I don't like water. Will diet coke do instead?

WomanofWorth

Pretty much as the subject says, I hate water! I have tried to drink it, but can only manage water when in the gym!

I figured drinking something is better than nothing.... right?

Not if the something you're drinking is crap. Water, tea, watered fruit juice. Not acid and artificial sugars.

SpaceMarkus

Give coconut water a shot.

The problem with Mio and similar additives is that they contain a lot of the chemicals that soda does, stuff that your body can't process.

Jill_newimprovedversion

I had a hard time getting used to drinking water too. But I SERIOUSLY believe it's a key element to the whole overall health change.

Making a choice to feed your body what it runs on- CRAVES- which is 100% WATER is the first step ( and a CRUCIAL one)
in continuing to make good choices.
It's your choice to chose soda, but it's counter-productive- even if it's diet. Why sabotage your own efforts?
Not saying you have to eliminate it from your diet, but don't think it's a health food- and certainly don't count it as your water intake.
It's a snack. BTW, water has 0 calories and 100% nutrients.

If you're on this journey for a better health, this isn't a step you should eliminate. Start small and keep increasing your daily water intake. And keep track. ( I bought a 20 oz. water bottle and I aim to refill it 3 1/2 times a day. )

beezalar

My daughter hates(hated) water also......but after drinking water, walking 30 minutes a day, and watching her calories, she lost all the weight and then some............... she says it was really the water that did it for her and now she has learned to love it. She went from a size 14/16 to a 6/8. I think drinking water is worth the effort!!

A_New_Horizon

I am horrible at drinking plain water myself (I can after a gym sesstion but that is about it). I always put Crystal Light in my water to get in my water for the day. It adds flavor and only 5 calories. There are all kind of flavors. Actually with putting Crystal Light in my water, I usually get anywhere from 10 to 12 glasses of water per day.

As for the diet soda question, I know there is alot of ideas about diet soda (where good or bad), but I do have 1 diet soda a day (it gives me my caffeine since I don't drink coffee). If I have a second one, it is always caffeine free). My aunt did nutrisystem and lost 65 lbs, and they allowed her caffeine free soda. Now, that I said that, I wouldn't ONLY drink diet soda; your body needs water and diet soda has alot of sodium in it.

paulhood

From what I have heard and read in the past soft drinks in general aren't great for you, diet or otherwise. The diet drinks usually contain sodium (not much but it's there) and that makes your body retain water. Also, caffeine is (again what I heard) a natural diuretic which triggers your body's response to start storing water because it's not sure when it will get actual water. Not sure I necessarily believe the double-standard in that "fact" myself. Diuretics get rid of water but "it triggers your body to store" it also?? Anyway, the acid in the drinks are bad supposed to be bad for teeth. It has been said that those who drink diet drinks weigh more. It has something to do with the body's reaction to the sweet taste and triggering compulsions to eat more and more sweets in particular. I have been told that if I am going to drink caffein and/or eat too much sodium that I need to drink more water to help flush those out of my system.

Since I have always drank water (started vigorously in 19 and 88) I cannot confirm or deny that it has helped. I started drinking 1 to 2 gallons (sometimes more) of water per day when I was stationed in Alaska with the Air Force. Alaska is a very dry area and you can become dehydrated very quickly there. As a matter of fact, I became dehydrated even drinking that much water. When I asked the doctor how that was possible he simply told me that in addition to the water I still needed to have important electrolytes (sodium and potassium). I don't eat a lot of salt and generally do not put salt on anything and only used what is suggested in recipes. I can only make two assumptions, I ate enough salt but all the water flushed it out and/or I didn't eat enough potassium.

Some people claim that soft drinks eat through your stomach. When I first started working where I do now, our water plant chemist had two steel bolts and two solutions. The two solutions were 1) Cola 2) Some acid like hydrochloric or something. Anyway, one bolt was placed in each solution and the bolt in the cola was becoming damaged far quicker than the one in the acid. Hmmmm. I believe it as it applies to steel, but I'm not convinced that it's the same for the stomach and maybe not even the teeth. I think that if I had swallowed that acid I would have been burned far worse than if I had swallowed that cola.

