Warning: Diet Coke is poison!!

[PaulW99]

Or so said an email that I received a year or two ago. I briefly scanned it before deleting it.

Today I was in a supermarket parking lot, loading my shopping (including Diet Coke) when a guy comes up to me and says: "I see you've bought Diet Coke, did you know that it contains aspartame and that is used to kill ants?"

Needless to say, a lively discussion followed.

I can't believe it. I know people receive these emails, I know they read these emails, I know some even believe these emails, but to go up to total strangers and tell them about it??

He also told me that margarine was originally designed for turkeys but they refused to eat it, so now they sell it to people instead.

We parted on good terms, he said it was refreshing to meet someone who trusts The System. I said: don't worry, the system works. And he shouldn't believe emails.

As Mayor Quimby said: Are the People getting dumber, or are they just getting louder?

[smudge]

Or so said an email that I received a year or two ago. I briefly scanned it before deleting it.

Today I was in a supermarket parking lot, loading my shopping (including Diet Coke) when a guy comes up to me and says: "I see you've bought Diet Coke, did you know that it contains aspartame and that is used to kill ants?"

Needless to say, a lively discussion followed.

I can't believe it. I know people receive these emails, I know they read these emails, I know some even believe these emails, but to go up to total strangers and tell them about it??

He also told me that margarine was originally designed for turkeys but they refused to eat it, so now they sell it to people instead.

We parted on good terms, he said it was refreshing to meet someone who trusts The System. I said: don't worry, the system works. And he shouldn't believe emails.

As Mayor Quimby said: Are the People getting dumber, or are they just getting louder?

Fascinating!

But I can see where the guy is coming from ( though obviously he is ill informed) !
Much of the food we are encouraged to buy is not very healthy. Big business is interested in profit rather than the well being of the public.
Once you become aware of this it is easy to be seduced by pseudo science and half baked paranoid claims. Especially when advertising is just as full of BS as some 'new age paranoid line', but is far more pervasive!
The difference between "an average Joe trying to make sense of a crazy system" and a "paranoid loony" can be a little blurry here.

When you say "the system works" I assume you mean that we won't be poisoned by supermarket food? Agreed. Is "not being poisoned" enough to describe it as "working" though? I'd argue for more health conscious foods, accurate clear labeling, and honest advertising.

[Graham Lappin]

As far as I am aware, the best methods of killing ants with coke are (a) to drown them in it or (b) to hit them with the can.

Diet coke is not particularly "good for you" but like anything else, the odd glass now and again will not kill you (unless, as with the above ant analogy, someone cracks your skull with the can).

[Croydon Bob]

Mmmmm.... aspartame.

[PaulW99]

I believe "the system works" as in: no multinational company is going to put poison in a product that is consumed by millions of people every day. For starters they have no reason to do that (they're killing their customers, risking a huge fine and/or jail time for executives and also endless lawsuits) and also the government tests and approves food additives meticulously.

A lot of people seem to have come to the conclusion that the government and "big businesss" are out to get us. They are not. They are us. We are them. Sometimes things go a bit wrong but that is the exception.

It's like with the H1N1 vaccination. The reasoning behind the objections to taking the shot seemed (to me) to be:
A. government is bad
B. flu shot comes from government
C. hence flu shot is bad

[smudge]

I believe "the system works" as in: no multinational company is going to put poison in a product that is consumed by millions of people every day. For starters they have no reason to do that (they're killing their customers, risking a huge fine and/or jail time for executives and also endless lawsuits) and also the government tests and approves food additives meticulously.

A lot of people seem to have come to the conclusion that the government and "big businesss" are out to get us. They are not. They are us. We are them. Sometimes things go a bit wrong but that is the exception.

It's like with the H1N1 vaccination. The reasoning behind the objections to taking the shot seemed (to me) to be:
A. government is bad
B. flu shot comes from government
C. hence flu shot is bad

Totally agree.

But is it enough to say that that the "system works" just because it (supermarket food) won't kill us (at least not quickly)? I think we could expect better than that!