Diet drinks...are they bad for you?

burnett50

Hi guys, can anyone tell me if Diet drinks are bad for you. I know they are nil calories and I tend to drink about four a day, they help me get over my sweet tooth cravings but I dont really know if I should avold them or not....anyone out there have the knowledge?:flowerforyou:

burnett50

Hi guys, can anyone tell me if Diet drinks are bad for you. I know they are nil calories and I tend to drink about four a day, they help me get over my sweet tooth cravings but I dont really know if I should avold them or not....anyone out there have the knowledge?:flowerforyou:

delightedin

The sweetners they contain can make you crave sweet things just as much as more natural sugars. They're DEFINATELY better than drinking the full sugar sodas, but you can do better still!

I have a sweet tooth just like you, and I find that the more sweet things I eat and drink (whether or not they are artificial sweetners) give me more cravings. For me it was also a case of addiction to chocolate in particular - so I have given that up for a few weeks. It takes about 21 days to break a habit and create a new one, and I would recommend it if you feel you might be addicted to the sodas.

It's easy to say drink water instead, but it really is the healthiest option, and the more you drink it the more you can get to like it. Maybe you should allow yourself one soda a day instead of four and drink water instead of the other three? Or if that's too big a jump, try taking it down to 3, then 2 then 1 and so on.

The other thing about sodas generally, whether diet or not, is the gas in them can encourage poorly tummies and water retention. It's better to stick to non gassy drinks as much as possible.

I hope this was helpful!!!

Keep it up, you're doing great to switch to diet anyway! It WILL make a difference that you're not drinking the full sugar sodas so well done!

delightedin

Having read your message again I think I misread you a little... so sorry about that.

Perhaps you could find other ways to beat the sweet cravings? Drinking water is a good one because it makes you feel too full to eat them, or you could do what I do and have an inner "Do I need it?" dialogue. Once you've argued a bit you'll find you lose interest and walk away from the sweet thing, feeling like you've had a little victory!! :flowerforyou:

rheston

Most diet drinks contain Aspartame and it has some good and bad reviews out there but the most significant negative is that it appears to inhibit weight loss which tends to lead researches to believe that drinking a regular soda is safer than drinking diet sodas.

I try to steer clear of diet drinks, except diet tonic for my gin on the weekends, but go to other sources of better things like iced tea (home made) instead.

A site you might be interested in reviewing is: http://www.youcanbefit.com/sweet.html

Bob

zenmama

Here is my take on it...and a link to read for yourself.

Aspertame is bad...http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm

It isn't made of anything....other than a chemical compound formula...made in a lab: made with your four basic elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen and methanol:.METHANOL (AKA WOOD ALCOHOL/POISON) (10% OF ASPARTAME) Methanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison. People may recall that methanol was the poison that has caused some "skid row" alcoholics to end up blind or dead. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounter the enzyme chymotrypsin.


And an FYI the FDA wouldn't approve the drug due to the seizures and brain tumors it was causing in lab animals.

anyway I am not trying to preach I just want everyone to be careful in what they put in their bodies....

dd

babyhippo

I use to be a heavy drinker (of sweetened iced tea). I was probably drinking a gallon of it a day! I finally just decided about a month ago that this is crazy and I need to be drinking water.

The first week was awful! WATER TASTED YUCKY!................. But, I stuck to it. I can honestly tell you that I don't mind it at all anymore. I treat myself to 1 glass of of sweetened tea (reg. sugar) for supper. But I drink "ice cold" water the rest of the day. (at least 8 cups)

I completely lost the craving to be drinking sweet stuff!

I do however, use reg. sugar. I try to avoid the artificial stuff. I figure my body knows how to process the natural stuff better. And I figure 2 tsp. a sugar per day isn't that bad!


