Diet Cokes ?
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tomdomurat wrote: »
Potassium Benzoate:
Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.
That does it! No more soda for me; I strive to include bacteria, yeast and mold in my daily diet.16 -
diannethegeek wrote: »amandapleighse92 wrote: »“Brace yourselves, girls: Soda is liquid Satan. It is the devil. It is garbage. There is nothing in soda that should be put into your body. For starters, soda’s high levels of phosphorous can increase calcium loss from the body, as can its sodium and caffeine. [Cousens, Conscious Eating, 475] You know what this means—bone loss, which may lead to osteoporosis. And the last time we checked, sugar, found in soda by the boatload, does not make you skinny! Now don’t go patting yourself on the back if you drink diet soda. That stuff is even worse. Aspartame (an ingredient commonly found in diet sodas and other sugar-free foods) has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.2 When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing). 3 Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. They don’t *kitten* drink it. Perhaps you have a lumpy *kitten* because you are preserving your fat cells with diet soda. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more complaints about aspartame than any other ingredient to date.4 Want more bad news? When aspartame is paired with carbs, it causes your brain to slow down its production of serotonin.5 A healthy level of serotonin is needed to be happy and well balanced. So drinking soda can make you fat, sick, and unhappy.”
It goes on, I read the book and found the quote online. (Rory Freedman) The book is "Skinny *kitten*" Like I said I read it a few years ago. I never got into diet coke, so someone else's research may be more in depth than mine. When I decided to cut the soda, I just switched to water.
I'm just posting so I can find this later when someone says that no one actually equates diet coke and Satan.
You have this one, I have the "Sugar is the devil" - or was it "debil?" thread bookmarked. Anything else need to be covered?
Pretty sure there's a few All Carbs Are Evil threads kicking around...6 -
I avoid pop/soda all together now. I was addicted for a good 10 years. It makes me retain ALOT OF WATER. So recently i quit pop all together and im 1 month off of it, it doesnt make you gain weight..it just makes you retain water. theres a difference. i personally dont have anything against them
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ronjsteele1 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »ronjsteele1 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »For some people it does cause cravings, for other it doesn't. You just have to go by how diet soda effects you personally.
I'm one of those people that is/was greatly affected by artificial sweeteners. It did affect my cravings, I did gain a tremendous amount of weight drinking them (b/c it affects cravings which affected my appetite). And to top it off, the AS gave me a severe case of pancreatitis while pregnant (not a good thing!). Needless to say, I abruptly stopped my 6-8 can a day diet coke habit 15+ years ago and can't touch artificial sweeteners (they still affect me). That said, I still like a fizzy drink once in awhile so I drink Blue Sky Root Beer sweetened with stevia. Neither stevia nor xylitol seem to affect me. But I don't drink it often. Maybe one a week. I'm a water girl mostly. Because of my experience (and plenty of reading), I am firmly in the corner of the stuff is crap and no one should touch it. But like Christine said, not everyone is affected the way I was.
After such experiences I understand why you are in the camp of YOU shouldnt drink it ( although you could of experimented with drinking less than 8 cans a day - you know, context, dosage) but I dont understand why you are in the camp of " no-one should touch it" - given, as you said yourself, it doesnt affect everyone the way it affected you.
That is like someone saying I have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts so I am in the camp of they are bad for ME - nobody would dispute that.
But most people dont go on to say therefore nobody should touch them.
Oh, no kidding. The issue was, I literally craved Diet Coke so I drank it like water. Any sort of diet soda would satisfy the need but I preferred Diet Coke. That's where I do think that aspartame does have addictive possibilities because there's nothing else in it that would indicate that kind of pull.
I can too understand why you choose not to drink diet soda, but saying Aspartame has addictive possibilities implies that it's possibly a drug. However, one will most likely never steal to get a hit of Aspartame, or go into a recovery program and say, "I'm an addict and I've been clean of Aspartame for ten days."
There is nothing at all wrong with Aspartame, just as there is nothing wrong with diet coke, but it's all about what is right or wrong for the individual. Obviously, for you, Aspartame and diet coke are not the best choices because they do make you hungrier.
