Dre, I am not going to go point by point on this one, I'll cover the major ones though.
There is scientific evidence, that implies that diet pop may pose a health risk.
I never worded it as an absolute in any post that was part of our serious discussion.
Feel free to browse, you won't find one.
Ok. It MAY pose a health risk when consumed in extreme excess. We aren't talking about excess here and as far as I know neither has Matt and we're not even sure to begin with that it does cause health risks (as of now the evidence says no). Based on that, why do you recommend Matt to stay away from diet soda? Or anyone for that matter. You said it yourself...MAY. Do you usually jump to conclusions before having all the facts?
Legal aspects.
Kinda apples and oranges for the most part.
Do I abide all laws? Of course not, no-one does.
However, there are laws that (at least in theory) could bring serious consequences.
Drug abuse falls under that category if you ask me.
you're missing the forest for the tress here...according to you if something is harmful and carries risk it should be avoided. Pro hormones carry risk and are harmful. You wrote off diet soda bc it MAY pose a health risk and you wrote off injectables bc they are illegal (but pose less of a health risk than PH's). The benefits of PH's MAY be greater than the benefit of diet coke (to you at least) but the health risks are also exponentially increased. Your logic states PH's shouldn't even be an option.
You also exaggerate the risk of using injectables not the penalty. For example, yes injectables carry a stuff penalty, if caught, but out of the 287,000+ members on here and the 10+yrs this board has been around, how many examples can you cite of people actually getting caught are (if you're not manufacturing or selling, just using)? And customs letters don't count. I'm on a few other boards with substantial memberships as well, so out of the 600,000+ combined members, the 23+ combined years the boards have been around, the many thousands maybe tens of thousands of threads I've read, the hundreds of articles about steroid related busts (only about brewers, labs, and sellers), etc etc I have seen 1 case of anyone going to court. 1 freaking person (who got off by the way) and that was only bc his wife ratted him out during a divorce. Moral of the story keep your mouth shut about your use. Now I'm sure there are examples of people who did get caught using but why did they get caught? Is the risk really that great or did they just act stupid? My money is in the stupid. If you leave the gear at home there is no way for anyone to find it (authorities) without a warrant. To get a warrant there must be probable cause. For probable cause to be evident you must have fucked up somewhere down the line. Again the penalties are real, they're on the books and there is certainly case law out there, but you exaggerate the risk of injectables and downplay the risks of things that suit your ore-conceived notions.
The point of the debate here wasn't to say you shouldn't use PH's that's your choice, the point was to say if you are so worried about health risks of diet soda which have been shown to be none/minimal even in relatively extreme cases why are you not worried about what PH's will do to you? Well maybe you're worried but you've decided it's worth the risk. If fear of diet soda is strong in you as it shows in this thread how could you NOT carry the same concerns for PHs? Whether they're legal or not? You've fallen back on the aspect of legality and ignored the health implications bc you've asserted you won't use injectables? How about just training natty and not worrying about liver damaging/HPTA destroying PH's at all if health is such a concern to you? Diet soda vs pro-hormones....which one can kill you quicker (on second thought please don't even answer that, you'll probably say diet soda). Death is a pretty big risk no? Bigger than prison? If you answer yes than you must be justifying your risk of health with the fact that you'll cycle a PH 'safely'. There's no other argument you could make for it. Well guess what, it's completely possible to 'cycle' diet soda safely as well.
Risk vs. Reward.
Yes, these will be individual for every... individual. LOL
You can rationalize anything you want if you just stretch your point hard enough. I am aware of that.
But when it comes to health risks, you seem to only look at this topics in black and white.
Does diet pop cause kidney issues for example? It may. There is data that suggests it potentially could.
You say, that until proven 100%, it does not. What if you are wrong? I like to error on the side of caution, especially if it is pertaining something so trivial and easily avoidable as diet pop / junk food / processed food etc.
No, many things cannot be rationalized no matter how hard you try.
If you are the type of person to err on the side of caution so much so that you won't have a diet coke (reasons other than taste) bc of its health "detriments" than why not follow your own advice on pro hormones? Train naturally and worry about NOTHING of the sort. Creatine and whey and a natty test booster (they're junk I know) and you'll worry about nary a thing. Try as you might, a physique on pro hormone cycles will never equal those of injectables for a few simple reasons. You cannot run them as long, as highly dosed, or as frequent as an injectable cycle. If your goal is that killer physique that's seen on stage at BB shows you will NEED injectables one way or the other. You cannot run enough methylated compounds at concurrently or consecutively to match it to injectables. I don't know if you realize it, but PH's are much more easily avoidable than junk food and coke. I can go to a thousand stored and find each. I have to go to a very specific store to find PH's. Junk food and soda, while other options exist, still can fulfill biological needs for survival. A pro hormone cannot.