***I feel better not drinking all that caffeine and my skin is incredible right now.!***Yea water:drinker:

yenn

A new study that people have been talking about for the last few weeks suggests that those calorie-free sweeteners lower your body's defenses to REAL sugar. When your brain senses "sweet," your body prepares for a caloric surplus and gets ready to burn it. When you have the fake-out "sweet," your body stops having that reaction and then starts to treat REAL sugar like it's no big deal either, and without that kickstart your body is just left with an unexpected glut of calories. So, artificial sweeteners with no calories are like the little-sweetness-that-cried-wolf.

Here's a write-up on the study from Scientific American:

You know those no-guilt diet drinks you chug by the gallon, and the fake sugar you dump in your coffee to stay trim? Bad news: a new study suggests that artificial sweeteners may actually make it harder to control your weight.

Psychologists at Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center report that nine rats given yogurt sweetened with no-cal saccharin ended up eating more and gaining more weight and body fat than eight fellow rodents given yogurt containing plain old glucose (a simple sugar with about 15 calories per teaspoon, the same as table sugar).

Study authors Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson speculate the reason is that the faux sweetener messes with the brain, fooling it into revving up the body's metabolism in anticipation of a never-to-come calorie load.

Typically, they say, the taste buds, sensing something sweet, signal the brain to prep the digestive system to gear up for a caloric onslaught; when the expected sugar jolt (extra calories) fails to materialize, the body gets rattled and has trouble bouncing back and regulating appetite when other food is available. As a result, rats eat more or expend less energy than they would have had they had the real thing.

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity [fat] than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," the authors write in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience. They say that other artificial sweeteners—aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame—could have a similar effect.

The researchers note that the findings gibe with other emerging evidence—including a study published last month in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation—that shows people who down diet drinks are at a higher risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome (a medley of medical problems such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance that puts people at risk for heart disease and diabetes).

They acknowledge, however, that more research is needed. After all, just because this counterintuitive effect may occur in rats does not necessarily mean it also happens in humans. Still, let it serve as a warning to anyone who may have a false sense of security that artificial sweeteners are all it takes to be fit and healthy.

Cassia

A new study that people have been talking about for the last few weeks suggests that those calorie-free sweeteners lower your body's defenses to REAL sugar. When your brain senses "sweet," your body prepares for a caloric surplus and gets ready to burn it. When you have the fake-out "sweet," your body stops having that reaction and then starts to treat REAL sugar like it's no big deal either, and without that kickstart your body is just left with an unexpected glut of calories. So, artificial sweeteners with no calories are like the little-sweetness-that-cried-wolf.

Here's a write-up on the study from Scientific American:

You know those no-guilt diet drinks you chug by the gallon, and the fake sugar you dump in your coffee to stay trim? Bad news: a new study suggests that artificial sweeteners may actually make it harder to control your weight.

Psychologists at Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center report that nine rats given yogurt sweetened with no-cal saccharin ended up eating more and gaining more weight and body fat than eight fellow rodents given yogurt containing plain old glucose (a simple sugar with about 15 calories per teaspoon, the same as table sugar).

Study authors Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson speculate the reason is that the faux sweetener messes with the brain, fooling it into revving up the body's metabolism in anticipation of a never-to-come calorie load.

Typically, they say, the taste buds, sensing something sweet, signal the brain to prep the digestive system to gear up for a caloric onslaught; when the expected sugar jolt (extra calories) fails to materialize, the body gets rattled and has trouble bouncing back and regulating appetite when other food is available. As a result, rats eat more or expend less energy than they would have had they had the real thing.

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity [fat] than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," the authors write in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience. They say that other artificial sweeteners—aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame—could have a similar effect.

The researchers note that the findings gibe with other emerging evidence—including a study published last month in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation—that shows people who down diet drinks are at a higher risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome (a medley of medical problems such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance that puts people at risk for heart disease and diabetes).

They acknowledge, however, that more research is needed. After all, just because this counterintuitive effect may occur in rats does not necessarily mean it also happens in humans. Still, let it serve as a warning to anyone who may have a false sense of security that artificial sweeteners are all it takes to be fit and healthy.

