Addicted to diet coke.. help :(

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  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
    I would tell my dad to *kitten* off but, maybe that's not such a good idea
  • kitkatlp
    kitkatlp Posts: 93 Member
    Well, I would naturally be suspicious towards any type of excess. A healthy lifestyle comes with balanced diet and moderation in everything.

    You don't need to drink water as your daily water consumption goal is met by far with just your diet soda intake.
    Besides, please let us all remind that there is also water in food. The European Food Safety Authority recommends 2 litres of water per day for females and 2.5 litres for males.
    There is an important portion of that water coming from food naturally i.e. you usually don't have to drink a bottle of 2 litres per day on top of your food.

    However, I would be concerned about the type of diet soda you drink and what sweeteners are being used for that soda.

    As an example, although aspartame was recognised as being safe for consumption, the acceptable daily intake has been set at 40mg per kg of bodyweight.

    Not all artificial sweeteners are equal from a health perspective.
    http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/the-truth-about-artificial-sweeteners.aspx

    The other concern would be tooth decay:
    Although they often contain no sugar, diet sodas usually cause about the same amount of dental erosion as regular sodas.
    http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral-health/basics/nutrition-and-oral-health/article/sugar-free-drinks-are-they-safe-for-teeth-0115
    healthy491 wrote: »

    Thanks a lot :) but the problem is I cant stand water.. it makes me sick

    No comment...
    :/
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  • Conniebythesea70
    Conniebythesea70 Posts: 1 Member
    It is hard, as I was addicted too but you can do it! There is nothing but POSITIVES that can come out of putting fewer chemicals in your body be it, food or drinks! Good luck! :)
  • pianoplaya94
    pianoplaya94 Posts: 185 Member
    It contains aspartame, which causes cancer:
    http://www.3dmusclejourney.com/aspartame-jordan-day/
    Cancer Proven from Aspartame
    Arguably the most spoken of talk point of many anti-aspartame zealots are the experiments done on rats. *The link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392232/ provides a ton of information on studies regarding lab testing involving aspartame and rats, yielding inconclusive evidence against popularized theories. Included are a couple just to prove a point:

    In 1981, Ishii conducted research dosing aspartame to rats. He used 86 males and 86 females, dosing 0, 1, 2, or 4 g/kg bw/day from weeks 6 to 110 . The statistical variance in bodyweight discrepancy when comparing a rat to a man needs to be taken into account, and dosage would still remain proportionate to the body weight of the subject. The highest dose in this study was 4 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day. This means that for a 200 pound man (90.909 kilograms) times 4 grams of aspartame per kilo gives you…363.63 grams every single day. One final computation to get back to milligrams so we are on the same playing field as our previous studies: 1000 mg= 1 g, so that gives us 363,363 milligrams of aspartame administered to a 200 pound man. Do you remember what the average consumption of an American is? 5 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, so for our example, 455 milligrams. The most interesting part of this would not even be the insanely high dosage of the sweetener, but that there was no increase in the incidence of brain tumors. So at literally 800 times the dose that one would consume on a day to day basis, over the duration of more than two years, there was nothing significant to compare to the control group. Just as a friendly reminder, a can of Diet Coke has 180 milligrams of aspartame.

    There were though, some studies that indicate negative effects, cancer incidences, and the like. The thing with those is that they can be easily refuted, based on the sole understanding of dosage. In a popular study used to bash this sweetener, in order for there to be a statistical significance, the dosage of aspartame used was 2,500 mg/kg, which simply is not plausible. At the end of the day, everything is toxic at the right dose. That is like getting a study published when 50 subjects aged 30-40 received a dose of 3,000 grams of salt intravenously to see the mortality rate. (Then the headlines on the news would be “Study confirms that salt may lead to an early death.”) Looking over a toxicology report showing the LD50 (essentially the dose that will kill 50% of a given population) it is easy to see that even things you would never think could bring death, can, at the right dose. News reports over the years show people overdosing on water and drugs but anything can be deadly, in the right amount. Caffeine being roughly 200 mg/kg of bodyweight and Vitamin D being 10 mg/kg. The dosage makes the poison.

    The bottom line is that there is simply not enough evidence to prove aspartame as carcinogenic over not, and even those that have even the slightest hint in their desired direction are easily picked apart and dissected down to nothing.

