Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to cell damage
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 27 May 2007

A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

The problem - more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.

Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.

He told The Independent on Sunday: "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."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) backs the use of sodium benzoate in the UK and it has been approved by the European Union but last night, MPs called for it to investigate urgently.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat chair of Parliament's all-party environment group said: "Many additives are relatively new and their long-term impact cannot be certain. This preservative clearly needs to be investigated further by the FSA."

A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was "limited".

Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date.

"The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe," he said. "By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."

He advised parents to think carefully about buying drinks with preservatives until the quantities in products were proved safe by new tests. "My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts," he said.

Coca-Cola and Britvic's Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain sodium benzoate. Their makers and the British Soft Drinks Association said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government.

Source: https://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2586652.ece

And I thought soda pop just made people fat.

I stay far away from diet soda's. It's better to eat a little more sugar than to end up with cancer.

[FallenBuddha]

i stay away from soda as much as possible, its like drinking battery acid on the teeth. the only carbonated beverage i drink is beer which has a far more neutral pH as opposed to soda which is fortified with phosphoric acid.

peace -fb

[GMT]

Great I take vit C pills with coke. I drink coke all day.

[genkisan]

Only bubbly drink I use is club soda.....

[miss nycdf]

arg... why is it they get away with continuously putting this crap in things sold for mass consumption?

same goes for all hygeinic/beauty products like soaps and shampoos on the market with harmful, carcinogenic chemicals (and these products aren't even regulated by anything like the FDA does with food, which makes it even scarier!) But that's a whole different topic..

I'm trying to drink less diet soda lately, more water and tea!

[Magi101]

Quit drinking soda after i broke my fifth metatarsal training on the heavy bag, i heard some were that theres a substance in soda which weakens your bones.

yeah i have read that the sodium bicarbonate can make women more prone to osteoporosis...i used to drink a lot of pop, then in college i switched to diet...i honestly have not bought pop in a long time...as far as mixers for drinks i usually like cranberry juice, tonic water or red bull...i've read the red bull is bad for u with vodka but i like it occasionally...

actually if i drink a regular can of coke now i get kind of sick b/c of the sugar, since i don't drink it at all...i drank two cans of dr. pepper at a friend's house a couple months ago and got all jittery and felt like shit...i like to drink vitamin water and actually i like to drink just room temperature water from the brita...i much prefer chocolate milk and a glass of water to drinking pop if i'm just at home watching tv...

[Nikijad4210]

Originally Posted by Nugalicious

i drank two cans of dr. pepper at a friend's house a couple months ago and got all jittery and felt like shit...i like to drink vitamin water and actually i like to drink just room temperature water from the brita...i much prefer chocolate milk and a glass of water to drinking pop if i'm just at home watching tv...

Caffeine, man, not sugar. If sugar made you jittery, all the damn sugar in chocolate milk would have done you in, too. There's a lot more packed into chocolate milk than most people think.

the caffeine was an issue as well...i quit drinking coffee about 7 years ago as well and won't ever drink it again...i used to drink a ton of it and when i quit i was really sick for almost a week, i got awful headaches and felt just horrible...

the reason the sugar in the pop is different is b/c its high fructose corn syrup...metabolically speaking it is 'hotter' than lactose...the chocolate milk i drink is reduced fat and not much different in calories than regular milk...i like regular milk as well but have been drinking more chocolate milk after i read a study in which it helped people lose weight...