Why do they do this!! - Page 2

cheriton · #16 3rd Apr 08, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almost_no_specifics

Oh and whilst in my search of whether glucose has a sweet taste I came across this: it says we have taste buds in our intestines... how ace is that??

Natural sugars and artificial sweeteners are sensed by receptors in taste buds. T2R bitter and T1R sweet taste receptors are coupled through G-proteins, alpha-gustducin and transducin, to activate phospholipase C beta2 and increase intracellular calcium concentration. Intestinal brush cells or solitary chemosensory cells (SCCs) have a structure similar to lingual taste cells and strongly express alpha-gustducin. It has therefore been suggested over the last decade that brush cells may participate in sugar sensing by a mechanism analogous to that in taste buds. We provide here functional evidence for an intestinal sensing system based on lingual taste receptors. Western blotting and immunocytochemistry revealed that all T1R members are expressed in rat jejunum at strategic locations including Paneth cells, SCCs or the apical membrane of enterocytes; T1Rs are colocalized with each other and with alpha-gustducin, transducin or phospholipase C beta2 to different extents. Intestinal glucose absorption consists of two components: one is classical active Na+-glucose cotransport, the other is the diffusive apical GLUT2 pathway. Artificial sweeteners increase glucose absorption in the order acesulfame potassium approximately sucralose > saccharin, in parallel with their ability to increase intracellular calcium concentration. Stimulation occurs within minutes by an increase in apical GLUT2, which correlates with reciprocal regulation of T1R2, T1R3 and alpha-gustducin versus T1R1, transducin and phospholipase C beta2. Our observation that artificial sweeteners are nutritionally active, because they can signal to a functional taste reception system to increase sugar absorption during a meal, has wide implications for nutrient sensing and nutrition in the treatment of obesity and diabetes.

Oh the joys of being on the uni network and getting free access to scientific journals. I should probably be reading up on my own reasearch interest heh.

Oh and take note of this bit "Artificial sweeteners increase glucose absorption in the order acesulfame potassium approximately sucralose > saccharin" that would answer rich's questions. Obviously they've developed these drinks for fast carb uptake with artificial sweetners for a reason! You can't have it both ways I guess.

Ithought that was the case i just didn't know how to put it into words

Owain · #17 4th Apr 08, 09:05 AM

oh well, bananas and water will have to do me

O.

Katten · #18 4th Apr 08, 09:30 AM

No doubt there are some additive-free sports drinks out there, if anyone finds one, let me know!

Can't hurt to fire off an e-mail to Lucozade either; if enough people do it they will do something, maybe release an additive free "healthy" version or something. A lot of people don't like / want to drink aspartame, particularly their target market of healthy people I imagine, so they will watch out for their consumers if they have any sense.

Slowsteve · #19 4th Apr 08, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardsimkiss

It means your thick, thicko

Thanks Richard. That's what I suspected all along

**richardsimkiss** · #20 4th Apr 08, 10:04 AM

Lol... you can just imagine that on the shelf... Lucozade Sport... or Lucozade Sport "Healthy"... which would I choose?

At the end of the day, they're a business out to make as much money as possible. It'll cost a great deal to launch a new drink, and they're unlikely to release a product that doesn't deliver the same performance enhancing properties and costs them more!

Sadly I think we (those who take interest in what sweeteners & additives are used) are in the minority, and most simply trust the brand to provide a healthy drink as after all "it's a sports drink, it MUST be healthy!"

Owain · #21 4th Apr 08, 10:46 AM

Ye, I know what you mean by people trusting the brand.

You look at kids drinks which are sugar free and they are sugar free but full of additives and artificial sweetners.

I might just send an email to Lucozade and if anyone else is interest I could post it on here so if you feel strongly enough about it you can send the email too.

O.

jon · #22 4th Apr 08, 11:05 AM

Good idea, Owain!!!

I'll definitely support your request.

I'm on holidays in Spain, I went for some low-fat yoghurt and ALL of them had artificial sweeteners

So I bought normal yoghurt WITH sugar, anything to avoid

aspartame

Owain · #23 4th Apr 08, 11:19 AM

Just went to the Lucozade Sport website and its broken

My mission has start well, if people can't access the website, they can't look at their products lol.

I will get a contact address for them when it comes back online.

O.

almost_no_specifics · #24 4th Apr 08, 11:37 AM

Well all I can say it that a lot of people who are stupidly serious about their sports seem to have an insanely unhealthy diet, and eat purely to get the energy they need to do their runs and what not - some people live on not much more than sports bars and energy drinks! SO... given the choice of the original sports formula which can increase your performance by 33% because it DOES have the aspartame which according to science increases glucose metabolism, and increasing your performance by 15% with the *healthy* sports formula... which do you think these people will choose?