If this is illogical to you, then so be it. I think Spock would disagree. LMAO
who?
Smoking.
I am a libertarian. If you want to snort Cocaine, smoke cigarettes, bake weed brownies, make love to willing goats - have at it.
My grandfather died of lung cancer. I have seen his demise, his agony and suffering. It was not a nice way out, let me tell you.
Also, having oral desires as a man doesn't make you gay. Evolution / Creation (depending on which theory you subscribe to) has blessed our race with females that possess plenty of features that lend themselves to oral utilization.
Now, what I would have a problem with, would be if you were going to tell people that smoking is healthy...
After all, the macros are fine, right? LOL
Thank you for not taking liberties from me. I'm not saying smoking is healthy but studies have shown cause and effect for smoking whereas they have not for aspartame/diet coke/AS's. That's the difference. And it's not like there's only one study done on aspartame, it's multiple studies, from multiple countries, by multiple scientists, through multiple clinical trials, through multiple governing agencies.....
Apples vs. Pop.
After extensive research I have come to the conclusion that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Not if you have AIDS and too many apples could cause some issues on their own accord, therefor are apples truly healthy?
Coke for Athletes.
They are after a quick sugar fix to boost their energy.
Coke happens to fit that bill and is convenient.
A cube of glucose would probably do the trick also. No?
sure it would, for the energy but not the hydration. Coke does both. So now we've found a context where you agree coke works well. This is only but one and since the overwhelming majority of evidence and scientific facts says diet coke is safe (evidence, not your personal beliefs or mine, but evidence) let's let the situation drop. I'm getting carpal tunnel and I keep having to make the same arguments in different ways.
With all that said, I want the record to reflect, that I do not consider this an argument, but rather an interesting discussion.
Lots of good info in here.
don't take this personally but you sound, act, and remind me of my aunt and mother. My aunt is such a Germaphobe she has not left the house in at least 12yrs maybe more. NOT ONCE. Not once for any reason. The furthest she'll go is the porch around the house. She avoids everything you do and more...no aluminum, no BPA, no artificial sweeteners, no meat or pork, only grass fed chicken, no veggies or fruits that are not organic, no reduced fat milk, no aluminum in most of the stuff she uses, no smoking, no using of fluoride, all natural this and all natural that. She has bestowed all this fine knowledge upon my mother who is slowly but surely following in her footsteps. They both supplement with over 50 different pills, vitamins, minerals, etc a day. They freak out if they miss a dose, hey don't drink any soda regular or diet, etc etc. In their pursuit to be the healthiest human beings alive they ignore the fact that they've really become the unhealthiest people in my life. My aunt has so many issues it's unbelievable. My mom too. We have to get doctors to make house calls for my aunt bc she still refuses to leave the house even after suffering a stroke and requiring medical care. They don't understand the body's response to stimulus and don't understand biology, physiology, etc. They don't understand how powerful the body is and how adaptive it can be. Do you know how antibodies are made? By introducing a small stimulus of something to get the body to prude antibodies to protect it in the future. The flu vaccine actually gives you a real culture of the flu bc the body when exposed to a stimulus adapts to it provided it's not enough to overpower. Look up Seyle's General adaptation syndrome.
Where am I going with this? You seem to be in a slippery slope of taking everything out of your life bc it has a negative health influence. Maybe I'm wrong maybe I'm right, I'm assuming bc you've removed damn near everything with aluminum in it and the other things you've said here. If you completely remove the stimulus you're body will not be able to adapt to it making it weaker if you do actually get exposed to it in the future. This works for most of your argument. By avoiding aluminum altogether as you seem to be trying, you will effectively wipe out your body's ability to deal with it in the future. Like it or not, neither extreme is good (too much or too little). Moderation is key. Drinking a can or two daily of diet coke won't kill you just like it hasn't been proven to cause Alzheimer's. If, notice I said if not when, IF in the future it's shown thereS A cause and effect relationship between diet coke and Alzheimer's it will be the overexposure of it causes it not the limited and moderate intake of it.
It's a free country (sort of), so enjoy what ever you want.
