Diet Coke is a Joke....

megsta21

Countless numbers of dieters consume Diet Coke thinking that it is inert to their diet efforts. After all, it's called Diet Coke, right? Wrong.

Diet Coke, regardless of how many calories it has, wreaks havoc on your fat loss efforts and will ultimately cause you to gain weight. There are two main reasons for the Diet Coke fallacy. First, the sweet taste from Diet Coke elicits an insulin spike, which blocks your ability to burn fat. Second, artificial sweeteners found in Diet Coke disrupt satiety, the feeling of being full. Combined, the actions of Diet Coke go against a healthy lifestyle. Understanding why ensures that we think twice before consuming it.

When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including fruits and their juices). Why? The sweet flavor elicits the release of insulin from the pancreas to enhance the uptake of sugar by the cells so that it doesn't linger in the bloodstream. Once insulin is released it inhibits your fat burning hormone called HSL (hormone sensitive lipase). This hormone is responsible for releasing fat into the bloodstream to be utilized as fuel. If inhibited, your body is unable to burn fat and will then begin utilizing amino acids (from muscle) and carbohydrates as fuel. This will leave you feeling tired, grumpy, and sloth-like toward the end of the day. Not to mention, you will become abnormally hungry. Those with large amounts of HSL burn fat all day and look thin and slim. Those who inhibit it by eating or drinking the wrong substances grow fat throughout their adult years.

Second, as discovered by Professor Terry Davidson and associate professor Susan Withers at Purdue University, artificial sweeteners disrupt satiety, the feeling of being full. Their results, published in International Journal of Obesity showed that "mouth feel" plays a crucial role in the body's ability to count calories and that when we consume artificial sweeteners we disrupt the body's ability to count calories based on sweetness. Not able to use mouth feel to count calories, those who drink diet coke will overeat without conscious awareness. In other words, you think you're not eating like a pig, but in reality you are.

Diet Coke is not the only substance having these abilities. Makers of health food bars and protein supplements are either not aware or ignore the ill effects of sugar alternatives and sugar. This can be seen by the fact that most every health food bar and protein supplement is loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners. The belief that these bars and supplements are healthy for you is a perfect example of how marketing strategies can supersede medical science and common sense.

In closing, Diet Coke is a joke. Stay away from it and other sugar sources if you're serious about losing fat and keeping it off forever. Regardless of your diet and/or training efforts, the aforementioned ill effects of sugar alternatives and sugar will greatly hinder them.

Sourced from: www.emaxhealth.com

squishyjenn

I wish I read this BEFORE I went to the movies tonight and bought a GIGANTIC diet Pepsi. And drank nearly all of it. You have effectively given me all the more reason to avoid it.

Cytherea

Diet Coke fallacy.

As a professor of critical thinking, I have to say... LOVE THIS!!

Brat3073

omgosh, where did you get the no smokin ticker? I would love to add that to my page!

Brat3073

omgosh, where did you get the no smokin ticker? I would love to add that to my page!

ktbug1186

sooooo good to know!!!! I have recently fallen in love with diet dr. pepper...im def not drinking it anymore! Does this mean that if i want a soda i should just stick with regular or is that worse than diet?:ohwell:

grouch201

Must be doing enough right that the diet coke isn't truly hurting the big picture. I have a medium diet coke about once a week from McDonald's, and I'm actually loosing weight faster than I'd expected. Maybe I should drink more to slow things down a tad. I just have to say anything I read that is diet related, I always take with a grain of salt (1 grain isn't going to wreck my sodium intake) and just keep exercising and eating healthy on the whole. I still have my indulgences, but they are kept to a minimum. That's what it's all about.

nikki91950

this is really great and all, but i think that in the big scope of things, diet coke is one of the least significant things we have to worry about. i've been drinking diet coke since i was a preteen, and i can assure anybody that diet coke was not the culprit of my past obesity problem.

Mindful_Trent

I definitely agree it's good to stay away from added sugar and sugar substitutes, but I have to take exception with one particular line in this post:

When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including fruits and their juices)

Fruit comes packed with so many good vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc - it does a disservice to discourage people from eating fruit. I eat on average 2 servings of fruit a day and am having no trouble with fat loss - I think the key is to make sure that you keep ADDED sugars out of your diet as much as possible and eat reasonable portions of fruit and dairy. From what I've read, normally the regulating systems in our body work quite well when you eat reasonably, but it's when you eat large servings of sugar at once that causes your body to overcompensate and release too much insulin (which leads to the crappy "sugar crash" feeling).

megsta21

omgosh, where did you get the no smokin ticker? I would love to add that to my page!

Thanks! I got it at www.sparkletags.com.



I just posted it because i found this to be of interest.

megsta21

I definitely agree it's good to stay away from added sugar and sugar substitutes, but I have to take exception with one particular line in this post:

When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including fruits and their juices)

Fruit comes packed with so many good vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc - it does a disservice to discourage people from eating fruit. I eat on average 2 servings of fruit a day and am having no trouble with fat loss - I think the key is to make sure that you keep ADDED sugars out of your diet as much as possible and eat reasonable portions of fruit and dairy. From what I've read, normally the regulating systems in our body work quite well when you eat reasonably, but it's when you eat large servings of sugar at once that causes your body to overcompensate and release too much insulin (which leads to the crappy "sugar crash" feeling).

Yep I agree with you Trenton!! Fruit is awesome!!! Processed sugars = bad!!!

fxst78

If you are going to have a soda then you are better off with a diet one.

Drink water as much as possible but artificial sweetener will not destroy all your hard work. If you are logging calories and you are sticking to your goals then half of the issue is gone as you are not overeating becasue of the DC.

And if you are worried about the insulin response then just have your DC with a meal or very close to eating. This gets rid of the other issue.

kayemme

the article brings up bigger points.

having one diet (or not diet) coke a week is really not a big deal. in a healthy, or even reasonably healthy... or hell, even not actually sick, body can handle it.

the sweetness in sodas is what spikes the urge to overeat with salty things. salty things are usually teamed up with fatty things. now you have the triad.

overly sweet things (read: all sodas) do disrupt the tongue's ability to decipher actual sweetness. i just wrote an article a few days ago about the high fructose corn syrup industry looking to change the name to "corn sugar" to (what i believe) mislead the public into believing it's the same thing as table sugar, which isn't all that great either.

but further than that, for thousands of years before industrial food, the level of sweetness was that of an ordinary grape or apple. diet coke is WAY WAY sweeter than that. i used to wash fudge down with soda; i'm surprised i even have pancreas.

i just cut soda out of my diet completely (diet or otherwise) because it distorts my tastes for actual food. when i drink soda, i crave chips. when i drink soda, i crave candy.

right now i sort of crave all of it, but have been holding up all right because i know it will even out.

fit2sit

First, the sweet taste from Diet Coke elicits an insulin spike, which blocks your ability to burn fat.

Aspartame does not stimulate insulin release.

Please refer to D.G. Bruce, et al, (2004), Cephalic phase metabolic responses in normal weight adults,

bbygrl5

I am a 90% whole foodie with one bad addiction... diet soda. You speak the absolute truth! Diet soda is very horrible for you! This is my next mountain to conquer. Thanks for the further motivation!!

cbirdso

You didn't mention that aspartame works as a preservative in your body. It INHIBITS fat loss because all preservatives and complex chemicals in processed food combines with fat molecules. It requires more energy from our bodies to eventually metabolize these completed fat molecule chains.

When our body is in a calorie deficit, one would think fat stores would be a logical place to find energy, but a body that has fat tied up in completed chains as I described above, takes MORE energy to break down than the body has at the moment because there is less intake. Therefore, the body goes to something easier, like protein from our muscles and internal organs. This is a vicious cycle for those seeking weight loss. Less muscle mass means a slower metabolism and even less fat being burned because the dieter has less energy to spare. Unfortunately, most dieters gets discouraged and think they need to eat even LESS. The body once again goes to protein stores for energy and the downward spiral continues.

This is why 'eating healthy' doesn't just mean eating smaller portions of diet foods laced with additives. It means eliminating 'hard to metabolize' foods from your diet and giving your body the right balance of ready energy so that those fat chains can be broken up WITHOUT adding new fat stores.

fit2sit

You didn't mention that aspartame works as a preservative in your body. It INHIBITS fat loss because all preservatives and complex chemicals in processed food combines with fat molecules. It requires more energy from our bodies to eventually metabolize these completed fat molecule chains.

When our body is in a calorie deficit, one would think fat stores would be a logical place to find energy, but a body that has fat tied up in completed chains as I described above, takes MORE energy to break down than the body has at the moment because there is less intake. Therefore, the body goes to something easier, like protein from our muscles and internal organs. This is a vicious cycle for those seeking weight loss. Less muscle mass means a slower metabolism and even less fat being burned because the dieter has less energy to spare. Unfortunately, most dieters gets discouraged and think they need to eat even LESS. The body once again goes to protein stores for energy and the downward spiral continues.

