I don't like water. Will diet coke do instead?

Pretty much as the subject says, I hate water! I have tried to drink it, but can only manage water when in the gym!

I figured drinking something is better than nothing.... right?

Not if the something you're drinking is crap. Water, tea, watered fruit juice. Not acid and artificial sugars.

I had a hard time getting used to drinking water too. But I SERIOUSLY believe it's a key element to the whole overall health change.

Making a choice to feed your body what it runs on- CRAVES- which is 100% WATER is the first step ( and a CRUCIAL one)
in continuing to make good choices.
It's your choice to chose soda, but it's counter-productive- even if it's diet. Why sabotage your own efforts?
Not saying you have to eliminate it from your diet, but don't think it's a health food- and certainly don't count it as your water intake.
It's a snack. BTW, water has 0 calories and 100% nutrients.

If you're on this journey for a better health, this isn't a step you should eliminate. Start small and keep increasing your daily water intake. And keep track. ( I bought a 20 oz. water bottle and I aim to refill it 3 1/2 times a day. )

I am horrible at drinking plain water myself (I can after a gym sesstion but that is about it). I always put Crystal Light in my water to get in my water for the day. It adds flavor and only 5 calories. There are all kind of flavors. Actually with putting Crystal Light in my water, I usually get anywhere from 10 to 12 glasses of water per day.

As for the diet soda question, I know there is alot of ideas about diet soda (where good or bad), but I do have 1 diet soda a day (it gives me my caffeine since I don't drink coffee). If I have a second one, it is always caffeine free). My aunt did nutrisystem and lost 65 lbs, and they allowed her caffeine free soda. Now, that I said that, I wouldn't ONLY drink diet soda; your body needs water and diet soda has alot of sodium in it.

I dont HATE water, but I was pretty much addicted to diet pop. I dont like normal pop, just diet. I would have one in the morning, one about a hour 1/2 later, one with lunch, another around 4pm usually one with dinner, and sometimes some before bed. I couldnt get enough which was odd because before becoming a mom, I HATED pop, any kind, I only drank water, all day and all night so I dont know where it came from. I still have one ocassionally, but at most lately one a day and I drink a crap load of water, probably around 100oz some days. I can only drink water ICE cold. (Like everyone else said) try the vitamin waters, or crystal lights and things! Im sure you can still enjoy one a day and long as you get that water in there


"I thought of it as cleaning my pipes. You sure would not clean your clothes with brown water, right? Would not even think of scrubbing even the toilet with iced tea/rbrown water. So why would I expect my body to get cleaned out with it? "

Great way of thinking! I never thought of it like that, true!

I use Crystal Light on the Go, and dilute it so one packet goes into 32 oz instead of 16 oz. Still has plenty of flavor.

It still has aspartame, so the folks who hate that still won't be happy. I still enjoy my diet soda every day, but it's more of a treat than a beverage.

I drink 1 pepsi max a day,but I also drink atleast 4 liters of water a day.You probobly shouldnt just drink diet coke

Stomach acid is supposed to be one of the strongest acids known and yet it doesn't eat through our body .... I would say that if you could get the acid mentioned above INTO the stomach, it would possibly be fine. But getting it there would be the trick. The other parts of the digestive system are not as strong as the lining of the stomach.

Good point.

try flavored waters, or crystal light packets, or mio water enhancer. water is better for you than pop -bottom line. I have cut out pop, except if we go to a restaraunt i might get a diet pop for a change. but i'm not perfect by no means- my downfall is coffee.

I drink a fair bit of green tea. If you like iced tea then that's a good one.

You should count anything non-alcoholic that you drink towards your 8 glasses, so you may be getting more than you think if you are not doing so.

Diet coke is full of carcinogens and there is a lot of evidence that sweeteners are really bad for you too.

No! In addition to the corrosive nature of coca-cola products, caffeine is a diuretic. That means that not only is Diet Coke not water, you actually lose water when you drink it.

