Diet drinks

Personally, I don't have a problem with diet drinks, but I know a lot of people don't like the idea of the chemicals involved. As a compromise (to myself) I try to go for ones that don't have caffeine in, and just enjoy them.

Even if they're not as good as water (and little is going to be), they're better than a lot of the alternatives. If you can keep within your calorie limits, and don't feel they make you hungrier (they can have the opposite effect for me), then don't worry about them (in my opinion).

I don't naturally drink a lot. Indeed I can go three or four days not drinking anything, but getting moisture from what I eat, so for me the fact that I do, can and will drink diet soft drinks means that at least my body is getting some fluids.

I know that diet drinks really aren't recommended if you're trying to lose weight. Because:

1) The carbonation causes your belly to bloat up, which masks any ab results you're getting from workouts.
2) They have no nutritional value whatsoever, so they really don't do anything to help you out.
3) Some of them have a boatload of sodium, which causes water retention and the scale doesn't budge as a result.
4) Recent studies in my fitness magazines discussed how sugar substitute messes with your hunger hormones. So, even though you feel like you stopped a soda craving, you've really only messed up your hormones for a craving of something else later.

Since I'm started MFP, I've tried to cut out soda as much as I can. Once in a while I'll have one as a treat when we go out to eat (diet), but I never keep it at home anymore.

Shannon

diet drinks are actually worse for you than regular sodas because of the chemically produced sugar substitutes. the sucralose (splenda) chemical turns to formaldehyde in your body and btw... NOT GOOD lol.... if you want a soda, just go for the real stuff and go take a walk to get rid of the extra calories.

You'll see this reference in alot of forums that Diet Coke and such (Aspartame and Phenalanaline) break down into carcinogenic compounds such as Formaldehyde and Ethanol.

While this is true, it's also take out of context as the scare tactic marketing that is often found on the internet.

The main piece of info that's left out of this is that the formation of Formaldehyde and Ethanol is a natural byproduct of ALL digestion in the human body. In fact, one study has shown that a glass of Fresh Orange juice will produce 10 times the amount of these products than a can of Diet Coke. (I'll see if I can find the study reference). The quantities of these chemicals in the disgestive process are so miniscule however, they're not a factor in our everyday health.

I think you'd have to have something like 10,000 litres of diet soda per day for the digestive levels to reach any kind of danger zone...but this detail tends to be omitted from the scare tactic messages.

I love my diet coke, but I've made a personal choice to try and avoid any soft drinks as I'm attempting as much as possible to eat "all natural" and soft drinks don't fit into that category. But for those you have their cravings, anything in moderation is fine and the choice comes down to if you would rather take an artificial sweetener over the High Fructose Corn Syrup used in the non-diet options.

I;m less bloated now that I stopped drinking them, and all sodas all together...For the caffeine fix I do drink coffee and take energy mints breath savers make them and 3 mints = 1 cup of coffee plus they taste good..and my weight started coming off much easier even though diet drinks don't contain calories.

Diet pop (soda / soft drinks) make me bloated so I avoid them. I'm not against them completely but I just prefer to be comfortable in my body and being boated is NOT comfortable, lol
I will on occasion have a diet orange crush, it's sweetened with Splenda, not Aspartame.
For me, personally, water and herbal teas are my beverages of choice (and the odd black coffee).

I dont mind them with alchohol spirits, but other than that, i dont really like them, they make you burp, so unlady like! lol

They are full of sodium( which we are reading more and more about how bad that is for you). I love drinking the cans of sparkling water called LaCroix. Comes in lemon, lime, berry or regular. No calories or sodium!