Sugar-free drinks: the good, the bad and the 'we should be aware'!
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I don't log my diet cokes, but I'm pretty sure I had one back February 3rd when I had 685 grams of kale as part of lunch.JanetYellen wrote: »Study makes it sound like those people never drank water.
I wonder if people that never drink water, simply don't focus on exercising and other healthy eating habits.
I can't see someone drinking a diet coke with a kale salad.
More: There are a lot of people that do not drink any daily water
I simply meant the study could be skewed by using these people for the purpose of a good article.
Just to get people to buy the magazine.0 -
It's very interesting how the email ignored the fact that the "triple" number was before controlling for various variables that may influence the result. That's what we call bad science reporting! From the study itself:
"...the analyses include adjustment for anthropometric measures and other characteristics at the outset of each follow-up interval, but other factors—including family history and perceived personal weight-gain and health-risk trajectories—that increased ΔWC [difference in waist circumference] but were not captured in the analyses may have influenced participant decisions to use DS [diet soda]. Complete dietary intake data are not available for SALSA participants; these results are thus unadjusted for caloric intake."
For reference for those interested in the science, here's a link to the actual study being discussed: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jgs.13376/full0 -
I lost over 50lbs and greatly improved my blood panels, while drinking 4-6 cans of diet soda a day. Go figure.0
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ronjsteele1 wrote: »Wow. Just wow. There are plenty of studies that indicate exactly what OP is saying. Besides the weight gain factor, the health implications of artificial sweeteners is huge. Nutrasweet nearly killed me when I was pregnant. Literally. 7 days in a hospital on a morphine drip because of the stuff. And no, I'm not allergic to it. It just caused a lot of damage to my organs because I thought diet drinks were okay. I would suggest doing some more in depth research before you poo poo this, but then again, I don't expect it off of this website.
I guess if we are getting all anecdotal, I had 4 healthy babies and drank diet coke with each pregnancy. Also ate healthy, had plenty of water, stayed active. I think that the vast majority of pregnant ladies who have some diet soda will have outcomes closer to mine than yours, most people drink it in moderation as a part of an overall diet, instead of having sugared drinks.
How did diet soda damage your organs?
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Nah. Or I am some kind of super hero who drank diet soda or put Mio in my water everyday and lost all the weight I wanted.
Cool, I'm a super hero too! I drink 1 or 2 drinks with artificial sweeteners every day. Losing weight like a champ. Somehow these poisons aren't preventing my body's natural function of reducing fat because a calorie deficit. Nice to meet another genetically gifted special snowflake like me!
*fistbump*
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JanetYellen wrote: »I can't see someone drinking a diet coke with a kale salad.
Why on earth not? The most common place for me to get diet coke is in a restaurant (because I don't drink wine anymore), and I often order a kale salad (yes, I go to the sorts of restaurants with kale salad).
I was just writing on my feed about how I was sad that this silly super local place we used to go to all the time is closing (super local as in its shtick was that everything was locally sourced). They didn't have diet coke, you had to get their local diet cola brand (which was tasty enough), and they had local beers too. Pretty sure the wine wasn't local, which is something to be thankful for (for those ordering the wine). Anyway, I doubt I'm the only one who ordered the local diet soda, even in a place like that.0 -
ronjsteele1 wrote: »Wow. Just wow. There are plenty of studies that indicate exactly what OP is saying. Besides the weight gain factor, the health implications of artificial sweeteners is huge. Nutrasweet nearly killed me when I was pregnant. Literally. 7 days in a hospital on a morphine drip because of the stuff. And no, I'm not allergic to it. It just caused a lot of damage to my organs because I thought diet drinks were okay. I would suggest doing some more in depth research before you poo poo this, but then again, I don't expect it off of this website.
I guess if we are getting all anecdotal, I had 4 healthy babies and drank diet coke with each pregnancy. Also ate healthy, had plenty of water, stayed active. I think that the vast majority of pregnant ladies who have some diet soda will have outcomes closer to mine than yours, most people drink it in moderation as a part of an overall diet, instead of having sugared drinks.
How did diet soda damage your organs?
Yep, 3 healthy pregnancies/deliveries/babies-I drank diet soda throughout all of it. I have a picture of me in the delivery room drinking a 20 ounce of diet coke, while my son was getting his first bath by the nurse. The soda was part of my hospital bag
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Thank you all very much for the responses and input. Ronjsteele, that sounded one awful experience you had, so I hope you made a full recovery for the long term. I'm astonished, frankly, at the responses your comment received from some members who should learn some basic online manners, particularly when talking to other members about their health.
I am a major fan of diet drinks but I was just hoping for some alternatives to cans of diet-y fizz!
My own, highly unscientific research shows that jury does seem to be out still on the longer-term effects of artificial sweetners because....yes, far from being exhausted, more research is needed.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/artificial-sweeteners/
http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/artificial-sweeteners-fact-sheet
Thanks again and cheers.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »JanetYellen wrote: »I can't see someone drinking a diet coke with a kale salad.
