interesting Points regarding Diet Pop from my trainer

Cndressing

Thank you!!! This is what i have been trying to explain to some people for some time, but i didnt have the right way to do so!!! So thanks. Great email too.

snookumss

I never liked diet sodas because they tasted gross until I tried Diet Dr. Pepper. Then, I got totally addicted!

I started drinking a can or two a day at minimum and soon discovered that it gave me bladder problems. Pain in my bladder, sometimes pain within, while/after peeing... like a UTI but it wasn't! I medicated for a UTI, but the meds tasted horrible so I dumped them in more Diet Dr Pepper, all of a sudden the symptoms worsened (I drank a TON Of diet dr pepper that day) and I realized what had happened.


Diet Dr. Pepper is sweetened with Aspartame, so was the Equal sweetener I was dumping in my coffee.

Now, I've cut it all out save for a little bit of splenda, now I'll probably just go buy stevia! "D It really screwed me up, within a few days of cutting it all out and drinking plenty of water I was doing fine

fuzzyslipperz

It will probably give me cancer or kill me somehow, but I lost 50 pounds while drinking GALLONS of diet soda, and although I drink less of it now have not gained a pound back after eight years. So no, it's not only fat people who drink diet soda. I never claim it's good for me, but it's honestly the only vice I have. :P

714rah714

I hate when people get up on there soapbox and start preaching, especially when they're talking out of there *kitten*.

BrianSharpe

I'd certainly like to see the science behind this fear mongering.

Spokez70

Okay I quit drinking soda (diet and otherwise) months ago and really do feel a lot better off for it- but this statement is just ridiculous.

Diet pop is manufactured by companies that want to make money, not help you lose weight. This is the first red flag.

So all the companies out there making/growing/raising/picking whatever it is you consider healthy are not in business to make a profit?

borichfan

Thanks for sharing this. I needed to hear this to help me with my struggle to get off of diet soda.

mandimuscles

My personal trainer and Boot Camp Trainer each week sends out interesting emails each week and this is one i thought i might share with you guys.

Read carefully - This is something that could be hindering your weight loss success


It blows my mind when I go through a mall and I see loads of people walking around drinking diet pop, diet juice, or coffee and tea with artificial sweeteners - most of these people being overweight or obese. Diet pop is manufactured by companies that want to make money, not help you lose weight. This is the first red flag. The second red flag is the fact that artificial sweeteners were made in a scientific lab by people who configured a chemical substance to taste like sugar. That's disgusting when you actually think about it. Not only should these two facts be alarming alone, but why would you want to put something in your body that is fake, just to save a couple calories? Our bodies are supposed to be the temples that we live through. We need to feed ourselves quality food to influence good health and live with vitality.

Here's my take on diet drinks - they make you fat, and keep you fat. If you want to be healthy, you don't want to drink anything with artificial sweeteners. Especially aspartame!!!! Artificial sweeteners come with health risks, have addictive properties, and shut down our bodies natural ability to count calories. Our bodies don't understand how to metabolise things like aspartame, and actually sees artificial sweeteners as toxic. When we consume toxic things, our bodies go into a protection mode, making us store fat cells and water weight "to save us" from these foreign substances. We want to lose fat cells - not make them! Things like aspartame also turn off the satiation centre in your brain, making you crave more food later on, potentially causing you to reach for the wrong foods and over-eat. It can also diminish your serotonin levels, which are the feel-good chemicals you produce in your brain. When serotonin levels are down, you can feel sad, tired, *****y, hungry, and reaching for foods that quickly pick up your serotonin levels like white bread, cookies, chocolate, chips or more pop! Not something you want to do if you're trying to lose weight - it makes you crave the bad carbohydrates. This has personally happened to me. I used to be fully addicted to diet pop, and noticed I was putting on weight, feeling tired and not wanting to workout, kind of sad, constantly hungry, experiencing hormonal problems, and the weirdest thing - sometimes leaking a little bit of pee in my pants. Not cool!!!! I knew something was up, and that was the only major change I had done with my "diet", so I started to research and educate myself on it. Some of the things I learned were so alarming that I immediately stopped drinking diet pop, and even though I went through some withdrawal symptoms like headaches and cravings, I then soon lost weight, became energized, and stopped having little pee accidents. Yeah! This experience has made me very passionate about how bad artificial sweeteners are for you, so if you can learn anything from me, have it be this - don't drink diet pop!!!! Now, I don't even chew gum, and I always check food and drink labels for aspartame - like yogurts, and so-called healthy drinks. This is a choice I have made, and plan on sticking to, because it has made me feel loads better. After reading this, the choice is yours.

