Hamburger patties in brown gravy, mashed potatoes, beans and salad. Now I am in trouble. I NEED TO GO TO THE GROCERY STORE NOOOOOOO . Does anybody have the same problem I am having?? Are your food prices going up and up too?

Stevia? Where do you get it? How much does it cost? Will food stamps pay for it? And if it's natural, it's probably more expensive than filet mignon, so that would say I can't afford to read the label.

Careful...some of us don't react well to Stevia.

it's not an urban legend. some of the artificial sweeteners convert to formaldehyde in your system. would you like me to look it up and present the data? because it is true.

yes, dot i have the same problem. prices going up and up. at the small market i go to, the store brand stuff went up 35 cents overall on everything.

LJ - You have a hole in your head???

Regarding aspartame (the artificial sweetener in Diet Coke) and neurological disorders/brain diseases...

The evidence is inconclusive at this time. Some animal studies have shown a health risk, enough to raise concerns and debate (Lean ME, Aspartame and its effects on health, British Medical Journal, 2004, 329(7469):755-756)(Zehetner A, Aspartame and the internet, The Lancet, 1999, 354(9172):78)(Abdo KM, Letter to U.S. FDA commissioner. Questions about the safety of the artificial sweetener aspartame, 2007, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2007, 13(4):449-450).

Some early studies showed a possible link between aspartame consumption and brain tumors (Olney JW, Increasing brain tumor rates: is there a link to aspartame?, Jornal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 1996, 55(11):1115-1123) (Gurney JG, Aspartame consumption in relation to childhood brain tumor risk: results from a case-control study, 1997, 89(14):1072-1074). These studies were quite small. More recently, a major study by the National Institutes of Health did not find any link between aspartame consumption and brain cancer (Lim U, Consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and incidence of hematopoietic and brain malignancies, Cancer Epidemiology and Biomarkers Prevention, 2006, 15(9):1654-1659).

Bottom line: For brain tumors, there does not appear to be a link, but for general neurological disorders, there might be, but the jury is still out.

Personally, as a diabetic, I will occasionally drink a Diet Coke (e.g., in social situations), but most of the time I stick to water, plain old tap water, not bottled water, since there is no convincing epidemiologic evidence to support that bottled water is any healthier than (good) tap water but that's another debate for another time.

Harvey

Your friendly neighborhood public health statistician