Giving up diet soda. So hard!

1356716

Replies

  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Serah87 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life. i gave it up. i think that water is better. might be a coincidence that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off for almost 2 years afterwards or it might have been the diet soda causing me to eat more. i don't know. all i know is that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off, whereas i never could before.

    i weened myself off of diet soda by drinking seltzer at first and then just got used to regular water eventually. sometimes still drink seltzer though.

    Yes!!!! It's a crazy cult on MFP that no one should change their diet because no food is "bad". There is no nutritional value in diet soda and just because it won't kill you doesn't mean you should be putting it your body! Sheesh......

    I also gave up diet soda and found that I can stick to my calories much easier without feeling hungry. I still occasionally drink a diet soda, but not daily or even weekly (more as a treat for a movie or something like that). Instead, I drink seltzer water and herbal tea. I really don't miss it either!

    I've lost 121 pounds drinking diet soda, I have reverse my heart disease and my blood work is excellent. Doctor says I am in excellent health. There is no such thing as "bad" food, drink, etc.

    good for you. losing 121 pounds would have been impossible for me. that would have made me 19 pounds. pretty sure i would have died before then. it worked for ME to give up diet soda. it worked for YOU to keep it.

    is diet soda your god? do you pray to the diet soda god every night? why do you care what the op or anyone else does?

    Because I can, just like you can. ;)
  • Is flavored sparkling water an option? I know it's an acquired taste so just a suggestion.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    TR0berts wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Serah87 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life. i gave it up. i think that water is better. might be a coincidence that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off for almost 2 years afterwards or it might have been the diet soda causing me to eat more. i don't know. all i know is that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off, whereas i never could before.

    i weened myself off of diet soda by drinking seltzer at first and then just got used to regular water eventually. sometimes still drink seltzer though.

    Yes!!!! It's a crazy cult on MFP that no one should change their diet because no food is "bad". There is no nutritional value in diet soda and just because it won't kill you doesn't mean you should be putting it your body! Sheesh......

    I also gave up diet soda and found that I can stick to my calories much easier without feeling hungry. I still occasionally drink a diet soda, but not daily or even weekly (more as a treat for a movie or something like that). Instead, I drink seltzer water and herbal tea. I really don't miss it either!

    I've lost 121 pounds drinking diet soda, I have reverse my heart disease and my blood work is excellent. Doctor says I am in excellent health. There is no such thing as "bad" food, drink, etc.

    good for you. losing 121 pounds would have been impossible for me. that would have made me 19 pounds. pretty sure i would have died before then. it worked for ME to give up diet soda. it worked for YOU to keep it.

    is diet soda your god? do you pray to the diet soda god every night? why do you care what the op or anyone else does?



    Pro tip: this thread isn't about you.

    and your point? it's not about you either or about that sarah chick.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    edited January 2015
    Serah87 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Serah87 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life. i gave it up. i think that water is better. might be a coincidence that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off for almost 2 years afterwards or it might have been the diet soda causing me to eat more. i don't know. all i know is that i lost a lot of weight and kept it off, whereas i never could before.

    i weened myself off of diet soda by drinking seltzer at first and then just got used to regular water eventually. sometimes still drink seltzer though.

    Yes!!!! It's a crazy cult on MFP that no one should change their diet because no food is "bad". There is no nutritional value in diet soda and just because it won't kill you doesn't mean you should be putting it your body! Sheesh......

    I also gave up diet soda and found that I can stick to my calories much easier without feeling hungry. I still occasionally drink a diet soda, but not daily or even weekly (more as a treat for a movie or something like that). Instead, I drink seltzer water and herbal tea. I really don't miss it either!

    I've lost 121 pounds drinking diet soda, I have reverse my heart disease and my blood work is excellent. Doctor says I am in excellent health. There is no such thing as "bad" food, drink, etc.

    good for you. losing 121 pounds would have been impossible for me. that would have made me 19 pounds. pretty sure i would have died before then. it worked for ME to give up diet soda. it worked for YOU to keep it.

    is diet soda your god? do you pray to the diet soda god every night? why do you care what the op or anyone else does?

    Because I can, just like you can. ;)

    and not sure i could have kept it off if i kept drinking diet soda.
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    Seltzer + flavor

    Add mio to Seltzer, or fruit juice, whatever you fancy.

