Is diet coke good for you?

24

Replies

  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    It has no nutritional benefits but it won't kill you (unless that's all you eat and drink!). Water is better for you but if you're bored with it then have a diet coke for a change.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Good for you? It doesn't really have any nutritional value so I couldn't say it's "good for you"...I'd say it's benign unless your drinking a ton of it then the acids could be an issue. It's zero calorie, so no...it won't make you gain weight.

    I drink a couple of diet root beers most every night in lieu of my usual beer because I'm cutting some winter fluff...no problems losing about 1 Lb per week at the moment.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2017
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Studies have found that those who drink diet soda consume more calories total than those who consume regular soda. It seems to confuse the body's hunger response. If you have no weight problems it won't hurt you, but why would you drink it if you had no weight problems, since it tastes nasty?

    Myself and many others here have lost weight and maintained while drinking diet soda. I drink it because I prefer to save my calories for food.

    Do what works for you. Your experience is not typical. Look it up. Or ignore science, no skin off my nose. But there is actual evidence that for most people swapping to diet soda does not lead to weight loss.

    Well, it's my experience too. I'd speculate that many people who consume more calories are people like me before I started caring about weightloss, when I'd kid myself that I could have a banana split and a diet coke and somehow the diet coke meant that the banana split wasn't as bad for me. Or because I'd walked for an hour, I could 'reward' myself with a doughnut. It's not that the diet drinks make you fat. It's that they make you feel you have 'permission' to consume calorie-dense foods with fewer consequences.

    Totally agree with this, but I'd make it even simpler -- just switching to diet coke does not lead to weight loss, as for most it's not going to be sufficient to keep you from overeating. Who is going to start drinking diet? People who think they should cut calories or who think they will be judged for drinking high cal beverages -- i.e., overweight people, disproportionately. Are these people also controlling calories in other ways? Probably not.

    I switched to diet as a teen (wasn't drinking a lot then) and didn't lose weight (didn't need to), but I suspect that when I eventually developed a habit of drinking 3 cans or so a day (which I did for a while since it was free at work), that my food-related weight gain would have been even worse if I'd also been consuming high cal soda. However, for many years while drinking diet I did nothing to control my calories otherwise (at first because I did not need to, and then because I just wasn't). Diet soda had nothing to do with it.

    When I decided to control how much I was eating, it was easier for me that I did not have high cal soda to worry about, and since drinks are often not perceived as food or filling eliminating calories from drinks seems to me a sensible first step. If you struggle with hitting calories due to cravings, sure, eliminate artificial sweeteners and see if it helps, but I never did struggle with hitting my calories due to wanting sweet things.

    The benefit of diet soda (which I don't personally drink much of, since I prefer coffee or water, although I've recently found a diet ginger beer I enjoy) is that you don't have to cut out things that might be an easy pleasure. Doing that could make the other sacrifices (cutting calories) more difficult in an unnecessary way. This is the same reason I did not cut down on coffee when I started losing weight even though I drank too much of it (it was black so calories were not an issue).
  • midlomel1971
    midlomel1971 Posts: 1,283 Member
    It's not going to cause you to gain weight. I love them....you might say I am addicted, although I have cut down considerably drinking them. However, sometimes I just have a craving. I think they intensify my sweet tooth and make me crave sweets, so that is bad.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Will it cause you to gain weight

    how on earth can a zero calorie drink cause weight gain???????????

    diet coke is not bad or good it is just diet coke...drink it if you enjoy it..
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    linsey0689 wrote: »
    It's not good for you. But I think trying to cut out everything is not good. A couple a week IMO is okay

    why is it not "good" for you?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    edited May 2017
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    linsey0689 wrote: »
    It's not good for you. But I think trying to cut out everything is not good. A couple a week IMO is okay

    why is it not "good" for you?

    I think they mean it doesn't add nutritional benefit (vitamins, minerals or macro).
  • Forest311
    Forest311 Posts: 6 Member
    Nothing is bad in true moderation. But if you are drinking more than 1/day I would reconsider. Water is better for you and diet coke can trigger some weird reactions consuming more food calories, and I also personally feel, after researching, that overconsumption of soda of any kind leads to bone density issues and kidney stones.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Diet Coke is disgusting. Diet Dr Pepper ftw.

    Yes yes yes! Diet Cherry Dr Pepper is life.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    linsey0689 wrote: »
    It's not good for you. But I think trying to cut out everything is not good. A couple a week IMO is okay

    why is it not "good" for you?

    I think they mean it doesn't add nutritional benefit (vitamins, minerals or macro).

    in that case yes, but who drinks diet coke in an effort to get nutrients??????????
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    I love this debate almost as much as the “McDouble is the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” debate.

    If drinking diet drinks doesn't have a knock on effect on causing over eating (for various reasons) then have at it. It will help keep you hydrated if nothing else.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Studies have found that those who drink diet soda consume more calories total than those who consume regular soda. It seems to confuse the body's hunger response. If you have no weight problems it won't hurt you, but why would you drink it if you had no weight problems, since it tastes nasty?

    Myself and many others here have lost weight and maintained while drinking diet soda. I drink it because I prefer to save my calories for food.

    Do what works for you. Your experience is not typical. Look it up. Or ignore science, no skin off my nose. But there is actual evidence that for most people swapping to diet soda does not lead to weight loss.

