http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html

This is not the exact article that I read as it was quite a few years ago that I read it but these two articles explain.

Hope the links work.

Aspartame has been deemed acceptable to be in food (solely on the basis of whether it causes cancer or not). But that doesn’t mean you can consume as much as you like without consequence. There is a recommended daily limit which, I believe is something like 12 cans of fizzy drinks for a child. Go over that and you are poisoning yourself.

The problem is that food packaging doesn’t tell people how much aspartame is in the product. For all anybody knows, a single can of fizzy pop could contain 100% of the daily allowance.

Food packaging really should have big clear signs:

• THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS Xmg ASPARTAME
• IF YOU CONSUME MORE THAN Xmg IN A DAY YOU ARE RISKING YOUR HEALTH.

Well I don't drink 12 cans a day and I expect very few people do.

But that’s just in terms of causing cancer. Many people believe just 1 can may cause hyperactivity.

I think I owe an apology to the makers of Red Bull Cola.

I just found the ingredients of the product and I was shocked!

It doesn’t have any artificial additives at all! In addition, it doesn’t appear to have any colouring or preservatives. (Oddly, the packaging also looks like a can of beer! What’s that about?)

I have to say I regret my original title to this thread now, and the parallels I drew between the product and poison. I just assumed it was full of bad stuff because I’ve simply never heard of a processed food product with all natural ingredients before (certainly not a fizzy drink anyway)!

I’m not saying processed food is OK. A diet rich in processed food is a bad diet. And I’m certainly not saying caffiene drinks are good. Caffiene is an addictive drug and causes withdrawal symptoms in many people. But that is a different issue to additives. This product has none of that.

So I apologise to the makers of Red Bull. They are to be commended their lack of artificial ingredients.

I suspect most people like me would never even look at a product like that because we’d assume it was full of crap. If I were them, I’d rename the product “Natural Cola” to get the message across that it’s not your average fizzy drink.

I’ve just realised that this whole thread (culminating in my apology) might seem like a publicity stunt on behalf of Red Bull! I assure you it isn’t!

It's still unnecessary crap.