Can a Competition Diet damage your DNA?

An item just hit Slashdot, the post is titled Some Soft Drinks May Damage Your DNA, and refers to an article in The Independent, titled Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health

The Independent article specifically refers to Pepsi Max, my ‘no sugar’ fizzy drink of choice.

I know a lot of people (myself included), who use diet fizzy drinks as ‘no sugar’ relief during those last grinding weeks of the lead up to competition!

The Independent:

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."

Diet Pepsi & Coca-Cola drinks generally get a guernsey too

For those people reading cans, its E211(UK), AKA sodium benzoate.


Gnoll110

P.S. Remember, never eat or drink anything that adds up to more that a thousand! ;)

Technorati:
bodybuilding competition+diet sodium+benzoate pepsi+max