    I find it funny you would dis soda but advocate for Mio. Did you know Mio required a hazardous material is placard when being transported (which soda does not)? Why? Because it contains an ingredient which can be used as anti freeze. How is that better than diet soda?
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    I drink diet soda and use sugar substitutes specifically to bypass sugar.

    Guess what, I'm alive and healthier than ever.
  • laneyb47
    laneyb47 Posts: 3 Member
    I also gave up diet soda...I was drinking caffeine free, diet soda. Due to having fibrocystic breast disease, I really felt it whenever I would have to much caffeine, hence the caffeine free choice. However, instead of drinking the diet soda now I drink green tea, and if water gets to boring I add a few drops of lemon. It may not be to your liking but once I got used to it, the tea is really good. Having a soda now and then may seem fine but people who drink it don't realize how addicting it can be. it wasn't easy to give it up and whenever my husband is drinking a Coke or Pepsi I get that horrible longing to have some also, but I'm sticking to my guns. I already feel much better without it and believe it or not, I've lost some of my stomach fat!
  • VBJONLY
    VBJONLY Posts: 25
    If you want to give up drinking diet soda why don't you allow yourself to drink one diet soda a day and gradually decease it to one a week, than once a month this why you will have no desire to drinking diet than trying to quit cold turkey.
  • This content has been removed.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
    edited January 2015
    Thank you Aviva. I was a bit surprised to find myself on the defensive, lol. Thanks Victoria. I'm doing two weeks giving it up (let's call it a lent type thing). I might have it in moderation later but I feel like an alcoholic...not altogether sure I can drink in moderation. I have to keep it in the house because my husband refuses to give it up.

    So do what I do and tell yourself you are on a "diet soda break". I am on a "potato chip break", lol.

    I have cut back my soda (non-diet caffeine free coke junky) and have been surprised I am actually doing well. Yesterday did not have any.

    I am replacing with herbal hot tea, water, and 2% milk at the moment. Milk I never drink but I am tracking my calcium and realized I am really deficient...eek.

    If I have a soda, then I will drink tea, water, milk before I allow myself another soda.

    It is a mind game for me.

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life.

    I think if she wants to give it up she should. Some people probably feel better not drinking it, especially if they seem to drink it to the exclusion of everything else. I give up coffee from time to time since I can get into a pattern of going overboard with it (right now I'm trying not to drink coffee or caffeinated tea after noon and it's driving me a bit crazy, since I was overdoing it).

    However, sometimes people think they ought to give up something instead of really wanting to, and diet soda is one of those things where you hear that it's poison or making you fat or silly things that are not true. If people are giving it up for those reasons, and not more factual ones, they might want to know that it's not necessary--for example, that lots of people are able to drink it and lose or even find it helpful.

    I don't agree with the frequent advice that you should change your diet as little as possible when starting a weight loss plan, since for me it's motivating to see myself doing something positive, and some of the bigger changes go along with that, so I can see that side.

    But, on the other hand, if I had added on to my dietary changes when I started a requirement that I also drop coffee--which happens to be something I can use in place of how I used to use food, as a break, a relaxing taste treat, whatever--I would have made this harder for myself and deprived myself of something I enjoy, for no reason. I actually made the call when I started that I wasn't going to worry about coffee until I was really comfortable with my eating. (And now that I'm close to goal I'm messing with it and might drop it for a while.)

    Similarly, I like to give up foods as part of my Lent practices, usually meat plus sweets. This time I did not (I started losing weight last January, so was still somewhat in the early stages), in part because I don't want my practices to relate to weight loss efforts, but more because I thought adding things would make it more difficult than it needed to be when I mostly wanted my diet to feel natural and enjoyable. This year I might well go back to my usual.

    So I do think that sometimes newbies to MFP seem to be doing too much at once and adding difficulties that are not necessary (if you really miss diet coke and end up having more trouble not overeating cookies, that's not helpful). However, that's going to depend on the person, so I think it's both useful to present the "you don't have to" ideas to OP and challenge things like "aspartame will KILL you TOMORROW and make you FAT" (not said by OP, of course) and also to respect her decision and answer her question.

