Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.
If you drink Diet Coke obsessively....You might be a runner. What's that all about?
Options
Replies
-
deannalfisher wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »Diet Coke is 99% water and actually hydrates you better than water.
So you’re saying I’m better off starting my mornings with beer vs coffee? 😁 :drinker:
nope - they hydrate worse than water - you want something on the BHI that is greater than 1.0 on the scale
Yes, thank you for that 🙄3 -
MeanderingMammal wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »Has anyone else ever noticed that runner's drink Diet Coke like it's water? I'm not a nutritionist, nor do I claim any expertise in this matter, but practically substituting your water consumption during the day with Diet Coke has to take a toll eventually...am I right? :-) (Not attacking runners here...just having some fun, but come on already with the Diet Coke!)
@upformore that is a good question. Not sure that it matters much since we humans are pretty much do what we want to do without regards to our long term health.
Yes people who are runners clearly have no regard for long term health....
Oh gods don't. Someone will come out with that one study that suggests greater incidence of heart disease in that extremely small segment of the population that runs frequent marathons and extrapolate from there...
LOL, I think that was eluded to just a day or two ago....I think in a thread about starting jogging.0 -
I would definitely say that the "Diet Coke" is most likely linked to my area....definitely not a global phenomenon. However, watching all of the back and forth, assumptions, interesting and questionable facts and studies...good times.1
-
-
Im not a runner but I can drink diet sodas with no ill effects but you give me an sports drink(diet or not) and I bloat like there is NO tomorrow. to the point I hurt. diet soda doesnt do that to me so If I were a runner it would have to be the diet soda4
-
TavistockToad wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »Has anyone else ever noticed that runner's drink Diet Coke like it's water? I'm not a nutritionist, nor do I claim any expertise in this matter, but practically substituting your water consumption during the day with Diet Coke has to take a toll eventually...am I right? :-) (Not attacking runners here...just having some fun, but come on already with the Diet Coke!)
@upformore that is a good question. Not sure that it matters much since we humans are pretty much do what we want to do without regards to our long term health.
Yes people who are runners clearly have no regard for long term health....
Oh gods don't. Someone will come out with that one study that suggests greater incidence of heart disease in that extremely small segment of the population that runs frequent marathons and extrapolate from there...
And there's always one about knees....
YES! <vigorously types in a post: "diet soda is bad for your knees">12 -
I run ( well trot ) a 1/4 to my mailbox per day. Can I drink all the diet soda that I want now?5
-
Does Running in FNAF count?
1 -
Packerjohn wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »Diet Coke is 99% water and actually hydrates you better than water.
Despite its vital importance, water is often the most undervalued dietary component. Water makes up a large portion of your body composition. Each day, you lose up to 3 quarts of water, making daily replenishment crucial. Water is involved in more bodily processes than any other nutrient. It is recommended that you drink between 8 to 10 glasses of water daily. It can be confusing when you're trying to figure out what counts toward your water consumption each day.
Diet Soda and Daily Water Requirement
You may be surprised to know that because beverages such as diet soda are composed primarily of water, they do count towards your daily water requirement. However, you must take into consideration diet soda additives such as sodium and caffeine that may actually remove water from your body. Because of this, it's crucial that you avoid relying solely on diet soda to meet your daily recommended water intake
https://www.livestrong.com/article/413306-does-diet-soda-count-as-water-intake/
This is an example of why livestrong isn’t always a great source of info.
The claim that sodium (which is no more abundant in soda than in tap water) or caffeine in soda causes one to lose more of the water contained in the drink than if they’d simply drank water is false as demonstrated in the study I linked above.
In fact, you posted this in response to an illustration of the study results.
A theory posited by a blogger on livestrong doesn’t negate the results of a scientific study.
