What toothpaste do you use?

[Fayshun]

Originally Posted by Justsomebloke

I use that Hollywoood whitening stuff but it hasn't made my teeth look like George Clooneys

Try this?

[phykell]

Originally Posted by iCraig

But that's largely my point, there's plenty of other things out there that are just as bad. Aspartame, MSG etc. I'd rather not worry about them all and just get on with it, otherwise I'll be drinking pure H2O, breathing filtered air, eating a very restricted diet. No thanks.

It hardly requires a lifestyle change! As for MSG and aspartame - I avoid it with very little effort. Typically, aspartame is in sugary, fizzy drinks so to avoid it is easy and beneficial in many other ways; and perhaps you and everyone else *should* be worrying about it. There are many people out there who've tried your approach of just "getting on with it" and look where we are! Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, the list goes on. I don't want to sound patronising as you're obviously an intelligent guy, but you're young and it's easy to be complacent. I know, I was the same; but it all catches up with you, trust me on that.

Originally Posted by iCraig

None of which can be done without a registered contractor doing it approved by the landlord. Just because it's a simple installation doesn't mean it's easy. It's not my plumbing/property to do stuff like that with.

No maintenance is also still cheaper then "cheap" maintenance.

That's a bit of a PITA I've lived in a few flats myself and I don't recall any rules that draconian but I guess things have changed now and your landlord might be very different to the ones I've had. Just to reiterate though, it's not a change to your existing plumbing - it just taps into the existing pipes; and typically, you'll have a couple of clamps which cut into the existing pipework, that's it.

[Justsomebloke]

Originally Posted by Fayshun

Try this?

I want teeth like this smiley >

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by phykell

It hardly requires a lifestyle change! As for MSG and aspartame - I avoid it with very little effort. Typically, aspartame is in sugary, fizzy drinks so to avoid it is easy and beneficial in many other ways; and perhaps you and everyone else *should* be worrying about it.

Those are two examples. There's plenty of "questionable" additives used that you will consume, I guarantee. MSG for example is in loads of brands of crisps. I think Pringles' entire range contains MSG. Loads of fruit juices such as Robinsons Apple and Blackcurrant contain aspartame. On the contary, you won't find aspartame in sugary drinks at all. It's a sweetener designed to replace the taste of sugar, it's around 200 times sweeter IIRC. All sorts of mints and chewing gums have it too. Either that, or sorbitol. Which, guess what, gives you bowel problems if not taken in moderation. I could go on, vitamin supplements use it, powered beverages, baking products etc etc. Do you really avoid them all with little effort? You'd be surprised the amount of food millions of people eat every day, that contain one or a combination of "controversial" addititives.

Originally Posted by phykell

There are many people out there who've tried your approach of just "getting on with it" and look where we are! Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, the list goes on. I don't want to sound patronising as you're obviously an intelligent guy, but you're young and it's easy to be complacent. I know, I was the same; but it all catches up with you, trust me on that.

Or I could die in a car accident tomorrow? I'm not going to worry about unproven links and speculation. Even moderate alchohol is linked to some forms of cancer now. Am I going to go tee-total? No. Bacon has been linked to cancer. Will I give up bacon butties? No. High hormone levels and masturbation in men has now been linked to prostrate cancer. Will I quit having tugs? No.

All these things are too insignificant to worry about IMO. Same with fluoride, whatever it's possibly perhaps linked maybe into doing to us, I'd rather not spend my time worrying over it, and spend it doing something fun. Like cooking up a nice fat bacon sarnie and washing it down with a cup of fluoride-flavoured tea.

[Fayshun]

Originally Posted by iCraig

and spend it doing something fun. Like cooking up a nice fat bacon sarnie and washing it down with a cup of fluoride-flavoured tea.

And then knocking one out?

[iCraig]

[phykell]

Originally Posted by iCraig

Those are two examples. There's plenty of "questionable" additives used that you will consume, I guarantee. MSG for example is in loads of brands of crisps. I think Pringles' entire range contains MSG.

I don't eat crisps. Fat-laden, full of chemicals - again not exactly a lifestyle-change required to just say no.

Originally Posted by iCraig

Loads of fruit juices such as Robinsons Apple and Blackcurrant contain aspartame.