I like Aspartame and diet coke, but I use neither because (1) Aspartame exacerbates my IBS and (2) diet coke, and any carbonated drinks, exacerbates my acid reflux.
I am firmly in the camp that aspartame is not safe. I don't care if others want to fill their bodies with it. So be it. But I do not believe it is safe and I do not believe AT ALL that this issue is settled in the health community. Having read plenty on how aspartame got approved by the FDA was just the beginning (besides my own experience). The FDA lists 92 side effects of aspartame. No thank you. To each his own. People can drink away all they want. My issue is the attacks on people that are putting out another view point. I do not bow at the feet of "studies" because a huge majority of them are backgrounded by the industry themselves. I believe nothing coming out of the FDA. They are completely corrupt as far as I'm concerned.
That said, I do not go around telling people they CAN'T drink it. But I have no issue with others posting the reasons why they believe it's bad for someone either. People on this forum can't seem to allow both sides of an issue to be laid out and for others to read and decide for themselves what to believe. There are those here that like to think they have science on their side. I'll try not to laugh the day the health community comes out and says they screwed up and this stuff is crap for people and oh, yes, aspartame is not only addictive but it does cause one to gain weight and have issues with their blood sugar, etc. etc . etc. And if they never do, then I will happily say I was wrong. But until then, I continue to stand on the side of "it's crap and not good for anyone." The FDA is notorious for backtracking on things they once approved for human consumption. I see aspartame as one of those things that is eventually going to come home to roost on the FDA's doorstep.
Be well......-1 -
amandapleighse92 wrote: »
None of these are peer reviewed scientific studies. As I said above - maybe try reading journal articles instead of clickbait headlines and buying diet books that include profanity in the title...17 -
amandapleighse92 wrote: »
Your third link doesn't work for me. The other two? What @WinoGelato said.6 -
amandapleighse92 wrote: »that silly little saying has been around since high school. I never said it held any factual value, and it's been taken very literally. It's a SILLY little saying girls use. You know like the Kate Moss quote. I never intended it to be take so literally. I thought this was a common saying people were familiar with.
What saying? The one you mentioned about chemicals and calories? I've never heard that saying in high school, college, grad school, or a professional workplace. I'm not sure why you keep touting "things that girls say", or quoting books that start with "Brace yourself girls". I'm a well educated, professional woman who relies on science, logic, and critical thinking. Why would I care what "girls" say, and any book that is marketed toward people who call themselves "girls" or who strive to be a Skinny B*tch is not one I would ever even consider reading.15 -
tomdomurat wrote: »Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!
These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.
Aspartame:
What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
This leads to weight gain instead of loss.
Caramel Color:
Caramel coloring uses a combination of sulfites and ammonium.
This concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals does not occur in nature.
Phosphoric Acid:
Phosphoric acid in its pure form is a colorless, odorless crystal extracted from rocks with sulfuric acid or by burning off elemental phosphorus and adding water to the byproduct.
It’s a corrosive acid and can form toxic fumes when it comes into contact with alcohols, ketones and other organic compounds.
It’s used in fertilizers, livestock feed, soaps, polishes, dyes, polishing metals and in many other nonfood products.
It’s added to soft drinks to provide a sharper, tangy taste and to help slow the growth of molds and bacteria in sugary formulas.
Potassium Benzoate:
Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.
Caffeine:
Linked to many side affects such as Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Stomach upsets, Fast heartbeat, Muscle tremors.
This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. Those first three lines..... I can't even. Is this the logic we are supposed to use? So the only things we are allowed to eat or drink are the things we feed babies, domesticated animals, and that wild animals would have access to and choose for themselves? That's really going to limit my dinner menu... Dry Dog food? Nope. Baby can't chew it. Pureed baby food? Nope - the deer can't open the Gerber jar with their hooves. Well crap.
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WinoGelato wrote: »tomdomurat wrote: »Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!
These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.
Aspartame:
What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
This leads to weight gain instead of loss.
Caramel Color:
Caramel coloring uses a combination of sulfites and ammonium.
This concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals does not occur in nature.
