Diet soda

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Replies

  • bcf7683
    bcf7683 Posts: 1,653 Member
    I drink at least one Diet Coke per day.

    And I've managed to lose 27lbs since last February and put on a decent amount of lean muscle in the last 6 months.

    But I'm going to die a slow, painful death from my diet pop.

    So I guess I should just stop exercising since I'm putting poison in my body anyways........
  • avlama
    avlama Posts: 502 Member
    Diet soda is my addiction. I used to have one with every meal, just liked the taste of it with my food. Now i'll drink have a bottle once to three times a week, if i really want one. But now i'm trying to drink more water.
  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    Aspatame is fine. Phosphoric acid found in colas may contribute to calcium leeching.
  • calmthundr2
    calmthundr2 Posts: 17 Member
    I remember a rule that I heard several years ago (don't recall the source) which said if you were concerned about the salt or sweetener content from soda you could make a rule that for every soda you drank, you drank a glass of water (essentially match soda with water ounce for ounce). I do this but I treat it as in addition the 64 ounces of water I normally try to get.

    I should also mention that drinking a glass of water after I eat each meal helps keep cravings to an absolute minimum. I never would have believed it until I tried it but it works. I hardly ever feel like I "need" something sweet after doing this for about a month.
  • kkayecarlson
    kkayecarlson Posts: 10 Member
    Yes, it is yummy, and yes, it is FULL of chemicals. Soooo if your goal is to make your body healthier and stronger then it does not belong in your body.
  • I enjoy diet soda in addition to my minimum water intake each day. That way I know I am getting enough hydration and the soda is a calorie free/low calorie treat. On that note, Diet Mt. Dew showed that it has 10 calories per bottle but 0 calories per serving. Beware of those few hidden calories, they can add up quickly!
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    I don't have any scientific proof because I'm not doing the research HOWEVER, from watching documentries, and I will say it, Dr.Oz, it's not good for you.

    Apparently one teaspoon of aspertame can trigger wanting more sugar in your brain which will eventually cause overeating "toxic" foods (meaning junk food). If you have it in copious amounts, it could lead, eventually, to obesity. BUT, that's if you drink it all the time!

    I would agree with make sure you have your 8 glasses of water (I usually drink a lot more, my suggestion 1/2 your body weight in ounces is best) have ONE can MAX and that's it for the day. Unless you're out drinking of course ;) haha

    Either way, I have Coke Zero (the 222ml cans) once every 2 or 3 weeks if I'm craving sugar and it's late and I have no calories left. I also do diet coke with alcohol if I'm out. That way I'm only paying for the price of the liquor and not the pop - I'm canadian, it's pop :)
    Ok, so here's a critical thinking question for you. Aspartame is a protein. Explain how the protein that is aspartame causes you to crave sugar, when say, chicken breast (which has about 20 times the concentration of "aspartame" in it than a can of diet soda) doesn't.
    Dr Oz is a quack..

    Anything that is not from nature is bad for you.
    diet soda does nothing but add chemicals to your body that you don't need.
    diet soda does not quench your thirst either.
    all that sodium makes it harder to lose weight.
    All that sodium? Man, I hope you don't eat vegetables, one celery stalk has almost double the amount of sodium than a can of diet soda. All that sodium from vegetables must certainly make it harder to lose weight. :huh:
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,984 Member
    Yes, it is yummy, and yes, it is FULL of chemicals. Soooo if your goal is to make your body healthier and stronger then it does not belong in your body.
    Phenylalaine is in breast milk. Aspartic acid is in avocados. Sodium is in about everything. So which chemicals are you talking about?

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • desiv2
    desiv2 Posts: 651 Member
    Soda panic is stupid. If it were toxic I would have died a long time ago from drinking a ton of it...yeah, it's not healthy, but neither is pollution, alcohol, fruit loops...etc.. it's up to you how extreme you want to be into the healthy eating.

    I now only drink 1-3 a week, maybe more depending on my mood. It keeps me from eating sweets. The only reason I stopped drinking so much is because you shouldn't be replacing water with it. Moderation, we all have heard of it. :)
  • I can't do aspartame (I HATE the taste and yes, I don't care what you say, there is a distinct taste). I just nixed pop alltogether because let's be honest, pop is pop, diet or not.
  • mbeuchert24
    mbeuchert24 Posts: 204 Member

    "Cocktails made with diet soda get you drunker, faster, according to a study out of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. That's because sugar-free mixers allow liquor to enter your bloodstream much quicker than those with sugar, leaving you with a bigger buzz."

    *buys more diet soda*

    LMAO...love this :)

    I've always been a soda drinker, like 3 - 4 a day. When I was pregnant I avoided diet soda, but did drink regular soda. After my last baby was born I went back to diet. She is almost 3 now and if I do try to drink a regular soda it does not taste good to me. I drink no more than 2 diet sodas a day now, and I'm drinking more water now, so I'll slowly cut down my soda intake. I do have a soda stream, and will probably start using that more until I cut it out completely.

