For the past week in Spanish we have been preparing for the AP test with practice that involved reading articles and hearing pod casts regarding artificial sweeteners and loud noises. I'm sure that we all figured that these things couldn't be too good for us, but did we ever think about how severe the consequences could actually be? Well based on all the information we went over it turns out that things as simple as listening to your ipod and drinking artificially flavored drinks could have some rather harmful permanent effects. Over 50% of teenagers listen to music louder than the recommended volume, and many adults work in places where they encounter loud noises every day. The most evident effect is slight loss of hearing in the long run. Having too many treats that are artificially flavored also have long term health effects on multiple parts of the body.
However, the thing that I found interesting is that there are multiple negative consequences that appear much less obvious. Such as minimizing cardiovascular capabilities, lowering sexual interests, and increasing nerves. Although medical advances have greatly increased our knowledge of the things we do that are unhealthy for us, it's surprising that we continue to take part in many of these activities. People had no idea how bad smoking was for them years ago before they began to see the consequences in others; I wonder if there will be anything like that for our generation. And even though it seems totally unlikely thanks to new advances in medicine, you just never know (just like the surprising consequences of things as basic as listening to music or drinking a soda). I guess as of now the opportunity cost of not drinking the soda or turning up the volume as high as it goes, out ways the consequences.
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4 comments:
I understand how loud noises could increase nerves but they can decrease cardiovascular capabilities and lowers sexual interest?
I must say I'm very skeptical about that.
If anything at all, I think that this is just a correlation (which does NOT show cause and effect) some people found to scare people into lowering the volume on their ipods.
-Yuzo Yanagitsuru
Just because there isn't a cause and immediate effect, there is no way to really know for sure except looking at long term behavior. Still, there are so many other factors that file into decreasing cardiovascular capabilities and lowering sexual interest such as age while these speculations occur that I don't think there is way to really sufficiently test these side effects in the first place.
there are always give and takes when dealing with such things. If you are trying to avoid sugar by using splenda or drinking diet coke, there are chemicals used in these substances that may not make you gain weight but will harm you in another way. Like Lizzy pointed out, it can be the lowering of cardiovascular capabilities or sexual interest. Artificial sweeteners or real sugar...both are bad in large quantities.
I totally agree with Yuzo and Lily regarding the fact that this information does seem to be a bit of a stretch. As well as regarding the fact that there are so many outside variables that it seems extremely difficult to actually determine if these are the real reasons why the effects are occuring.
However, I also see Amreet's point that they could absolutely be related based on the fact that they are attempting to compensate for those other things the product is lacking. I think it is a tricky subject that they won't really have an answer to for a while; at least not until they see other problems directly related to these sources that may throw up some red flags.
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