It just goes to show you that you can't trust everything. It's like how people play with statistics too. If I told you that you could make $100 for every "customer" you had and then told you that just yesterday I increased my own customer base by 100% you might be intrigued. But if I told you the same thing but told you that I only had 1 customer when I increased it by 100% to 2 customers you may not be as intrigued. You might not think losing 1 customer is too bad, but if I told you that I lost 50% of my customers in one day you'd flip out. Did you know that every person that ever drank a diet soda will die? Same goes for everyone that drinks water! They all will die!! If you eat 100 tons of artificial sweetener you may get cancer. If you eat a banana you may get cancer too. I have been looking and reading into statistics and the games that are played with them for quite a while and can see that while some are actually relevant, there are a lot of them out there who pick and choose how to present them based on their desired outcome. Like the customer base example.

All of that said……I don't think personally that you can replace drinking water with drinking diet or regular soda. I believe there is some truth to weight gain and diet drinks.

xoArielleMarieox

I dont HATE water, but I was pretty much addicted to diet pop. I dont like normal pop, just diet. I would have one in the morning, one about a hour 1/2 later, one with lunch, another around 4pm usually one with dinner, and sometimes some before bed. I couldnt get enough which was odd because before becoming a mom, I HATED pop, any kind, I only drank water, all day and all night so I dont know where it came from. I still have one ocassionally, but at most lately one a day and I drink a crap load of water, probably around 100oz some days. I can only drink water ICE cold. (Like everyone else said) try the vitamin waters, or crystal lights and things! Im sure you can still enjoy one a day and long as you get that water in there


"I thought of it as cleaning my pipes. You sure would not clean your clothes with brown water, right? Would not even think of scrubbing even the toilet with iced tea/rbrown water. So why would I expect my body to get cleaned out with it? "

Great way of thinking! I never thought of it like that, true!

Sumo813

I regularly consume 20 - 34 cups of water every day. I start my day by literally chugging a 64oz bottle, and then from there drink from a 1000ml (about 4 cups) bottle for the remainder of the day. I rarely drink anything else. I have to force myself to drink milk to ensure that I'm getting a fair amount of vitamin D and calcium (when I was younger I used to drink nothing BUT milk though). Can't say water has an acquired taste, since it has no taste, but I can tell you from my own experience in sports, that I prefer water over sports drinks any day. Especially when it's ice cold (of course, you wanna be careful with that when you're working out so you dont wrench your gut).

Diet sodas are better than regular sodas, but that's the only thing you should be substituting them for. Part of the big reason everyone says diet sodas are so bad is that they sweet taste makes you crave more sweets. Cut the soda out (regular AND diet) and see if you notice a difference on the scale. I only use Crystal Light or now Mio, to mix it up sometimes when I'm having dinner.

I'm not sure how hard you go at it when you get your cardio in, but if you start drinking more water, you'll notice a significant difference in how you feel during and after your workout. Remember, all these things like soda and artificial stuff did not exist when mankind first came into existence. Granted, we have evolved significantly over the centuries, but there are just some things that can't be substituted. Look at the great civilizations of the world... and look where many of them got their start... on or near a major water source.

Good luck with your journey, but definitely don't use anything to substitute for water.

LorinaLynn

I use Crystal Light on the Go, and dilute it so one packet goes into 32 oz instead of 16 oz. Still has plenty of flavor.

It still has aspartame, so the folks who hate that still won't be happy. I still enjoy my diet soda every day, but it's more of a treat than a beverage.

paulhood

Think about it. Water is clean, water has no additives.

What???? Have you ever been to a water treatment plant? [Yes I have, I work in and around one] You'd be shocked at how "clean" your water is and just how many additives there are in it. Of course, they are all supposed to be okay for you to consume.