Phosphoric Acid:
Phosphoric acid in its pure form is a colorless, odorless crystal extracted from rocks with sulfuric acid or by burning off elemental phosphorus and adding water to the byproduct.
It’s a corrosive acid and can form toxic fumes when it comes into contact with alcohols, ketones and other organic compounds.
It’s used in fertilizers, livestock feed, soaps, polishes, dyes, polishing metals and in many other nonfood products.
It’s added to soft drinks to provide a sharper, tangy taste and to help slow the growth of molds and bacteria in sugary formulas.
Potassium Benzoate:
Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.
Caffeine:
Linked to many side affects such as Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Stomach upsets, Fast heartbeat, Muscle tremors.
This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. Those first three lines..... I can't even. Is this the logic we are supposed to use? So the only things we are allowed to eat or drink are the things we feed babies, domesticated animals, and that wild animals would have access to and choose for themselves? That's really going to limit my dinner menu... Dry Dog food? Nope. Baby can't chew it. Pureed baby food? Nope - the deer can't open the Gerber jar with their hooves. Well crap.
My dog eats cat crap? So following @tomdomurat's logic, do I have to feed my kids cat crap?12 -
gwenster89 wrote: »diannethegeek wrote: »gwenster89 wrote: »gwenster89 wrote: »i'm sure tons of people have been able to lose weight and keep drinking diet soda but it's soooooo bad for youuuuuuu. the chemicals in it seriously mess with your head and there have been a ton of studies to prove this. like, not just one fringe study with iffy results, but truly countless studies.
i used to be a hopeless diet coke addict and then i finally switched to seltzer. i realized that when i craved diet coke, the fizziness of seltzer totally did the trick. there are also tons of diet sodas that are sweetened with natural zero-calorie sweeteners like stevia instead of aspartame. or you can drink kombucha! it does have sugar but it's processed by yeast and bacteria so it doesn't cause the same insulin spike.
Feel free to post some of those totally countless studies which show it's soooooooo bad for youuuuuuu.
oops I completely meant to. here's a bunch:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2008.284/full
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.short
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.355.2133&rep=rep1&type=pdf
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/53/4/872.short
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150911094912.htm
and one article that isn't from a peer-reviewed journal or academic institution buttttt it's jillian michaels, and she's the *kitten*...
http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fit/lose-weight/myth-diet-soda
there are a bunch more. just type it into google scholar. it's all about just eating whole foods, man. the point is, these giant corporations want to keep you addicted to this stuff so you keep buying it. they put stuff in it that messes with your head. i think someone else mentioned that... the artificial sweeteners actually make you more hungry and crave more soda. point is, it's full of garbage. and like i said, there are totally other diet sodas out there that just don't have all the crap in them! my favorite is blue sky not a shaming thing at all. believeeeee me, i speak from experience.
From your first link:Possible explanations for our findings
There may be no causal relationship between AS use and weight gain. Individuals seeking to lose weight often switch to *kitten* in order to reduce their caloric intake. AS use might therefore simply be a marker for individuals already on weight-gain trajectories, which continued despite their switching to *kitten*. This is the most obvious possible explanation of our findings.
Any good scientific study should explore sources of error. If you read the rest of the study, and the actual numbers, and not just take a tiny quote out of it, there's still a very strong correlation between diet soda consumption and weight gain.
With that said, I'm not interested in getting in an argument about it. This is a place for mutual support, not to be yet another source of endless trolling. You asked for articles, and I provided. Be well.
Correlation never equals causation.
And, I drink no soda at all.
Murder rates and ice cream sales have an almost perfect correlation...somehow I don't think making ice cream illegal is the answer 7 -
Calliope610 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »tomdomurat wrote: »Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!
These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.
Aspartame:
What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
This leads to weight gain instead of loss.
Caramel Color:
Caramel coloring uses a combination of sulfites and ammonium.
This concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals does not occur in nature.
Phosphoric Acid:
Phosphoric acid in its pure form is a colorless, odorless crystal extracted from rocks with sulfuric acid or by burning off elemental phosphorus and adding water to the byproduct.