From the article you referenced:
The known diuretic effects of caffeine and alcohol, because of their action in inhibiting the release of arginine vasopressin (20, 21), would influence the response to ingested drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol. An acute dose of <250–300 mg caffeine is unlikely to have a measurable effect on urine output, although such an effect is likely to be seen when the dose exceeds ∼300 mg
The writer of the Livestrong article is a RD. She said it's important that one doesn't rely solely on diet soda for their hydration. I know several people that drink a couple 2L bottles of Diet Coke a day, that level brings the caffeine consumption over 300mg.
Ok, so for people that have a few diet cokes per day, less than 1 litres, it's a non issue.3 -
deannalfisher wrote: »Carlos_421 wrote: »Diet Coke is 99% water and actually hydrates you better than water.
So you’re saying I’m better off starting my mornings with beer vs coffee? 😁 :drinker:
nope - they hydrate worse than water - you want something on the BHI that is greater than 1.0 on the scale
They still hydrate you...2 -
The amount you are hydrated is basically the amount of liquid in your body before and a while after ingesting a beverage of some kind. This could be determined by measuring basically your liquid in (volume of beverages) and liquid out (volume of pee) which would ignore the amount of liquid you lose due to respiration and perspiration which is not insignificant but is relatively constant if your activity level is constant.
Your body homeostatically regulates its isotonic level in physiological liquid. What that basically means is that you keep the same amount of solvated stuff in the liquid that baths your cells. This is essential due to osmotic pressure.
What that means is that if you take in liquid that lowers the overall amount of stuff solvated in the liquid in your body that your body will flush out some liquid to lower the total amount of liquid to come back to equilibrium. If what you drink does not lower the overall amount of solvated stuff your body will generally retain the liquid (although you will still need to pee as part of waste elimination). If you end up ingesting things that increase the amount of solvated stuff in the liquid in your body then you will retain more water in order to dilute it back to the desired level.
The "solvated stuff" tends to be composed mainly of small molecule ions as what matters for osmotic pressure is the amount of stuff not the size of stuff. This tends to be salts. The vast majority of the salt you ingest comes from foods. So really, what has the biggest affect on how well you hydrate isn't what you drink...it is what you eat. The reason is if you eat a lot of salt then your body will tend to retain the liquid you do take in regardless of whether it is from milk or water or soda and the result if you are measuring water in water out is you will "hydrate" more. If you, however, eat a very low salt diet then your body will tend to flush out water you take in to try to keep the levels the same and as a result it will look from water in water out like you are hydrating very much.
So I guess what I'd argue is as long as you are drinking fluids of some kind that how well they hydrate you has a lot more to do with what you eat than with what you drink.
If you are running and sweating profusely and drinking pure water then your body will be losing salts (through sweat) and replacing with salt-free water which means your body will be trying to flush that water out of you. If you want to actually keep that water best to also eat something salty or choose a beverage that has a lot of dissolved solutes in it (often called electrolytes in marketing terms) such as a sports beverage.7 -
So I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days. I’m a runner, a HEAVY salt-encrusted sweater, and a Diet Coke drinker. Went out for pizza with my running friend after a 10-miler in the cold weather, she commented on how many times I refilled my Diet Root Beer. She had a regular Coke and switched to water. I probably consumed about 50-60oz of Diet Root Beer. My argument was I was thirsty and it was calorie free. Her argument was I should drink water after one soda, diet or not. My argument was I could have 3 slices of pizza at 300 calories a pop to replace my calories or I could have two slices and 20 oz of regular soda which would have left me starving and still thirsty because water after a run (except for immediately after a run in the heat) is excruciatingly nauseating to me.
So I wonder if other runners MAY drink diet beverages to save calories for food. Because while I burn a lot of calories, my appetite is usually bigger than my expenditure and I will gain weight if not careful, especially during peak training weeks with high volume.