    When I gave up diet soda I lost a lot of weight, whereas I couldn't before. It did not lead to me eating more cookies. It might have actually lead to me craving less cookies. I don't know. I was also counting calories, so that was probably what did it, but I had a hard time losing prior to this and this time the pounds just flew off and i was able to keep it off for almost 2 years now. I don't know that the giving up soda had anything to do with it, but it might have. Also, if you're drinking soda, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will be drinking less water. Isn't water good for you? myfitnesspal recommends 8 glasses a day. I know that's an unnecessarily high amount, but if I'm drinking soda instead, it's likely that amount will be reduced to zero.

    I suppose it hasn't been proven definitively that the chemicals in soda are bad, but that doesn't mean they aren't.

    Water in soda somehow doesn't count for ... water. Check.
    You started counting calories and lost weight but it was maybe because you stopped drinking soda at the same time. Check.
    Chemicals aren't shown to be bad. But maybe they are. Check.

    Logic, this post has it.

    I'll buy that being used to the taste of sweetness might influence your palate and make you crave other sweet, calorie rich things and thus increase the tendency to go over on your calories. That seems to be a personal taste thing.

    well, water is in foods too, but pure water sounds better. pretty sure when they have the 8 cups of water recommendation, they mean actual water, not water in foods.

    doesn't matter if my post is right or wrong. giving up diet soda will not kill you.

    man, i think some of the people here have diet soda as their personal god.

    oh and i stopped counting calories regularly almost 2 years ago and still kept the weight off and it was extremely easy. any other time i tried to diet, i put it right back on. diet soda is possibly the reason.

    No actually, the recommendation on water comes from an old paper and is "equivalent of" not actual distilled water (which is gross) you can have it in tea or tomatoes or what not.

    Giving up anything won't kill you - you can give up apples, pork or caramelized puppies and it doesn't matter. The point is, for the majority of people that focusing on the majors is more important than random abnegation - that is what we try to get across.

    That the OP decided that she wanted to stop drinking diet soda is fine - I don't care. Is it the best strategy for weight loss when some struggles with willpower? Heck, NO. Study after study shows that you only have so much ability to modify behavior by strength of will - one might want to focus that on the major factors that influence weight loss and quality of health.

    It might very well be that going cold turkey is the best thing in terms of soda and palate choices for some people. I make no comment on that and if you read my posts I'm not challenging the OPs decision to do that - however the logic that it doesn't count as water, etc. well that's just off.

    BTW, in the last two years you never drank a single soda? Did you suddenly gain weight?
    Personally, soda isn't a god. Rarely drink the stuff - but at 60 cals a bottle for the stuff I do drink, it hardly influences my weight at all.



  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    edited January 2015
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life.

    I think if she wants to give it up she should. Some people probably feel better not drinking it, especially if they seem to drink it to the exclusion of everything else. I give up coffee from time to time since I can get into a pattern of going overboard with it (right now I'm trying not to drink coffee or caffeinated tea after noon and it's driving me a bit crazy, since I was overdoing it).

    However, sometimes people think they ought to give up something instead of really wanting to, and diet soda is one of those things where you hear that it's poison or making you fat or silly things that are not true. If people are giving it up for those reasons, and not more factual ones, they might want to know that it's not necessary--for example, that lots of people are able to drink it and lose or even find it helpful.

    I don't agree with the frequent advice that you should change your diet as little as possible when starting a weight loss plan, since for me it's motivating to see myself doing something positive, and some of the bigger changes go along with that, so I can see that side.

    But, on the other hand, if I had added on to my dietary changes when I started a requirement that I also drop coffee--which happens to be something I can use in place of how I used to use food, as a break, a relaxing taste treat, whatever--I would have made this harder for myself and deprived myself of something I enjoy, for no reason. I actually made the call when I started that I wasn't going to worry about coffee until I was really comfortable with my eating. (And now that I'm close to goal I'm messing with it and might drop it for a while.)

    Similarly, I like to give up foods as part of my Lent practices, usually meat plus sweets. This time I did not (I started losing weight last January, so was still somewhat in the early stages), in part because I don't want my practices to relate to weight loss efforts, but more because I thought adding things would make it more difficult than it needed to be when I mostly wanted my diet to feel natural and enjoyable. This year I might well go back to my usual.

