What kind of damage does Diet Soda pop do?

Got_Discipline

As I try to reduce the amount of sugar I consume each day by avoiding prepackaged and processed food. I find myself craving sweets as expected, I realize these cravings should go away or at least be significantly reduced in the next few days to couple of weeks. BUT diet soda pop has zero calories and zero carbs yet still has the sweet taste I am craving. I have heard to give up carbonated drinks to include diet soda pop, also the artificial sweeteners that is used in diet soda may also cause health risks.

Juice has WAY to much sugar in it and so much water a day everyday gets boring. So is Diet soda pop worse than regular pop?

Forty6and2

No, there's a lot of fear mongering about CHEMMMMICCCAAAAALLLLSSSSS!!!! and stuff, but diet soda isn't unhealthy

HardyGirl4Ever

I've read about it in The Doctor's Diet, but I looked for an article to send to you.

http://www.today.com/health/diet-soda-doing-these-7-awful-things-your-body-1C6558748

That's why I will never touch it again. Even regular pop corrodes your bones. :frown:

sargessexyone

No

tryett

My Dr. told me she would rather me drink coffee then either soda or diet soda and she would rather me drink regular soda then diet (and I am pre-diabetic). My nutritionist also advised me to cut down/eliminate it from my diet also. There are lots of conflicting studies out there but I am going to follow the advise of the professionals I am seeing right now.

ErinMcMom

I grew a tail from years of intense diet cola consumption! I think it's pretty awesome, I do stronglifts with it. lol

All jokes aside, I think there are worse things you can do to yourself than drinking a diet cola or 2 each day. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I exercise daily, eat moderately and enjoy my diet cola. If you like it, drink it

Mr_Bad_Example

As I try to reduce the amount of sugar I consume each day by avoiding prepackaged and processed food. I find myself craving sweets as expected, I realize these cravings should go away or at least be significantly reduced in the next few days to couple of weeks. BUT diet soda pop has zero calories and zero carbs yet still has the sweet taste I am craving. I have heard to give up carbonated drinks to include diet soda pop, also the artificial sweeteners that is used in diet soda may also cause health risks.

Juice has WAY to much sugar in it and so much water a day everyday gets boring. So is Diet soda pop worse than regular pop?

Yes, diet pop will cause one to experience many health risks... for example, if someone is drinking the last Diet Pepsi and I am thirsty for it, that person may face significant health risks due to their diet pop consumption.

TeaBea

All things in moderation is my philososophy. I drink 1 diet everyday. I look forward to a can of soda, it takes the place of something (else) sweet.

Soda - all soda - is hard on the enamel of your teeth. Many sodas can contribute to heartburn/acid reflux (root beer is the most mild).

I'm not going to give up sweets for life, so I'm going to have to deal with portion control eventually. I make room a treat everyday. Diet soda is a little helper....but it's not the end solution for me.

Got_Discipline

As I try to reduce the amount of sugar I consume each day by avoiding prepackaged and processed food. I find myself craving sweets as expected, I realize these cravings should go away or at least be significantly reduced in the next few days to couple of weeks. BUT diet soda pop has zero calories and zero carbs yet still has the sweet taste I am craving. I have heard to give up carbonated drinks to include diet soda pop, also the artificial sweeteners that is used in diet soda may also cause health risks.

Juice has WAY to much sugar in it and so much water a day everyday gets boring. So is Diet soda pop worse than regular pop?

Yes, diet pop will cause one to experience many health risks... for example, if someone is drinking the last Diet Pepsi and I am thirsty for it, that person may face significant health risks due to their diet pop consumption.

It's a joke but I will raise you a Coors light to your diet Pepsi.

ninerbuff

I've read about it in The Doctor's Diet, but I looked for an article to send to you.

http://www.today.com/health/diet-soda-doing-these-7-awful-things-your-body-1C6558748

That's why I will never touch it again. Even regular pop corrodes your bones. :frown:

Unfortunately the article isn't conclusive. Many of the maladies that are mentioned are "associated" or "linked" to diet soda. There are lots of peer reviewed clinical studies that show that artificial sweetener in moderation is fine.
And really, there's no "corroding" going on. Maybe loss of calcium from someone not getting adequate calcium to begin with, but someone supplying calcium regularly shouldn't suffer.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

CarolinkaCjj

I grew a tail from years of intense diet cola consumption! I think it's pretty awesome, I do stronglifts with it. lol

All jokes aside, I think there are worse things you can do to yourself than drinking a diet cola or 2 each day. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I exercise daily, eat moderately and enjoy my diet cola. If you like it, drink it

And you have a tail! I really want a tail. Off to the store for diet pop!