Here's some other quick facts and links if you'd like to learn more:
#1. Brand names of aspartame: NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure, Amino-Sweet - check for these on your food and drink labels.
#2. Aspartame is being linked to MS, Lupus and Parkinson's disease. I know a couple people that have MS through friends and family - they all have, or still do, drink diet pop. Here's a link to learn more. http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/aspartame-poison.html http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-information.html
#3. Healthy sugar replacements: Natural honey, 100% pure maple syrup, coconut (palm) sugar, and stevia. Stevia is naturally carb free and made from a plant source. I buy the palm sugar at the bulk barn, and grab the stevia from the superstore. They both have properties to help you with blood sugar control, unlike most sugars that throw your blood sugar onto a rollercoaster ride and cause you to store fat.

I absolutely hate the idea of fake sugars to reduce calorie intake. To me, if you want something sweet and you aren't diabetic or there is not a medical reason you can't have sugar, you should really just suck it up and log the calories and have some real sugar. The damage it could potentially do to your body and your weightloss/getting healthy goal is SO not worth it to me!

nevertoolate2

Everything to do with food invariably has a warning or a scare attached to it. Whether it's the carcenagenic or otherwise harmful properties of artificial flavourings or colourings or bacterial or harmful properties of some natural foods like eggs.

Some prove to be true, some not.

My take on artificial sweeteners has no basis in fact, it's just how I feel. It's a chemical. The large scale consumption of it might have some impact that someone doesn't know about yet. So I avoid large quantities of it but don't fret if I have an odd can.

On the weightloss side I have a different view. Our bodies work on the signals they are given. Drink a "diet" drink and you are telling your body it is going to get sugar. When it doesn't actually get it, it tells you that you need to take on sugar, prompting a desire for food or more sugary drinks. It's probably entirely psychosomatic but it's logic makes sense to me.

I doubt that can be scientifically proven, ergo, I am way off the mark. Besides if it could be scientifically proven somebody would have done it by now and the soda companies and sweetener manufacturers would be feeling some pressure.

little_lisid

I always say, don’t drink or eat anything that says “Diet” on it, it will make you fat. Ever see a skinny person drinking diet pop? I rest my case.

Actually, most of the skinny people I know drink diet soda. I lost 135 lbs in high school drinking diet soda, and I kept the weight off for 8 years (while continuing to drink diet soda). And the reason you see fat people drinking it is not because it made them fat, but because they're trying to lose weight (and, sadly, often think that giving up sugary sodas is all they have to do to achieve that goal).

I've read the essays on the evils of diet sodas. I've also read the American Diabetes Association's, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists', and the CDC's positions on diet sodas. I'll take science over woo-woo pop-nutrition any day. I'm diabetic, I need to go for the factual stuff.

Ultimately, go with what's working for you. If diet sodas seem to make you crave more sweets or don't work for you in your weight loss scheme, then definitely ditch them. But there's no need to demonize them--they work for many of us.

Kris

Nicely put.

Not sure if you know that aspartame has been tested more than nearly any other substance to look for causal relationships to ailments and has NEVER been found to be a statistically significant factor in any of the studies. Its rubbish like this from "qualified" people that have no ability to scientifically critically analyse information that spreads fear and misunderstanding. There is a reason this artificial sweetener has been around for so long without getting banned by any regulatory body.

Eat it or don't eat it but check your facts back to primary sources - like scientific journals rather than dodgy gossipy sources - this includes most of the Internet - there are so many lies out there - find reliable sources people or you will spend all your time running around in circles with false information.

I use both stevia and equal - it works for me.

louised88

I will believe as soon as the warnings can be backed up by clinical studies from trusted medical sources. For all I see these warnings posted about one every three days, I've yet to see any of the 'information' substantiated.

Do fat people drink diet soda? Sure. But odds are good that they are not fat because of it. More likely they are fat because of poor eating habits and simply took up diet soda to appease their conscience when they're 'trying' to lose weight.

^This. Seriously, if you're going to make claims like these, I'm going to need peer-reviewed sources, not just anecdata and scare-mongering.

louised88

just because someone is a personal trainer does not mean you should take their advice. I know a trainer who is type 1 diabetic, bodybuilds does steroids and is now dying from heart complications caused by poor management of the diabetes and the use of steroids. Not someone I would look to to tell me how to live.

I wouldnt take advice from the personal trainer you are talking about either - but some do more more then others and know more then the average person also.

I don't drink diet pop but once in awhile - maybe once a month i will have a reg gingerale or some coke in my rum.