Why on earth not? The most common place for me to get diet coke is in a restaurant (because I don't drink wine anymore), and I often order a kale salad (yes, I go to the sorts of restaurants with kale salad).
I was just writing on my feed about how I was sad that this silly super local place we used to go to all the time is closing (super local as in its shtick was that everything was locally sourced). They didn't have diet coke, you had to get their local diet cola brand (which was tasty enough), and they had local beers too. Pretty sure the wine wasn't local, which is something to be thankful for (for those ordering the wine). Anyway, I doubt I'm the only one who ordered the local diet soda, even in a place like that.
I'm so sad we can no longer be friends.0 -
Ronjsteele, that sounded one awful experience you had, so I hope you made a full recovery for the long term. I'm astonished, frankly, at the responses your comment received from some members who should learn some basic online manners, particularly when talking to other members about their health.
I am a major fan of diet drinks but I was just hoping for some alternatives to cans of diet-y fizz!
Will likely never completely recover full pancreas function but still way better then it was 15yrs ago. Thanks. The responses don't surprise me at all. This website is so over medical is almost makes me sick. But it's a weight loss site and I keep that perspective. I try to keep my eyes on CICO and try to stay too much out of the fray. Life is too short and I'm way too busy.
As for you wanting an alternative drink - you might look at some of the more "natural" (put in quotes for a reason) sodas. Zevia comes to mind (sweetened with stevia). I'm not a huge fan of stevia (I don't like the taste) but *if* I feel like something fizzy I will get one of these and it satisfies my hankering without all the nasty chemicals. The grape flavor is pretty good and I don't get a stevia after taste from it. There are a few other brands also worth looking at. Much of it has to do with personal taste and taste bud sensitivity to stevia. You'll usually find these types of sodas in natural health sections of stores (Kroger) or at places like Natural Grocer or Trader Joes.0 -
JanetYellen wrote: »Study makes it sound like those people never drank water.
I wonder if people that never drink water, simply don't focus on exercising and other healthy eating habits.
I can't see someone drinking a diet coke with a kale salad.
More: There are a lot of people that do not drink any daily water
I simply meant the study could be skewed by using these people for the purpose of a good article.
I consume kale (and other greens) with diet soda regularly. Just because *you* can't see something doesn't mean it isn't happening.0 -
ronjsteele1 wrote: »Ronjsteele, that sounded one awful experience you had, so I hope you made a full recovery for the long term. I'm astonished, frankly, at the responses your comment received from some members who should learn some basic online manners, particularly when talking to other members about their health.
I am a major fan of diet drinks but I was just hoping for some alternatives to cans of diet-y fizz!
Will likely never completely recover full pancreas function but still way better then it was 15yrs ago. Thanks. The responses don't surprise me at all. This website is so over medical is almost makes me sick. But it's a weight loss site and I keep that perspective. I try to keep my eyes on CICO and try to stay too much out of the fray. Life is too short and I'm way too busy.
As for you wanting an alternative drink - you might look at some of the more "natural" (put in quotes for a reason) sodas. Zevia comes to mind (sweetened with stevia). I'm not a huge fan of stevia (I don't like the taste) but *if* I feel like something fizzy I will get one of these and it satisfies my hankering without all the nasty chemicals. The grape flavor is pretty good and I don't get a stevia after taste from it. There are a few other brands also worth looking at. Much of it has to do with personal taste and taste bud sensitivity to stevia. You'll usually find these types of sodas in natural health sections of stores (Kroger) or at places like Natural Grocer or Trader Joes.
Stevia is still chemicals. Just because something is found in nature rather than synthetic doesn't make it safer. In fact, Stevia is probably the least tested of low/zero calorie sweeteners, and potentially the one with the worst safety record.0 -
Will likely never completely recover full pancreas function but still way better then it was 15yrs ago. Thanks. The responses don't surprise me at all. This website is so over medical is almost makes me sick. But it's a weight loss site and I keep that perspective. I try to keep my eyes on CICO and try to stay too much out of the fray. Life is too short and I'm way too busy.
As for you wanting an alternative drink - you might look at some of the more "natural" (put in quotes for a reason) sodas. Zevia comes to mind (sweetened with stevia). I'm not a huge fan of stevia (I don't like the taste) but *if* I feel like something fizzy I will get one of these and it satisfies my hankering without all the nasty chemicals. The grape flavor is pretty good and I don't get a stevia after taste from it. There are a few other brands also worth looking at. Much of it has to do with personal taste and taste bud sensitivity to stevia. You'll usually find these types of sodas in natural health sections of stores (Kroger) or at places like Natural Grocer or Trader Joes.
Still waiting on the links to those studies.0 -
We should throw vaccines into this mix. Just to get an accurate measure of the BSC quotient.0
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Thank you all very much for the responses and input. Ronjsteele, that sounded one awful experience you had, so I hope you made a full recovery for the long term. I'm astonished, frankly, at the responses your comment received from some members who should learn some basic online manners, particularly when talking to other members about their health.