It’s a corrosive acid and can form toxic fumes when it comes into contact with alcohols, ketones and other organic compounds.
It’s used in fertilizers, livestock feed, soaps, polishes, dyes, polishing metals and in many other nonfood products.
It’s added to soft drinks to provide a sharper, tangy taste and to help slow the growth of molds and bacteria in sugary formulas.
Potassium Benzoate:
Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.
Caffeine:
Linked to many side affects such as Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Stomach upsets, Fast heartbeat, Muscle tremors.
This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. Those first three lines..... I can't even. Is this the logic we are supposed to use? So the only things we are allowed to eat or drink are the things we feed babies, domesticated animals, and that wild animals would have access to and choose for themselves? That's really going to limit my dinner menu... Dry Dog food? Nope. Baby can't chew it. Pureed baby food? Nope - the deer can't open the Gerber jar with their hooves. Well crap.
My dog eats cat crap? So following @tomdomurat's logic, do I have to feed my kids cat crap?
Mine does too!!!! So disgusting. Well, I hope my kids are ready for what's on the menu for tonight!11 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Calliope610 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »tomdomurat wrote: »Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!
These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.
Aspartame:
What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
This leads to weight gain instead of loss.
Caramel Color:
Caramel coloring uses a combination of sulfites and ammonium.
This concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals does not occur in nature.
Phosphoric Acid:
Phosphoric acid in its pure form is a colorless, odorless crystal extracted from rocks with sulfuric acid or by burning off elemental phosphorus and adding water to the byproduct.
It’s a corrosive acid and can form toxic fumes when it comes into contact with alcohols, ketones and other organic compounds.
It’s used in fertilizers, livestock feed, soaps, polishes, dyes, polishing metals and in many other nonfood products.
It’s added to soft drinks to provide a sharper, tangy taste and to help slow the growth of molds and bacteria in sugary formulas.
Potassium Benzoate:
Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.
Caffeine:
Linked to many side affects such as Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Stomach upsets, Fast heartbeat, Muscle tremors.
This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. Those first three lines..... I can't even. Is this the logic we are supposed to use? So the only things we are allowed to eat or drink are the things we feed babies, domesticated animals, and that wild animals would have access to and choose for themselves? That's really going to limit my dinner menu... Dry Dog food? Nope. Baby can't chew it. Pureed baby food? Nope - the deer can't open the Gerber jar with their hooves. Well crap.
My dog eats cat crap? So following @tomdomurat's logic, do I have to feed my kids cat crap?
Mine does too!!!! So disgusting. Well, I hope my kids are ready for what's on the menu for tonight!
Let them eat cake.
Kitty litter cake, that is!
Here's the recipe:
http://www.kristianhoffman.com/kitty-litter.htm
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I know others already have chimed in, but I'll also comment to the above study by study:gwenster89 wrote: »gwenster89 wrote: »i'm sure tons of people have been able to lose weight and keep drinking diet soda but it's soooooo bad for youuuuuuu. the chemicals in it seriously mess with your head and there have been a ton of studies to prove this. like, not just one fringe study with iffy results, but truly countless studies.
i used to be a hopeless diet coke addict and then i finally switched to seltzer. i realized that when i craved diet coke, the fizziness of seltzer totally did the trick. there are also tons of diet sodas that are sweetened with natural zero-calorie sweeteners like stevia instead of aspartame. or you can drink kombucha! it does have sugar but it's processed by yeast and bacteria so it doesn't cause the same insulin spike.
Feel free to post some of those totally countless studies which show it's soooooooo bad for youuuuuuu.
oops I completely meant to. here's a bunch:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2008.284/full
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.short
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.355.2133&rep=rep1&type=pdf
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/53/4/872.short
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150911094912.htm
and one article that isn't from a peer-reviewed journal or academic institution buttttt it's jillian michaels, and she's the *kitten*...
