Lunch.
@linux Health reasons. Okay, nachos aren't a health food, but why make it worse? I drink way too much soda, so I'd get extremely fat if it all had sugar in it.
@linux I know about the controversy. I'm not convinced that 10% sugar in a coke is safer than 0.05% aspartame. Aspartame doesn't elevate my blood glucose. Consuming any kind of sugar does elevate it. Complex carbohydrates elevate it gently. In my experience, anything that elevates your glucose is going to make you gain weight, because it prompts the pancreas to release insulin, which tells your fat cells to gobble up all the glucose (gain weight).
@linux There is another metabolic pathway for weight gain via triglycerides (fat). I can't imagine that aspartame would be metabolised via that. We are then left with behavioural changes triggered by the consumption of artifical sweeteners, and your behaviour is something you can monitor and control. As far as I can tell, I am not craving the sweet taste of soda. However, water and sparkly water taste a bit harsh to me. I need a bit of flavour.
@linux I often drink vitamin water or scented water instead of soda. It's absolutely fine. I like liquids so long as they quench my thirst and aren't water, basically. Aspartame hasn't been banned in Europe, but I'm sure it took longer to approve. Europe always waits longer before approving new food additives. America is a useful guinea pig in that respect. The food safety authority in my country is independent of the EU one, and they have approved it too, so I'm not worried.
@linux So long as quitting soda completely isn't an option for me, I'm going to continue to prefer a sweetener that seems safe enough (aspartame) over one that I know is bad for me personally (sugar).
@linux None of those sites strike me as reputable sources. Here is what a site I do trust has to say about it:
Believing that aspartame is only legal in Norway because it's a NATO country borders on being a conspiracy theory. It doesn't truly matter how it became legal in the United States. They keep checking it over and over.
@linux I consume a number of substances that don't parichlarly promote good health, but don't outright make me sick either.
I am always highly skeptical of studies that claim that aspartame causes weight gain. It seems infinitely more likely to me that the opposite is true: Weight gain causes aspartame to be consumed, and it doesnt help you lose weight, but neither does water. If you drink water, you're likely to replace the calories from soda with other calories later.
They are all bad, processed sugar, aspartame, fluoride.. The doctors cannot possibly share the truth while on duty, or they'd be put aside. Just sayin'.
I hear NOR is also a NATO country, US influence is inevitable according to people who lived there.
Here are couple of links more if you will.
http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html
https://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/01/19/the-shocking-story-of-how-aspartame-became-legal/