soda hypothetical. 40 oz/day. Better diet or regular?

11/2 cup of soda has about 38-40 grams of sugar. If a teaspoon is 4.2 grams then that means you have about 9 teaspoons in a cup and half of soda.

go to the cupboard get a bowl and measure on 9 tsps. to see how much sugar is in that glass of pop.
Worse yet people with long term consumption of soda/

THE ACID IN MOST POPULAR SODAS BREAKS DOWN TOOTH ENAMEL, IN THIS CASE IT IS NOT ABOUT THE SUGAR SO IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU CHOOSE THE NASTY DIETED SWEETENED STUFF.
http://www.livescience.com/7198-acids-popular-sodas-erode-tooth-enamel.html

11/2 cup of soda has about 38-40 grams of sugar. If a teaspoon is 4.2 grams then that means you have about 9 teaspoons in a cup and half of soda.

go to the cupboard get a bowl and measure on 9 tsps. to see how much sugar is in that glass of pop.
Worse yet people with long term consumption of soda/

THE ACID IN MOST POPULAR SODAS BREAKS DOWN TOOTH ENAMEL, IN THIS CASE IT IS NOT ABOUT THE SUGAR SO IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU CHOOSE THE NASTY DIETED SWEETENED STUFF.
http://www.livescience.com/7198-acids-popular-sodas-erode-tooth-enamel.html

Uh, I know it's a radical idea but just don't soak your teeth in soda all day and night.

The assumption that it will erode your teeth because of the result of soaking dead slices of tooth enamel for 48 hours also completely ignores the fact that tooth enamel is constantly being built. It's not like you're born with all the tooth enamel you're ever going to have.

It's essentially the same. Regular soda will give you sugar, diet soda will trick your body into thinking it's getting sugar, making you crave more sugar later.

Unless you think you have some kind of superhuman willpower to resist a craving, lol.

This is a myth. Sure, you can find it on many blogs and .com websites. But the preponderance of actual research shows it doesn't increase insulin response ("tricking your body"). Research on cravings is much harder, since there's no objective measurement, but as long as you track calories and sugars, you can keep it in check (and many people report, even here on MFP, that the diet helps soothe their sugar cravings).

OP, I'd probably go for diet. 40 oz (3 1/2 cans) of Coke has 136.5 grams of sugar; that much added sugar on a daily basis would make me worry about Type II diabetes, not to mention the 500+ empty calories. That's a pound a week right there.

Of course, I probably wouldn't drink that much diet coke on a daily basis either. It's not so much the aspartame (although I think a bit more moderation would be better) as the carbonation and caffeine and carbonic acid and how it'll affect my teeth and bones.

I'm afraid that I, and a good amount of research would disagree with you. While some research suggests Aspartame dodges the glucose bullet, and that the effects are limited to sucralose and other such sweeteners, much of the research also demonstrates a placebo effect from the Aspartame, and that subject's glucose levels were tied to the perceived sweetness of a drink.

One such source --> http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=886000


I don't understand the point of this question. Why is "neither" not an option? It is the only sensible option.

Which in your opinion is healthier?

Diet. On restricted calories, they all need to count.

Wow that link isn't melodramatic or exaggerated...

Fortunately my tooth enamel grows faster than pop erodes it. Probably because I don't soak my teeth in pop all day and night.

Read something useful instead:

http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Your-Dentist-Goodbye-Do-It-Yourself/dp/1929774672

I always go regular because it tastes better... but I can never drink more than 16 oz. of any soda in a single day.

Diet. I save my calories for nutritious things. I'm not a big fan of diet, but I'm less of a fan of drinking sugar. I used diet soda to transition away from fruit juice and other sweet drinks. It didn't appear to cause me any harm or cause any extra cravings, but I prefer to avoid consuming large amounts of wierd chemicals, so I kept it to one a day maximum. Now I don't even need the diet soda anymore. I mostly just drink water. :drinker:

P.S. My brother-in-law ended up in the hospital in a diabetic coma at the age of 31. He drank about 4 sodas a day for years and years. (That's about 48 oz.) He now drinks diet soda and is slowly dropping some of the extra weight.

regular, because I'm intolerant to aspartame. However I don't drink it every day, and wouldn't want to. I just have some occasionally on special occasions, because I'm not mad keen on it to be honest and it's a waste of calories that I could be using to eat chocolate. If for some reason I *had to* drink 40oz of it every day, it'd be non-diet, because I don't like feeling ill.

There is no option for neither or "OMG, I don't even drink soda"
You have to pick diet or regular.

Which in your opinion is healthier?

Why are you asking the question?

With your family history of obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes what do you think would be best?

I just wanted to see what people would chose when "forced" to pick between two "evils".

I probably do drink near 40 oz. of diet soda per day.

Lightweight. I used to drink *easily* 100 and probably 200 or more ounces every single day for years. Now it's more like 0-44 per day, but I drink Mios and Crystal Light too. I haven't imploded yet.

I drank a 44 oz. Coke Zero yesterday, and my weight this morning was the lowest it's been all year. Go figure.

If regular soda makes you feel bad, don't drink it. If diet soda makes you feel bad, don't drink it. I am sick to death of people telling me how awful it is and how I have to quit drinking it. I don't drink alcohol, but I don't try to convince other people not to do it.

It's essentially the same. Regular soda will give you sugar, diet soda will trick your body into thinking it's getting sugar, making you crave more sugar later.

Unless you think you have some kind of superhuman willpower to resist a craving, lol.

This is a myth. Sure, you can find it on many blogs and .com websites. But the preponderance of actual research shows it doesn't increase insulin response ("tricking your body"). Research on cravings is much harder, since there's no objective measurement, but as long as you track calories and sugars, you can keep it in check (and many people report, even here on MFP, that the diet helps soothe their sugar cravings).

OP, I'd probably go for diet. 40 oz (3 1/2 cans) of Coke has 136.5 grams of sugar; that much added sugar on a daily basis would make me worry about Type II diabetes, not to mention the 500+ empty calories. That's a pound a week right there.

Of course, I probably wouldn't drink that much diet coke on a daily basis either. It's not so much the aspartame (although I think a bit more moderation would be better) as the carbonation and caffeine and carbonic acid and how it'll affect my teeth and bones.

I'm afraid that I, and a good amount of research would disagree with you. While some research suggests Aspartame dodges the glucose bullet, and that the effects are limited to sucralose and other such sweeteners, much of the research also demonstrates a placebo effect from the Aspartame, and that subject's glucose levels were tied to the perceived sweetness of a drink.

One such source --> http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=886000


I don't understand the point of this question. Why is "neither" not an option? It is the only sensible option.

I checked out the abstract (couldn't get to the actual article :grumble:) … It's interesting, and seems to suggest an insulin increase, but there are a lot of things I couldn't get from just the abstract (how significant are the findings, esp with sample size, etc). It does seems to suggest further research is warranted, and I'm sure there's been a lot more in the decade and a half since this article. There are many articles on the other side, too; one that I read a few weeks ago (sorry, didn't save the link to share) tested insulin levels after sugary drinks and after aspartame-sweetened drinks, and found that aspartame doesn't hold a candle to sugar in eliciting an insulin response. It did mention satiety as well, and looked at other hormones (which are at much smaller levels) that are related to satiety, with much less conclusive findings.

I think the important thing to remember is that this is a very complex subject. Not all people react the same way to artificial sweeteners … and there is a lot of conflicting research. And we both are probably exhibiting some selection bias on the articles we look at: there's enough on both sides that we can ignore (even non-deliberately) the ones that don't support our views. I have no problem sharing research appropriately … I do take issue with the blanket statement that aspartame (or any other substance) WILL do something good or bad, when the research is still conflicting, as the original post quoted here does.

And I think you and I answered the point of the question … I've seen enough from the OP (:drinker: _noob_) to believe that it was probably to bring about discussion on the topic (even spark a debate) and see what flies. And as long as we do it with mutual respect there's no problem with that.