    Oh and sparkling water...as much as I don't like to drink regular water I would much rather drink that than sparkling water...nasty.
  • I haven't done a lot of research on diet soda, but my experience, and with others around me that have been on the weight loss journey is that it made us bloat, and if we didn't drink it, there was a noticeable difference.

    I switched to drinking water with Crystal Light, and for my caffeine needs, I take Amino Acid supplements like workout/recovery blends. I feel much more alert and focused then with a soda, and don't crash as hard.

    I still miss soda though, lol, and I do have one when the craving gets bad or it's the easiest thing to get to when I am out.
  • TheVimFuego
    TheVimFuego Posts: 2,412 Member
    Yes, it is yummy, and yes, it is FULL of chemicals. Soooo if your goal is to make your body healthier and stronger then it does not belong in your body.

    Yeeep.

    However much people to justify drinking it, Yeeeep. :)

    I've cut down seriously on the Coke Zero lately (had bad Aspartame-related headaches in the past), I reckon drinking the full sugar stuff would be better, at least that way I'm not trying to fool my body.
  • I drink so much water that sometimes I need a Diet Pepsi for a change. I only drink 1 or 2 cans a week though, no more than that.
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member

    Doesn't look like a medical source to me.Do you have any links to MEDICAL research?

    Nope. Never said it was a medical source. Just the reason I don't drink diet drinks, but each to their own.

    And medical sources aren't always correct just cos they're medical sources.

    especially if it's Glaxo Smith Klein that provides them
  • Katiemarie4488
    Katiemarie4488 Posts: 242 Member
    Well..... i "gave up" pop.... (Soda) lol but, I have allowed myself to indulge a lil bit..... Every pay day (twice monthly) I get a Can of Pepsi Max.... lol No connection to pay day, just something to look forward too lmao
  • cllmetatrsld
    cllmetatrsld Posts: 58 Member
    Well what if you thought about it not in terms of what it is (diet soda) and in terms of...is it naturally occuring in nature? I think the end all be all of 'healthy foods' is...is it natural? No growth horomones, no sprays, no adjustments, etc. Plant it with your own two hands, pick it with your own two hands...cook it. Can you do that with diet soda or is there some man made stuff in there? That being said...I don't eat anything hardly from my garden. ha ha. I love mac and cheese. I know what healthy is in my mind and I also know I couldn't live that way. I crave diet soda a lot nowadays but I find that I'm telling myself no 'because it's not healthy'. I just figure I feel better about not putting soda in my body because it seems the least 'natural' thing out of everything I crave...but I still love the stuff!
  • hdjjones
    hdjjones Posts: 130 Member
    I drink one or two a day but I avoid the ones with aspertame. I have heard bad things about it so I avoid it, medical evidence or not.
  • I can't stand the taste of them personally and it's been so long since I've had soda that it all is too sweet for me. I can't even drink sweet tea now. It's my PERSONAL opinion that any additional chemicals added to food sources (aspartame, splenda, whatever else) that are not derived from nature are probably not the best thing for you EVER IN LIFE, but like several folks have said--we do a lot of stuff that isn't the best ever for us. Like anything else, keep it in moderation. Drink more water than you do soda. Period.
  • GroverBlue78
    GroverBlue78 Posts: 97 Member
    I drink one a day with lunch. The rest of the day is water (other than my morning coffee) so I feel comfortable with one per day.

    This is what I usually do as well, but have decided to try and cut down my soda intake. Maybe to 1-2 a week, instead of everyday.
  • keenesmom
    keenesmom Posts: 115 Member
    I don't do artificial sweetener in anything. No skinny coffee drinks, no diet sodas, no little pink & yellow packets. If you are only having 1 diet soda per day why not just work a "real" soda into your calories for the day and then not worry about the "fake" sugar.
  • bgibbsx
    bgibbsx Posts: 3 Member
    This is coming from about an 8 year addict of diet soda (~6-8 per day, particularly diet dew) that just quit on Monday (third time quitting, tax season always managed to get me off the wagon). At the end of the day it comes down to this, there is nothing "Good" about diet soda. Water cleans your system, Milk = calcium, etc. Diet soda has NO nutritional benefit. It's nutritional detriment is still up in the air and there are no clear studies that it causes any health consequences.

    I can attest to the fact my sweet tooth has diminished considerably since cutting it out. Literally, no craving for sweets this week so far. The Netflix movie referenced earlier that detailed a study that "proved" diet soda caused a craving for real sugar was enough for me to stop for good.

    I'm 28, and being recently married caused me to think in 20 years I don't want to have health consequences from aspartame from a new study with definitive answers.