http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fit/lose-weight/myth-diet-soda
there are a bunch more. just type it into google scholar. it's all about just eating whole foods, man. the point is, these giant corporations want to keep you addicted to this stuff so you keep buying it. they put stuff in it that messes with your head. i think someone else mentioned that... the artificial sweeteners actually make you more hungry and crave more soda. point is, it's full of garbage. and like i said, there are totally other diet sodas out there that just don't have all the crap in them! my favorite is blue sky not a shaming thing at all. believeeeee me, i speak from experience.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2008.284/full refers to epidemiological studies, which can only show correlation. For their findings, the authors state:
"There may be no causal relationship between AS use and weight gain. Individuals seeking to lose weight often switch to *kitten* in order to reduce their caloric intake. AS use might therefore simply be a marker for individuals already on weight-gain trajectories, which continued despite their switching to *kitten*. This is the most obvious possible explanation of our findings. Increased fast food consumption among soda users might further confound apparent associations "
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.short again states that "these observational data cannot establish causality". This is because diabetics with metabolic syndrome SWITCH TO DIET SODA, not because diet soda caused it. Thus the correlation.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.355.2133&rep=rep1&type=pdf
This is a discussion rather than any one study. Although it includes studies that showed subjective increases in hunger and/or cravings, there are no studies that conclude it increases food intake or weight gain. It also didn't include studies with findings negative to its agenda.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/53/4/872.short contradicts your claim:
"Preliminary clinical trials suggest that aspartame may be useful aid in a complete diet-and-exercise program or in weight maintenance. Intense sweeteners have never been found to cause weight gain in humans."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150911094912.htm
This isn't a new study, it was an examination from some data provided by FOOD INTAKE QUESTIONNAIRES - the single LEAST reliable source of factual study data known, was neither designed to test this particular hypothesis nor is a reliable food intake study.
http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fit/lose-weight/myth-diet-soda
This is a logical fallacy known as "appeal to authority". Unfortunately, Ms.Michaels links to no research studies to back up her claims ... probably because she knows there are none. The Purdue rat study she mentioned is often cited as one of the ONLY studies to show this, ever ... BUT it's never been replicated in humans, and human research results have contrary findings. Not to mention few people ingest saccharin anymore...
People do need to learn to properly read studies and to understand the difference between correlation and causation.
There is an excellent rebuttal article in WebMD on the diet-soda/weight-gain theory. http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-gain-not-so-fast#15 -
University of Texas Health Center and the Harvard Medical School says diet sodas ARE in fact bad for you. Read the study here...
https://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/05/23/ut-health-science-center-study-reveals-how-diet-soda-contributes-to-obesity-poor-health/
I personally do not and never have consumed any diet drink in my life, so I cannot state my own personal opinion whether it helps or hinders a weight loss regime. I have had several bad reactions to desserts that were made with artificial sweeteners, which is why I have elected to stay clear of all artificial sweeteners. Let me add, I do not drink regular soda either. Let your preference and conscious lead you to your decision. If you LOVE Diet Coke and it helps you lose weight, the choice is yours!
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August_1958 wrote: »University of Texas Health Center and the Harvard Medical School says diet sodas ARE in fact bad for you. Read the study here...
https://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/05/23/ut-health-science-center-study-reveals-how-diet-soda-contributes-to-obesity-poor-health/
I personally do not and never have consumed any diet drink in my life, so I cannot state my own personal opinion whether it helps or hinders a weight loss regime. I have had several bad reactions to desserts that were made with artificial sweeteners, which is why I have elected to stay clear of all artificial sweeteners. Let me add, I do not drink regular soda either. Let your preference and conscious lead you to your decision. If you LOVE Diet Coke and it helps you lose weight, the choice is yours!
Please provide links to the actual studies. That article was not a study, merely a layman's synopsis.7 -
Um, seriously? Can I ask you if you really thought that this was a convincing argument, because if so I am just mystified.tomdomurat wrote: »Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
Young babies are quite limited in what they can eat. I would also not give a baby a peanut butter sandwich or cow's milk or coffee, yet I don't think those drinks are bad for me.Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
It's usually not available to them? It has no calories, so why would they want to?
I see animals eating lots of stuff I wouldn't, though, and my cat turns up his nose at some foods I think are quite good for humans. Chicago is encouraging people to adopt feral cats to help cut down the rat population, and yet I don't think I will go chow down on a rat soon. I'll stick to a vegetable omelet as breakfast (one of those foods I never see animals eating in the wild).If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!
I don't give my cat coffee either. Or pasta.These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.
Yeah, so? (Note, main chemical ingredient is H2O.) There's a whole thread on aspartame, as that's apparently the most controversial one. It seems harmless to me.What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
This leads to weight gain instead of loss.
This is a theory. It might be true that SOME people are more prone to cravings or hunger if they consume artificial sweetener (not just aspartame). But if you watch calories you KNOW whether you eat more or not, and I don't on days that I have diet coke. I find the argument that we might accidentally eat more for people who are logging or otherwise monitoring their intake (I don't log much anymore) to be very weird. And I never found that consuming some diet coke hurt my weight loss efforts.4 -
Well, anecdotally neither I nor anyone I know has ever gotten fat from drinking diet coke. I did have a lady ask in the checkout line once:
"Does that stuff work?"
And because it was such an outrageous question I just told her, sure, I think so.
Anyway - the only effect it's ever had on my weight was the same as unsweet tea, anything with a little caffeine keeps me a couple of pounds down, maybe water weight, maybe because it's a stimulant, I don't know.
There aren't calories IN it, I do not understand how it could cause anyone to gain weight. It's just flavored water with fizz. Aspartame is just two amino acids that taste kinda sweet when put together, yes? That doesn't seem any more dangerous than sugar. I drink diet soda because I prefer that to the very sweet regular sodas. Used to be a few times daily thing for me, now just a few times a week because I like coffee in the morning now.5 -
Calliope610 wrote: »August_1958 wrote: »University of Texas Health Center and the Harvard Medical School says diet sodas ARE in fact bad for you. Read the study here...
https://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/05/23/ut-health-science-center-study-reveals-how-diet-soda-contributes-to-obesity-poor-health/
I personally do not and never have consumed any diet drink in my life, so I cannot state my own personal opinion whether it helps or hinders a weight loss regime. I have had several bad reactions to desserts that were made with artificial sweeteners, which is why I have elected to stay clear of all artificial sweeteners. Let me add, I do not drink regular soda either. Let your preference and conscious lead you to your decision. If you LOVE Diet Coke and it helps you lose weight, the choice is yours!
Please provide links to the actual studies. That article was not a study, merely a layman's synopsis.
Not just a layman's synopsis, but outright lies. That link states "Clinical studies have been conducted at Harvard Medical School on 3,000 women to determine the effects of diet sodas." which is completely untrue and incredibly (and intentionally) misleading.
They're referring to the Nurses' Health Study, which showed "compared with women who did not drink diet soda, soda-drinking women had a 30% greater reduction in kidney function in 20 years."
However, with the fact that this study uses self-administered food questionnaires (done once a year), and the fact that people with various health problems; obesity, diabetes, pcos, etc. tend to drink diet sodas, the correlation is NOT surprising.
Correlation does not equal causation. IE: People with diabetes may drink diet sodas, but diet sodas don't cause diabetes. NBA players are tall, however playing basketball does not cause you to be tall.18 -
ronjsteele1 wrote: »ronjsteele1 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »ronjsteele1 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »For some people it does cause cravings, for other it doesn't. You just have to go by how diet soda effects you personally.
I'm one of those people that is/was greatly affected by artificial sweeteners. It did affect my cravings, I did gain a tremendous amount of weight drinking them (b/c it affects cravings which affected my appetite). And to top it off, the AS gave me a severe case of pancreatitis while pregnant (not a good thing!). Needless to say, I abruptly stopped my 6-8 can a day diet coke habit 15+ years ago and can't touch artificial sweeteners (they still affect me). That said, I still like a fizzy drink once in awhile so I drink Blue Sky Root Beer sweetened with stevia. Neither stevia nor xylitol seem to affect me. But I don't drink it often. Maybe one a week. I'm a water girl mostly. Because of my experience (and plenty of reading), I am firmly in the corner of the stuff is crap and no one should touch it. But like Christine said, not everyone is affected the way I was.
After such experiences I understand why you are in the camp of YOU shouldnt drink it ( although you could of experimented with drinking less than 8 cans a day - you know, context, dosage) but I dont understand why you are in the camp of " no-one should touch it" - given, as you said yourself, it doesnt affect everyone the way it affected you.
That is like someone saying I have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts so I am in the camp of they are bad for ME - nobody would dispute that.
But most people dont go on to say therefore nobody should touch them.
Oh, no kidding. The issue was, I literally craved Diet Coke so I drank it like water. Any sort of diet soda would satisfy the need but I preferred Diet Coke. That's where I do think that aspartame does have addictive possibilities because there's nothing else in it that would indicate that kind of pull.
I can too understand why you choose not to drink diet soda, but saying Aspartame has addictive possibilities implies that it's possibly a drug. However, one will most likely never steal to get a hit of Aspartame, or go into a recovery program and say, "I'm an addict and I've been clean of Aspartame for ten days."
There is nothing at all wrong with Aspartame, just as there is nothing wrong with diet coke, but it's all about what is right or wrong for the individual. Obviously, for you, Aspartame and diet coke are not the best choices because they do make you hungrier.
I like Aspartame and diet coke, but I use neither because (1) Aspartame exacerbates my IBS and (2) diet coke, and any carbonated drinks, exacerbates my acid reflux.
I am firmly in the camp that aspartame is not safe. I don't care if others want to fill their bodies with it. So be it. But I do not believe it is safe and I do not believe AT ALL that this issue is settled in the health community. Having read plenty on how aspartame got approved by the FDA was just the beginning (besides my own experience). The FDA lists 92 side effects of aspartame. No thank you. To each his own. People can drink away all they want. My issue is the attacks on people that are putting out another view point. I do not bow at the feet of "studies" because a huge majority of them are backgrounded by the industry themselves. I believe nothing coming out of the FDA. They are completely corrupt as far as I'm concerned.
That said, I do not go around telling people they CAN'T drink it. But I have no issue with others posting the reasons why they believe it's bad for someone either. People on this forum can't seem to allow both sides of an issue to be laid out and for others to read and decide for themselves what to believe. There are those here that like to think they have science on their side. I'll try not to laugh the day the health community comes out and says they screwed up and this stuff is crap for people and oh, yes, aspartame is not only addictive but it does cause one to gain weight and have issues with their blood sugar, etc. etc . etc. And if they never do, then I will happily say I was wrong. But until then, I continue to stand on the side of "it's crap and not good for anyone." The FDA is notorious for backtracking on things they once approved for human consumption. I see aspartame as one of those things that is eventually going to come home to roost on the FDA's doorstep.
Be well......
You realize that publically and vehemently disagreeing with someone is not the same as "silencing" them right? Telling someone "I think you are wrong and here is why" is not somehow akin to abridging their freedom of speech. You clearly are free to post whatever you want, you however have no say in how people will respond to what you post.
Freedom of speech does not mean protection from people telling you you are wrong in public.
I, for one, disagree with your concerns about aspartame...I think it is legitimately safe. Times where people go around warning others of how toxic or dangerous aspartame is I tend to try to correct them or at least talk with them about it and see exactly in what way they consider aspartame to be dangerous (how it is dangerous, by what mechanism, dangerous dosage etc) and how they came to that belief. Honestly to date conversations I've had it just seems to be based on fear of being mislead by corporations or the government and not actually based on any specific data. Basically its a belief bred from fear that we are being fed misinformation to support profits rather than based on any actual study. "Studies" are often named but in vague non specific terms, as in "studies exist that say blah" with no citation to said study and if study is cited no indication the person actually read the study they cited. In most cases its a copy paste of a blog they read that claimed a study showed that aspartame was dangerous where the person only read the blog, not the study itself. Often times the person who wrote the blog didn't read the study either but rather read it from a different blog and did the same thing.
I think you are wrong to be concerned about aspartame, I think you are wrong to pubically state that you think it is dangerous and me saying that is not somehow preventing you from speaking. If you choose not to defend your position when you have it questioned, that is your choice.18
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