All jokes aside (same as above), I got fat on all kinds of things. I can take or leave diet soda but from time to time, diet root beer just hits the spot.

dmariet116

Diet soda is not the best choice, but it's obviously not the worst! Some people are sensitive to aspartame and splenda. If you don't get chronic migraines or other bad reactions, a couple diet sodas won't hurt and can be just the thing to get you past that sugar craving! You can even find some sweetened with stevia.

cwolfman13

Got_Discipline

I grew a tail from years of intense diet cola consumption! I think it's pretty awesome, I do stronglifts with it. lol

All jokes aside, I think there are worse things you can do to yourself than drinking a diet cola or 2 each day. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I exercise daily, eat moderately and enjoy my diet cola. If you like it, drink it

I am a heavy into drinking, smoking, and fighting.....Drugs well hey lets keep this non incriminating, but seriously I was trying to take baby steps to become more healthy!

amwbox

Diet pop is probably the single worst thing I still put in my body.

In terms of satisfying the sweet tooth for zero calories its tops.

However...there have been quite a few studies done that show the negative, non-weight loss related issues that go with it. Especially if your like me and can easily knock of a couple liters of it in a day.

paperpudding

All things in moderation.

I would not recommend drinking a couple of litres of it a day - but I drink about 4 or 5 glasses per week and is causing me no problems whatsoever and have no plans to change this.

saranne1015

Yes, diet pop will cause one to experience many health risks... for example, if someone is drinking the last Diet Pepsi and I am thirsty for it, that person may face significant health risks due to their diet pop consumption.

HA, this guy gets it. diet pepsi, you are my one true love.

deliacm

Anything that my husband uses to clean oil from our driveway is likely not the best thing to drink. Pass me the Fuji water, please!

SnuggleSmacks

Aspartame is the single most studied food additive in the history of the FDA. It's safe. Jeez.

EllieB_5

An overdose of certain artificial sweeteners can cause severe neurological symptoms and even permanent damage, I think also seizures and coma are a possibility. I forget what the OD dose was, but I do remember thinking that I couldn't consume that much artificial sweetener over the course of an entire day let alone in a short enough time to OD.

Go to Google
Type in: Google scholar, and hit enter
Type in: side effects artificial sweetener, hit enter
You should get pages upon pages of various scientific articles, and most of them should be related to your keywords. I recommend reading only the studies that use double-blind. After much reading you should be in a much better position to determine for yourself if diet soda poses any significant health risks.

SnuggleSmacks

An overdose of certain artificial sweeteners can cause severe neurological symptoms and even permanent damage, I think also seizures and coma are a possibility. I forget what the OD dose was, but I do remember thinking that I couldn't consume that much artificial sweetener over the course of an entire day let alone in a short enough time to OD.

Go to Google
Type in: Google scholar, and hit enter
Type in: side effects artificial sweetener, hit enter
You should get pages upon pages of various scientific articles, and most of them should be related to your keywords. I recommend reading only the studies that use double-blind. After much reading you should be in a much better position to determine for yourself if diet soda poses any significant health risks.

I tried it, and every study I'm reading says no side effects were detected, except for a study involving headaches. Then it said that a small subset of people may have increased headaches from aspartame consumption.

countscalories

Many years ago, my craving for diet soda was so intense that I had to see a doctor about it. He suggested I avoid the bubbly stuff, so I made the switch to something more positive, as in "A+". Unlike some of you, my choice of beverage didn't cause me to grow a tail, but now I can fly, and I'm able to make myself invisible whenever I want to.

fatcity66

To me, Aspartame is poison. I stick to natural sweetners like agave or honey, or rarely, stevia/sucralose. Don't EVER bake with sucralose/Splenda. It turns into a toxic substance at high temps.

Either way, it's your health. It's up to you if you want to trust it to some chemical cooked up in a lab. I mean, we all know the food manufacturers have our best interests in mind, right??

ABeautifulDistraction

As I try to reduce the amount of sugar I consume each day by avoiding prepackaged and processed food. I find myself craving sweets as expected, I realize these cravings should go away or at least be significantly reduced in the next few days to couple of weeks. BUT diet soda pop has zero calories and zero carbs yet still has the sweet taste I am craving. I have heard to give up carbonated drinks to include diet soda pop, also the artificial sweeteners that is used in diet soda may also cause health risks.

Juice has WAY to much sugar in it and so much water a day everyday gets boring. So is Diet soda pop worse than regular pop?

I chill water with cut up lemons, limes and cucumbers. I also brew fruit flavored teas and drink them over ice. The soda cravings WILL dissipate. Takes a little time. I've been off soda long enough the last time I tried to drink one it tasted all sorts of wrong and I just threw it away. As for juice, I consume a lot of raw fruit and veggie juice that I make myself. No added anything there and I highly recommend trying it. PM if you'd like a few suggestions on blends. You would be amazed what adding an apple into vegetable juice will do for the taste profile. As your palate "cleans out" and you adjust to not getting hits of super sweet from artificial and added sugars, you'll be surprised by how good fresh food tastes.

EllieB_5

An overdose of certain artificial sweeteners can cause severe neurological symptoms and even permanent damage, I think also seizures and coma are a possibility. I forget what the OD dose was, but I do remember thinking that I couldn't consume that much artificial sweetener over the course of an entire day let alone in a short enough time to OD.

Go to Google
Type in: Google scholar, and hit enter
Type in: side effects artificial sweetener, hit enter
You should get pages upon pages of various scientific articles, and most of them should be related to your keywords. I recommend reading only the studies that use double-blind. After much reading you should be in a much better position to determine for yourself if diet soda poses any significant health risks.

I tried it, and every study I'm reading says no side effects were detected, except for a study involving headaches. Then it said that a small subset of people may have increased headaches from aspartame consumption.

"Consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame raises plasma phenylalanine levels, thereby increasing brain phenylalanine and, conceivably, affecting the synthesis of monoaminergic brain neurotransmitters known to underlie various types of behaviour."
We must be using two different Google's as I seem to be getting far more than "no side-effects".

SnuggleSmacks

"Using this method, we found no clear symptom complex that suggests a widespread public health hazard associated with aspartame use"

"In no instance was there a detectable effect of the ingested aspartame."

" Aspartame alone, or in combination with carbohydrate, did not alter any aspect of behavior that we assessed, nor did it produce detectable side effects."

"No persistent changes over time were noted in either group in vital signs; body weight; results of standard laboratory tests; fasting blood levels of aspartame's constituent amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine), other amino acids, and methanol; or blood formate levels and 24-hour urinary excretion of formate. "


ETA: I searched "Aspartame side effects" and these are from different studies in the first page of results. Only the headache study had any negative results so far, aside from a mouse study which used extreme amounts.

Soccermavrick

Everybody seems to have an opinion on this. Personally, I have been trying to cut out soda, siet or otherwise out. Some days I am better than others. Water jusdoes not do it for me, so either juice or milk intake goes up replacing it. I am not sure how to get around the sugar, but I am not diabetic so that is not a major concern. I think it comes down to how much will power you have.

daybehavior

The CDC sees nothing wrong with aspartame, get over it.

In summary, currently available information, based on data with limitations as described in the report, indicates a wide variety of complaints that are generally of a mild nature. Although it may be that certain individuals have an unusual sensitivity to the product, these data do not provide evidence for the existence of serious, widespread, adverse health consequences attendant to the use of aspartame. Reported by Div of Nutrition, Center for Health Promotion and Education, CDC.

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SnuggleSmacks

This one even has a positive result: "The aspartame group lost significantly more weight overall (P = 0.028) and regained significantly less weight during maintenance and follow-up (P = 0.046) than did the no-aspartame group. "

"Clinically significant differences in laboratory parameters measured could not be demonstrated; all mean values were within normal limits. No unusual findings were observed in phenylalanine or tyrosine levels. All phenylpyruvic acid and methanol determinations were negative. No important physical changes occurred, and no product‐related side effects were reported."

"Serum growth hormone showed no statistically significant changes in response to any of the experimental meals whereas cortisol and insulin fell slightly and glucose rose slightly during each of the meals. We conclude that these doses of aspartame do not alter secretion of prolactin, cortisol, growth hormone, or insulin in normal individuals."

"Large daily doses of aspartame had no effect on neuropsychologic, neurophysiologic, or behavioral functioning in healthy young adults."

" The results of this study suggest that following a single 15 mg/kg dose of aspartame, no detectable effects are observed in a group of healthy volunteers with no history of aspartame intolerance, despite significant increases in plasma phenylalanine concentrations."

"The findings indicate that aspartame at greater than 10 times usual consumption has no effect on the cognitive and behavioral status of children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, aspartame does not appear to affect urinary excretion rates of monoamines and metabolites."

Seriously, this is study after study after study which shows absolutely no effects from aspartame.

paperpudding

Anything that my husband uses to clean oil from our driveway is likely not the best thing to drink. Pass me the Fuji water, please!

My husband uses buckets of water to clean our driveway - should I stop drinking water??

wannakimmy

I wouldn't drink a 12 pack a day, but if you have one or two a day, it isn't the end of the world. There are MUCH worse choices you could make. If you try to cut out too much at once, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Small sustainable changes will work, just remember this will take time and dedication. You didn't get to be overweight overnight, and you won't lose it that way either. Good luck on your journey!