And they're exactly the sort of drinks I avoid. Fruit juice should contain fruit with nothing else added. It's not rocket science. It's hardly a lifestyle change we're talking about. I just like my "food" to be recognisable as something which has been grown. If I'm faced with a load of drinks in the cooler cabinet, you can bet I'll choose a bottle of Tropicana or just water before I'd drink coke, or any of those crappy "juice drinks" which are actually just water, sugar (and/or aspartame) with fruit merely as a "flavour".

Originally Posted by iCraig

On the contary, you won't find aspartame in sugary drinks at all. It's a sweetener designed to replace the taste of sugar, it's around 200 times sweeter IIRC.

That's just not the case though. There are plenty of drinks (and food) that contain *both* sugar and aspartame. Also, aspartame isn't "sweet" at all - that's not the way it works.

Originally Posted by iCraig

All sorts of mints and chewing gums have it too. Either that, or sorbitol. Which, guess what, gives you bowel problems if not taken in moderation. I could go on, vitamin supplements use it, powered beverages, baking products etc etc. Do you really avoid them all with little effort? You'd be surprised the amount of food millions of people eat every day, that contain one or a combination of "controversial" addititives.

Where possible, I don't eat processed food but I don't consider the small effort it takes to be a lifestyle choice. I don't eat chewing gum (I wonder why anyone does) and if I'm making a conscious decision to select a supplement, you can bet I'll at least read the thing to understand exactly what it is I'll be taking.

Originally Posted by iCraig

Or I could die in a car accident tomorrow? I'm not going to worry about unproven links and speculation. Even moderate alchohol is linked to some forms of cancer now. Am I going to go tee-total? No. Bacon has been linked to cancer. Will I give up bacon butties? No. High hormone levels and masturbation in men has now been linked to prostrate cancer. Will I quit having tugs? No.

Making your own decisions from an informed perspective is one thing but blindly trusting manufacturers, who are arguably driven only by profit, is quite another.

Originally Posted by iCraig

All these things are too insignificant to worry about IMO.

Some of it is insiginificant but a lot of it isn't necessarily.

Originally Posted by iCraig

Same with fluoride, whatever it's possibly perhaps linked maybe into doing to us, I'd rather not spend my time worrying over it, and spend it doing something fun. Like cooking up a nice fat bacon sarnie and washing it down with a cup of fluoride-flavoured tea.

That's easy to say while you have your health and I'm sure there's an equivalent perspective on smoking. There are innumerable people who blithely carry on smoking saying that they know someone who smoked until they were 80-odd.

The last thing to say is that in another thread "someone" said this to Blighter when he talked of how pointless it is to worry about your diet:

"Youth is on your side mate, simple as that. It doesn't last forever, but it doesn't mean you're healthy by any means jsut because you're not fat. A poor diet will still affect your body and mind, just not as compounded as it would for somebody in their 40s".

That was good advice, perhaps you should take it before you reach your 40s

Incidentally, I wouldn't bother writing all this and going so off-topic if I didn't think it was critically important.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by phykell

I don't eat crisps. Fat-laden, full of chemicals - again not exactly a lifestyle-change required to just say no.

Crisps is one example. MSG is in a lot of savoury goods.

Originally Posted by phykell

And they're exactly the sort of drinks I avoid. Fruit juice should contain fruit with nothing else added. It's not rocket science. It's hardly a lifestyle change we're talking about. I just like my "food" to be recognisable as something which has been grown. If I'm faced with a load of drinks in the cooler cabinet, you can bet I'll choose a bottle of Tropicana or just water before I'd drink coke, or any of those crappy "juice drinks" which are actually just water, sugar (and/or aspartame) with fruit merely as a "flavour".

I drink Tropicana as well as Robinsons. I know the difference, I just can't get too enthused over it all. If we're talking about true health benefits, aspartame is an unproven problem. Natural sugars that are absoloutely loaded in sugars. "Real" fruit juices are a proven problem with dental health. So if we're really going to go into the pedantics of how "healthy" they are, remember that fruit juices are very very bad for your teeth and gums, and if you're not careful with their consumption, your health in general.