    So I do think that sometimes newbies to MFP seem to be doing too much at once and adding difficulties that are not necessary (if you really miss diet coke and end up having more trouble not overeating cookies, that's not helpful). However, that's going to depend on the person, so I think it's both useful to present the "you don't have to" ideas to OP and challenge things like "aspartame will KILL you TOMORROW and make you FAT" (not said by OP, of course) and also to respect her decision and answer her question.

    When I gave up diet soda I lost a lot of weight, whereas I couldn't before. It did not lead to me eating more cookies. It might have actually lead to me craving less cookies. I don't know. I was also counting calories, so that was probably what did it, but I had a hard time losing prior to this and this time the pounds just flew off and i was able to keep it off for almost 2 years now. I don't know that the giving up soda had anything to do with it, but it might have. Also, if you're drinking soda, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will be drinking less water. Isn't water good for you? myfitnesspal recommends 8 glasses a day. I know that's an unnecessarily high amount, but if I'm drinking soda instead, it's likely that amount will be reduced to zero.

    I suppose it hasn't been proven definitively that the chemicals in soda are bad, but that doesn't mean they aren't.

    Water in soda somehow doesn't count for ... water. Check.
    You started counting calories and lost weight but it was maybe because you stopped drinking soda at the same time. Check.
    Chemicals aren't shown to be bad. But maybe they are. Check.

    Logic, this post has it.

    I'll buy that being used to the taste of sweetness might influence your palate and make you crave other sweet, calorie rich things and thus increase the tendency to go over on your calories. That seems to be a personal taste thing.

    well, water is in foods too, but pure water sounds better. pretty sure when they have the 8 cups of water recommendation, they mean actual water, not water in foods.

    doesn't matter if my post is right or wrong. giving up diet soda will not kill you.

    man, i think some of the people here have diet soda as their personal god.

    oh and i stopped counting calories regularly almost 2 years ago and still kept the weight off and it was extremely easy. any other time i tried to diet, i put it right back on. diet soda is possibly the reason.

    No actually, the recommendation on water comes from an old paper and is "equivalent of" not actual distilled water (which is gross) you can have it in tea or tomatoes or what not.

    Giving up anything won't kill you - you can give up apples, pork or caramelized puppies and it doesn't matter. The point is, for the majority of people that focusing on the majors is more important than random abnegation - that is what we try to get across.

    That the OP decided that she wanted to stop drinking diet soda is fine - I don't care. Is it the best strategy for weight loss when some struggles with willpower? Heck, NO. Study after study shows that you only have so much ability to modify behavior by strength of will - one might want to focus that on the major factors that influence weight loss and quality of health.

    It might very well be that going cold turkey is the best thing in terms of soda and palate choices for some people. I make no comment on that and if you read my posts I'm not challenging the OPs decision to do that - however the logic that it doesn't count as water, etc. well that's just off.

    BTW, in the last two years you never drank a single soda? Did you suddenly gain weight?
    Personally, soda isn't a god. Rarely drink the stuff - but at 60 cals a bottle for the stuff I do drink, it hardly influences my weight at all.



    well, i believe it helped stop my cravings for other things. also do buy into the fact that it's chemicals and therefore not all that great. you don't have to if you don't want to.

    no, i didn't give it up entirely. i still drink it as a mixer with alcohol sometimes when i go out drinking. gotta mix alcohol with something. i gave up diet soda as an every day thing to drink with meals.

    distilled water is not gross.
  • Eire228
    Eire228 Posts: 238 Member
    I don't feel good about all the chemicals. Also, it keeps the sweet tooth going and makes it hard to stay away from sweets.

    I agree! Who knows what's in there.... if it can clean a car battery with all that acid, what is it doing to our stomachs??? But I'm totally addicted to Diet Coke. And it really is an addiction. I don't even think it tastes that good! haha I've tried drinking seltzer water instead, but it just doesn't cut it. The good thing is, I also drink a ton of water, and drink tea in the morning for my caffeine. So now Diet Coke is like a treat (which may or may not make the addiction worse?), and I limit myself to drinking it Friday-Sunday. Maybe one day I can eliminate it from my diet completely.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    .

    distilled water is not gross.