The reason people responded so strongly is because she is using her experience as an argument to convince others that they shouldn't drink diet drinks. Someone who says "I have an issue with diet drinks personally but can't extrapolate that to others" would not have that kind of response. There's so much misinformation out there, especially around sweeteners, that it's actively harmful to people asking questions about them to give them bad information like "they harmed me, therefore you shouldn't drink them".
The only study in the first link that implies any kind of causal link is the one that has no study actually linked to it, just a claim that some study somewhere says it (the 47% BMI one). I would be interested to see how they "controlled for dieting" - did they simply ask the people if they were currently on a diet while measuring? Did they ask how much of the time between measurements they were on a diet? Did they actually monitor the calories consumed? Did they rely on self-reporting?
This, exactly this, is why it's so dangerous for Ronjsteele to use her experience to tell you that you shouldn't be drinking diet drinks. For some people, eating gluten or chocolate or pecans will cause them to be ill, or need to go to the hospital. This does not mean that you can't eat gluten or chocolate or pecans. Now we've got bad science floating around backed up by anecdotal evidence and future people reading this thread may come away with "well, the science is divided", instead of factual information.0 -
I drink 4-6 cans of diet pop a day, and 2 cups of tea sweetened with splenda each day (3 packets of splenda per cup). I have lost 72# and my waist measurement has gone from 51" to 38.5" over the past 16months.
I do not drink water...maybe 2-3 cups a week? Only diet pop and 2cups hot tea a day. Ive been known to carry a bottle of diet pop when i go for a run, and had my husband meet me at the finish line of my half marathon in nov with a large diet coke from mcdonalds.
I have also had 4 very healthy pregnancies drinking mainly diet pop.0 -
Still waiting on the links to those studies.
The reason I haven't is because it wouldn't matter if I gave you something from the CDC, FDA, etc. you'd still find something wrong with them. I'm a researcher to the extreme of what I'll put into my family's bodies (that happens when you deal with sick kids from XXXXXXXX) and I expect if people truly want to know the truth, they'll go looking for it. Beyond that, I won't waste my time beyond a few sentences. When I actually think posting links will make a difference in how someone thinks, then I do it. Let's be truthful, not a single person who has an opinion, one way or the other, is going to be swayed by anything the other side posts. I can tit for tat all day long but my life is too busy and I have better things to do. Hopefully, OP, got just enough info to send her out researching because that would be my advice to anyone wanting to make changes or know both sides of an argument. Do your own research and come to your own conclusion. That is what it means to be an informed consumer.0 -
Often, being an "extreme researcher" is to your detriment, because it leads you into bad corners of the internet where you read that chocolate makes you lose weight because someone paid a few hundred dollars to put it in a journal somewhere....there will always somewhere be "the other side" supported, for every issue. Especially every health issue. Reading every study as if they're all equally valid and ignoring the lines between mainstream science and fringe is about as helpful as thinking you're near a doctor because you research on WebMD to the extreme.0
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Thank you all very much for the responses and input. Ronjsteele, that sounded one awful experience you had, so I hope you made a full recovery for the long term. I'm astonished, frankly, at the responses your comment received from some members who should learn some basic online manners, particularly when talking to other members about their health.
The reason people responded so strongly is because she is using her experience as an argument to convince others that they shouldn't drink diet drinks. Someone who says "I have an issue with diet drinks personally but can't extrapolate that to others" would not have that kind of response. There's so much misinformation out there, especially around sweeteners, that it's actively harmful to people asking questions about them to give them bad information like "they harmed me, therefore you shouldn't drink them".
The only study in the first link that implies any kind of causal link is the one that has no study actually linked to it, just a claim that some study somewhere says it (the 47% BMI one). I would be interested to see how they "controlled for dieting" - did they simply ask the people if they were currently on a diet while measuring? Did they ask how much of the time between measurements they were on a diet? Did they actually monitor the calories consumed? Did they rely on self-reporting?
This, exactly this, is why it's so dangerous for Ronjsteele to use her experience to tell you that you shouldn't be drinking diet drinks. For some people, eating gluten or chocolate or pecans will cause them to be ill, or need to go to the hospital. This does not mean that you can't eat gluten or chocolate or pecans. Now we've got bad science floating around backed up by anecdotal evidence and future people reading this thread may come away with "well, the science is divided", instead of factual information.
This. Dairy is harmful to one of my kids. That doesn't mean dairy is evil and everyone should cut it out. I have a relative who's severely allergic to tomatoes. For her tomatoes are dangerous. For me, they're delicious. My friend has celiac and eating gluten has sent her to the hospital. I eat gluten with absolutely no issues.
I've personally had no issues with diet soda/artificial sweeteners, I've done a lot of my own research on them, and I've also talked to my doctor about them (she has no issue with me drinking diet soda). So I'll go with what I know works for me 0
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