Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mit-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-vax!oaf From: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Sugar, nutrasweet, Mr. Tom Stanions, truth Message-ID: <480@mit-vax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 27-Jul-85 15:53:27 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-vax.480 Posted: Sat Jul 27 15:53:27 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 29-Jul-85 06:39:57 EDT Reply-To: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 67 In article <1061@cbdkc1.UUCP> tjs@dkc1.UUCP ( Tom Stanions) writes: > ...Sugar does come from natural sources but is over-refined > therefore making it non-natural, and dangerous. Mr. Stanions, for a reward of $25.00, to you or your favorite charity, could you cite to the net your references for that statement? [Forgive me for insisting such references come from refereed journals. If you'd rather point to a book, feel free, but I want to see research results at the end of the bibliography trail.] Before you go for the dough, please resolve some ambiguities in your statement: ... but is over-refined... Means what? What is the substrate? What the final product? What steps occur in the refinement process? Which is the first gratuitous one? Why is it gratuitous? What are its inputs and outputs? How did you come by that knowlege? ...therefore making it non-natural... What is natural? If the answer's long, just point us at a reference. Is non-naturalness a result of refinement or merely over-refinement? Which refinement step makes the intermediate compound between substrate and final product non-natural? Does that apply to products other than sugar? In particular, can you supply an algorithm for identifying the refinement-step-that-makes-its-product-non-natural in the general case? In even ONE other case? ...and dangerous. Dangerous because it's non-natural? By extension, is anything non-natural inherently dangerous? Is the relationship commutative? Does natural imply not-dangerous? Under what conditions? Dangerous to everyone or just some people? Dangerous under all circumstances and dosages, or just certain ones? In what way dangerous? May we have a damage-causing mechanism, please? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I apologize to the public at large for the nitpicky nature of my questions. Mr. Stanions's postings mangle the English language so badly that I don't really know what he's trying to say. [YOW, am I ******* ****** yet? Name that person!] Hence my request for low-level explanations. Furthermore, since the questions I asked require acquaintance with first-year organic chemistry techniques and nomenclature, his answers may tell us whether he knows anything about that subject. Feel free to flame me if you think that kind of knowledge isn't necessary for uttering a continuous stream of unsupported positive public statements. Or for any other reason. Anyone who wants to answer or improve on the questions above is invited to do so. Mr. Stanions, I await your reply with (artificially) sweetly bated breath. -- Oded Feingold {decvax, harvard, mit-eddie}!mitvax!oaf MIT AI Lab oaf%oz@mit-mc.ARPA 545 Tech Sq. 617-253-8598 work Cambridge, Mass. 02139 617-371-1796 home