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Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health ~ Expert links additive to cell damage

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Ilena Rose

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May 26, 2007, 10:00:30 PM5/26/07

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to cell damage

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2586652.ece

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.

Leonid Gavrilov

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May 29, 2007, 1:48:31 PM5/29/07

Jeff

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May 29, 2007, 5:28:49 PM5/29/07

Ilena Rose wrote:
> www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/
>
> Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health

Yeap, that is why I drink Diet Pepsi. It has a safe sweetener, not sugar.

Jeff

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