Diet soda question

LLB226

Hi,

So I'm sure you've heard that diet soda is not good for you. Yahoo just posted some scary information about it.

http://health.yahoo.net/articles/nutrition/photos/7-side-effects-drinking-diet-soda#0

My question is...is Waist Watcher soda also not safe? I drink that a lot, but now I'm nervous.( I have been trying to drink more water.) My mother inlaw was on the "Opti-fast diet". It's an all liquid diet that is monitored by doctors in order to lose weight quickly. They said she couldn't have anything except the opti-fast powders mixed in either water OR waist watcher soda. She couldn't have any other soda or liquid. So, does that mean it's safer? It's made with Splenda, has no caffeine, no sugar, no sodium (which a lot of other diet sodas have) and no aspartame.

Thanks!

1ConcreteGirl

I avoid any soda that doesn't have sugar in it. Sugar is at least natural, as opposed to any of the zero-calorie sweeteners. I've researched aspartame, acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K), and other fake sweeteners extensively and what I found was terrifying. Some studies show corrosion of the brain stem in big diet soda drinkers. Some artificial sweeteners were discovered while researchers were trying to make rat poisons.

Too much sugar isn't good for you, but the bottom line is that it is better than brain-corroding synthetic compounds.

RunnerInVT

I never liked soda my whole life until I tried diet Dr.Pepper. I can't seem to get enough so now time to quit and find something else. ?? I like the diet iced teas but is putting that powdered tea into my body good? I never was a water drinker so how else do we hydrate calorie free?

Pandasarecool

bump

pg3ibew

I drink Diet caffiene free coke all the time.

1258936

I dropped the soda and grabbed sparklilng flavored water. Sweet, bubbly, and 0 calories 0 carbs 0 sugar 0 sodium . and it's cheaper.

CyberEd312

Oh This Again!!! Ok I'll Watch.....................

Brendajo510

Sigh. First let me say I am not a doctor, I have no background in health, this is just my opinion and interpretation from what I know and have read. Soda and Diet soda is not good for you, that's a given. But I wouldn't go throwing out all of the diet soda because of this article unless you truly did not know that soda and diet soda is not good for your body (no real nutritional value, bad stuff in it, ect).

"Here's something you didn't know about your diet soda: It might be bad for your kidneys." (page 2 of 9)
- I would say that "might" is the key word here. It means they actually haven't linked it, they just know there seems to be an association with bad kidneys and people who drink diet drinks (and that's only a maybe). There could be another common factor that hasn't even been considered yet. I'm not saying it isn't bad for your kidneys, I'm just saying that this study does not prove it.

"Whether that link is attributed to an ingredient in diet soda or the drinkers' eating habits is unclear. But is that one can really worth it?" (page 3 of 9)
-This makes me wonder at the alternative motives of this article. This again is saying they don't know if its the diet drink or just the type of people who drink diet drinks are also likely to have some other common factor. I really do not like the second sentence because it seems to me that articles like this can drastically hurt companies selling these drinks and are not even considering the consequences of being wrong. Not saying you should buy something from a company when its bad for you, just saying that some of these articles can cause a lot of pain and people to lose jobs over incorrect and misrepresented information. For example, when recalls happen on foods with salmonella. If people hear that a certain type of spinach had something bad in it, people tend to avoid spinach from ANY company (generally speaking of course). This makes those companies and farmers loose money and crops that have to be thrown away from waste. Or even the Pink Slime incident:

"BPI sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation Thursday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dub "pink slime," claiming the network damaged the company by misleading consumers into believing it is unhealthy and unsafe."
See http://www.jacksonsun.com/viewart/20120915/NEWS/120915004/Lawyers-Pink-slime-lawsuit-an-uphill-climb-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE for more information.

**Not saying Pink Slime is good for you because I honestly do not know, but a lot of people lost their jobs over this**

"Artificial sweeteners can disrupt the body's natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of foods, suggested an animal study from Purdue University." (page 4 of 9)
-This was a study done on animals... Humans are different then animals. Yes, our research typically goes from animal stage to human trials unless it is deemed too unsafe for humans, but this seems like something that could be studied with humans just watching them use artificial sweeteners as they already are.

"Cocktails made with diet soda get you drunker, faster, according to a study out of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. " (page 5 of 9)
-I'm slightly confused on the unhealthy side affects of this. Yes, you get drunker faster which can mean you might drink more and get a hangover the next day. But, that's because you drank cocktails. But perhaps I understand this less because I don't drink a lot.

"That's bad news for diet drinkers. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it - they knock it out altogether," Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper in 1999. " (page 6 of 9)
-This one I find odd just because this study was conducted in 1999. That was 13 years ago. Why is there no current up to date information on similar studies? Especially in the U.S.?

"Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health" (page 7 of 9)
-Yep, my dentist tells me this all the time how bad dark sodas are for our teeth. Coffee is also bad for your teeth and candy sugar that you suck on and keep in your mouth.

"Diet or not, soft drink cans are coated with the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA)" (page 8 of 9)
-So now its not even just about diet soda. Soda and diet soda is not good for you. But I feel like this makes the article less about diet pop and more about how junk drinks are not good for you (surprise surprise)

Now again, I'm not saying diet drinks are good for you or that you should go out and drink 5 cans a day. I'm just saying, read articles like this with caution as they can be misleading and are just trying to get ratings. I could be wrong about this, but that's the beauty of an opinion.

Debutante55

I avoid any soda that doesn't have sugar in it. Sugar is at least natural, as opposed to any of the zero-calorie sweeteners. I've researched aspartame, acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K), and other fake sweeteners extensively and what I found was terrifying. Some studies show corrosion of the brain stem in big diet soda drinkers. Some artificial sweeteners were discovered while researchers were trying to make rat poisons.

Too much sugar isn't good for you, but the bottom line is that it is better than brain-corroding synthetic compounds.

I couldn't agree more. My extensive research points to the same conclusions. Generally, I'm in the "everything in moderation" camp, but when it comes to artificial sweeteners, I NEVER touch them... ever... under any circumstances.