To be honest I think that i am dealing with what the rats did( bless there little hearts...jk) I used that stuff a while back and now It's REALLY hard for me to lose weight :explode: it never was until i used that stuff for about two years..... :sad:

jlohern

From personal experience, I have not had any adverse reactions to diet drinks. I have been drinking them for 10+ years. I do go through periods where I drink 6-10 per day and periods where I do not drink any. I have had no gastrointestinal difficulties, no difficulty sleeping, etc. I'm not saying that diet drinks do not cause these issues. I'm just saying that they do not cause those issues in all people.

I also tend to take any studies with a grain of salt. The study that has most recently came out studies saccharin. Saccharin is the least used of all the sugar substitutes. I don't believe any diet drink uses saccharin, with the exception of Tab. They use Aspartame.

Also, the study was conducted on one set of lab rats. It is a very limited study. Artificial sweeteners do not, in and of themselves, cause weight gain. The study indicates that the sweetener caused the rats to eat more in general, thus leading to weight gain.

We also have to remember that these are rats, not people. People have the ability to reason. If a person was eating saccharin and noticed that they were eating more as a result, that person could change their behavior. The rats do not have that ability.

Finally, the cancer connection is pretty far-fetched. We have all seen the warning lables, "Has been known to cause cancer in laboratory animals". The amount of artificial sweetener that laboratory animals consumed is the equivalent of a human consuming gallons of sweetener everyday. I don't know if that is even possible!
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12155793/

My opinion...diet drinks are perfectly safe to drink for weight loss and otherwise. You just need to use common sense. If you have sensitivity to diet drinks, do not drink them. However, you may also want to consider that the sensitivity is linked to the caffeine in the drinks rather than the artificial sweetener.

Viva la Diet Coke!

TerriG

A diet soda from time to time isn't going to hurt anyone!

I drink mine AFTER I've had my water for the day. If I don't drink all my water, I won't drink a diet soda!

Eve23

I have posted a few times on this subject. If you do a search on the main message board that Mike has set up for us you can see all the different posts that we have had on this subject.

I think the general consensus has been moving from using it to not using the artificial sweetners. I know I posted my families story and hope that it will help anyone who might need some input on it.

Good luck

madiposa

Most diet drinks contain Aspartame and it has some good and bad reviews out there but the most significant negative is that it appears to inhibit weight loss which tends to lead researches to believe that drinking a regular soda is safer than drinking diet sodas.

I try to steer clear of diet drinks, except diet tonic for my gin on the weekends, but go to other sources of better things like iced tea (home made) instead.

A site you might be interested in reviewing is: http://www.youcanbefit.com/sweet.html

Bob

:drinker: I do to when i go out with the girls i drink brandy and diet:bigsmile:

its time for change

I do not normally consume any diet products but today while I was out I decided to try the Skinny Vanilla Latte at starbucks to get my coffee fix without 500 calories.

By the time I got home, I was tired, craved something really bad for me, and I got a headache.

Go figure. I wish that I would have saved those 90 calories for something more satisfying.

burnett50

Thank you all for your replys. I have never really felt any adverse effects from drinking diet drinks (that I know of) but there has been a general negative feeling about them for a while, hence the question. I have been drinking them for a few years and I have to say that I never used to have any issue loosing weight, unlike of late. However that was then and there have been a couple of decades in between so I guess age and the slowing down of things are more likely to be to blame. Anyway I am going to give water a go for a little while and see how I feel. I have to say that after four glasses (bland or what!) so far today I am not really enjoying it but I will persevere. I have a glass in front of me now, I have put it into a nice wine glass trying to trick my brain into thinking it tastes better. So I'll give it a go and keep you informed. Thanks again :flowerforyou:

crystalicfusion

Try Stevia. Its 100xs sweeter thatn sugar, so a little goes a long way. Also it isn't bad for you. Its not a chemical made for sugar or anything like that. Its completely all natural and comes from a leaf. It is no calories and actuallys has the ability to level out your blood sugar levels. I use it in my tea. You can find it at you local health food store.