The real thing
Turns out when you’re talking about Diet Coke the real thing in question is Sodium Benzoate (it travels on its shiny label on plastic bottles under the pseudonym 211). Last year British research linked sodium benozoate to cell damage:
“These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.
“The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.”
E211 has also been linked to hyperactivity in children. (Who would have thunk that of coke?)
So, get this, Coca Cola, in its socially responsible corporate manner, began phasing out sodium benzoate from its production line.
But only in Britain.
Coca Cola told the Herald Sun there were no plans to change the formulation of the popular drink in Australia.
“The use of food additives is strictly regulated under Australian law,” it stated.
“All of the ingredients used in products of The Coca-Cola Company are safe and approved for use by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand.”
And because FSANZ is involved that includes us as well.
So, a question for Coke – what is different about British people and Australasians that means it is no longer advisable for them to drink sodium benzoate, but it’s still okay for us? (Clue, the appropriate answer is probably not ‘cell damage’)
Hat tip: Food Democracy
June 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
FFS!
Why not just produce a Green approved list of foods that the great unwashed are allowed to eat.
Is there any part of MY life that you lot do not want to control?
June 25th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I wouldn’t drink Diet Coke if you paid me. Classic tastes much better.
>>what is different about British people
I think you’ll find it isn’t so much the people, as the regulatory environment. Some regulators make silly decisions, and having lived in Britain for many years, I found they very often make silly decisions.
Slightly more so than here, in fact….
June 25th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
>>Is there any part of MY life that you lot do not want to control?
A post in another thread seems to suggest they even want to control our bowel movements….
June 25th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
BB, you could order some lead paint from China if you really want…it improves performance.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Lynne Serpe, where are when we need you?
Sorry, folks it’s an in-house Green joke that only about 10 people ibn the whole country will get, but Nandor, Sue B, Keith & Metiria will understand.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Stephen
Cheers, and you can use the last of my 245T should you have any weeds that you want to get rid of, the stuff is fantastic at getting rid of gorse.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Mmph, my point was that dangerous substances being banned usually = good e.g. hope you’re enjoying not having to breathe in lead from cars any more, but if you really hate having your life controlled like that, maybe start up a campaign?
June 25th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
lynne serpe would be helping nader try to stop obama from being elected about now..?..
wouldn’t she..?
(make that 11 people..toad..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
and..(ahem..!..)..
if we are hearkening back to the auckland election campaign lyne serpe and richard green were paid to ‘run’..
anyone who was there knows that they spent most of their time emailing each other..squabbling..
..and that i was the one who actually kept on top of all the practical stuff..
(with the help of other volunteers..bless them..!..)
that i was the person people ‘came to’..
..we all learnt to leave serpe and green..to email..and have ‘meetings’..
..and squabble..
(they are both very good at all of them..)
between those emails/meetings/late starts/early finishes..
..there wasn’t a lot of time left in each day..
eh..?
aah..!..the memories flood back..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
philu said: (make that 11 people..toad..)
Okay, forgot about you Phil - 11 then.
Mind you, you’re excommunicated!
June 25th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
heh..!
but i can have more effect out here..than i ever had in there..
eh..?
being beholden to nobody is a definite freedom..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
and i get to present my arguments..etc..
without them just disappearing into the ether/washing up on barren/indifferent /carnivorous shores….
eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
philu said: and i get to present my arguments..etc.. without them just disappearing into the ether…
Might be a good reason to step up the moderation, frog.
Just joking, philu, I would never want to censor you, but as someone who supposedly supports Green principles, you don’t help to achieve them in practice.
Slagging off Russel Norman, Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty on blogs is really not going to get there. If you have disagreements with the political strategy, email or phone them about it.
If you support Green principles, try to work with Greens, rather than alienate some of the key Green spokespeople, which is what you are doing.
Being Green is about trying to cooperate on areas of mutual political interest, even though there may be significantly greater areas of political disagreement. You take a fundamentalist approach Phil - it’s time to lighten up and accept that the Green Party has room for diversity of opinion, rather than has to follow fundamentalist doctrine as set out by vegan “Bishop” Phil.