FearAnLoathing

I drink 1 pepsi max a day,but I also drink atleast 4 liters of water a day.You probobly shouldnt just drink diet coke

Sumo813

Some people claim that soft drinks eat through your stomach. When I first started working where I do now, our water plant chemist had two steel bolts and two solutions. The two solutions were 1) Cola 2) Some acid like hydrochloric or something. Anyway, one bolt was placed in each solution and the bolt in the cola was becoming damaged far quicker than the one in the acid. Hmmmm. I believe it as it applies to steel, but I'm not convinced that it's the same for the stomach and maybe not even the teeth. I think that if I had swallowed that acid I would have been burned far worse than if I had swallowed that cola.

Stomach acid is supposed to be one of the strongest acids known and yet it doesn't eat through our body (although, those who suffer from ulcers or GERD will certain say otherwise). But the lining of the stomach really is designed in a special way. I would say that if you could get the acid mentioned above INTO the stomach, it would possibly be fine. But getting it there would be the trick. The other parts of the digestive system are not as strong as the lining of the stomach.

But I remember seeing them do an experiment similar to this on Food Detectives where they tried to dissolve a penny with soda and other liquids.

"Can cola dissolve a penny, a nail, a tooth or a housefly?- None of the above, although a tooth will begin to decay within a few days. Technically, the same effect can occur with orange juice. In real life, your saliva washes down cola as you drink, although long-term drinking will lead to gradual decay."

paulhood

Stomach acid is supposed to be one of the strongest acids known and yet it doesn't eat through our body .... I would say that if you could get the acid mentioned above INTO the stomach, it would possibly be fine. But getting it there would be the trick. The other parts of the digestive system are not as strong as the lining of the stomach.

Good point.

mzenzer

From the Mayo Clinic:
"some studies suggest that drinking more than one soda a day — regular or diet — increases your risk of obesity and related health problems such as type 2 diabetes"

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diet-soda/AN01732

I know you don't really "buy into" ill affects of diet soda, but many health professionals do. Not too mention carbonated drinks have been linked to osteoporosis and even the "water" in the soda has been so chemically altered it can hardly be called water.

Also as others have suggested try flavored waters or ice tea. I don't have access to my normal computer where I have some really good links to studies about the diuretic affects of caffeine, but this is all I could get in a quick search. Basically though, current thought is that the common perception that caffeine, thereby coffee and tea, is a diuretic and should not be counted at all towards your water count. However, this has been shown to not be true by a long shot. I've heard people throw out numbers such as for every cup of coffee you drink you need to drink 1, 2, or even 3 cups of water. Well that's just silly even if a cup of coffee could not be counted as a whole cup of water due to caffeine's diuretic affects then it would be to the tune of 1/3rd at best, and that's being generous. So, if you like tea, drink up, count it as water, but try to drink some flavored water as well because over time that much caffeine is just not good for you anyway.

Lastly, what type of water are you drinking? I don't drink tap for other reasons mainly but around here it tastes terrible. I can taste the chemicals and i would not drink it much if thats all I had. However nothing tastes better than a good bottle of highly chilled spring water. Also try a couple different types. Believe it or not they do all taste different. For example, Dasani is created by reverse osmosis, which gives it a unique flavor. I drink Aquafina almost exclusively and believe it or not it's actually tap water but it's filtered 7 times using some traditional and the most advanced filtering processes available and it tastes awesome. I'm a bit of a water snob in fact and get a little irked if a restaurant doesn't have Aquafina bottled lol.



http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071118171926AAi0425

http://www.medicinenet.com/caffeine/page3.htm

JMCade

try flavored waters, or crystal light packets, or mio water enhancer. water is better for you than pop -bottom line. I have cut out pop, except if we go to a restaraunt i might get a diet pop for a change. but i'm not perfect by no means- my downfall is coffee.

CassieLEO

Avoid anythign with Citric Acid in it. You know when they transport Coca cola non-diluted the trucks have to have a hazardous materials warning on the truck because of how corrosive it is? You know it will eat rust off nuts and bolts to unskrew them? Imagine what it can do to your insides after a while....

CraigIW

I drink a fair bit of green tea. If you like iced tea then that's a good one.