No one is telling anyone to stop drinking pop or stop using artificial sweeteners - this is just someones opinions whether you want to agree or not is totally upto you - no one is telling you yes this is the true facts and to stop drinking pop now - the choice is yours and yours only.

So funny how there are always the ones who have to disagree on everything!

You're right--whether or not someone wants to disagree is absolutely up to the individual. Not anyone else. And that disagreement can and should be openly expressed if so desired, if done without rancor or inflammatory language. Preferably without resulting in a label of "disagreeable."

<insert big smile>

Kris

I like you.

little_lisid

From peer reviewed scientific journal for anyone that can read with comprehension.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408440701516184

Aspartame is a methyl ester of a dipeptide used as a synthetic nonnutritive sweetener in over 90 countries worldwide in over 6000 products. The purpose of this investigation was to review the scientific literature on the absorption and metabolism, the current consumption levels worldwide, the toxicology, and recent epidemiological studies on aspartame. Current use levels of aspartame, even by high users in special subgroups, remains well below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority established acceptable daily intake levels of 50 and 40 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. Consumption of large doses of aspartame in a single bolus dose will have an effect on some biochemical parameters, including plasma amino acid levels and brain neurotransmitter levels. The rise in plasma levels of phenylalanine and aspartic acid following administration of aspartame at doses less than or equal to 50 mg/kg bw do not exceed those observed postprandially. Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. Critical review of all carcinogenicity studies conducted on aspartame found no credible evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic. The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior. Epidemiological studies on aspartame include several case-control studies and one well-conducted prospective epidemiological study with a large cohort, in which the consumption of aspartame was measured. The studies provide no evidence to support an association between aspartame and cancer in any tissue. The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.




Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408440701516184

PayneAS

I refuse to drink diet drinks mainly because I have believed for years that the artificial sweeteners were linked to cancer. Now, it doesn't matter whether they do or don't, I think they just taste awful. I also check labels for them and try to avoid products that include them. I've switched to using honey & stevia for most of my sweetening needs. For the most part I stick to just drinking plain ole water anyways.

ArroganceInStep

Stevia is definitely natural. It wasn't made in a lab either

/sarcasm

jwshmoe75

I drink ONE can of diet pop at lunch every day. No more than that. I'm still losing weight. So I won't stress about it.

abbiepql

After reading this, the choice is yours.

That was the most informative and rational thing he put in the email - :laugh:

PayneAS

Stevia is definitely natural. It wasn't made in a lab either

/sarcasm

My nutritionist told me I could buy the plant and use the leaves in my food. Don't need a lab for that. Sure, the extract you get at the store is processed but it isn't "made" in a lab. The sweetest part of the plant is just extracted using various methods to make it easier on the consumer.

Rebaudioside A has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the stevia plant. To produce rebaudioside A commercially, stevia plants are dried and subjected to a water extraction process. This crude extract contains about 50% rebaudioside A; its various glycoside molecules are separated via crystallization techniques, typically using ethanol or methanol as solvent. This allows the manufacturer to isolate pure rebaudioside A.[41]
The National Research Council of Canada has patented a process for extracting sweet compounds from stevia by column extraction at temperatures from 0–25 °C, followed by purification by nanofiltration. A microfiltration pretreatment step is used to clarify the extract. Purification is by ultrafiltration followed by nanofiltration

Then go read about how aspartame is actually made in a lab and tell me there isn't a difference. Or read the definition:

Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener

compared to:

(Stevia)... is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

Edit: missed a backslash

jc86

It's not healthy for you and obviously water is a better choice but it is not going to prevent you from losing weight. Weight loss is calories in vs. calories out and diet soda= zero calories. And I know from experience (I have lost weight many times drinking ALOT of diet soda). I actually find it to be helpful when dieting. If I feel like snacking I just grab a diet soda and it satisfies me. I hope to quit one day because it is not healthy but right now my priority is weight loss and I see no reason to cut it out for that reason. I didn't get fat from too much diet soda, I got fat from shoving tons of cookies, dunkin sticks, krispy kremes, ice cream down my mouth.

jwshmoe75

It's not healthy for you and obviously water is a better choice but it is not going to prevent you from losing weight. Weight loss is calories in vs. calories out and diet soda= zero calories. And I know from experience (I have lost weight many times drinking ALOT of diet soda). I actually find it to be helpful when dieting. If I feel like snacking I just grab a diet soda and it satisfies me. I hope to quit one day because it is not healthy but right now my priority is weight loss and I see no reason to cut it out for that reason. I didn't get fat from too much diet soda, I got fat from shoving tons of cookies, dunkin sticks, krispy kremes, ice cream down my mouth.

jwshmoe75

It's not healthy for you and obviously water is a better choice but it is not going to prevent you from losing weight. Weight loss is calories in vs. calories out and diet soda= zero calories. And I know from experience (I have lost weight many times drinking ALOT of diet soda). I actually find it to be helpful when dieting. If I feel like snacking I just grab a diet soda and it satisfies me. I hope to quit one day because it is not healthy but right now my priority is weight loss and I see no reason to cut it out for that reason. I didn't get fat from too much diet soda, I got fat from shoving tons of cookies, dunkin sticks, krispy kremes, ice cream down my mouth.

Totally Agree!!!!

RonSwanson66

Stevia is definitely natural. It wasn't made in a lab either

/sarcasm

My nutritionist told me I could buy the plant and use the leaves in my food. Don't need a lab for that. Sure, the extract you get at the store is processed but it isn't "made" in a lab. The sweetest part of the plant is just extracted using various methods to make it easier on the consumer.

Rebaudioside A has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the stevia plant. To produce rebaudioside A commercially, stevia plants are dried and subjected to a water extraction process. This crude extract contains about 50% rebaudioside A; its various glycoside molecules are separated via crystallization techniques, typically using ethanol or methanol as solvent. This allows the manufacturer to isolate pure rebaudioside A.[41]
The National Research Council of Canada has patented a process for extracting sweet compounds from stevia by column extraction at temperatures from 0–25 °C, followed by purification by nanofiltration. A microfiltration pretreatment step is used to clarify the extract. Purification is by ultrafiltration followed by nanofiltration

Then go read about how aspartame is actually made in a lab and tell me there isn't a difference. Or read the definition:

Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener

compared to:

(Stevia)... is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

Edit: missed a backslash

Why do you think this matters?

"The take-home message is this: don’t assume that natural ingredients are inherently better than artificial ingredients in regards to health. Rather than worrying about whether an ingredient is natural or artificial, you should worry about its safety record and whether it’s been thoroughly tested. The line between what is artificial and what is natural is more like a fuzzy haze than a line anyway."

http://weightology.net/thehealthsleuth/?p=139

Sidesteal

Why do you think this matters?

"The take-home message is this: don’t assume that natural ingredients are inherently better than artificial ingredients in regards to health. Rather than worrying about whether an ingredient is natural or artificial, you should worry about its safety record and whether it’s been thoroughly tested. The line between what is artificial and what is natural is more like a fuzzy haze than a line anyway."

http://weightology.net/thehealthsleuth/?p=139

And for the record, as I interject with a side comment not relevant to the thread: The above website is awesome. James Krieger does great work and users should read the free articles on his site and soak up the info.

RyanDanielle5101

For later...to show my mom and sister

kittyfrost

I drink it a lot, I'm not fat. Something went wrong here.

duncanryan

This article is this guys opinion, none of it is fact. I would like to see real, scientific journal articles from a real medical journal. Many 'trainers' call themselves nutritionists, when they are not, in fact nutritionists or dietitians. I know plenty of people who drink diet drinks who are not overweight or obese. Excess calories and sedentary lifestyle cause weight gain. Diet drinks have ZERO calories, therefore, will not cause weight gain. Now, what if those who are drinking diet colas rationalize by saying "i saved 300 kcal by drinking diet instead of regular, I deserve the Big Mac and fries"? Is it the diet cola that caused weight gain? Or the Big Mac and fries? Am I saying diet cola is good for you? Absolutely not. Especially when it replaces healthier options like water and milk. Does it cause weight gain. Absolutely not. Be smart. Moderation is key.

100% true. I'm finding that a lot of these supposed "informational" posts on here are just one person's biased opinion. Such as the original post in this thread. Show me some strong evidence like a randomized controlled trial or a systematic review or the like and then maybe I'll shift my thinking. Until then, I'm going to continue to go by your quote.

opus649

I'd certainly like to see the science behind this fear mongering.

You won't because there isn't any.

2012asv

This could be true for ALL processed foods, not just diet soda. Again, it comes down to moderation. Food and soda is not what MAKES you fat. YOU make you fat.

TexanThom

I will believe as soon as the warnings can be backed up by clinical studies from trusted medical sources. For all I see these warnings posted about one every three days, I've yet to see any of the 'information' substantiated.

Do fat people drink diet soda? Sure. But odds are good that they are not fat because of it. More likely they are fat because of poor eating habits and simply took up diet soda to appease their conscience when they're 'trying' to lose weight.

Perfect response

illuminatusObservor

I always say, don’t drink or eat anything that says “Diet” on it, it will make you fat. Ever see a skinny person drinking diet pop? I rest my case.

I drink diet pop everyday alone with my 64 oz of water...