I won't be joining you in your campaign, I get what you're worried about and everything, and it's fair enough, y'know respect and all... but personally I think people make waaaay too much of a bother about it, as a geneticist I can tell you there are a hundred and one other things that are more worrying about a possible carcinogen than artificial sweetners, for example pollutants in the air, and not even carcinogens but hormone analogs (which might have some role in breast cancer, but mostly in development issues, especially in males) that can be found in plastics, tin cans, toothpaste, wine!!... it's everywhere... so unless you go live in a tent in the middle of iceland... you can't escape it, so there's no point worrying about it.

At the end of the day you can choose to not drink lucozade sport... so obviously stand by your principles, I respect that... but there are additive free, organic sports drinks/nutrition brands... last time I was looking for a new gel I found one... I'll go find it again...

Nope, can't find it - I remember what the website looks like, but for the life of me I can't find it again at all!

jon · #25 4th Apr 08, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almost_no_specifics

as a geneticist I can tell you there are a hundred and one other things that are more worrying about a possible carcinogen than artificial sweetners, for example pollutants in the air

I'm sure you're right, a_n_s, but I find it very annoying

that we keep adding new stuff to this carcinogen list... aspartame is EVERYWHERE now

Obviously I had no idea it can help your performance, in any case this must be the exception of aspartame having any benefit, am I right? What I mean is that I am quite worried about how food marketing can sell us the idea that sugar is bad for you and substitute it with something far worse, with everyone thinking: mmm... let's eat healthy: sugarfree!

And small efforts, like e-mailing a company, CAN make a difference. Well, we need to believe so, what other choice do we have

Not sure if I made my point...

jon · #26 4th Apr 08, 12:12 PM

Besides I HATE its taste

almost_no_specifics · #27 4th Apr 08, 12:20 PM

No I totally totally get what you're saying, I mean I make an effort with all my food in general to stay clear of additives, thus why I cook all my meals from scratch, etc, etc, of course it's worrying! BUT for such a small part of my "diet" I just don't see it as a huge effort (sports drinks I mean! I'm going to look into this aspartame thing, I'll read the papers, see what studies they've actually done, what amounts were used... etc etc... obviously right now I don't know jack about it... but yeah of course if people have a problem the only way anything can be changed is to do something about it - so that's fine... I personally have no issue.

Anyway it is a pain in the arse that there's an ever-growing list of things to be worried about, but of course this is because we're getting better equipped at detecting these things... HOWEVER life is killing you... everything you eat has the potential to create an adduct with your DNA (active metabolites), and possibly cause a mutation, and it's mutations afterall that cause cancer... but cancer is a disease of ageing in general - our bodies have some very very good mechanisms to mop up all this damaged DNA... but obviously at some point y'know they don't become saturated, but some of the mechanisms are actually error-prone in themself... so through time you accumulate more mutations (oxygen does this too, in a different kind of way, thus the being alive killing you thing)... and eventually there might be the wrong mutation in the wrong gene...

I know this is a bit morbid and frightening... but please, don't be frightened... this is life... and personally I find that knowing about all the frightening stuff isn't a bad thing - makes me appreciate life and what part of it left I have!

An example of why a lot of people don't care about these things to the dentriment of their health: UV sunbeds. People know the risks, it's very very very well known... and yet they still do it... all for aethetics.

Owain · #28 4th Apr 08, 12:34 PM

I totally get what you mean and I will be on the sure for the organic sports drinks myself. Lucozade are only one of the many companies who use Aspartame and its not just in sports drinks. Fair enough they may argue the point that it increases sports performance by why does a childs drink require aspartame, why do lemonade require aspartame, chewing gum has it and thousands of other brands use it so they can advertise "Sugar-Free".
I would prefer to have the sugar rather than the Aspartame but Im not worrying about it, I would just like the choice of having a drink or some food without it.

O.

almost_no_specifics · #29 4th Apr 08, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Owain

why does a childs drink require aspartame, why do lemonade require aspartame, chewing gum has it and thousands of other brands use it so they can advertise "Sugar-Free".

Because parents complained that sugary foods were ruining kids teeth, and making them fat. Dieters complained about sugar in foods... people who had no self-control who wanted to eat chocolate and not get fat complained...

Companies started using these things and making "healthier options" because it's what the consumer demanded. Obviously we should have demanded originally that there not be an asterisk with a disclaimer about the actual health benefits. Life is all about balancing pros and cons though. But A LOT of things now advertise as being "additive-free", so there is a change. I suppose in that respect if you feel strongly enough you really should get on to GSK about their lucozade.

Owain · #30 4th Apr 08, 12:50 PM

Found some energy drinks which are healther

http://www.fluidforce.co.uk/product_...?product_id=49
http://www.knudsenjuices.com/product...&categoryID=56 (seems to be american though)

My girlfriend's sister also runs an organic shop / farm so I will speak to her this weekend.

O.