diet drinks and their effect on your health

This topic is debated on here almost every other day.

This is totally a personal choice and you're going to get info from everywhere supporting both sides.

What I will say is that what annoys me on threads like this are the people who say it is clearly black or clearly white.
Some people have reactions and some don't. To say that no one will react is as ignorant as a person arguing that all people will react. Personally I avoid the stuff. There is natural and there is man made. Just like trans fat. Trans fat is naturally occurring and then there is man made. If you feel fine and you like it then by all means in moderation. Also, its not going to mess up your teeth. It's fake sugar. Non-diet will mess up your teeth.

Like I said this is truly a personal decision.

I don't think you have to worry if it's once or twice a week. A lot of diet versions of stuff use extra additives to keep the same taste including aspartame. I don't drink much soda regularly anyway but I remember trying the low cal version of dannon yogurt once. It had aspartame in it and it RUINED my stomach for a few days.

problem with diet soda is the body thinks all the fake sugar is real.
i'd try these if you're on a diet:
http://thegreatdietsolution.net/slim-fast-ready-to-drink/

No it does not.

I agree that it's totally a personal decision. For what it's worth, though, this is the one that gave me the motivation to give up soda:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/media_relations/library/2012/2012-04-20-study-finds-soda-consumption-increases-overall-stroke-risk.aspx

This one also contributed to my motivation:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20075358-10391704/new-study-is-wake-up-call-for-diet-soda-drinkers/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx

http://www.safefood.org.nz/aspartaddict.html

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/aspartame_letter_to_fda.pdf

http://www.naturalnews.com/035126_aspartame_side_effects_withdrawal.html#ixzz1o6K68AO7

Aspartame (Nutrasweet) is a known neurotoxin. Its by-products cross the blood-brain barrier and wreak havoc on your brain cells by overexciting the neurons and releasing free radicals into them. It is also addictive, as it triggers your brain's reward centers. It really is bad for your body. And as another post said earlier, why not choose something we know is healthy (like water or tea) rather than a man-made chemical we aren't sure of?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx

http://www.safefood.org.nz/aspartaddict.html

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/aspartame_letter_to_fda.pdf

http://www.naturalnews.com/035126_aspartame_side_effects_withdrawal.html#ixzz1o6K68AO7

Aspartame (Nutrasweet) is a known neurotoxin. Its by-products cross the blood-brain barrier and wreak havoc on your brain cells by overexciting the neurons and releasing free radicals into them. It is also addictive, as it triggers your brain's reward centers. It really is bad for your body. And as another post said earlier, why not choose something we know is healthy (like water or tea) rather than a man-made chemical we aren't sure of?

Saw mercola....stopped reading.

Some folks just need to learn because they believe crap from scaremonger(holistic) web sites that spew rubbish. So here ya go please read and maybe this might revise your way of thinking.

"Also, with the exception of aspartame, all of the sweeteners listed below cannot be broken down by the body. They pass through our systems without being digested so they provide no extra calories."

"As with anything, do not go overboard when you using artificial sweeteners."

Size Up Your Sweetener Options
Don’t know which little packet to choose? Here’s a quick primer on the big three—plus the newcomers stevia and agave nectar. All of them are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but they do vary in flavor and uses, so you may find you need to do a taste test of your own.

Saccharin
Brands: Sweet’N Low and Sweet Twin
Sweetness: 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Some people report a bitter aftertaste.
Safety: First produced in 1879, saccharin is the oldest of the artificial sweeteners. In 1970, a study in rats found that the sugar substitute was associated with bladder tumor growth, resulting in an eat-at-your-own-risk warning on the pink package. Years later, however, the warning was revoked as more than 30 human studies reported no saccharin-tumor connection.
How to cook with it: The Sweet’N Low brand sells packets as well as a bulk version for baking, a liquid formula, and a brown sugar blend. When baking, replace 1 cup of sugar with 24 packets, 2 tablespoons of saccharin liquid, or 1 cup of brown sugar saccharin.

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Aspartame
Brands: Equal, NutraSweet, Natra Taste
Sweetness: 180 to 200 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: There’s no aftertaste associated with aspartame, though some say it has an unnatural flavor.
Safety: Search the Web for aspartame’s side effects and you’ll find stories about its purported link to cancer, dementia, headaches, and depression. Most scientists (as well as the American Diabetes Association) maintain that the powder is a safe alternative to sugar for people with diabetes. One caveat: Aspartame contains phenylalanine, which can be harmful to people with the rare disease phenylketonuria and should be avoided by them.
How to cook with it: High temperatures can diminish aspartame’s sweetness, so even though some brands (like Equal) sell bulk versions, most chefs avoid
baking with them.

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Sucralose
Brand: Splenda
Sweetness: 600 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Though some sugar purists say an aftertaste lingers, most sweetener fans maintain Splenda is the most natural tasting of all.
Safety: Since Splenda is the newest artificial sweetener to hit the market, there are fewer long-term studies of it than of saccharin and aspartame. That said, the FDA says that Splenda is safe.
How to cook with it: Splenda sells various baking products, including a granular version that measures cup for cup with sugar. If you use the half sugar blend or half brown sugar blend, replace a cup of sugar with a half cup of the blend.

