Diet soda...friend or foe?

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Replies

  • soysos
    soysos Posts: 187 Member
    cokes don't have to be bad for you, after all most of them started out as health tonics.
    Yeah, that's the problem - there were a LOT of 'health tonics' that were anything but. Even the original recipe for Coke used coca (which cocaine is made from). No matter how you slice it, a soft drink is comprised of sugar, flavorings, and some method of carbonation, which (based on your recipes) contains either sodium carbonate or sodium phosphate. Whatever minimal benefits you might get from the flavoring ingredients are severely undercut by the unhealthiness of the rest of the ingredients.

    If the OP want a 'health tonic', get a juicer. Veggie and fruit juices, even mixed with other ingredients to make smoothies or such, are healthier than soft drinks - whether bought or home-made. ;)

    first off the original recipe for coke did not contain coca it contained cocaine. comparing natural coca to cocaine is like comparing good coffee to 100% pure caffeine. at this particular point in time cocaine was considered the next miracle drug it was going to relive people of there addiction to morphine which worked by replacing it with an even worse addiction.

    all that being said there I'm not saying that homemade sodas are particularly good for you, what I'm saying is they're not nearly as bad as the commercial products, and can even be more satisfying. not to mention the added benefit that when you make your own you know what is in it, homemade sodas also generally have about 1/3 of the amount of sugar also the methods I gave for carbonating the beverage is not with chemicals. when water is held pressurized under carbon dioxide it absorbs it and then slowly releases it.
  • LarryPGH
    LarryPGH Posts: 349 Member
    This isn't terribly convincing:
    10. Soda may cause cancer. the study slit its own throat. As one of the researchers noted, "soft drink consumption in Singapore was associated with several other adverse health behaviors such as smoking and red meat intake, which we can't accurately control for,"

    So, people who smoke and eat red meat also drink soda... and get cancer.

    9.It's not just about calories. there's a 41 percent increased risk of being obese—and a 65 percent increased risk of becoming overweight during the next 7 or 8 years—for every can of diet soda a person consumes in a day.

    This one really looks like "post hoc, ergo propter hoc". So... overweight folks drink diet soda -- who woulda thunk it?
    8. It's the water . . . and a lot more.
    "Since the bottling plant was opened in 2000, water levels in the area have dropped six metres, and when a severe drought hit the region earlier this year the crops failed and livelihoods were destroyed."

    And if soda consumption went down and water consumption up -- like for instance, Coke's Aquafina product, and other commercial bottled water products -- wouldn't demonstrate the same dynamic? This is not a *soda* problem, but a *water conservation* problem...
    6. Can convenience.
    The bottled-water industry (which is mostly owned by the soda industry) famously uses 17 million barrels of oil a year, and the aluminum industry uses as much electricity as the entire continent of Africa. Not only that, aluminum mining accounts for a ton of toxic chemicals that is left behind for every ton of the metal produced.

    So, we're blaming *our* consumption, of all drinks, on the soda industry?

    The rest of these conflate the problems of drinking sugary drinks with the issue at hand, diet soda consumption. Not trying to attack you personally, but this article seems way out of whack...
  • awesome_orchid
    awesome_orchid Posts: 49
    I drank ONE today! It is typically 3.
  • kate205gti
    kate205gti Posts: 84 Member
    i swapped coke for lime cordial and soda water (carbonated water) - seems to satisfy the sweet fizzy craving :)
  • Natvee
    Natvee Posts: 65
    I weighed in today and I'm still at a stagnate 198.6. No improvements.
  • crackerjack345
    crackerjack345 Posts: 129 Member
    I would bet that it will make a big difference. The combination of the sodium it contains, plus the diarhetic effect of the caffeine, makes for a combination that makes you drink more soda (an accident on the part of the soda companies? I think not.) and leaves you dehydrated. The aspartame also makes me hungry. Very hungry. I think I have some sort of allergy to it. That, combined with the fact that the bubbles in the soda, I believe, assist in keeping my stomach larger, which means I am hungry more, rather than my stomach shrinking and me ending up being full on less food. That's my 2 cents. I'll be curious to see how it goes!
  • mauntler716
    mauntler716 Posts: 3
    From my research, soda in general (regular or unleaded...lol!) is bad for you. One place you can get more information on this is on http://www.glycemic.com site. Wish you the best.
  • leomentlines
    leomentlines Posts: 440 Member
    I'd go with foe - in some of my chemistry classes we've discussed the natural pH of blood ~7.4 and various things we consume that don't agree with it. Coke was one of the offenders, at a pH ~2.7. That's like drinking the same amount of vinegar or lemon juice! If you need something fizzy, I'd recommend plain carbonated water and cut it with fruit juice. I find a lot of bottled juice to be too sweet, so when I mix it with carbonated water, it tastes way better imo :)
  • soysos
    soysos Posts: 187 Member
    I'd go with foe - in some of my chemistry classes we've discussed the natural pH of blood ~7.4 and various things we consume that don't agree with it. Coke was one of the offenders, at a pH ~2.7. That's like drinking the same amount of vinegar or lemon juice! If you need something fizzy, I'd recommend plain carbonated water and cut it with fruit juice. I find a lot of bottled juice to be too sweet, so when I mix it with carbonated water, it tastes way better imo :)

    as I had stated above you could just carbonate the fruit juice. put a little yeast in the bottle and let it sit out for a day or so then put it in the fridge.
  • Marli13
    Marli13 Posts: 23
    Diet coke has no calories but it has no nutrition either. It should not effect your weight but wont be giving you any nutrients so take it or leave it as long as you are drinking lots of water.
  • staceyb_2003
    staceyb_2003 Posts: 396 Member
    bump
  • lisa_lotte
    lisa_lotte Posts: 216
    Well after reading this I have once and for all decided....... NO MOPRE DIET COKE FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From today I will be quitting diet soda drins for good! Wish Me Luck :-)

    Lisa
  • lhague
    lhague Posts: 258
    New research says that carbonated drinks inhibit weight loss. That's what I've been reading. Would like to see if anyone else has information on this....I love diet coke
  • FearAnLoathing
    FearAnLoathing Posts: 4,852 Member
    I have never experianced an increase in my cravings from drinking diet soda.
  • keepitoff99
    keepitoff99 Posts: 117
    I drink it and am losing weight just the same. I find it takes away my cravings for sweets and it gets me through the day. I know it's not healthy but for now I thoroughly enjoy a diet coke with ice and lemon as my treat. I dont' find it bloats me or gives me any immediate side effects. Compared to the amount of sugar I was consuming post losing weight, I'm going to stick with my diet coke for now. Agreed though that it's not good for you!!!!!
  • jaitken_22
    jaitken_22 Posts: 212 Member
    I think it is ok to drink one glass of diet soda a day if you really have to. I try and avoid fizzy soda now, but I have the occasional diet soda. It doesn't really have much nutritional value but at least it's better than full fat soda.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    Ok so here is the deal...
    I enjoy drinking diet soda. It curbs my appetite and I don't feel so deprived. I also don't get crazy with it. I can take it or leave it if it really came down to it.

    For the past 4 days I've been drinking about 3 cups a day. The scale hasn't moved. Granted it isn't going up, but it isn't going down either. So my question is...does it make you gain weight? Or keep you from losing it as quick as you normally would?

    This has me wondering so much that I'm conducting an experiment. Like I said, I've been drinking it for the past 4-5 days, and no scale movement. For the next 4 days (starting today) I'm not going to have any. Let's see what the scale does. I'll be eating and exercising exactly the same.
    Research was done regarding the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas. In layman's terms.....

    When you have the diet soda your tongue recognizes that it has had something sweet and sends a message to the brain saying "sugars on the way, tell the stomach to get ready for it" (well not those words but you get what I mean).

    Your stomach does not get the sugars it was expecting, and goes "where is it", which messages the brain to say "you promised me sugar / calories, can I have some", and this encourages the seeking out / eating of calories to make up for the previous trickery.

    There is a strong link to what what a tongue tastes and what your digestive system expects, and it is hard to fool it. It has a tendancy to make you crave other sugars / calories, and confuse the bodies digestive system.

    Personally I do not "drink my calories", and avoid all sodas (diet or otherwise), because I figure I do not need the chemicals

    Exactly. Why drink your calories. It's much more fun to eat them! Diet sodas also cause kidney function decline. I have a glass of soda about once every other month. That's good enough for me.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    cokes don't have to be bad for you, after all most of them started out as health tonics.
    Yeah, that's the problem - there were a LOT of 'health tonics' that were anything but. Even the original recipe for Coke used coca (which cocaine is made from). No matter how you slice it, a soft drink is comprised of sugar, flavorings, and some method of carbonation, which (based on your recipes) contains either sodium carbonate or sodium phosphate. Whatever minimal benefits you might get from the flavoring ingredients are severely undercut by the unhealthiness of the rest of the ingredients.


    If the OP want a 'health tonic', get a juicer. Veggie and fruit juices, even mixed with other ingredients to make smoothies or such, are healthier than soft drinks - whether bought or home-made. ;)

    first off the original recipe for coke did not contain coca it contained cocaine. comparing natural coca to cocaine is like comparing good coffee to 100% pure caffeine. at this particular point in time cocaine was considered the next miracle drug it was going to relive people of there addiction to morphine which worked by replacing it with an even worse addiction.

    This is true. The natural coca plant (that the native culture have been using for a long, long time) doesn't have any addictive qualities. It became highly addictive after humans got their hands on it and created cocaine.
  • llbates
    llbates Posts: 25
    you should be fine as long as you are counting the calories from each soda, which is where most people tend to fail when drinking caloric drinks, that is why they are often considered hidden calories
  • mauntler716
    mauntler716 Posts: 3
    If you like coffee a lot, then try Boresha's BSkinny Coffee. It tastes better than anything I've come across so far.
  • Natvee
    Natvee Posts: 65
    So here I am to update...
    Can you guess? No movement. I guess drinking (or not drinking) doesn't play with your weight loss over a short period of time. I'm not going back to it though. It IS very unhealthy, and I don't want all of those chemicals dancing around in me.

    Now all diet soda talk aside for a moment...I'm kinda p o'd that I'm not seeing any changes for...what...a week now. Gosh this is week 3. Isn't the weight supposed to be falling off?
  • leomentlines
    leomentlines Posts: 440 Member
    I'd go with foe - in some of my chemistry classes we've discussed the natural pH of blood ~7.4 and various things we consume that don't agree with it. Coke was one of the offenders, at a pH ~2.7. That's like drinking the same amount of vinegar or lemon juice! If you need something fizzy, I'd recommend plain carbonated water and cut it with fruit juice. I find a lot of bottled juice to be too sweet, so when I mix it with carbonated water, it tastes way better imo :)

    as I had stated above you could just carbonate the fruit juice. put a little yeast in the bottle and let it sit out for a day or so then put it in the fridge.

    also a good suggestion :) I personally just mix it to cut down on the sweetness, without the wait.
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