    So, to sum this up, I figured it might be a little easier to relate all this back to the main point, our safety as consumers.

    Nope, aspartame does not "cause" cancer as far as we know right now. And even if it does, it's too soon to tell if aspartame has any negative effects on humans (it took smoking decades to be found harmful). There may be some studies to suggest that there *may* be a relationship, but the research on this is largely inconclusive. Plus, don't use the word "cause" when talking about scientific research (like X causes Y). A significant relationship may have been found, but it cannot be determined that X is absolutely 100% the cause of Y.

  • healthy491
    healthy491 Posts: 384 Member
    Thanks everyone :) ! You've been a great help ! I guess people are not educated enough on these things
  • jbee27
    jbee27 Posts: 356 Member
    I think many posters have already covered the top points, it doesn't impact weight loss, it's not that bad for you, etc.

    However, if you want to cut back, it has upsides. I sleep better and I save a lot of money on beverages.

    I was horrendously addicted to caffeine while I was in graduate school. I was consuming coffee and diet coke from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. My tolerance for caffeine was sky high, my sleep was never really restful, and I had constant stomach aches.

    After school was over, I slowly weaned myself off, I drink a few cups of coffee throughout the morning now, and have a soda occasionally in the afternoon or evening. I feel more rested when I wake up, and caffeine has gone back to being an energy boost, rather than necessary for functioning. :-)

    I cant' offer any advice to the not liking water though...I don't understand that. It tastes like nothing...I don't understand how you can actively dislike the taste of water?
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  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    @healthy491 if water makes you gag maybe try Mio or another water flavouring that is low calorie. I see no need for you to give up your diet soda, but 4 litres a day is a lot. Maybe trim to 2 litres a day and in between flavour water with Mio.

    Yes there is a lot of information out there. I imagine an important modern skill is to evaluate all the evidence and filter out the unsubstantiated/debunked.
  • MelMel1515
    MelMel1515 Posts: 16 Member
    If you are looking to just avoid the aspertame Diet Pepsi no longer has it in their soda. However it does uses another artificial sweetener and, personally, not as tasty as Diet Coke, or in my case Coke Zero.

    If you are looking to quit dring soda altogether or at least cut back, I would recommend favored soda/seltzer water. Soda/Seltzer water, like LaCroix, may take sometimes to get use to the taste or lack there of. However, it is no different then getting use to drinking unsweetened tea or coffee. Drink soda/seltzer will help you cut back on caffeine that you would be consuming form Diet Coke.

    If you are looking to avoid carbonation beverages altogether. Tea is great, there seems to be a million different times of teas, and depending on the tea it can taste great cold and just as well hot. Just make sure you don't or at least limit the the amount of sugar/sweetener you apply to the tea to prevent unnecessary calories.

    If you are just looking to stars drinking more water, I would recommend buying a water infuser, or at least start adding fresh fruit to your water. The infuser just helps keeping the fruit contain. I have one and use it all the time and it always me to have more then boring old lemon water. I make water all the time with strawberries, blueberries, and kiwis and it's amazing.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
    Know what's more likely to contribute to cancer in humans, at least more than the small amounts of artificial sweeteners in diet soda? Obesity.
    What is known about the relationship between obesity and cancer? (http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/obesity-fact-sheet#q3)

    If diet soda is something that helps you reach a decently healthy weight range and you feel ok about the small amounts of sodium and sweeteners contained therein, you can keep drinking it. If you feel like you want to cut back and aren't too keen on plain water, you can try unsweetened iced tea or plain club soda with a splash of juice. Pomegranate and club soda is delicious. So is lemon & lime, or a few muddled strawberries or raspberries.
  • RobD520
    RobD520 Posts: 420 Member
    duddysdad wrote: »
    I've been drinking diet soda for at least 30 years. Every single day, multiple cans. 30 years of artificial sweetener and I have no negative health problems because of this. I've lost a ton of weight while drinking a 2 liter + a day. There is nothing wrong with it.

    While I absolutely agree that there is a great deal of mythology around artificial sweeteners-and I do have Diet Coke from time-to-time, this very same argument was presented to me in the 70's, but about Lucky Strikes.

    The fact that product-X hasn't harmed me is not strong evidence that product-X doesn't pose health risks.

    But I totally agree that the solid scientific evidence to support all the scare-mongering regarding artificial sweeteners is non-existent.



  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    OP, please ignore the posts by BreezeDoveal. They're trolling to derail the thread.
  • healthy491
    healthy491 Posts: 384 Member
    daniip_la wrote: »
    OP, please ignore the posts by BreezeDoveal. They're trolling to derail the thread.

    yeah , I figured.. Thanks :)
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    srecupid wrote: »
    I would tell my dad to *kitten* off but, maybe that's not such a good idea

    Yep, OP is 18, may need daddy's help for a while.
  • Trish1c
    Trish1c Posts: 549 Member
    edited August 2016
    It is a hard habit to kick but you should try. I drank about 4-6 regular Pepsi's per day for years. Some days the bulk of my calorie intake would come from soda. For the past several years I would give it up for Lent & suffer through the caffeine withdrawal headaches. Oftentimes I would substitute something else like juice or Fresca which is the only diet soda I can stomach.

    Then when I really started to get serious about weight loss. I just quit. Since July 1 of this year I have only had 1 Pepsi & I drank that for the caffeine. Having not had a soda in so long, I was WIRED.

    Part of giving it up is the choice to give it up. There may not be many calories in it, and I doubt it causes cancer but re-read how much other unnatural garbage is in 1 serving. Do one of those tests for yourself where you pour the soda on something & watch the corrosive effects at work. It's gross.

    I do think the carbonation causes bloating & that the chemicals do something to sabotage your weight loss efforts. I think that those parts of the studies talking about diet soda contributing to weight gain have at least kernels of legitimacy.

    I'm not going to preach to you to stop but try your best to cut down your intake even gradually. For the rest of the month have one less soda each day & see how you feel come September. Then eliminate one more& so on & so on. Just get it down to a more manageable level
  • tanny684
    tanny684 Posts: 196 Member
    healthy491 wrote: »
    rainbowbow wrote: »
    doesn't cause weight gain, doesn't cause diabetes, doesn't cause cancer, etc. etc. etc.


    The only worry i'd have consuming the amount you're talking about is the damage to your teeth or potential Reflux/Acid symptoms.

    Really ? Thanks :) literally EVERYONE tells me how bad it is for my health and that I should stop

    Me too, I'm always told it rots your insides! I'm addicted to the stuff too have you tried flavoured water? Or fizzy water?
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  • oolou
    oolou Posts: 765 Member
    I drank a lot of diet coke about 10 years ago and my dentist recommended drinking it with a straw for the benefit of my teeth.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    jbee27 wrote: »
    I think many posters have already covered the top points, it doesn't impact weight loss, it's not that bad for you, etc.

    However, if you want to cut back, it has upsides. I sleep better and I save a lot of money on beverages.

    I was horrendously addicted to caffeine while I was in graduate school. I was consuming coffee and diet coke from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. My tolerance for caffeine was sky high, my sleep was never really restful, and I had constant stomach aches.

    After school was over, I slowly weaned myself off, I drink a few cups of coffee throughout the morning now, and have a soda occasionally in the afternoon or evening. I feel more rested when I wake up, and caffeine has gone back to being an energy boost, rather than necessary for functioning. :-)

    I cant' offer any advice to the not liking water though...I don't understand that. It tastes like nothing...I don't understand how you can actively dislike the taste of water?

    Water, particularly tap water (or any non reverse osmosis water) has minerals and other things in it that impart flavor.

    My willingness to drink plain water is highly dependent on where I am. I refuse to buy bottled water routinely.
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    edited August 2016
    Trish1c wrote: »
    Part of giving it up is the choice to give it up. There may not be many calories in it, and I doubt it causes cancer but re-read how much other unnatural garbage is in 1 serving. Do one of those tests for yourself where you pour the soda on something & watch the corrosive effects at work. It's gross.

    I do think the carbonation causes bloating & that the chemicals do something to sabotage your weight loss efforts.

    If you're wanting to mimic the effect of soda on your body, be sure the object you're pouring it on has the same physiology as your stomach. Its corrosion of metal, for instance, has no bearing on our bodies unless you're ingesting metal.

    And the 'chemicals' don't sabotage weight loss.

    It's completely up to an individual on wether they drink sodas/diet sodas or not, but everyone should be aware of the scientific facts.