You should count anything non-alcoholic that you drink towards your 8 glasses, so you may be getting more than you think if you are not doing so.

Diet coke is full of carcinogens and there is a lot of evidence that sweeteners are really bad for you too.

funfitfoodie

Cokes a big nono! Try some no added sugar squash?

natskedat

No! In addition to the corrosive nature of coca-cola products, caffeine is a diuretic. That means that not only is Diet Coke not water, you actually lose water when you drink it.

Decaffeinated tea and Crystal Light are good flavored water, but your best bet is good ol' water. After years of denying yourself it's flavorless wonder, your taste buds might not be accustomed to it. Try it with a LOT of ice or with slices of citrus. But Diet Coke is doing exactly the opposite of what you want it to do. It's dehydrating you!

Elle408

So,.... it's a no!

I'll try and drink cordials more and ween myself off it! I liek the idea of having a cup with a straw... I like straws!
I'll "man up"... but after this pint of diet cola!

My last one!

i'll try!

Try the Robinsons No added sugar squash. It's a couple of calories per glass, so if you do hit your 8 glasses a day you're only adding about 40 calories. I hate water too, even more so with slices of anything in it, but the squash is a lifesaver! I can now happily drink 10-12 glasses a day and actually like the taste of the orange and pineapple variety or the Lemon one. I also find it doesn't taste of anything artificial like some of the own brand supermarket squash. And now, after years or drinking nothing but Coke (not even the diet variety) that anything fizzy bloats me and makes me really uncomfortable so I don't crave it!

Mad_Dog_Muscle

Two Words = HELL NO! :noway: :noway:

amazing_grace♥

I was able to quit soda 5 years ago by switching to lemonade, then sugar-free 10 calorie lemonade, then water with lemon, then to plain old ice water. Seems to me a more seamless transition than coke to diet coke to water. Now I can't stand the bloated feeling carbonated drinks give me... Yuck!

I agree. And if something as simple as drinking MORE water can HELP me to lose weight, I'm all for it! For me its also helped improve my skin and I don't get the frequent headaches I used to get (A LOT).

Midori_i

I think it's really all habit... If you're used to flavoured drinks, you'll gag at the thought of drinking just water, but once you get used to it, you learn to appreciate the purity and the benefits it has for your health. I drink about 2 litres of pure water every day and it's not an effort in the least, now that it has become a habit. On the contrary, I find myself craving water when people offer me joice or sodas...

If you really absolutely can't stand the taste, why not try herb or fruit teas? They don't have any calories, taste good so you don't need sweeteners, and they don't have caffeine either.

AmyNVegas

Get some true lime and add a little sweetener- Stevia is best or add vanilla flavoring and sweetener for a cream soda like taste. Diet coke is dehydrating and corrosive so not a good sub for water.

13marta

This is how I started liking drinking water many years. This question was posed to me: When washing a car, clothes, dishes, anything that needs cleaning, do we use soda to get them cleaned? NO. We use water. Why not USE WATER TO CLEAN YOUR INSIDE? Hope this will motivate you to drink water.

Leanitra

What about the diet cranberry juices? They are only 5 calores and 2 grams of sugar per 8oz glass. Also I drink Diet Green Tea because it has no cals and no sugars and is so good. They also have like diet peach teas and others, just watch the cals and the sugars.

milaxx

I honestly am befuddled why people do not understand that your body needs water. Pure, plain water. Most of us don't like it because we have trained our palettes to crave sugar and salt through all the artificial crap we put in our bodies. There is no easy way to do it. I also don't want a bunch of unnatural chemicals in my body that will continue that salt/sugar addiction. I say drink the water at the most add some lemon or cucumbers or mint (my personal fav) to enhance the flavor if need be. Promise yourself something nice like a new haircut or a pair of shoes if you successfully meet you water goals for a month. Say no to artificial chemicals like soda, splenda and so call beverage enhancers . Your body will thank you.

