For you diet soda drinkers out there...

DrJanet98

Brown colas contain phosphoric acid. The proportion of phosphorus to calcium in the diet can have an effect on bone density. Interestingly, this has been shown to be a much bigger problem in women than in men. It's the ratio that's important, so I guess if you like your brown colas, the solution would be to drink an extra glass of milk for every can of cola you drink!

Here's a link to the most prominent study to show this effect: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/4/936.short

I'm a veterinarian. We see this problem all the time in iguanas who are fed iceberg lettuce and other foods that are high in phosphorus and low in calcium. They're an extreme case -- I've seen iguanas with jaw bones that had become soft and rubbery, whose bones will break just picking them up the wrong way. Every iguana I see goes home with a handout listing the Ca:P (Calcium to Phosphorus ratio) of dozens of greens and other foods. Humans aren't usually so severely affected, but it does give me personal, direct evidence that Ca:P is *real* and can be a *real* problem with serious consequences. I spend so much time warning clients not to feed their pets iceberg lettuce, I find that I avoid it myself almost as assiduously.

My mom and I have both switched to diet ginger ale instead of the brown colas, and neither of us miss them :-)

aforange

In my humble opinion, all the Pro-Diet-Soda-Drinkers fall into the same category as smokers, chewing tobacco users and drug addicts... If you truly believe you need it, you are really "in-control" of your usage and using it is truly harmless, I wish you the very best of luck. Clearly, you're smarter than I.

I'll stick with water. Pure water. No chemicals. No taste-enhancement. Good 'ol fashioned water. 1 1/2 gallons a day.

Natural Selection will determine the winner.

Keep being awesome.

Right. So the natural water that contains.... Algicide, Chlorine, Chlorine Dioxide, Clarifiers, Filter Cleanser, Dry or Muriatic Acid and Soda Ash or Sodium bicarbonate.

Not really that natural, is it. Quite fooling yourself and get off that soap box!

Hahaha! Perfect.

changing4life_deleted

Or just simply choose selzer water, they have a lot of great flavors out there and they are perfect for suppressing that bubbly carbination grave you get when you grave the sodas

Amen

tigersword

In my humble opinion, all the Pro-Diet-Soda-Drinkers fall into the same category as smokers, chewing tobacco users and drug addicts... If you truly believe you need it, you are really "in-control" of your usage and using it is truly harmless, I wish you the very best of luck. Clearly, you're smarter than I.

I'll stick with water. Pure water. No chemicals. No taste-enhancement. Good 'ol fashioned water. 1 1/2 gallons a day.

Natural Selection will determine the winner.

Keep being awesome.

Right. So the natural water that contains.... Algicide, Chlorine, Chlorine Dioxide, Clarifiers, Filter Cleanser, Dry or Muriatic Acid and Soda Ash or Sodium bicarbonate.

Not really that natural, is it. Quite fooling yourself and get off that soap box!

Not to mention, water is a chemical. The gold standard example of what a chemical is, if I recall correctly.

Brown colas contain phosphoric acid. The proportion of phosphorus to calcium in the diet can have an effect on bone density. Interestingly, this has been shown to be a much bigger problem in women than in men. It's the ratio that's important, so I guess if you like your brown colas, the solution would be to drink an extra glass of milk for every can of cola you drink!

Here's a link to the most prominent study to show this effect: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/4/936.short

I'm a veterinarian. We see this problem all the time in iguanas who are fed iceberg lettuce and other foods that are high in phosphorus and low in calcium. They're an extreme case -- I've seen iguanas with jaw bones that had become soft and rubbery, whose bones will break just picking them up the wrong way. Every iguana I see goes home with a handout listing the Ca:P (Calcium to Phosphorus ratio) of dozens of greens and other foods. Humans aren't usually so severely affected, but it does give me personal, direct evidence that Ca:P is *real* and can be a *real* problem with serious consequences. I spend so much time warning clients not to feed their pets iceberg lettuce, I find that I avoid it myself almost as assiduously.

My mom and I have both switched to diet ginger ale instead of the brown colas, and neither of us miss them :-)

Other studies have proven that the phosphorus in soda has nothing to do with it, it's the caffeine that has the calcium depleting effect. They've also shown that the body compensates for the loss of calcium when consuming caffeine by reducing calcium depletion throughout the rest of the day.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11522558

RESULTS: Relative to water, urinary calcium rose significantly only with the milks and the 2 caffeine-containing beverages. The excess calciuria was approximately 0.25 mmol, about the same as previously reported for caffeine alone. Phosphoric acid without caffeine produced no excess calciuria; nor did it augment the calciuria of caffeine.
CONCLUSIONS: The excess calciuria associated with consumption of carbonated beverages is confined to caffeinated beverages. Acidulant type has no acute effect. Because the caffeine effect is known to be compensated for by reduced calciuria later in the day, we conclude that the net effect of carbonated beverage constituents on calcium economy is negligible. The skeletal effects of carbonated beverage consumption are likely due primarily to milk displacement.

DrJanet98

Brown colas contain phosphoric acid. The proportion of phosphorus to calcium in the diet can have an effect on bone density. Interestingly, this has been shown to be a much bigger problem in women than in men. It's the ratio that's important, so I guess if you like your brown colas, the solution would be to drink an extra glass of milk for every can of cola you drink!

Here's a link to the most prominent study to show this effect: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/4/936.short

I'm a veterinarian. We see this problem all the time in iguanas who are fed iceberg lettuce and other foods that are high in phosphorus and low in calcium. They're an extreme case -- I've seen iguanas with jaw bones that had become soft and rubbery, whose bones will break just picking them up the wrong way. Every iguana I see goes home with a handout listing the Ca:P (Calcium to Phosphorus ratio) of dozens of greens and other foods. Humans aren't usually so severely affected, but it does give me personal, direct evidence that Ca:P is *real* and can be a *real* problem with serious consequences. I spend so much time warning clients not to feed their pets iceberg lettuce, I find that I avoid it myself almost as assiduously.

My mom and I have both switched to diet ginger ale instead of the brown colas, and neither of us miss them :-)

Other studies have proven that the phosphorus in soda has nothing to do with it, it's the caffeine that has the calcium depleting effect. They've also shown that the body compensates for the loss of calcium when consuming caffeine by reducing calcium depletion throughout the rest of the day.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11522558

That study is only looking at short-term urinary calcium excretion. The study I cited looked at actual bone density. Also, the study I cited was conducted *after* the study you cite, and they discussed it in this one. They *looked* at the effect of caffeine, both comparing caffeinated and decaffeinated colas and controlling for outside caffeine intake statistically, and found that there was some effect from caffeine, but there was a separate and stronger effect still present unrelated to caffeine.

tigersword

The study you cited also relied on food frequency questionnaires to determine what was consumed, rather than an actual clinical setting where the drinks were given out and dosed by the researchers. Questionnaires are rather unreliable, especially a questionnaire asking about 4 years worth of consumption, which is what they derived ALL of their information, both on calcium intake, and cola consumption from. Not to mention, it's only a correlation study, it doesn't actually prove anything. It even stated in the results that it needs more study to confirm.

Plus, looking at the actual data from the study you posted, even the women that didn't consume soda had low bone density. And the difference between women that consumed 0 colas, and women that consumed 7 or more, was a difference of 0.035 g/cm^3. A significant difference percentage wise, but not really different when looking at the raw data. I'd say it doesn't really show much of anything.

Also, right from the study you posted:

No evidence exists that occasional use of carbonated beverages, including cola, is detrimental to bone.

skinny91bum

not being funny, i drink diet cream soda because i enjoy in, it's probably the only thin i drink, i hate the taste of non diet so i drink it because it's a treat to myself.

screw the health benifits, i'm normally down on my kcal anyway. it's my one treat.

S xx

Bakkasan

I lost 80+ this year and diet drinks are a staple of my day. Today questionable science says its bad, tomorrow it will be good, then bad again. Do what works for you and that's that.

Matt_Wild

I lost 80+ this year and diet drinks are a staple of my day. Today questionable science says its bad, tomorrow it will be good, then bad again. Do what works for you and that's that.

Exactly - I get to 3-4% BF several times a year and I drink gallons of the stuff to keep my sweet tooth at bay. It doesn't stop fat loss and as I posted, unless the sweetener contains carbs, it doesn't cause an insulin rise.

My profile picture is me NOW - I drink tonnes of Pepsi Max - does it look like its stopping me? (waits for an insult!).

little_miss_panda

Diet soda should be renamed "diarrhea-t soda" because that's the effect it has if you drink too much of it!

SPNLuver83

this thread needs to go away!

mscoco10

moderation is key with anything- plus I believe it's what you eat with the diet soda. I haven't noticed to many people having salad and diet soda. The Big Mac, Whopper, and Pizza may have more to do with weight loss being slow than diet soda.

BinaryPulsar

I don't think it's a problem to drink diet soda, if it doesn't cause a person problems (that's apparent in your own life and experience). If you dislike it, then it has no health benefits either, so there's no reason why you would have to drink it. Anyway, when I said the high levels of citric acid (in citrus sodas) and phosphoric acid (in brown sodas) degrades teeth enamel I was not talking about the internal impact on bone density, I was talking about the contact of the acid on the teeth. It's just good to know that if you drink large quantities and if you have teeth sensitivity or problems or if your teeth are especially important to you. But, regular soda is just as bad for your teeth. And so are lots of nutritive foods like lemon juice. But, yeah, the diet soda topics are getting really old now. It's a personal choice based on what tastes good to you or not.