consumer warning! media ignorance causes ranting behavior in bloggers!

An important news release from autodescribed authorities in a highly-respected ivory-tower institution has proclaimed ... the same old bullshit!!!

grrrr....

Use of "artificial sweeteners" (funny, that ingredient NEVER appears on labels, though i often see aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, acesulfameK, etc) is correlated with the existence of FAT PEOPLE!  Says one talking head obesity researcher, "Studies in mice and rats 'subjects' have shown that consumption of noncaloric sweeteners dampens physiological responses to sweet taste, causing the [subjects] to overindulge in calorie-rich, sweet-tasting food and pack on extra pounds."

WHERE DO I BEGIN???  Variations on a theme of this have been posted all over facebook and the blogosphere.  In the case of the former, it's some of the more intelligent info that A FEW of the people i know EVER post.  Amongst the latter, there are two sub-groups:  of one, i'm not at all surprised because it's typical of why i don't read THEIR blogs, but ... i AM a bit puzzled why the ones i regularly read might feel this is worth repeating.

This is not the first time i've made public my opinion about "artificial sweeteners" (<--  fyi, massive understatement).  These products range from widely-toxic to slightly-irritating -- why the temptation to lump them all together?  I can think of a couple of reasons, and they say ugly things about the state of research.

Either the Insulated Ones of Organized Academia are so tunnel-visioned they don't appreciate that toxicity is a spectrum, or they have so much contempt for the people they're in business to "help" that their attitude oozes all over every condescending word they utter.  Go back to the third paragraph above and re-read the quote -- i barely edited the Purdue University bitch who made the pronouncement (i changed her "mice and rats" to "subjects" and changed "animals" to the same word, in brackets).  Dare i insinuate the obvious -- "packing on pounds" is NOT what LAB RODENTS are capable of doing -- but of course, "packing on ounces" just doesn't have that pejorative ring.

I'm kinda inclined to think the problem with the thinking of such researchers (and the media "personalities" who parrot them) is THIS -- they believe that the obese are evil disgusting gluttonous lazy hedonistic horrible animals who DESERVE nothing tasty (which is why it's awful that they can improve their health with bacon, butter and steak).  They BELIEVE that fat people should be sentenced to a boot camp where some obesity-resistant fashion model can yell at them while they're driving up stress hormones and ruining their joints (AKA "burning fat") on a treadmill for hours every day.  They believe that the sin of being overweight should be penanced away with self-flagellation, mental anguish, a low diet of bread and water, and dried peas in the shoes.

Ooh, sounds vaguely reminiscent of something ... how about the "Dark Ages" and Inquisition?

Fuck 'em. 

I apologize to the "nice ladies and gentlemen" who read here.  I thought of using a euphemism, but the strength of my anger and contempt couldn't be expressed even by "piss on the self-righteous assholes."  ;-)

The people i know who STILL struggle with their weight, and do so valiantly and self-denyingly day-in-day-out DESERVE the solace of an occasional "sweet."  On a hot summer day, after chores in the garden or doing housework, or cheering their kids at a ball game, you can bet the farm that a cold diet soda is an appropriate treat for the sugar-avoider.