Aspartame is hydrolyzed on its methyl group by intestinal esterases yielding methanol, which is oxidized in the one-carbon metabolic pool to CO2. The resultant dipeptide of that is split at the mucosal surface by dipeptidases and the free amino acids are absorbed. The aspartic acid is transformed in large part to CO2 through its entry into the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Phenylalanine is primarily incorporated into body protein either unchanged or as its major metabolite, tyrosine.

That's the jest of my biochem book on Aspartame metabolism. I couldn't find out where aspartame "binds" to fat or when it becomes a free fatty acid in its metabolism in our bodies. How exactly does it bind?

Beebee78

Good post! And some fab replies.

My personal trainer was telling me last week that diet drinks are very bad for you. He said basically in order to use the energy stored in the, glycogens need to be the size of the tip of your thumb or bigger, that way they go further into the body and are broken down correctly. In diet and zero drinks the glycogen molecules are teeny tiny and therefore go directly to the brain where they are broken down. It causes the body to feel stressed as the brain is working too hard and then it produces cortisol which if overproduced is bad for you and you will store more fat!

xxx

sparklesammy

i drink coke zero every day.A lot of coke zero. its my favorite. so far i dont think it really has hindered my weight loss. im doing quite well (having lost 97 lbs so far)...

goron59

Interesting stuff and something else to put on the pile of good advice...

Of course, another reason to avoid diet coke is that it tastes like s**t. ;-)

125again

I've honestly never drank a diet anything or used an artificial sugar substitute in my life. Freaks me out and tastes funky. My stomach doesn't like it either. I'll just stick with water and natural sugar thank you. I'd rather allocate for the sugar calories than consume a lot of artificial stuff. Bugs me out.

rosemary10

I'm with you Megs. I'm never trusted those artifical sweetners. Not since the first one came out (saccharin maybe).

My Motto is ...."If it's not food, don't eat it!"

katerinab

It's weird, I know, but my body seems to give up the weight faster if I drink my diet coke than at other times. My body seems to want to do the opposite as others' - diet coke conquers my food cravings and fills me up, and water actually makes me hungrier and my body retains it more than diet coke, which is completely the opposite of what I've been told all my life. I always knew I was strange, but here's more proof right here

This is not to say I've ditched the water for diet coke - I do drink water, but usually earlier in the day when I still have plenty of calories to fill me up with when the water makes me hungry. I drink the diet coke in the evening when I need my stomach to shut up because I don't really have many calories left to make much of a difference. I guess for me personally, it's all about balance.

davep90

I'm liking diet water myself

Grokette

Here is an article regarding artificial sweeteners and Weight Gain.........................

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96849.php

Artificial Sweeteners Could Make You Gain Weight, Study
11 Feb 2008

A study by scientists in the US suggests that eating artificial sweeteners could make people put on weight because experiments on laboratory rats showed that those eating food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more calories than their counterparts whose food was sweetened with normal sugar.

The study is the work of Drs Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, two psychologists based at the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and is to be published in the February 2008 issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA).

The authors suggest that a sweet taste may cause animals to anticipate the calorie content of food, and eating artificial sweeteners with little or no calories undermines this connection, leading to energy imbalance by increasing food intake or reducing energy expenditure.

They conducted three sets of experiments on adult male laboratory rats who were put in two groups. One group was given yogurt sweetened with glucose (equivalent to table sugar, containing 15 calories a teaspoon), and the other group was given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin.

The rats that had the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, put on more weight, gained more body fat, and did not cut back on their calorie consumption in the longer term.

All these results were statistically significant, said the authors, who argued that by breaking the link between the sweet taste and the anticipated high calorie food, the saccharin changed the body's ability to control food intake.

They also suggested that the change depends on experience, which might explain why the obesity epidemic in humans has gone up in line with increased use of artificial sweeteners, and why scientists fail to agree on the effect of artificial sweeteners on humans: some research shows weight loss, others show weight gain or no effect at all. Swithers said it could be because those studies did not take into account prior consumption and that people have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners.

The authors also measured changes in the core body temperature of the rats. Usually, when the body of an animal gets ready to eat, the "metabolic engine" revs up, which raises the core temperature of the body. But when they gave the rats fed on saccharin sweetened yogurt a new, sweet tasting, high calorie meal, their core body temperature did not go up as much as that of the rats who had been fed on yogurt sweetened with glucose.