    I've read the studies. Every one of them only shows correlation, not causation. Correlation just shows that two data sets somehow correspond with each other, there's no evidence positively linking a cause to an outcome. It could be that those who consume more diet soda consume more calories because they're obese and trying to lose weight, and drinking diet soda is one way they're attempting to cut calories. It could be because, as others have mentioned, they mistakenly believe that diet soda allows them to consume more calories in other food because the soda contains less calories. But nothing in any of the studies positively establishes that diet soda causes weight gain or consumption of more calories. Correlation does not equal causation.

    For example, I see a lot of obese people exercising. Therefore, I could conclude by correlation that exercise makes you obese. We all know that exercise isn't the cause of obesity, though.

    Here are some other things that correlation has shown. Tell me if you believe they also show causation:


    Death by falling out of a wheelchair correlate to the cost of a bag of potato chips:
    i0ubspnkyk95.png


    Total golf course revenue correlates to the per capita consumption of cheese:
    n0bipzaa7nnk.png


    Deaths caused by lightning correlate to the per capita consumption of beef:
    as3dbi5khicg.png

    See, this is why companies should lower the cost of potato chips. Let's protest.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    msf74 wrote: »
    I love this debate almost as much as the “McDouble is the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” debate.

    If drinking diet drinks doesn't have a knock on effect on causing over eating (for various reasons) then have at it. It will help keep you hydrated if nothing else.

    That was a debate? Just no. Lordy.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited May 2017
    I've been at both sides of this debate, mainly because I'm paranoid. I started drinking diet soda because I missed soda even though I rarely drank it to begin with. I'm obsessed with bottled water - even more than I am with food. However, even though I barely drank soda, I wanted some... but I always hated diet soda, but I heard Diet Dr Pepper doesn't have much of an after-taste and tastes almost like the original - I agree, it does. I found out I love Diet Cherry Dr Pepper even more. I drank one a day, about, and continued to lose substantial amounts of weight (1.5-2lbs per week or more). I quit drinking it because I got paranoid after reading silly things about diet soda. Ironically, I think I am plateauing now because I think the diet soda was helping to subdue/suppress my appetite. I felt less hungry because I was getting some flavor from the diet soda, so I wasn't craving flavor and feeling the need to eat 24/7. So, for me, diet soda helps and I think am going to go grab one right now and get back to drinking them because they were helping my weight loss a lot.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    msf74 wrote: »
    I love this debate almost as much as the “McDouble is the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” debate.

    It comes close
  • rolenthegreat
    rolenthegreat Posts: 78 Member
    edited May 2017
    The thing about 'diet' foodstuffs (at least here in America) is that most of them are not truely zero calories. The FDA allows companies to put '0 calories' on the package as long as it has less than 5 calories per serving.
    So there are usually 1-4 calories in most calorie free things.

    Which isn't going to have an affect on the average consumer's weight loss.

    But if you ARE using massive numbers of 'zero' calorie substitutes in your diet and find that you've plateaued, it might be a good idea to reassess the situation. If you are drinking 50 diet cokes every day I might argue there are already some issues with your diet.
    (Personally I log them as '4 calories'.)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    The thing about 'diet' foodstuffs (at least here in America) is that most of them are not truely zero calories. The FDA allows companies to put '0 calories' on the package as long as it has less than 5 calories per serving.
    So there are usually 1-4 calories in most calorie free things.

    Which isn't going to have an affect on the average consumer's weight loss.

    But if you ARE using massive numbers of 'zero' calorie substitutes in your diet and find that you've plateaued, it might be a good idea to reassess the situation. If you are drinking 50 diet cokes every day I might argue there are already some issues with your diet.
    (Personally I log them as '4 calories'.)

    that means that one would have to drink 100 diet cokes a week to see a weekly increase of 400 calories per week from consuming diet soda..

    seems a hair ludicrous to me..
  • kavahni
    kavahni Posts: 313 Member
    From the Nation Institues for Health, here's just one write up that includes references to several very well run studies – – including the decades-long nurses study. It is a desperately dry piece of writing, but if you are truly interested in whether artificial sweeteners are "good for you "or not, you might want to plow through this:

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

    Here's part of the summary at the very end of the article:

    "Sweetness decoupled from caloric content offers partial, but not complete, activation of the food reward pathways. Activation of the hedonic component may contribute to increased appetite. Animals seek food to satisfy the inherent craving for sweetness, even in the absence of energy need. Lack of complete satisfaction, likely because of the failure to activate the postingestive component, further fuels the food seeking behavior....

    Lastly, artificial sweeteners, precisely because they are sweet, encourage sugar craving and sugar dependence. Repeated exposure trains flavor preference [54]. A strong correlation exists between a person’s customary intake of a flavor and his preferred intensity for that flavor. Systematic reduction of dietary salt [55] or fat [56] without any flavorful substitution over the course of several weeks led to a preference for lower levels of those nutrients in the research subjects. In light of these findings, a similar approach might be used to reduce sugar intake."
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    edited May 2017
    No in my opinion it is very unhealthy. But it has zero calories so no it shouldn't make you gain weight. I drink some diet dr pepper every now and then if i want some caffeine in the afternoons and don't feel like having coffee
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    No in my opinion it is very unhealthy. But it has zero calories so no it shouldn't make you gain weight.

    What do you consider to be unhealthy about it?
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