Diet soda now promoted as medicine to stop kidney stones (opinion)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: diet soda, kidney stones, health news

(NaturalNews) The "most retarded science journal of the year" award goes to the Journal of Urology which has published an article suggesting that diet soda is actually an effective type of medicine for preventing kidney stones (April 19, 2010 issue). The research was led by Dr Brian H. Eisner, a urologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who is apparently completely clueless about human nutrition and the toxicity of aspartame.

According to Dr Eisner, diet sodas are not only good medicine for preventing kidney stones; they're also a good source of water hydration. Noting that patients need to consume 2-3 liters of water each day, Dr Eisner said in a Reuters article, "If drinking these sodas helps people reach that goal, then that may be a good thing." (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D4HO...)

If you're thinking this is some sort of April Fools joke, it isn't. Dr Eisner and the Journal of Urology are somehow convinced this is good research and that diet sodas may actually have a positive medicinal effect on the human body. Instances of such "scientific" stupidity appear to be increasing in western medicine where doctors remain wildly ignorant of the effects on the human body caused by processed ingredients or toxic chemical additives.

Aspartame, used as the primary sweetener in diet sodas, is a potent neurotoxin according to experts like Dr Russell Blaylock. Many believe it promotes headaches, vision problems, endocrine system problems and nervous system disorders. It has never been proven safe for human consumption by any honest testing.

Most diet sodas also contain alarmingly high levels of phosphoric acid, a substance that causes a huge increase in acidity throughout the body, suppressing immune function, weakening bones and contributing to kidney stones (not preventing them).

The truth about diet soda

There is absolutely no question that drinking diet soda is atrocious for your health. That a mainstream western doctor would somehow conclude diet soda to be a medicine for preventing kidney stones is equivalent to declaring "pizza prevents heart disease" or that smoking cigarettes prevents cancer. It shows not merely the shocking nutritional ignorance of Dr Eisner himself, but the utter lack of nutritional knowledge among his peers at the Journal of Urology who somehow saw fit to publish his study.

This is called science? Keep in mind that the entire claim is based on the idea that certain diet sodas contain citrate and that frequent consumption of citrate from natural sources (lemonade, lime juice, etc.) is well known to prevent kidney stones. Consuming natural lemonade actually does prevent kidney stones, but you can't extrapolate from that and claim a lemon-flavored diet soda will accomplish the same thing. That's like saying that since fruit helps prevent cancer, then drinking fruit punch must prevent cancer, too.

This research, by the way, never even tested diet sodas on human subjects. It's really just a "thought experiment" from someone who isn't even very good at thinking. The entire paper is the scientific equivalent of saying, "Hey, I betcha that thar diet soda might prevent them kidney stones 'cuz there's citrate in it!"

And the Journal of Urology was just silly enough to actually publish it as science. It makes you wonder: What are the requirements for having a scientific paper rejected by the Journal of Urology?

No coverage of medicinal herbs

I bet a paper touting the very real benefits of the Amazon rainforest herb Chanca Piedra would be rejected by the journal. Chanca Piedra is known as the "stonebreaker" herb throughout South America. It really works to dissolve and eliminate kidney stones, but you'd never see that in a science journal in North America. No, they're too busy touting the "medicinal benefits" of diet soda, if you can believe that.

At this point in the article, I would normally point out how little credibility remains in the world of western medicine and its loony research conclusions. This is an industry that calls homeopathy "witchcraft", that thinks medicinal herbs are dangerous, and that now apparently believes diet sodas are a form of medicine. Any discussion of "credibility" about such an industry is frankly just pointless.

If aspartame and phosphoric acid was somehow good for you, America would be the healthiest nation in the world! And if diet sodas actually worked, then all the people drinking them wouldn't be so obese, would they?

And if diet soda prevents kidney stones, they why are most of the people suffering from kidney stones the very same people who drink a lot of soda? If anything, diet soda causes kidney stones. But I suppose the Journal of Urology can print exactly the opposite and call it "science" if they want, right?

That's exactly why modern "science" has lost so much credibility these days. Because practically any corporate-sponsored idea, no matter how ridiculous, can end up being printed in a "scientific journal" even if its conclusions violate the laws of the known biological universe.

If diet soda prevents kidney stones, then mammogram radiation prevents cancer, too.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D4HO...