Diet drinks - what's your take?

I so very, very infrequently drink diet soft drinks. I drink water at home and at work. But, I recently bought a bottle of diet lemonade at the petrol station(to get a bigger discount on my fuel) and I noticed the lemonade made me so incredibly thirsty. I had never really encountered anything like it. I was thinking this bottle would last me about 5 days but my thirst made me finish it all that night.
Can the sweeteners they put in the drinks be doing this??

I you like diet drinks and are not battling a sweet tooth, I think they're fine. It's more important that you stay hydrated IMO than to be a purist about water.

If you struggle with a sweet tooth, however, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot with most sweetened diet drinks, because you're training yourself to like unnaturally sweet flavors.

Aspartame is broken down into phenylalanine and aspartic acid (two amino acids) and methanol. All three of these ingredients are also delivered to your body in much higher doses by eating chicken and bananas.

Aspartame is not harmful at normal human doses.


If it gives you headahces, or even if you THINK it gives you headaches, then don't drink it. That's about 5% of the population.
If you don't enjoy the taste, don't drink it.

But don't think that it's some secret government poison because it's not.


.....and if you're the 300lb guy trying to get his *kitten* together and get in shape, you're going to want to get as much enjoyment out of this as possible for adherence reasons. If diet soda is part of that, so be it.

I copied and pasted this from a post I made on another Diet Soda thread from a week ago:

Aspartame has been around in many of our foods for decades now. The ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) for aspartame (which is 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight), an average adult would have to consume about 20 cans of diet soft drink, or 42 servings of sugar-free gelatin,or 97 packets of an aspartame-containing tabletop sweetener each day—which is obviously not likely. The main make up of Aspartame is Phenylalanine, Aspartic Acid, and Methanol in that order. A 12 oz. can of diet soda contains (Phenylalanine 90mg, Aspartic Acid 72mg and Methanol 18mg) in comparison a 3 oz. Chicken Breast has (Phenylalanine 1,059mg, Aspartic Acid 2,377mg and Methanol 0mg) knowing this will you stop eating chicken (that is if you currently are??) No disrespect but diet soda gets more of a knock than other foods we probably consume more of that contains a lot more aspartame...

So my question to those that get headaches, do you get them after eating chicken breast too???? Because if it truly is the aspartame that is causing your headaches then chicken breasts should be giving you severe migraines.... Just curious.....

I use Truvia/Stevia in certain recipes I have and even then I'm conservative. Diet sodas/drinks may give you the benefit of zero sugars and low carb but the other lurking evils are super high sodium content and aspartame. So you may sneak your way out from an uncalled for insulin spike in an insulin resistant state but hold a little extra water and, if your frequent with it, face high BP. Also, to clear things up, aspartame and sucralose are different. I (try to) avoid aspartame and opt for sucralose when faced with a decision, so Splenda over Equal. Aspartame breaks down in the system leaving a by product of formaldehyde - yeah, no thanks.

After a while I cut ALL sweeteners and sugars when in competition prep as they will ruin the definitive look of abs. To some degree, the body still treats these compounds like sugar and tries to metabolize them as so.

Water, tea, black coffee, red wine, and occasionally vodka or scotch whisky

I use Truvia/Stevia in certain recipes I have and even then I'm conservative. Diet sodas/drinks may give you the benefit of zero sugars and low carb but the other lurking evils are super high sodium content and aspartame. So you may sneak your way out from an uncalled for insulin spike in an insulin resistant state but hold a little extra water and, if your frequent with it, face high BP. Also, to clear things up, aspartame and sucralose are different. I (try to) avoid aspartame and opt for sucralose when faced with a decision, so Splenda over Equal. Aspartame breaks down in the system leaving a by product of formaldehyde - yeah, no thanks.

After a while I cut ALL sweeteners and sugars when in competition prep as they will ruin the definitive look of abs. To some degree, the body still treats these compounds like sugar and tries to metabolize them as so.

Water, tea, black coffee, red wine, and occasionally vodka or scotch whisky

Diet drinks are not high sodium. For example, one can of diet coke is like 40mg sodium and slice of luncheon meat is 280mg. Most processed foods are higher in sodium than sodas.

I like diet soda, particularly Coke Zero and Crystal Light. I try not to drink too much of the stuff though, because I know it's made from chemicals. With or without research, my common sense tells me that food should come from a garden, not a lab, and my body is probably better off without it.

I can't stand the taste of aspartame and I consider it poison. I drink water, and if I really want a soda, which is a few times a year, I go for the sugary ones. I'm not a soda addict.

Diet soda doesn't sound much better than the sugary version. A little quote (slide 2) out of this link http://www.everydayhealth.com/photogallery/reasons-to-kick-your-soda-habit.aspx#/slide-1

"Diet Soda and Weight Gain
We know that drinking sugar- and calorie-filled soda leads to weight gain, but it may surprise you to learn that even diet soda can contribute to unwanted pounds. In the San Antonio Heart Study, which tracked 3,682 adults over a seven- to eight-year period, those who drank artificially sweetened beverages had body mass indexes up to 47 percent greater than people who did not imbibe. It’s not completely clear why zero-calorie drinks lead to weight gain, but researchers believe that diet soda drinkers have unhealthier diets overall than those who skip soda completely."

I don't know about all the research that's out there, but I do know, as others have already discussed, that the acidity in soda (diet or regular) eats away tooth enamel. It is also linked with osteoperosis. Is it cause and effect though or that soda is being consumed instead of something healthier? I don't know.

This.

Artificial sweeteners give me a migraine, so I avoid them anyhow, but there is a growing body of research that suggests that daily consumption of "diet" soda leads to weight gain. One theory is that regular intake of artificial sweeteners teaches your brain that sweet = no calories, instead of sweet=carbohydrates, and so you lose your "stop eating" signals from your brain when you eat (or, over eat) carbs... there are others.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20075358-10391704/new-study-is-wake-up-call-for-diet-soda-drinkers/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2161715/Could-diet-soda-make-fat-How-zero-calorie-sweeteners-trick-brain-thinking-youre-hungry-youre-not.html

I found it really difficult to kick the soda habit, but, if I occasionaly have one, it's full-sugar, and I log the calories (and, I mix it with gin, as georgeous74 suggests - lol). Diet soda falls into my (personal) "frankenfood" category, which I avoid.

But don't think that it's some secret government poison because it's not.


.....and if you're the 300lb guy trying to get his *kitten* together and get in shape, you're going to want to get as much enjoyment out of this as possible for adherence reasons. If diet soda is part of that, so be it.

There are studies showing that it's harmful effects are BS or at least far exaggerated. If youre 300lbs you've got a lot other health issues to worry about. So drink up and get slim! I know I mentioned before about formaldehyde - I'm not going back on what I said but he makes the point that then amount of methanol derived from aspartame is so minimal its clinically insignificant

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

Try Zevia. It's all natural and pretty good. A little pricey though. A six pack is $6.49

But don't think that it's some secret government poison because it's not.


.....and if you're the 300lb guy trying to get his *kitten* together and get in shape, you're going to want to get as much enjoyment out of this as possible for adherence reasons. If diet soda is part of that, so be it.

There are studies showing that it's harmful effects are BS or at least far exaggerated. If youre 300lbs you've got a lot other health issues to worry about. So drink up and get slim! I know I mentioned before about formaldehyde - I'm not going back on what I said but he makes the point that then amount of methanol derived from aspartame is so minimal its clinically insignificant

^ Agreed.

Aspartame is broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Phenylalanine and Aspartic Acid are amino acids and there's a much higher concentration of these aminos in a measly 4oz chicken breast than there is in diet soda. 1 Banana will yield more methanol than a 12oz can of soda. The dosage limits that can cause any issues are VERY HIGH, and you'd have to consume massive amounts to even detect any increased levels in a blood test. Cliffs: Diet soda is fine if you don't get headaches from it, and a very small % of people do. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828671

As a former diet coke/diet dr pepper addict - they only thing I miss this time around is the caffeine. I quite 3 different times for various reasons but went back because of caffeine. The caffeine in tea just doesn't seem to have much effect on me like the caffeine in soft drinks. Will occasionally have one for an energy boost, but it just doesn't taste good anymore.

Did a bunch of research on the affects of aspartame and holy cow - that stuff is awful. I was having bad pain in my ankles and feet. Quit diet drinks and it improved. Joint pain is actually one of the side effects. And yet I went back for more because I wanted caffeine.. The last and final time - I drank it non-stop at Disney World and wound up with horrible ulcers on my throat that took a couple of weeks to heal and were pretty painful. No thanks!!

I can't STAND the taste of Aspartame. If I want a soda, I usually go for the full calorie stuff (which just tastes better and will actually satisfy that craving), but only a sip or two that I steal from my sister. I love Yoplait yogurt, but they put that nasty stuff in the light version of their products and I will throw it away after a bite when I realize I grabbed the wrong kind. *shudders*