things. Is

946
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,919
Speaker 1: that fair to say? Is that too fair to say?

947
00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 2: This sole episode is too fair to Aspertain? Guys? Are

948
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:43,680
Speaker 2: you aware before we stop here? Are you aware of

949
00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:47,040
Speaker 2: something called the Calorie Control Council or the CCC.

950
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:49,960
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, they're your new favorite people, right man?

951
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm kno going to enlighten me.

952
00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 2: Okay, So head on over to Caloriecontrol dot org slash about.

953
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 2: That's probably a good place to start to learn about

954
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:05,480
Speaker 2: this group. It's a not for profit trade organization for

955
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:12,000
Speaker 2: manufacturers of artificial sweeteners. Primarily. They also support like fiber manufacturers.

956
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 2: I guess stuff you would buy that fiber and and

957
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:18,120
Speaker 2: other healthy sounding stuff sounds great. The Calorie can Control Council,

958
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:20,600
Speaker 2: they've been around for a long time again, going back

959
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:24,920
Speaker 2: to that diet craze the fifties and sixties before Aspertain

960
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:28,320
Speaker 2: became a thing. If you want to find out who, like,

961
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:32,320
Speaker 2: what companies, what individuals are members of this organization, good

962
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:35,800
Speaker 2: luck you can find it. It's just behind a password

963
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:40,320
Speaker 2: protected part of their website. There are some lists of

964
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:43,640
Speaker 2: you know, groups that are probably members that I've found online,

965
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:47,720
Speaker 2: but nothing that I could prove. It's a bit weird,

966
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:49,800
Speaker 2: but you could probably again you can guess right, it's

967
00:58:49,840 --> 00:58:53,920
Speaker 2: people that make stuff that is an artificial sweetener or

968
00:58:54,680 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 2: you know, products that have a lot of artificial sweeteners

969
00:58:57,160 --> 00:58:59,680
Speaker 2: in it. And you can get an idea from this

970
00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:03,040
Speaker 2: state from their website based on thorough reviews of the

971
00:59:03,080 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 2: scientific evidence. The Council supports the use and continued availability

972
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:13,160
Speaker 2: of that acyl fame, potassium aspartame, neotame, sacriin, stevia, sucrolos,

973
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:17,200
Speaker 2: monk fruit, advent tame which I've never heard of, cyclomate,

974
00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:22,840
Speaker 2: and polyols. So like all the different artificial sweeteners. They

975
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:27,280
Speaker 2: do provide a list of quote paid outside advisors who

976
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:31,200
Speaker 2: are all basically nutritionists who you know, make statements that

977
00:59:31,240 --> 00:59:36,720
Speaker 2: then they use essentially as PR And you know, nothing

978
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:40,760
Speaker 2: against PR organizations. We get it, everybody needs them. Trade organizations.

979
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 2: We've talked about those before in the past, getting together

980
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 2: and you know, putting out positive statements for the thing

981
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:51,760
Speaker 2: that you like that you make money on. The problem

982
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 2: is it seems like a pretty powerful group to me,

983
00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 2: that's been around for quite a while, that probably has

984
01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:03,840
Speaker 2: it's lobbying hands in a lot of different baskets. And

985
01:00:04,080 --> 01:00:07,160
Speaker 2: just from what we saw with a revolving doors situation

986
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 2: with Ronald Reagan's administration and Donald Rumsfeld and how Aspartame

987
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 2: got approved over the course of nineteen seventy four to

988
01:00:17,760 --> 01:00:22,080
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one, it just feels like this kind of stuff,

989
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:26,960
Speaker 2: it feels like it would be easy to get over

990
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:30,800
Speaker 2: on the American people and the public in general, the

991
01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:35,960
Speaker 2: international public in general, because you've got politically powerful people

992
01:00:36,040 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 2: inside organizations like this that can get in there and

993
01:00:39,560 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 2: run rough shot over the science basically because it becomes

994
01:00:43,600 --> 01:00:47,320
Speaker 2: a quote the science is out situation, or there are

995
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:53,080
Speaker 2: conflicting studies situation, or there's not enough information situation.

996
01:00:53,560 --> 01:01:00,280
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the Rand Way. To Rand has

997
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:05,600
Speaker 1: a formula it's called delta something for breaking up group

998
01:01:05,680 --> 01:01:13,200
Speaker 1: consensus and weaponizing social dynamics to prevent conversations from moving forward.

999
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 1: We also should point out that guys, this is the

1000
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:20,800
Speaker 1: biggest thing that people keep not talking about, and it

1001
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:24,560
Speaker 1: should be talked about more often. We said, pepsi and

1002
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:29,920
Speaker 1: Coca cola are on the American Beverage Association or yeah ABA.

