• johncandy1812@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    One of the reasons lead paint chips were frequently eaten by children was because they tasted sweet.

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      oooh ooooh leeeead sugar ♩

      I believe you can get me through the daaaayyy ♫

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    And thanks to Patriotic Jesusy Murkan Small Government, soon you won’t know if it’s in your kid’s Halloween candy.

    • absentbird@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      When lead combines with acid it creates lead acetate which interacts with the sugar receptors in the mouth. I’m not sure why, I think the molecules just happen to have a similar shape.

      EDIT: after looking at the molecule for lead acetate, it appears to resemble two simple carbohydrates connected by an atom of lead, so I’d imagine the receptor sees the outside and assumes it’s something sweet.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    Hahaha, what a bunch of morons, sugar isn’t even good for you!

    [sips sugar-free microplastic energy-slurry]

    Buncha dummies.

    • xep@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      Artificial sugar still causes an insulin response. Better stick with the vinegared lead.

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Artificial sugar also triggers hunger. That’s why you often see people with a diet Coke in one hand and a Snickers bar in their other hand.

      • Photuris@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        I wear a CGM (not diabetic, just a weird nerd).

        I can assert that artificial sweeteners do not, in fact, affect insulin at all (at least for this n=1). After a Coke Zero, Diet Coke, or Ghost Energy, my blood sugar remains unaffected for hours (if no other calories are introduced).

        Corn, however, in any form, fucks my shit up, blood glucose-wise. Way more than any other starch. No idea why.

          • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Not artificial sweeteners in general… specifically sucralose was tested. Numerous studies have shown it produces an insulin response.

            Also, there are a variety of natural alternative sweeteners available now that don’t produce an insulin response and have low or no calories, such as stevia, monk fruit extract and allulose. Erithritol as well, though it may have a few drawbacks.

          • Photuris@lemmy.ml
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            3 days ago

            Huh? No, corn definitely has sugar in it.

            What I mean is, a portion of corn or corn products causes a WAY HIGHER glucose spike with me, than does an equivalently sized portion (by weight or volume) of white rice, beans, milk, or even chocolate cake cake. I don’t know why.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    It has a mildly sweet taste and also causes brain damage

    Well… but so does Jack Daniel’s. Interestingly, the Romans were aware of the dangers of lead poisoning, including that it could cause madness - which they called “plumbism” (plumbum being the Latin word for lead). Kind of like we know about the dangers of alcohol, flavored sugar water, and many other things we consume wantonly. Like us, they apparently just didn’t GAF.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Lead and alcohol are on completely different levels.

      There is no way Romans understood fully the damage lead does and how it accumulates in the body.

      Also alcohol is presumably consumed by adults only, while this sweet shit was probably given to children too which makes it even worse.

  • roofuskit@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Yeah, well we pumped it straight into the air for everyone to breathe in. We painted schools and nurseries with it as well.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    3 days ago

    They had a lot of names for it.

    “salt of Saturn”

    And a lot if uses.

    How much would cause brain damage, and how much brain damage did the average Roman have?

    • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      One thing that’s overlooked about the Romans and lead exposure is that they did have organic forms of oral chelation available, which helped mitigate the effects. The most commonly quoted version of which is eating garlic, but many foods and nutrients can either decrease the amount of lead you absorb from the other foods that you eat, or increase the amount of lead that you excrete, which decreases their effects on your body and brain.

      Of course, these foods by themselves are not going to completely remove all of the lead in your blood, but it would have reduced the amount, so it’s not like they were completely raw-dogging lead in their wine.

      https://lead.org.au/fs/Foods_for_Lead_Detox_A-Z_20150214.pdf

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    They also thought tomatoes were poisonous because the water in them would pick up the lead their plates were made from