Swithers and Davidson argued this was because the saccharin fed rats had a blunted response that had the double effect of making them eat more and making it harder for them to burn off calories. As they explained in their paper:

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar."

Although they recognized that these results may be contrary to expectations, and indeed the news may not be well received by clinicians and health professionals who support the use of low and zero calorie sweeteners as a way to lose weight, and this data is based on rats and not humans, the authors pointed out their findings are in line with increasing similar evidence. More and more studies are showing that people who consume more articially sweetened diet drinks are at higher risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of health problems that increases risk of heart disease and diabetes, and includes high abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance.

The authors suggest that other artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K, probably have a similar effect as saccharin. They also said that although they anticipate the results on the rats would be similar in humans, this it is yet to be demonstrated with human subjects.

Swithers and Davidson pointed out that it is not all doom and gloom. Although it takes more conscious effort, counting calories is still a good way to keep control of weight.

"A Role for Sweet Taste: Calorie Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats."
Susan E. Swithers and Terry L. Davidson.
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 122, No. 1, February 2008.

Sources: American Psychological Association press release.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today

cbirdso

Approximately 10% of aspartame (by mass) is broken down into methanol in the small intestine. Most of the methanol is absorbed and quickly converted into formaldehyde and then to formic acid.


Simplest aldehyde, chemical formula HCHO. Formaldehyde (37%) in water solution, called formalin, is used as a preservative, an embalming agent, and a disinfectant. Large amounts of formaldehyde are used in the manufacture of various familiar plastics. Bakelite (the first completely synthetic plastic) is the trademark for formaldehyde and phenol polymer, and Formica is the trademark for formaldehyde and urea polymer. The reaction of formaldehyde with proteins (called amino formylation) leads to its use in the tanning industry and for treating various vegetable proteins to render them fibrous.
For more information on formaldehyde, visit Britannica.com.

Preservatives keep food from spoiling (i.e. being broken down to be used as food, for us, bacteria, or whatever) by binding to organic molecules. If preservatives are ingested, they don't just disappear, they continue to work as planned: combining with carbon to make it stronger. Thus, your body needs to work harder to 1)metabolize 'preserved' food and 2) get rid of the by product. If you are eating less, your body is searching for the easiest energy it can find: NOT the strongest molecules to break down.

Sauchie

Must be doing enough right that the diet coke isn't truly hurting the big picture. I have a medium diet coke about once a week from McDonald's, and I'm actually loosing weight faster than I'd expected. Maybe I should drink more to slow things down a tad. I just have to say anything I read that is diet related, I always take with a grain of salt (1 grain isn't going to wreck my sodium intake) and just keep exercising and eating healthy on the whole. I still have my indulgences, but they are kept to a minimum. That's what it's all about.

I'd agree. I have been drinking it for 21 yrs. Now I have maybe 3 cans a week....

agdeierl

I definitely agree it's good to stay away from added sugar and sugar substitutes, but I have to take exception with one particular line in this post:

When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including fruits and their juices)

Fruit comes packed with so many good vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc - it does a disservice to discourage people from eating fruit. I eat on average 2 servings of fruit a day and am having no trouble with fat loss - I think the key is to make sure that you keep ADDED sugars out of your diet as much as possible and eat reasonable portions of fruit and dairy. From what I've read, normally the regulating systems in our body work quite well when you eat reasonably, but it's when you eat large servings of sugar at once that causes your body to overcompensate and release too much insulin (which leads to the crappy "sugar crash" feeling).

I get the feeling you know what you're talking about! So can I ask you a question? MFP has the option to track sugars. I am technically not overweight (according to my BMI), but I think I look chunky am I'm on the heavy side of "normal" on the bmi anyway. Visually, most of my fat is in my belly. I definitely have tummy flab. so anyway, I wasn't sure whether tracking sugars was necessary or not since MFP didn't automatically on default start tracking sugars. Eventually, I figured since I have a belly I should track sugars so I changed the settings to do that. It has me at 26 grams of sugar a day or something like that. Of course I was really frustrated because my plumsmart juice that I like to drink for my stomach issues has a good bit of sugar, though it says none of it is added sugar. Also, I like to eat fruit from time to time and even a glass of milk has 12 grams of sugar! But then I was told not to worry about it, because MFP should really only track ADDED sugars because that's what you need to observe when losing weight. THEN other people said, No, your body reacts the same way to sugar whether it's from an apple or a cookie! WHICH IS IT?! And if it's the latter, how am I supposed to eat fruit and drink milk?! I only drink one glass of the plumsmart a day (8 oz.) but it's got almost that much sugar in it (from the plums, it says).