Just my two cents.5 -
Charlene____ wrote: »So I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days. I’m a runner, a HEAVY salt-encrusted sweater, and a Diet Coke drinker. Went out for pizza with my running friend after a 10-miler in the cold weather, she commented on how many times I refilled my Diet Root Beer. She had a regular Coke and switched to water. I probably consumed about 50-60oz of Diet Root Beer. My argument was I was thirsty and it was calorie free. Her argument was I should drink water after one soda, diet or not. My argument was I could have 3 slices of pizza at 300 calories a pop to replace my calories or I could have two slices and 20 oz of regular soda which would have left me starving and still thirsty because water after a run (except for immediately after a run in the heat) is excruciatingly nauseating to me.
So I wonder if other runners MAY drink diet beverages to save calories for food. Because while I burn a lot of calories, my appetite is usually bigger than my expenditure and I will gain weight if not careful, especially during peak training weeks with high volume.
Just my two cents.
This is the case for me. I'd much rather get my calories in food than soda. So if I want to drink something sweet, I'll always choose diet soda.0 -
Carlos_421 wrote: »Diet Coke is 99% water and actually hydrates you better than water.
Looks like a lager is close enough, especially if I have two post ride.
2 -
Charlene____ wrote: »So I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days. I’m a runner, a HEAVY salt-encrusted sweater, and a Diet Coke drinker. Went out for pizza with my running friend after a 10-miler in the cold weather, she commented on how many times I refilled my Diet Root Beer. She had a regular Coke and switched to water. I probably consumed about 50-60oz of Diet Root Beer. My argument was I was thirsty and it was calorie free. Her argument was I should drink water after one soda, diet or not. My argument was I could have 3 slices of pizza at 300 calories a pop to replace my calories or I could have two slices and 20 oz of regular soda which would have left me starving and still thirsty because water after a run (except for immediately after a run in the heat) is excruciatingly nauseating to me.
So I wonder if other runners MAY drink diet beverages to save calories for food. Because while I burn a lot of calories, my appetite is usually bigger than my expenditure and I will gain weight if not careful, especially during peak training weeks with high volume.
Just my two cents.
You hit the nail on the head, and diet root beer tastes exactly the same as regular to me. I’ll take the extra slice of pizza thanks 😊!0 -
This cracked me up because when I used to be a runner, I drank diet coke all day long!0
-
Most I've seen or know drink from water bottles. Never seen any drinking a soda of any kind.0
-
Not saying coke or diet coke is bad and it may not be however I challenge someone to show that it is good for you. Me I am a water drinker and a runner. I am also a keto person now so I guess I will skip the bagels with cheese and just hit the fruit. I know it is still carbs but the fruit carbs seem better for me....we'll see.8
-
Not saying coke or diet coke is bad and it may not be however I challenge someone to show that it is good for you. Me I am a water drinker and a runner. I am also a keto person now so I guess I will skip the bagels with cheese and just hit the fruit. I know it is still carbs but the fruit carbs seem better for me....we'll see.
Why does Diet Coke have to be “good for you”? Why can’t it be neutral? Since it’s ~98% water anyway, and the ingredients are not shown to be harmful, if a person enjoys the taste of it why do they have to prove some health benefits in order to get your seal of approval?12 -
Not saying coke or diet coke is bad and it may not be however I challenge someone to show that it is good for you. Me I am a water drinker and a runner. I am also a keto person now so I guess I will skip the bagels with cheese and just hit the fruit. I know it is still carbs but the fruit carbs seem better for me....we'll see.
Challenge accepted.
As shown earlier in the thread, soda (regular or diet) hydrates at least as well as water, thus it is very good for you (seeing as how hydration is critical for life).
From there, there are no known negative affects to offset the health benefits of proper hydration gained by drinking soda.
Regular soda can be calorie dense and not very filling so may make it more difficult to maintain a proper intake of energy but otherwise has no ingredients which are harmful to your health.
Diet soda is essentially calorie free and also has no ingredients which are harmful to your health and thus the choice between hydrating with water vs diet coke boils down to preference.
Diet Coke is as good for you as water.
I challenge you to show that water is not good for you.12
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 916 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions