Call me unconvinced:

http://www.webmd.com/food-reci...

The Saccharin Saga

Safety, particularly as it relates to cancer risk, is on many people's mind as a result of the saccharine saga, which began in the 1970s. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tried to ban this sweetener as animal studies showed that it caused cancer of the bladder, uterus, ovaries, skin, and other organs. But the food industry intervened, urging Congress to keep it on the market with a warning label that (until recently) read: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."

In the late 1990s, the Calorie Control Council stated that the main health concern about saccharin was bladder cancer in male rats -- not people.

It seems to me the the artificial sweetener industry has done a very good job of getting a lot of people to ignore all of the studies showing problems.

"animal studies showed that it caused cancer of the bladder, uterus, ovaries, skin, and other organs."

But hey, let's just forget about those studies??????????????

If I were to see a well made study done by someone not affiliated with the sweetener industry that showed no increase of ill effects amongst sweetener users as compared to non-sweetener users then I'd accept that. But I haven't seen that.

Lets be honest, they reason they're not going ahead with this is because they are not desperate for cash, Google et al are paying Mozilla hundreds of millions literally for their search engine to be prominent (Yahoo is the top placed search engine for Android Firefox).

And if this was prominent instead, it could cost them a pretty penny.

Where-abouts? out of curiosity.

I hate what they did with Australis, I nearly changed to Seamonkey, but classic-theme-restorer has put Firefox back the way I like it, I just hope it doesn't stop working.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

Is it just me or is Firefox going much slower with Version 29.0? (no-script + ghostery installed)

I'm lazy, I like ready meals, what bugs me is the lack of healthy ready meals, they all lack enough veg, they typically use wheat or rice with the nutrients removed, they are low in fibre etc.

Watching what you eat is different to different people, I'm over 40, my doctor has recommended I keep the saturated fats down and eat lots of fibre. I have a sweet tooth but limit it by simply not buying too much junk, that way when I get a craving there's not much I can do about it. but I suspect some peoples cravings are much more than mine, I very rarely binge, I just don't feel like it. I also place fruit strategically so that it's 'centre stage' it helps me eat healthily.

I only ever took antibiotics briefly in my teens for whooping cough so it could indeed be a factor. Genetics seems to be a big factor with me.

Yes I oversimplified, diet is of course important. The food industry has a lot to answer for, so much food is made with adulterated flour and rice, pizzas really don't need to be made with white flour, brown rice tastes fine to me, whole grain pasta is almost identical to the bleached stuff. Bleaching food and removing the nutrients may not have seemed like a bad idea in the 19th century but we really should know better now.

I think eating a lot of fruit helps, another easy thing I do is use brown pasta, brown rice and mostly brown bread when I cook.

One food to steer clear of is chocolate ice creams and chocolate, so high in fat and sugar. Whilst cake is not good, some cake is much lower in fat. When I gave up smoking I gained 3 stone and decided to diet, but I was lazy so I just counted sat-fats intake - and it worked!

I'm thinking of replacing sugar in tea with sweeteners but am put off by potential side effects.

"Our bodies are so well attuned to processing wheat, that bread causes a faster sugar high than Coca Cola"...

Does that apply to brown wheat or just white flour products?

That lifestyle will catch up with you, you are likely aging you heart and increasing your risk of cancer. (pot kettle black here). IMO to be healthy just excercise (get a bike) and eat plenty of fruit+veg+fibre and when buying foods pick the ones with lower sat-fats.

Or heart disease, cars cause obesity, lack of exercise. Bicycles are the cure.

It's not becoming more socialist, the Lisbon treaty demands our gov'ts sell all govt property, everything is supposed to be run by corp's - that's EU law!.

Me, 2+ sugars in tea 4 times a day, biscuits, ice cream cake sweets.

I'm 5'11 and 142pounds / 64kg

It's not just sugar. I cycle. How many overweight people do you know that cycle regularly?

Normally I'm against people being sent to Guantanamo, but in this case I'll make an exception.

- London cyclist and air breather.