1003
01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:34,360
Speaker 1: They're also members or corporate members of the Calorie Control Council.

1004
01:01:34,960 --> 01:01:38,280
Speaker 1: These people are on multiple boards. There are these entities,

1005
01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:42,400
Speaker 1: are multiple trade groups. It is rarefied air. There's a

1006
01:01:42,480 --> 01:01:47,280
Speaker 1: great deal of interlocking parts, so they can activate these

1007
01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:50,600
Speaker 1: different levers of power in a way that the public

1008
01:01:50,680 --> 01:01:54,480
Speaker 1: often will not hear about. By design. There's a reason

1009
01:01:54,840 --> 01:01:57,600
Speaker 1: that show that came out several years ago, K Street,

1010
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 1: which was all about lobbying. K Street was canceled, not

1011
01:02:01,920 --> 01:02:07,080
Speaker 1: because it was a bad show, but because members of Washington,

1012
01:02:07,160 --> 01:02:12,600
Speaker 1: DC's inside crew got it canceled. It was skirting a

1013
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:14,080
Speaker 1: little too close to the truth.

1014
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:17,160
Speaker 2: It's too real, man, it's too real, just like this

1015
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:22,320
Speaker 2: statement from the Calorie Control Councils about website ready quote.

1016
01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 2: From time to time, the Council has sponsored studies on

1017
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:31,080
Speaker 2: low and reduced calorie ingredients, foods and beverages, including ingredient safety,

1018
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:35,240
Speaker 2: consumer usage, and public opinion, which means it's running some

1019
01:02:35,360 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 2: of its own tests or studies that then it would

1020
01:02:38,040 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 2: use in some pr to get you and other media

1021
01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:44,600
Speaker 2: organizations to think a certain way about a certain substance.

1022
01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:48,360
Speaker 1: I just don't like it, and no one on the

1023
01:02:48,440 --> 01:02:52,440
Speaker 1: board is there to be a contrarian. There's no one

1024
01:02:52,480 --> 01:02:54,360
Speaker 1: on the board who says, you know, my job is

1025
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:57,960
Speaker 1: to point out when this stuff doesn't seem legit, that

1026
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:00,440
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense, and we have to be aware of that.

1027
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:04,080
Speaker 1: And at this point we want to be aware of

1028
01:03:04,160 --> 01:03:07,439
Speaker 1: your thoughts. What do you think, folks? We can't wait

1029
01:03:07,800 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 1: to hear what's on your mind just about this, but

1030
01:03:10,680 --> 01:03:15,120
Speaker 1: about other food additives. Shout out to previous work on sugar.

1031
01:03:15,440 --> 01:03:20,960
Speaker 1: Check out our chocolate episode episodes, brominated vegetable oil. That's

1032
01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:26,040
Speaker 1: another one, and the hits keep coming because check out

1033
01:03:26,120 --> 01:03:31,120
Speaker 1: where we ruin seafood. We want to know what you

1034
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:35,080
Speaker 1: think can be done, what should be done, what's another

1035
01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: food cover up that you believe is out there in

1036
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:40,400
Speaker 1: the world right now. We try to be easy to

1037
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:41,400
Speaker 1: find online.

1038
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:42,479
Speaker 3: We do.

1039
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:45,360
Speaker 4: You can find this at the Handloo Conspiracy Stuff Show

1040
01:03:45,680 --> 01:03:49,840
Speaker 4: on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook where we have our Facebook group.

1041
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:52,560
Speaker 4: Here's where it gets crazy that you can join and

1042
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:56,520
Speaker 4: hang out with your fellow conspiracy realists. We're also Conspiracy

1043
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:59,560
Speaker 4: Stuff Show on Instagram and TikTok.

1044
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:01,840
Speaker 2: Hey do you want to call us? Our number is

1045
01:04:01,880 --> 01:04:07,320
Speaker 2: one eight, three three stdwytk. It's a voicemail system. You

1046
01:04:07,320 --> 01:04:10,000
Speaker 2: can talk directly to us for three minutes. All you

1047
01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:12,720
Speaker 2: need to do is give us a cool nickname and

1048
01:04:12,800 --> 01:04:14,320
Speaker 2: let us know if we can use your voice and

1049
01:04:14,360 --> 01:04:17,320
Speaker 2: message on the air. It's that simple. If you want

1050
01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:21,280
Speaker 2: to send us links to articles, or really anything at all,

1051
01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:23,840
Speaker 2: why not send us a good old fashioned email.

1052
01:04:24,040 --> 01:04:45,920
Speaker 1: We are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1053
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:48,160
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

1054
01:04:48,280 --> 01:04:52,800
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1055
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:56,000
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.