    I put it in our Keurig for coffee.

  • skullshank
    skullshank Posts: 4,323 Member
    Eire228 wrote: »
    I don't feel good about all the chemicals. Also, it keeps the sweet tooth going and makes it hard to stay away from sweets.

    I agree! Who knows what's in there.... if it can clean a car battery with all that acid, what is it doing to our stomachs???

    you mean the stomach that's full of acid?
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    edited January 2015
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life.

    I think if she wants to give it up she should. Some people probably feel better not drinking it, especially if they seem to drink it to the exclusion of everything else. I give up coffee from time to time since I can get into a pattern of going overboard with it (right now I'm trying not to drink coffee or caffeinated tea after noon and it's driving me a bit crazy, since I was overdoing it).

    However, sometimes people think they ought to give up something instead of really wanting to, and diet soda is one of those things where you hear that it's poison or making you fat or silly things that are not true. If people are giving it up for those reasons, and not more factual ones, they might want to know that it's not necessary--for example, that lots of people are able to drink it and lose or even find it helpful.

    I don't agree with the frequent advice that you should change your diet as little as possible when starting a weight loss plan, since for me it's motivating to see myself doing something positive, and some of the bigger changes go along with that, so I can see that side.

    But, on the other hand, if I had added on to my dietary changes when I started a requirement that I also drop coffee--which happens to be something I can use in place of how I used to use food, as a break, a relaxing taste treat, whatever--I would have made this harder for myself and deprived myself of something I enjoy, for no reason. I actually made the call when I started that I wasn't going to worry about coffee until I was really comfortable with my eating. (And now that I'm close to goal I'm messing with it and might drop it for a while.)

    Similarly, I like to give up foods as part of my Lent practices, usually meat plus sweets. This time I did not (I started losing weight last January, so was still somewhat in the early stages), in part because I don't want my practices to relate to weight loss efforts, but more because I thought adding things would make it more difficult than it needed to be when I mostly wanted my diet to feel natural and enjoyable. This year I might well go back to my usual.

    So I do think that sometimes newbies to MFP seem to be doing too much at once and adding difficulties that are not necessary (if you really miss diet coke and end up having more trouble not overeating cookies, that's not helpful). However, that's going to depend on the person, so I think it's both useful to present the "you don't have to" ideas to OP and challenge things like "aspartame will KILL you TOMORROW and make you FAT" (not said by OP, of course) and also to respect her decision and answer her question.

    When I gave up diet soda I lost a lot of weight, whereas I couldn't before. It did not lead to me eating more cookies. It might have actually lead to me craving less cookies. I don't know. I was also counting calories, so that was probably what did it, but I had a hard time losing prior to this and this time the pounds just flew off and i was able to keep it off for almost 2 years now. I don't know that the giving up soda had anything to do with it, but it might have. Also, if you're drinking soda, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will be drinking less water. Isn't water good for you? myfitnesspal recommends 8 glasses a day. I know that's an unnecessarily high amount, but if I'm drinking soda instead, it's likely that amount will be reduced to zero.

    I suppose it hasn't been proven definitively that the chemicals in soda are bad, but that doesn't mean they aren't.

    Water in soda somehow doesn't count for ... water. Check.
    You started counting calories and lost weight but it was maybe because you stopped drinking soda at the same time. Check.
    Chemicals aren't shown to be bad. But maybe they are. Check.

    Logic, this post has it.

    I'll buy that being used to the taste of sweetness might influence your palate and make you crave other sweet, calorie rich things and thus increase the tendency to go over on your calories. That seems to be a personal taste thing.

    well, water is in foods too, but pure water sounds better. pretty sure when they have the 8 cups of water recommendation, they mean actual water, not water in foods.

    doesn't matter if my post is right or wrong. giving up diet soda will not kill you.

    man, i think some of the people here have diet soda as their personal god.

    oh and i stopped counting calories regularly almost 2 years ago and still kept the weight off and it was extremely easy. any other time i tried to diet, i put it right back on. diet soda is possibly the reason.

    No actually, the recommendation on water comes from an old paper and is "equivalent of" not actual distilled water (which is gross) you can have it in tea or tomatoes or what not.

    Giving up anything won't kill you - you can give up apples, pork or caramelized puppies and it doesn't matter. The point is, for the majority of people that focusing on the majors is more important than random abnegation - that is what we try to get across.

    That the OP decided that she wanted to stop drinking diet soda is fine - I don't care. Is it the best strategy for weight loss when some struggles with willpower? Heck, NO. Study after study shows that you only have so much ability to modify behavior by strength of will - one might want to focus that on the major factors that influence weight loss and quality of health.

    It might very well be that going cold turkey is the best thing in terms of soda and palate choices for some people. I make no comment on that and if you read my posts I'm not challenging the OPs decision to do that - however the logic that it doesn't count as water, etc. well that's just off.

    BTW, in the last two years you never drank a single soda? Did you suddenly gain weight?
    Personally, soda isn't a god. Rarely drink the stuff - but at 60 cals a bottle for the stuff I do drink, it hardly influences my weight at all.



    well, i believe it helped stop my cravings for other things. also do buy into the fact that it's chemicals and therefore not all that great. you don't have to if you don't want to.

    no, i didn't give it up entirely. i still drink it as a mixer with alcohol sometimes when i go out drinking. gotta mix alcohol with something. i gave up diet soda as an every day thing to drink with meals.

    distilled water is not gross.

    So you drink soda with moderation. Got it. Hope it isn't making you fat. You actually do what everyone is recommending.

    BTW - distilled water is not a good idea. And taste being a personal thing and everything, you might like it but it is generally accepted as poor in taste. It is also possibly unhealthy to drink it as it might leads to mineral leaching. Don't take my word for it.

    WHO: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf


  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    .

    distilled water is not gross.

    I put it in our Keurig for coffee.

    It doesn't come out distilled....
  • Thank you LeenaGee and the rest who gave suggestions. Making some ice tea now

    I think that's a great idea, but my question is, aren't you going to use sweetener in it? I'm a gingerale lover so I switched to diet when I started following MFP. I got leery with all the chemical talk, so I started just putting a glug every so often when the craving hits into my water bottle. Water isn't as boring and I ingest less sweetener than I would have.
  • LeanButNotMean44
    LeanButNotMean44 Posts: 852 Member
    I don't feel good about all the chemicals. Also, it keeps the sweet tooth going and makes it hard to stay away from sweets.

    What about all of the chemicals in water? Lead, chlorine, etc. OTOH, if you don't want to drink soda, then don't drink it. I have one diet Coke per day (more on the weekends when I "cut" it with Captain Morgan) but I also drink 64ozs of water. AS long as soda isn't totally substituted for water then I don't see it as being an issue (for me).

  • MoiAussi93
    MoiAussi93 Posts: 1,948 Member
    Thank you Aviva. I was a bit surprised to find myself on the defensive, lol. Thanks Victoria. I'm doing two weeks giving it up (let's call it a lent type thing). I might have it in moderation later but I feel like an alcoholic...not altogether sure I can drink in moderation. I have to keep it in the house because my husband refuses to give it up.

    I understand completely...the moderation thing with sugar is hard for me as well. Much easier for me to stop completely. Not sure if you know this, but I have read that artificial sweeteners cause cravings for sugar. This is my layman explanation, so research it yourself if you want a more technical explanation...but supposedly when the body tastes something sweet, it expects an inflow of sugar calories. When it doesn't get it, it causes more cravings to try to get that expectation filled. So even though the diet soda has zero calories, it may lead you to eat or drink something else that does. I noticed that when I gave up sweets completely, the cravings disappeared completely after a short time.

    Obviously, some people are better at resisting these urges than me. If they can handle moderation, good for them. It isn't the best approach for some people though, including me. Besides, there is nothing in diet soda your body needs so you should not have to defend giving it up!

    My go to drinks: water...try adding lemon or chilling it with cinnamon. Iced tea without sweetener...hibiscus teas are naturally slightly sweet tasting and you might not even miss having sugar. On rare occasions, I will have diluted fruit juice...maybe 1/3 juice to 2/3 water...juice has a lot of sugar, and I find it tastes better diluted.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.