Mindful_Trent

I definitely agree it's good to stay away from added sugar and sugar substitutes, but I have to take exception with one particular line in this post:

When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including fruits and their juices)

Fruit comes packed with so many good vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc - it does a disservice to discourage people from eating fruit. I eat on average 2 servings of fruit a day and am having no trouble with fat loss - I think the key is to make sure that you keep ADDED sugars out of your diet as much as possible and eat reasonable portions of fruit and dairy. From what I've read, normally the regulating systems in our body work quite well when you eat reasonably, but it's when you eat large servings of sugar at once that causes your body to overcompensate and release too much insulin (which leads to the crappy "sugar crash" feeling).

I get the feeling you know what you're talking about! So can I ask you a question? MFP has the option to track sugars. I am technically not overweight (according to my BMI), but I think I look chunky am I'm on the heavy side of "normal" on the bmi anyway. Visually, most of my fat is in my belly. I definitely have tummy flab. so anyway, I wasn't sure whether tracking sugars was necessary or not since MFP didn't automatically on default start tracking sugars. Eventually, I figured since I have a belly I should track sugars so I changed the settings to do that. It has me at 26 grams of sugar a day or something like that. Of course I was really frustrated because my plumsmart juice that I like to drink for my stomach issues has a good bit of sugar, though it says none of it is added sugar. Also, I like to eat fruit from time to time and even a glass of milk has 12 grams of sugar! But then I was told not to worry about it, because MFP should really only track ADDED sugars because that's what you need to observe when losing weight. THEN other people said, No, your body reacts the same way to sugar whether it's from an apple or a cookie! WHICH IS IT?! And if it's the latter, how am I supposed to eat fruit and drink milk?! I only drink one glass of the plumsmart a day (8 oz.) but it's got almost that much sugar in it (from the plums, it says).

Well, I'm not an expert, but I know that I've been losing weight (and feel better than I've ever felt in my life) and don't bother tracking sugars. My blood sugar levels are fine. I limit myself to reasonable portions of fruit and dairy. I don't personally drink much fruit juice (rarely any at all) because it lacks the fiber that comes in whole fruits. I'd rather get the whole package! My personal opinion is that you don't need to worry about it, as long as you are avoiding added sugars and processed foods (which usually have lots of added sugars). It's very different than the normal American diet - feel free to take at my food journal. If you are eating lots of processed foods, I would make sure you read labels and maybe track sugars to make sure you know you're not getting too much from those sources, but I still wouldn't worry about what you get from fruit or milk, as long as you eat reasonable amounts of them. That said, I'm not an expert or a medical professional, and plenty of people on here will disagree with me.

PS - check out this post about fruit vs fruit juice http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/119885-fruit-vs-fruit-juice

SaveTheDrama

It's weird, I know, but my body seems to give up the weight faster if I drink my diet coke than at other times. My body seems to want to do the opposite as others' - diet coke conquers my food cravings and fills me up, and water actually makes me hungrier and my body retains it more than diet coke, which is completely the opposite of what I've been told all my life. I always knew I was strange, but here's more proof right here

This is not to say I've ditched the water for diet coke - I do drink water, but usually earlier in the day when I still have plenty of calories to fill me up with when the water makes me hungry. I drink the diet coke in the evening when I need my stomach to shut up because I don't really have many calories left to make much of a difference. I guess for me personally, it's all about balance.

I am the same way. I know diet coke may not be the best thing for me, but I take it in moderation, usually one a day maybe one every week depending on how I feel and it has not hindered my weightloss in the least little bit. Plus the little bit of caffiene helps my migraines.

KeepOnMoving

Well, I am embarrassed to say that I drink Diet Soda everyday! I have drank diet soda since 1990! My diet soda intake had go worse over the last 4 years as so have I gained the most weight I have ever weighed. But this is the time period I been married to my husband who is a gourmet cook also. Plus I am middle age and my metabolism has slowed down. Other time periods in my life when I successfully lost weight is eating sugar free yogurt daily. And drink a little diet soda for a morning pick-me-up. I really need a better excuse to give up diet soda because I am so addicted to it. I think it causes harm to my esophagus. Has anyone heard about Coke cleaning out the drain pipes? I think no more than 12oz day is okay. Can't eat bananas with Diet Pepsi because the taste clashes. Please don't take my diet soda away! :sad: