Soda Popping-off Saving the benzene for the Benz Between the sugar and coloring agents in most soda and the artificial sweeteners in "diet" varieties, there's plenty in pop to pop off about. And as some of you may know, I've been doing just that for a long time… But one soda ingredient I didn't think I'd ever be sounding the alarm about is benzene! For those of you who don't know, benzene is a flammable petroleum (crude oil) distillate, a key component of many solvents, cleaners-and yes, gasoline too. It's also used in the making of plastics and rubber. Last but not least, benzene is a known carcinogen, linked strongly to blood cancer and leukemia in humans. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? Maybe if you're a car… Yet cancer-causing benzene is exactly what's been recently discovered in large quantities of soda-pop in Britain. According to the UK's Times Online, 26 different soda products from various manufacturers have been pulled from the shelves of several market chains because of unsafe levels of the compound. What are unsafe levels? Well if you ask me, ANY of the stuff's unsafe. But according to Britain's Food Standards Agency (acting under guidance from the World Health Organization), acceptable levels of benzene in soft drinks should be no higher than what's considered safe in drinking water: 1 part per billion (ppb). At least one of the soda drinks yanked from shelves last month tested at 36 TIMES this limit. Others tested at still-high 28ppb and 17ppb levels. Currently, there is no legal limit for the amount of benzene in drinks other than water in the UK. That makes this somewhat uncharted waters for the FSA. They de-shelved these drinks under existing WHO benzene guidelines-which technically have no legal jurisdiction in the EU. According to the Times piece, both the soft drink industry and the FSA have known about excessive levels of benzene in their products for 15 years or more… Perhaps now that this soda scandal is world news, the FSA and other EU regulatory bodies will pass regulations about benzene, and force beverage industry compliance. Interestingly enough, the action was sparked by the discovery of benzene in several drink varieties in the U.S., including one major household-name brand of diet soda. I won't say which, in the hopes you'll avoid them ALL just to be on the safe side. And safer you'd be, too, despite the results of a new study on aspartame (NutraSweet) risks. Keep reading… I've written before about the risks of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. Back in September of 2004, I covered the subject at length in both the Daily Dose and in my newsletter. At that time, I reported on research demonstrating aspartame's link to cancer and other disease - and on a study showing how it can lead to the very thing it aims to curb: Excessive calorie consumption… In other words, no matter how you look at it, aspartame's bad news in my book. But leave it to the Feds to conclude the exact opposite of what lots of REAL scientists and open-minded doctors already know. According to an Associated Press article from just days ago, a 5-year National Cancer Institute study of more than half a million Americans of both sexes revealed no discernible correlation between aspartame consumption and an increased risk of cancer of any type. This, despite a 2005 Italian study of 1800 lab animals which showed troubling increases in rates of leukemia and lymphoma among those fed aspartame, especially the females… For the record, I'm not flummoxed in the least by the results of this federal study. I've been subscribing to the "rule of opposites" for years when it comes to most government research. If they say something's bad for you, it's likely a tonic - if they say something is good (the Food Pyramid and the 8 daily glasses of water comes immediately to mind), I say: Run the other way. After all, the FDA is another government agency that conducts and reviews research, and they're giving deadly drugs like Vioxx the thumbs-up all the time… If they came out and said aspartame was bad, I might just have to take up drinking it! Dishing the hard news about soft drinks, William Campbell Douglass II, MD
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