  • angiemann2007
    angiemann2007 Posts: 17 Member
    I noticed when I drink diet soda, I gain weight. I think I have a sensitivity to the artificial sweetners or something...I lost 10 lbs in 15 days when I cut it out and switched to waters flavored with natural sweeteners....Not sure about the stevia but thats whats in sobe water and it doesnt cause the same issue...probably no correlation, but it has started trimming weight off again since cutting out the diet soda again....pitchers of water with fruit pieces (oranges/lemons/berries) in it...flavors the water and doesnt have all the crap in it.
  • Azexas
    Azexas Posts: 4,334 Member
    If the soda works within your calories and macros for the day, you don't necessarily have to give it up. BUT if you absolutely are dead set on giving it up- seltzer water will still give you the bubbly of soda. Just throw some Dasani or Mio water enhancer in it.
  • ketorach
    ketorach Posts: 430 Member
    I drink diet Coke every day. I enjoy it and it's free at my office. :wink:

    That said, I drink only two a day and drink filtered water or seltzer water for the rest of the day. I cut back from about 5 a day down to 2. Sometimes one. I would try to wean yourself off rather than go cold turkey.

    Anyway, I have zero adverse effects from diet soda. I am not dehydrated. I don't crave more sweets. And the aspartame does not make me feel unwell. There are plenty of people who believe aspartame will kill you but the FDA does not agree.

    However, I do not tolerate all artificial sweeteners as well as aspartame. In particular, malitol gives me headaches and causes serious gastrointestinal distress. So, no malitol for me! Everyone needs to find what works for them.


  • MoiAussi93
    MoiAussi93 Posts: 1,948 Member
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.
    Yes, they do. http://nydailynews.com/life-style/health/artificial-sweeteners-sabotage-weight-loss-article-1.1467084

  • Azexas
    Azexas Posts: 4,334 Member
    edited January 2015
    MoiAussi93 wrote: »
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.
    Yes, they do. http://nydailynews.com/life-style/health/artificial-sweeteners-sabotage-weight-loss-article-1.1467084

    I'm not saying the article is correct or incorrect- but they subtitle says "new evidence suggests" and then doesn't give said evidence or list references of studies done... seems a bit off.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited January 2015
    MoiAussi93 wrote: »
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.
    Yes, they do. http://nydailynews.com/life-style/health/artificial-sweeteners-sabotage-weight-loss-article-1.1467084
    I've read the paper the article was based off. The sweeteners were dosed in isolation, not with foods and it's just a hypothesis. Even the study says it's just a hypothesis. Notice the use of the word may in the headline?

    I'll hypothesize that people who consume large quantities of diet soda have overall poor diets and just eat too much.

    I'll also hypothesize that rat studies are poor analogs for human dietary findings.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    Troutsy wrote: »
    MoiAussi93 wrote: »
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.
    Yes, they do. http://nydailynews.com/life-style/health/artificial-sweeteners-sabotage-weight-loss-article-1.1467084

    I'm not saying the article is correct or incorrect- but they subtitle says "new evidence suggests" and then fails to reference one study or list references... seems a bit off.

    The study's not in the article, but here it is.

    ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

  • Azexas
    Azexas Posts: 4,334 Member
    Troutsy wrote: »
    MoiAussi93 wrote: »
    Artificial sweeteners don't cause cravings for sugar. I wish that bunkum would stop. It sounds good when you're in the mindset to latch onto the sugar boogeyman, but when you step back and rationally look at the statement, it honestly makes no sense at all.
    Yes, they do. http://nydailynews.com/life-style/health/artificial-sweeteners-sabotage-weight-loss-article-1.1467084

    I'm not saying the article is correct or incorrect- but they subtitle says "new evidence suggests" and then fails to reference one study or list references... seems a bit off.

    The study's not in the article, but here it is.

    ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

    Thanks- I'll have to read it on my lunch.
  • Lynette4321
    Lynette4321 Posts: 37 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    People love saying they're addicted to things. That removes any sense or personal responsibility for their actions. Give up sodas or don't for whatever reasons you want but get rid of the idea you're addicted to them. At worst you have a habit that's easily broken.

    Really. If you can't be helpful, just leave it alone. I had no idea a post about diet soda would cause such controversy.
This discussion has been closed.