Originally Posted by phykell

That's just not the case though. There are plenty of drinks (and food) that contain *both* sugar and aspartame. Also, aspartame isn't "sweet" at all - that's not the way it works.

Yes, it is. I was wrong about it being 200 times sweeter than sugar, it's a little less at 180 times. But you get the point, it's typically used because it's the ideal replacement to sugar (controversy and drama aside) because it gives you the sweetness, without the calorie impact of all the sugar you'd need to get the same.

Originally Posted by phykell

Where possible, I don't eat processed food but I don't consider the small effort it takes to be a lifestyle choice. I don't eat chewing gum (I wonder why anyone does)

LOL what's wrong with chewing gum?

Originally Posted by phykell

and if I'm making a conscious decision to select a supplement, you can bet I'll at least read the thing to understand exactly what it is I'll be taking.

Well pretty much any chewable variety of supplements or medication will contain sweeteners, so you would have to bin all those for a start. Lockets, Lozengers, whatever, all gone I'd imagine. Ever taken a Lemsip? Check the back, that's got aspartame. In fact, pretty much all caplets and capsules of that nature will contain sweeteners and glazing agents to prevent the foul taste of the medication getting on the tongue. You say it's just easy to avoid, but I don't think it is. I think you need to make a constant effort to avoid them, and the lifestyle choice is clear. A very very, organic and natural route, which I'm sorry, but you do need to keep your wits about you on every shopping trip. Checking the back of nearly everything. That would be a big deal for me, and others like me who generally just buy what we need, and rarely study all the labels. The products I've named, the foodstuffs we've talked about, can everyone here say they don't have and they'd easily never use again as of tomorrow? Millions consume them every day, and, without being offensive, you seem to have gone to a special effort for your diet and general consumption. I'm guessing you have an air purifier, linen clothes and that sort of thing?

Originally Posted by phykell

Making your own decisions from an informed perspective is one thing but blindly trusting manufacturers, who are arguably driven only by profit, is quite another.

I don't blindly trust them, I just don't put that much effort into it all, because I know the Food Standards Agency and HSE guidelines will keep the real poisons out my food, and all the arguements over the controversial ones don't interest me until a proven link is actually found with stuff like aspartame, which there's every chance there never will be.

Originally Posted by phykell

That's easy to say while you have your health and I'm sure there's an equivalent perspective on smoking. There are innumerable people who blithely carry on smoking saying that they know someone who smoked until they were 80-odd.

But you know that's different because smoking has proven links to cancer, lung and mouth cancer in particular. It's pretty much a given that smoking = serious health issues. Aspartame etc doesn't have that link, does it?

Originally Posted by phykell

The last thing to say is that in another thread "someone" said this to Blighter when he talked of how pointless it is to worry about your diet:

"Youth is on your side mate, simple as that. It doesn't last forever, but it doesn't mean you're healthy by any means jsut because you're not fat. A poor diet will still affect your body and mind, just not as compounded as it would for somebody in their 40s".

Err, well yeah, it's true though isn't it? Young slim people aren't automatically healthy by that fact alone.

Originally Posted by phykell

That was good advice, perhaps you should take it before you reach your 40s

I do, my diet is pretty good. Exercise needs some work, but what I put into my body is generally pretty good. Probably lethal in your eyes though.

[Haly]

Originally Posted by iCraig

But you know that's different because smoking has proven links to lung cancer. It's pretty much a given that smoking = serious health issues. Aspartame etc doesn't have that link, does it?

To play devil's advocate for a second: once upon a time people didn't think smoking was that bad for them but now we realise it is.
Which sounds ridiculous in hindsight but plenty of adverts in the 1940s made it sound fine to do.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by Haly

To play devil's advocate for a second: once upon a time people didn't think smoking was that bad for them but now we realise it is.
Which sounds ridiculous in hindsight but plenty of adverts in the 1940s made it sound fine to do.

I know what you mean, but the alternative to me is to live in a bubble then. To hide from aspartame, msg, sacharin etc etc... I think life's too short to worry about what if and maybe. Plus, in 20 years fluoride could be proven to strengthen teeth and prevent bone cancer. Tada! It's certainly possible. Hindsight still a wonderful thing in the opposite regard, and those who cut it out of their diet all their life will kick themselves.