    Look, I've been there, rationalized it in every way you can think (it's my only bad habit, better than smoking or drinking, I don't want to quit, etc.) but at the end of the day, there is nothing GOOD for you about diet soda.
  • EmDork
    EmDork Posts: 14 Member
    As an adult, I have never liked regular soda because it is just way too sweet; it's likes drinking syrup to me. I used to drink diet coke and pepsi all the time, but I have almost given it up completely (maybe 1-2 a week). It was doing nothing positive for me, and if I drank a lot of it I just felt bloated and kind of queasy. I still crave the carbonation a lot, so I've switched over to flavored seltzer waters.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    Personal choice but I'd rather have a regular soda with it's high sugar content than the fake stuff in diet soda. If it can cause/bring out neurological problems, those run in my family. It is better to be safe then sorry.
  • VorJoshigan
    VorJoshigan Posts: 1,106 Member
    How bad is it for you? Not very.

    How good is it for you? not at all.

    I've come to enjoy 8 cups of tea per day instead of soda.
  • dawncolleen0120
    dawncolleen0120 Posts: 29 Member
    I used to drink diet coke all the time like 2 20oz a day. I decided to stop because for some reason it would make my lower back/spine area hurt. I think it may have too much caffeine. I have tried pepsi zero and i don't really hurt from it but I still try to limit myself because I know soda is not that good for you. Occasionally I do have a soda but it's very rare.

    I'm wondering if your lower back pain isn't a result of a kidney infection when you drink alot of soda. I used to wait tables when I was younger and I could have all the free soda I wanted, so I would drink it all evening while working. I found if I drank that much I ended up with low back pain that was found to be a kidney infection. My dad drank bourbon and Pepsi everyday, all day for YEARS. His family was convinced that he would die from all the alcohol he drank everyday. Once he was in his 70's, he went to the doctor with constant back pain to find out he has kidney disease, not from the bourbon, but from the Pepsi. Too much phosphoric acid in his diet. The kidney disease is now controlled by his diet (no more Pepsi) but he will never be totally healed from it. So, for my family, at least, we don't drink much soda, diet or full sugar. I can't believe we're the only ones though that would experience this.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Well what if you thought about it not in terms of what it is (diet soda) and in terms of...is it naturally occuring in nature? I think the end all be all of 'healthy foods' is...is it natural? No growth horomones, no sprays, no adjustments, etc. Plant it with your own two hands, pick it with your own two hands...cook it. Can you do that with diet soda or is there some man made stuff in there? That being said...I don't eat anything hardly from my garden. ha ha. I love mac and cheese. I know what healthy is in my mind and I also know I couldn't live that way. I crave diet soda a lot nowadays but I find that I'm telling myself no 'because it's not healthy'. I just figure I feel better about not putting soda in my body because it seems the least 'natural' thing out of everything I crave...but I still love the stuff!
    Well, if you want to look at it that way, every single ingredient in diet soda occurs in nature in one form or another. Yes, the specific ingredients in the soda happen to be manufactured versions, but that's the equivalent of having a basil plant in your kitchen instead of wandering in a field to find a basil plant.
  • kbeckley11
    kbeckley11 Posts: 203 Member
    There is a strong coorelations between artifical sweetners used in diet sodas and the feeling of hunger. Coorelation means not everyone is affected this way, just more then half.

    When you say that "Coorelation means not everyone is affected this way, just more then half," it seems like you are saying that drinking pop causes hunger in more than half of people.
    This is not what correlation means. Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation means that two things tend to happen together. It does not say one causes the other. There could be a third factor.
    For example, maybe people who drink diet pop tend to be more concerned about their weight, so they also exercise more, thus leading them to be hungrier. (I am not saying this is the true case of why people who drink diet pop are hungrier, just giving an example of how drinking diet pop can trend with being hungrier, but not actually be caused by the pop)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,984 Member
    I'm 28, and being recently married caused me to think in 20 years I don't want to have health consequences from aspartame from a new study with definitive answers.
    Don't worry yet then......................I've been drinking it for more than 20 years with no health consequences.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    There is a strong coorelations between artifical sweetners used in diet sodas and the feeling of hunger. Coorelation means not everyone is affected this way, just more then half.

    When you say that "Coorelation means not everyone is affected this way, just more then half," it seems like you are saying that drinking pop causes hunger in more than half of people.
    This is not what correlation means. Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation means that two things tend to happen together. It does not say one causes the other. There could be a third factor.
    For example, maybe people who drink diet pop tend to be more concerned about their weight, so they also exercise more, thus leading them to be hungrier. (I am not saying this is the true case of why people who drink diet pop are hungrier, just giving an example of how drinking diet pop can trend with being hungrier, but not actually be caused by the pop)
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