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Stevia
Brands: Truvia, PureVia, SweetLeaf, Stevia in the Raw, Sun Crystals sugar-stevia blend
Sweetness: 250 to 300 times sweeter than sugar
Taste: Some people say the sweetener derived from the whole leaf of the stevia plant leaves behind a licorice taste. Brands that use a purified portion of the leaf known as rebaudioside A have less of an aftertaste.
Safety: Stevia has been used as a sweetener in Japan for years, but the FDA had previously banned its use because of reports of reproductive problems in lab animals. In late 2008, the FDA approved the purified part of the stevia leaf for American consumption. Look for that form—rebaudioside A—in the list of ingredients when purchasing stevia.
How to cook with it: Each stevia brand recommends its own sugar-to-stevia ratio (so check your brand’s Web site), and some brands sell the sweetener in liquid or bulk form. A good start is to replace a cup of sugar with 24 packets of stevia.

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Agave Nectar
Brands: Wholesome Sweeteners, Madhava, and Volcanic Nectar, among others
Sweetness: Somewhat sweeter than sugar, so use between a quarter and an eighth less agave nectar than if you were cooking with regular sugar.
Taste: The lighter, golden version tastes syrupy while the darker, amber variety has a more intense honey flavor.
Safety: Agave nectar isn’t carbohydrate or calorie free—it has the same amount of calories and carbs as sugar. But since it’s a food with a low glycemic index, the syrup won’t raise your blood glucose levels as much as sugar or honey do. Plus, it’s sweeter than sugar, so you’ll use less.
How to cook with it: Sweetening with agave nectar is simple if you’re swirling it into coffee. Things get more complicated when you start baking with the syrup. To adjust a recipe, replace each cup of sugar with two-thirds to three-quarters cup of agave nectar, then reduce all other liquids in the recipe by a quarter. Lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent burning, and shorten the cooking time on cookies by 3 to 5 minutes and cakes by 7 to 10 minutes.


http://forecast.diabetes.org/magazine/food-thought/size-your-sweetener-options?page=1

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/artificial-sweeteners/?keymatch=aspartame

For you it is silly because you don't enjoy drinking them.
For someone else, who may misunderstand what is good and what isn't, and makes all sorts of dietary restrictions that may not need to be in place, that might cause adherence issues and dietary adherence better rank near the top of the list, especially for obese people.

If you enjoy diet soda and don't drink tons of it per day and don't have dental issues, I see absolutely zero reason to eliminate it and I'd advise against it provided that the diet soda is giving the dieter some enjoyment in what is generally not an enjoyable process for most people.

Well I'd agree that if someone doesn't drink tons of diet soda then it's probably not a big issue. However, if we're going to be so skeptical of data condemning diet soda (which is perfectly appropriate), then we have to be skeptical of reasons to drink diet soda too. So, you shouldn't claim that restricting diet soda might cause dietary adherence problems. That's even more theoretical than diet soda "causing" obesity! For all we know diet soda could cause a sweet tooth in susceptible individuals and make adherence more difficult.

Really, the only reason to drink diet soda is because you enjoy it. I personally feel that if you stop drinking it for awhile you'll stop missing it. But, everyone has different tastes.

Here's an article from NPR on a couple recent studies of diet soda and water vs. sugary drinks.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/22/163260960/swapping-out-sugary-soda-for-diet-drinks-may-help-tip-the-scale-in-your-favor

And the actual studies

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22998339
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22252107

Points from the article:
- Participants who received deliveries of water and diet soda gained less weight over the course of the study.
- Diet soda did not increase appetite, at least in the short term

Here's an article from NPR on a couple recent studies of diet soda and water vs. sugary drinks.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/22/163260960/swapping-out-sugary-soda-for-diet-drinks-may-help-tip-the-scale-in-your-favor

And the actual studies

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22998339
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22252107

Points from the article:
- Participants who received deliveries of water and diet soda gained less weight over the course of the study.
- Diet soda did not increase appetite, at least in the short term

Don't just accept NPR's interpretation of these studies w/o reading them yourself!

I can't access the fulltext on the first study, but the subjects were not given just diet soda. They were given diet soda, AND water, and other interventions to reduce sugary beverage intake (or so I assume w/o being able to read the full text). So it doesn't really allow us to draw any conclusions about diet soda in and of itself. Furthermore there was no difference at two years.

The second study is pointless. I wouldn't assume one single serving of diet soda to instantaneously cause cravings.

There have been studies done in the past few years which show how artificial sugars and sweeteners may actually add to weight gain.

Here is what scientists have figured out about all sodas – diet, too:
They trigger cravings. Have one soda and you’ll want another or you’ll crave another sweet treat.
They make you hungrier! Sodas are empty calories, they don’t satisfy you, and they don’t fill you up.
Fake sugars may lead to pancreas issues which raise risks for diabetes.
They raise the risk of weight gain.

Artificial sweetners have been studied for YEARS. The past few years "studies" are just sensationalization to help the "natural" movement. Not that going natural is wrong, but to disparage against diet soda with inaccurate information isn't right either.



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Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition