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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> One is methanol and I 
> can't remember what the other two are, but one of them interferes with the 
> metabolism of sugar.

Aspartame consists of one molecule each of the amino acids phenylalanine and 
aspartic acid joined together by a molecule of methanol.  Aspartame breaks 
down into these three constituent molecules.  Aspartame breaks down in 
digestion 
immediately when you drink it, so it's really little odds whether it broke 
down in the soda can or in your stomach (or intestines).  The result is 
exactly 
the same.

The thing of concern is the methanol.   What isn't well realized by most is 
that the human body has a complex system of chemical "channels" to handle all 
sorts of things.  Small traces of the ghastliest things are present in your 
food, even the most organic and home grown.  There are traces of lead, 
arsenic, 
mercury that naturally occur and you body knows it and is prepared to deal 
with 
it.  Same with all the various alcohols such as methanol.  It occurs 
naturally in tiny amounts.  A normal diet will contain around 10 mg of 
methanol a day. 
   A can of diet soda has about 20 mg.

And yet methanol itself isn't very toxic, it's what happens to it in your 
liver that is of concern.  The liver wants to break it down into 
carbondioxide 
and water:   But in the enzymatic steps to get there, it becomes first 
formaldehyde and then formic acid, both of which are much more toxic than the 
methanol 
itself.  It is the formic acid that is damaging to the optic nerve, not the 
methanol itself.

Another effect of diet sodas is that it seems the endocrine system not only 
responds to the chemicals in food and drink, but also to the mind's 
perception 
of sweetness.  If you eat something that tastes sweet, the body in some ways 
reacts to it the same as if it had actually been sweet.  Aspartame and the 
like 
might be making the diabetes even worse!

I don't understand the fascination over the ghastly stuff.  It seems weaning 
oneself off sweet drinks would make more sense than downing the horrid things 
to begin with.  Taste is a matter of infinate variability.  Before I largely 
gave up sodas of all types, when I'd drink sugared sodas for a while and have 
a 
diet one, it would taste like drinking chemicals.  When I'd drink diet ones 
for a while and have a sugared one, it would taste like trying to drink a 
bottle of Kayro syrup.  Since our taste are so easily bent and jaded, why not 
develop a taste for water and unsweetened herbal teas?  You can vary your 
tastes 
but you can't vary your chemistry.

Also I always say to dig a little to get at the chemistry that's going on.  
Someone mentioned in some thread here or the other a few days ago about 
dioxins.  I remember attending an organic grower's conference years back 
where they 
were discussing tomato blight and the recomendation came up to dip the tomato 
stakes in a Clorox solution after use to prevent carrying over the blight and 
other pathogens.   Several of the attendees and the speaker rended their 
clothing and heaped ashes on their heads at the mention of chlorine bleach.  
Don't 
you know it forms DIOXINS!   NEVER use chlorine bleach.

In fact it doesn't.  Dioxins are formed from very high concentrations of 
chlorine bleaching compounds at very high temperatures such as in the paper 
bleaching process.  Homestead use of a little chlorine bleach results in 
little more 
than some chlorine gas being given off.  

My point being that we mustn't hear the words chlorine bleach and dioxins 
used in the same sentence somewhere and go about bouncing off the walls with 
only 
that bit of misinformation.