Diet Drinks

I've always favored diet soda's over regular soda. This is mostly because sugar makes me physically ill (I was raised in Germany, my body never adjusted to the massive amounts of sugar American sweets contain). I'm not diabetic. I don't have cancer and my weight gain has not been affected by whether or not I drank it (I stopped for a few months to see if it made a difference). I always drink 8-12 glasses of water per day.

My advice would simply be - don't overdo it. You can feed a bathtub full of salt to a rat, it'll get cancer and then you can wander the interwebs telling everyone that salt is bad for you but the true key to being healthy both mentally and physically is moderation in whatever you choose to do.

Im not saying my diet is perfect, and it is hard to avoid ALLLLL chemicals and all that junk, but diet drinks are pointless in my opinion. This is a part of one of my FAV books, changed my life and eating habits for sure. Skinny ***** by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. WARNING its long and may contain language like the rest of the book but its worth a read.

"When aspartame was put before the FDA for approval, it was denied eight times. g.d. Searle, founder of aspartame, tried to get FDA approval in 1973. clearly, he wasn't bothered by reports from neuroscientist Dr. John Olney and researcher Ann reynolds (hired by Searle himself) that aspartame was dangerous. Dr. Martha Freeman, a scientist from the FDA division of Metabolic and endocrine drug Products, declared, "The information submitted for review is inadequate to permit a scientific evaluation of clinical safety." Freeman recommended that until the safety of aspartame was proven, marketing the product should not be permitted. Alas, her recommendations were ignored. Somehow, in 1974, Searle got approval to use aspartame in dry foods. However, it wasn't smooth sailing from there. In 1975, the FDA put together a task force to review Searle's testing methods. Task force team leader Phillip Brodsky said he "had never seen anything as bas as Searle's testing" and called the tests results "manipulated." Before aspartame actually made it into dry foods, Olney and attorney and consumer advocate Jim Turner filed objections against the approval.

In 1977, the FDA asked the U.S. attorney's office to start grand jury proceedings against Searle for "knowingly misrepresenting findings and concealing material facts and making false statements in aspartame safety tests." shortly after, the U.S. attorney leading the investigation against Searle was offered a job by the law firm that was representing Searle. Later that same year, he resigned as U.S. attorney and withdrew from the case, delaying the grand jury's investigation. This caused the statute of limitations on the charges to run out, and the investigation was dropped. And he accepted the job with Searle's law firm. Stunning.

In 1980, a review by the Public Board of Inquiry set up by the FDA determined that aspartame should not be approved. The board said it had not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive." In 1981, new FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes was appointed. Despite the fact that three out of six scientists advised against approval, Hayes decided to overrule the scientific review panel and allow aspartame into limited dry goods. In 1983, he got it approved for beverages, even though the National Soft Drink Association urged the FDA to delay approval until further testing could be done. That same year, Hayes left the FDA amid charges of impropriety. The Internal Department of Health and Human services was investigating Hayes for accepting gratuities from FDA-regulated companies. He went to work as a consultant for Searle's public relations firm. Interesting. The FDA finally urged Congress to prosecute Searle for giving the government false or incomplete test results on aspartame. However, the two government attorneys assigned to the case decided not to prosecute. Later, they went to work for the law firm that represented Searle. Fascinating. Despite recognizing ninety-two different symptoms that result from ingesting aspartame, the FDA approved it for use, without restriction in 1996. Brilliant.

So many people have been sickened from this **** that there are aspartame victim support groups. Some of the ninety-two aspartame side effects listed by the FDA include memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, mental confusion, brain lesions, blindness, joint pain, Alzheimer's, bloating, nervous system disorders, hair loss, food cravings, and weight gain.

Aspartame is a $1 billion industry. The National Justice League has filed a series of lawsuits against food companies using aspartame, claiming they are poisoning the public. In September 2004, a class action lawsuit was filed for $350 million against NutraSweet and the American Diabetics Association. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is named in the suit for using political muscle to get aspartame approved by the FDA.

Nutrasweet and Equil contain aspartame. When ingested, one of aspartames ingredients, methyl alcohol, converts into formaldehyde, a deadly neurotoxin. In addition to aspartame, Equal contains the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine occurs naturally in the brain. But high levels can increase the chance of seizures and lead to depression and schizophrenia. There is no lesser of the two evils. NutraSweet and Equal are both evil. Sweet and Low is no saint, either. It is an artificial sweetener that contains saccharin, a coal-tar compound. Stay away.

Because we're having so much fun, lets bash the **** out of Splenda, one of the newer sweeteners. Splenda is made by chlorinated sugar, changing its molecular structure. The finished product is called sucralose. The makers of this poison tout its lack of calories and claim it's safe for diabetics. The FDA calls sucralose 98 percent pure. The other 2 percent contains small amounts of heavy metals, methanol, and arsenic. Well gee, at least it doesn't have any calories. So what if it has a little arsenic? Sucralose has been found to cause diarrhea; organ, genetic, immune system, and reproductive damage; swelling of the liver and kidneys: and a decrease in fetal body weight. What a splendid product!"

In my opinion.... DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT drink diet drinks! Everyone elses post is well explainable as to why not! When I cut soda pop from my diet... I literally lost 10 pounds just from doing that! Diet sodas are not natural and do more harm then good for your body. If you dont NEED it, don't drink it. Instead have natural fruit juice, the natural sugars in those (preferrably homemade) give you a natural energy rather than one that will just make you crash later. Once you've gone a while without, it'll get MUCH easier and you'll no longer crave them.

addictions...hmmm...chocolate anyone? A glass of wine? The key is moderation! I like to have a quaker chewy 90 cal granola bar as a snack everyday....is that an addiction, I wonder?

And also, aspartame can actually make you crave sugar. That's no good for weight loss.

yeah, people say a little of anything in moderation is okay. But I'm more concerned about the effects on my body than how things taste. If I were to even have a little bit of something I know isn't good for me I'll feel bad for eating it so I'd rather just keep my diet completely clean and feel good all the time
just my opinion though. I've been told I'm depriving myself but honestly I feel like I've been depriving myself of nutrition for all these years by eating junk food!

So, all of you that are against aspertame - If I go check your food diary - I'm not going to see anything that's processed? Nothing that has any chemicals in it.....
Riiiight!

I'm not against aspertame, it just isn't worth the risk for me personally. Sucralose (Splenda) is in the same category as aspertame for me too. Besides headaches, it actually affected my vision and my hearing. So I gave up products containing artificial sweeteners. I wish I had the discipline to give up all processed foods. If I come to find out that the processed foods I eat are causing health probelms for me I hope I have the same discipline to give them up to. For now, if you look at my diary, you will not see any artificial sweetners, You will see sugar and some processed foods. I'm human I would like to live a long healthy life and I'm trying to make lifestyle changes in moderation to help get me healthy and keep me that way!

I have never been much of a soda drinker in general, I hardly ever have any, maybe few times a year, even before I started working on losing weight... But I wanted to offer a suggestion - not all soda is alike, I know there are some organic sodas out there... I am not sure if those would be a better substitute while trying to give up soda altogether, as a temporary alternative, I mean...

Again, this is just an idea for those who like soda I have an organic cream soda once in a while - yum

Everything in moderation is still the key here. I drink 2 cups of coffee a day and I have one packet of Splenda in each cup. If I actually put the sugar required to be as sweet as *I* like it, it would make a 25 calorie cup of coffee a 100 calorie cup. I also drink a diet soda every other day or so. I drink vodka once or twice a week, or a couple martinis, or a few beers. Don't get me wrong I am very into natural eating (the word "clean" drives me crazy) BUT I am not going to be all gung ho about it. I've been doing this for years and have had no adverse effects/weight gain/otherwise.

So to each their own, no, I don't think its necessarily wise to drink a 2-liter Diet Coke a day, but one every so often isn't going to break the bank either.

Well for me personally, i havne'tg had any diet soday for almost a week and i had a regular soda about 3 or so days ago....i feel WAY LESS BLOATED. I never realized how bloated i was drinking soda. And I can feel the water retention has gone down A LOT. I figfure there are so many things out there that are harming us, so i'm gonna try to limit what i can to stop from harming myself. Eventually I want to become raw vegan, because anything created in a lab or pumped with chemicals is a no no

Great attitude!! You must feel so much better! Its amazing how small changes make such a big difference Good luck going vegan, I am vegetarian now, but did vegan for a white and felt great!

I used to be a pop-a-holic but gave it up cold turkey since I've started my healthy lifestyle and I honestly do not miss it one bit. I was drinking 3 to 6 Coke Zeros a day. Since I'm concentrating on getting my water in, I don't even have the thirst for the soda anymore. The one thing that I've noticed is that I don't feel nearly as bloated since I've stopped drinking the soda and it sure feels good! I also think my appetite has greatly decreased because of it.