Dangers of Soda
http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm

Dangers of Splenda
http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx

So, is Splenda safe? The truth is we just don’t know yet. There are no long-term studies of the side effects of Splenda in humans. The manufacturer’s own short-term studies showed that very high doses of sucralose (far beyond what would be expected in an ordinary diet) caused shrunken thymus glands, enlarged livers, and kidney disorders in rodents. (A more recent study also shows that Splenda significantly decreases beneficial gut flora.) But in this case, the FDA decided that because these studies weren’t based on human test animals, they were not conclusive. Of course, rats had been chosen for the testing specifically because they metabolize sucralose more like humans than any other animal used for testing. In other words, the FDA has tried to have it both ways — they accepted the manufacturer’s studies on rats because the manufacturer had shown that rats and humans metabolize the sweetener in similar ways, but shrugged off the safety concerns on the grounds that rats and humans are different. In our view, determining that something is safe (or not) in laboratory rats isn’t a definitive answer, as we’ve seen countless examples of foods and drugs that have proved dangerous to humans that were first found to be safe in laboratory rats, both in short- and long-term studies.

FinalOutrage

man up and drink the water, I used to hate it, seriously how can anyone hate water but I did, I got over it. I drink tons now.

This. How can you hate something that your body is made up of? Whether you like it or not, you need to get no less than 8 cups a day in your system. Also, adding any kind of sugar additive kills the point of drinking water, period. And there is nothing on this Earth that replaces the benefits of water.

binary_jester

Pretty much as the subject says, I hate water! I have tried to drink it, but can only manage water when in the gym!

I figured drinking something is better than nothing.... right?

Diet Coke is not a replacement for water. But if you're going to have it - list it as a snack not a drink.



Here's why:

The caffeine in diet coke dehydrates rather than hydrates you.

You have some old info. But lets cover each one.

OMG caffeine is a diuretic!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html

Medical experts have been saying for years that caffeine acts as a potent diuretic. Consume too many caffeinated beverages, and you end up drinking yourself into dehydration.

But research has not confirmed that notion. Most studies have found that in moderate amounts, caffeine has only mild diuretic effects — much like water.

One report, by a scientist at the University of Connecticut who reviewed 10 previous studies, appeared in June 2002 in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

Investigations comparing caffeine with water or placebo seldom found a statistical difference in urine volume, the author wrote. “In the 10 studies reviewed, consumption of a caffeinated beverage resulted in 0 to 84 percent retention of the initial volume ingested, whereas consumption of water resulted in 0 to 81 percent retention.”

Another study, in the same journal in 2005, involved scientists following 59 active adults over 11 days while controlling their caffeine intake. They were given caffeine in capsule form on some days and on other days were given a placebo. Researchers found no significant differences in levels of excreted electrolytes or urine volume.

Other recent studies have found similar results.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Caffeine may not be as powerful a diuretic as it’s often said to be.


OMG artificial sweeteners will give you cancer

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

Is there an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed that cyclamate in combination with saccharin caused bladder cancer in laboratory animals. However, results from subsequent carcinogenicity studies (studies that examine whether a substance can cause cancer) of these sweeteners have not provided clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans. Similarly, studies of other FDA-approved sweeteners have not demonstrated clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans.

What have studies shown about a possible association between specific artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Saccharin

Studies in laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked saccharin with the development of bladder cancer. For this reason, Congress mandated that further studies of saccharin be performed and required that all food containing saccharin bear the following warning label: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.”

Subsequent studies in rats showed an increased incidence of urinary bladder cancer at high doses of saccharin, especially in male rats. However, mechanistic studies (studies that examine how a substance works in the body) have shown that these results apply only to rats. Human epidemiology studies (studies of patterns, causes, and control of diseases in groups of people) have shown no consistent evidence that saccharin is associated with bladder cancer incidence.

Because the bladder tumors seen in rats are due to a mechanism not relevant to humans and because there is no clear evidence that saccharin causes cancer in humans, saccharin was delisted in 2000 from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Report on Carcinogens, where it had been listed since 1981 as a substance reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen (a substance known to cause cancer). More information about the delisting of saccharin is available at http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/append/appb.pdf on the Internet. The delisting led to legislation, which was signed into law on December 21, 2000, repealing the warning label requirement for products containing saccharin.

Aspartame

Aspartame, distributed under several trade names (e.g., NutraSweet® and Equal®), was approved in 1981 by the FDA after numerous tests showed that it did not cause cancer or other adverse effects in laboratory animals. Questions regarding the safety of aspartame were renewed by a 1996 report suggesting that an increase in the number of people with brain tumors between 1975 and 1992 might be associated with the introduction and use of this sweetener in the United States. However, an analysis of then-current NCI statistics showed that the overall incidence of brain and central nervous system cancers began to rise in 1973, 8 years prior to the approval of aspartame, and continued to rise until 1985. Moreover, increases in overall brain cancer incidence occurred primarily in people age 70 and older, a group that was not exposed to the highest doses of aspartame since its introduction. These data do not establish a clear link between the consumption of aspartame and the development of brain tumors.

In 2005, a laboratory study found more lymphomas and leukemias in rats fed very high doses of aspartame (equivalent to drinking 8 to 2,083 cans of diet soda daily) (1). However, there were some inconsistencies in the findings. For example, the number of cancer cases did not rise with increasing amounts of aspartame as would be expected. An FDA statement on this study can be found at http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2006/ucm108650.htm on the Internet.

Subsequently, NCI examined human data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study of over half a million retirees. Increasing consumption of aspartame-containing beverages was not associated with the development of lymphoma, leukemia, or brain cancer (2).


OMG diet soda will make you fatter!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/04/earlyshow/contributors/emilysenay/main2330142.shtml

(CBS) For many people there's only one real reason to drink diet soda.

"Because it's got no calories and, yeah, you try to watch your weight," says Raymond Tomczak.

But, as The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay reports, some experts are now saying diet soda may be doing the exact opposite: making them gain weight.

Epidemiologist Sharon Fowler, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, presented research data on soda consumption to the American Diabetes Association.

"What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drinks, the more weight they were likely to gain," she says.

That finding was a big surprise, but it reflected what nutritionist Melainie Rogers saw in her work with obese patients in New York.

"When we would switch them on to diet soda off regular soda, we weren't seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us," Rogers says.

But why would diet soda make some people gain weight? There are only theories at this point but it may be as simple as people consciously eating more because they think they can.

Khristianne Corro says, "If I'm having one of those pig out days, then yeah, I figure maybe it'll balance it out a little bit."

And Tomczak says, "I'm drinking the diet soda and you know let me have that hamburger and fries, instead of just the hamburger alone."

Researchers say physiology may also play a role.

"When I put anything to my stomach that's not water then my stomach responds by increasing the gastric acid secretion," Fowler says. "Does that increase my sense of hunger and does that drive me to eat more?"

If diet soda really doesn't take the weight off, it wouldn't be the first time a diet product failed to perform as expected.

"You know, much the same as when we went through the fat free craze, people overate – not because there was anything wrong with the products, but they overate," says Rogers, the nutritionist. "So we're wondering are we seeing a similar phenomenon with the diet soda."

There are still plenty of questions that researchers need to answer. For instance, are these results associated with all artificial sweeteners? Or just certain ones?

And of course, it's all just a theory until larger controlled studies can be done, but the early findings are fascinating.

In the meantime, there are alternatives for people who are trying to lose weight.

There's juice and water or coffee and tea. Dr. Senay says the one thing to take away from this is moderation. Whatever you put in your mouth, don't overdo it. A diet product won't really help you lose weight if you're still getting too many calories from other foods.


Notice they say the only possible link is possibly causing gastric secretions. Otherwise they say people may over eat. if you are religiously tracking your calories, you can control that on your own.

Do what you want with the information. Just don't believe all the hype.

I drink Diet Mt Dew. I also drink plenty of water. Just had a check up and everything was fine.

themrs08

I add flavor packs to my water. It helps. I don't drink any soda.