You don’t have to agre with every policy to be on the train!
June 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Now I get it…
Being Green means towing the party line irrespective of your personal thoughts or ideals.
Tell me Toad, this “train” you talk about, given that the first fifteen carriages are full of hard left “social justice” issues do you think that there will ever be a time where you can see a few Green issues being shunted to the front?
June 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Test
June 25th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
“Slagging off Russel Norman, Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty”
Is about all they are good for.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Oh, BB, I had such hope for you! You were gettingthere a few weeks ago.
But seems you are descending again into personal attack, rather than logical argument based on evidence.
You are not dad4justice, you have the intellectual capacity to put up a rational argument based on evidence, so why not do so instead of posting ad hominem nonsense like this?
June 25th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
toad said..
“..Mind you, you’re excommunicated!..”
(do you have short-term memory issues there..?..toad..?
it was only a coupleof comments ago..
and sorta renders your last comment somewhat irrelevant..eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I understand it is a matter of your personal behaviour, rather than anything to do with policy, Phil!
Although your (commended, because it is the most ecologically sustainable) position re veganism is not a runner - yet.
That way we would be a 1% party (effectively just a pressure group rather than political party), and have no opportunity to make political changes in the intersts of ecological sustainability or social justice.
I cannot see why you won’t come on board and say to Russel & Sue and Catherine and whoever else in the Green Party you may have a problem with “Let’s put this in the past. We will never agree on everything, but I will abide by the Party’s democratic processes, and accept the outcomes.
That way, you could contribute to the greening of Aotearoa New Zealand, Phil. But maybe your ego is too big for that - you have to know best, all the time!
It is your attitude, rather than your politics, that annoys most Greens who have talked to me re you
June 25th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
gee..!..teachers said that too..
“you’ve got a bad attitude..!”
and what exactly was that ‘personal behaviour..?
do tell..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
and toad..it is for my politics/for the animals i do all this stuff..
nothing more..nothing less..
it’s never been a popularity contest for me..
i consider it my role to challenge/question the ‘accepted-horrors’ of our time..
and that offends a lot of people..the majority..the carnivores/flesh-addicts..
and when/if the task at hand seems too much at times..
i just recall those who were ridiculed/attacked for daring to challenge the economic paradigm of slavery..
and i can draw on the strength/power of being feckin’ ‘right’..
as how we treat/eat/exploit living/sentient beings..is the slavery of our times..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
and hey..!..i don’t reckon you could look at my work on whoar..and kiwiblog..
..and say i’m not marching in sorta the same direction..
June 25th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Phil - I support moving to NZers eating less (and eventually no) meat. I suspect most Greens do - I’m sure we all agree that a vegan or vegitarian diet is the one that is the best for the planet.
Problem I have with your approach is this (quoting philu):
So, Phil, we have to move people on gradually. Imposing veganism by law will piss off a lot of Greens personally, as well as having huge economic and political significance in a country with a strong animal farming tradition, thereby making the Greens unelectable.
We need to put the arguments to the public, rather than take a “holier than thou” attitude.
I am proud to be Green, but the last thing we need is a Taliban green-equivalent here!
June 25th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
“..So, Phil, we have to move people on gradually…”
well..you see..you are presenting the incrementalist argument/ethos..
(what some would say has ailed the green party these last nine years..)
whereas i lean towards a more radical/challenging/questioning of the current ‘givens’..
“.. Imposing veganism by law will piss off a lot of Greens personally, as well as having huge economic and political significance in a country with a strong animal farming tradition, thereby making the Greens unelectable..”
i have never said/advocated that…
to me it’s a more a matter of education/dragging the realities/consequences of peoples ‘fancy’ to eat meat..in front of their eyes..
and in the meantime..
to do something about the vile conditions this flesh is raised in/the inhumane way living/feeling/sentient beings are treated..
(our ‘conditions’ are some of the worst in the ‘civilised’ word..)
and to stop the farmers from continuing to poison our country..with their farm run-offs..cowsh*t etc..
i am cheered by the as yet unpublicised study at auckland university that proves the health link betwen the enormous amounts of dairy most of us eat..
and the staggeringly high amounts of ‘thick-blood’ deaths we see..
it is knowledge/awareness like this that will bring about sea-changes..
..not ‘taliban’ action..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 25th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
The topic was coca cola people! (and not banning it as initial comments suggested - just asking why British coke should be different from NZ coke)
June 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Phil u - i don’t disagree with anything you have posted above.
So why don’t you support the Greens, rather than attacking them? We all have the same objectives Phil. Just that you want to unilaterally impose things that most NZers will not yet support - and take pot-shots at Green MPs for their not backing you.
If you really want a Green future, Phil, there is only one Party the will deliver - and that is the Greens.
With a bit of effort to reconcile with those you’ve upset by laneling, and in the interests of constructive engagement, you could be part of the greening process - rather than being on the outside of the tent, pissing in!
June 25th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I for one will be stopping drinking diet coke, provided I can survive the caffeine withdrawl headaches.
This raises the much wider topic of food additives. What is good, and what is not good? The general public cannot be expected to research every single thing added to food, so we need an authority which we can trust will ensure no (known) dangerous things are added. Do we trust FSANZ (I don’t know the answer to this one, but I have seen FSANZ criticised a number of times on food safety issues)?
June 26th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Perhaps we should place a tax/fee on these food additives to pay for the medic expenses. Funny how people say “I buy coke because its cheaper than milk” hahaha, so what cow poop is cheaper than both.
All food products sold in NZ should have to have a webpage which tells me what exactly is in it and where it comes from, and even what chemicals were used in the growth of it. Big business is getting away with far too much.
Like chickens, they should have to put a photo of where the chicken lived on the egg packet.
As for caffeine I drunk a large amount of fresh ground coffee in the morning, not only good for you, once you kill its poison with milk (another poison) but also the smell of it makes you less tired.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:20 am
toad..!
“..Mind you, you’re excommunicated!..”
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
“..As for caffeine I drunk a large amount of fresh ground coffee in the morning,.”
is that what makes you ek-stat-ek..?
and hey..i think the ‘large amount’ you consume would have more to do with stopping you feeling ‘tired’..
eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Big Bro’s post that read, ‘test’ was the best he’s ever written!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:29 am
and as we talked about serpe/nader last nite..
..this is relevant..
http://whoar.co.nz/2008/reason-number-53-why-ralph-nader-should-just-p iss-off/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
June 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Karma being what it is, I had just cracked a can of Diet Coke and then bumped into this topic.
So, whats the difference between “our” coke and “Brit” coke?
Well, ours tastes better of course, as it has more nasty chemicals in it
Continuing to drink DC…
June 26th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
C’mon this is plain scaremongering the uneducated.
Sodium Benzoate is a naturally occurring preservative and has been tested thoroughly on animals, with no or minimal effects at ultra-high doses, as have all food grade chemicals.
Why use it? Well, the problem with having no preservatives in foods is that they spoil, and people get sick and die, basically. There is a convenience aspect too- the delivery chains for modern food products are long and complex.
The UK tests linking it to hyperactivity were flawed- basically they mixed a whole bunch of colourings with Sodium Benzoate as a preservative, then gave large doses, recorded wildly inconsistent results, then published it as Sodium Benzoate is evil!
While it is interesting that CC is removing it in the UK, I suspect they’ll just put in another preservative that the green movement hasn’t been able to spell yet.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
On the contrary Toad: it is criticism of people such as Sue Bradford which will open the door for the Greens to focus more on the issues and methods that would lead to a doubling of their support base.
Phil u might struggle to string a sentence together, but his criticisms are still worth debating (except that I enjoy meat).
Anyway, getting back to the coke thing…it is sad that we have failed to identify the ongoing damage being done to young, developing brains through exposure to unbalanced, chemicalised, and/or highly refined “food/recreational products/substances.
I never did understand why the Greens supported Nandors marijuana fixation.