Decaffeinated tea and Crystal Light are good flavored water, but your best bet is good ol' water. After years of denying yourself it's flavorless wonder, your taste buds might not be accustomed to it. Try it with a LOT of ice or with slices of citrus. But Diet Coke is doing exactly the opposite of what you want it to do. It's dehydrating you!

Two Words = HELL NO! :noway: :noway:

I think it's really all habit... If you're used to flavoured drinks, you'll gag at the thought of drinking just water, but once you get used to it, you learn to appreciate the purity and the benefits it has for your health. I drink about 2 litres of pure water every day and it's not an effort in the least, now that it has become a habit. On the contrary, I find myself craving water when people offer me joice or sodas...

If you really absolutely can't stand the taste, why not try herb or fruit teas? They don't have any calories, taste good so you don't need sweeteners, and they don't have caffeine either.

This is how I started liking drinking water many years. This question was posed to me: When washing a car, clothes, dishes, anything that needs cleaning, do we use soda to get them cleaned? NO. We use water. Why not USE WATER TO CLEAN YOUR INSIDE? Hope this will motivate you to drink water.

I honestly am befuddled why people do not understand that your body needs water. Pure, plain water. Most of us don't like it because we have trained our palettes to crave sugar and salt through all the artificial crap we put in our bodies. There is no easy way to do it. I also don't want a bunch of unnatural chemicals in my body that will continue that salt/sugar addiction. I say drink the water at the most add some lemon or cucumbers or mint (my personal fav) to enhance the flavor if need be. Promise yourself something nice like a new haircut or a pair of shoes if you successfully meet you water goals for a month. Say no to artificial chemicals like soda, splenda and so call beverage enhancers . Your body will thank you.

Dangers of Soda
http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm

Dangers of Splenda
http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx

So, is Splenda safe? The truth is we just don’t know yet. There are no long-term studies of the side effects of Splenda in humans. The manufacturer’s own short-term studies showed that very high doses of sucralose (far beyond what would be expected in an ordinary diet) caused shrunken thymus glands, enlarged livers, and kidney disorders in rodents. (A more recent study also shows that Splenda significantly decreases beneficial gut flora.) But in this case, the FDA decided that because these studies weren’t based on human test animals, they were not conclusive. Of course, rats had been chosen for the testing specifically because they metabolize sucralose more like humans than any other animal used for testing. In other words, the FDA has tried to have it both ways — they accepted the manufacturer’s studies on rats because the manufacturer had shown that rats and humans metabolize the sweetener in similar ways, but shrugged off the safety concerns on the grounds that rats and humans are different. In our view, determining that something is safe (or not) in laboratory rats isn’t a definitive answer, as we’ve seen countless examples of foods and drugs that have proved dangerous to humans that were first found to be safe in laboratory rats, both in short- and long-term studies.

Pretty much as the subject says, I hate water! I have tried to drink it, but can only manage water when in the gym!

I figured drinking something is better than nothing.... right?

Diet Coke is not a replacement for water. But if you're going to have it - list it as a snack not a drink.



Here's why:

The caffeine in diet coke dehydrates rather than hydrates you.

You have some old info. But lets cover each one.

OMG caffeine is a diuretic!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html

Medical experts have been saying for years that caffeine acts as a potent diuretic. Consume too many caffeinated beverages, and you end up drinking yourself into dehydration.

But research has not confirmed that notion. Most studies have found that in moderate amounts, caffeine has only mild diuretic effects — much like water.

One report, by a scientist at the University of Connecticut who reviewed 10 previous studies, appeared in June 2002 in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

Investigations comparing caffeine with water or placebo seldom found a statistical difference in urine volume, the author wrote. “In the 10 studies reviewed, consumption of a caffeinated beverage resulted in 0 to 84 percent retention of the initial volume ingested, whereas consumption of water resulted in 0 to 81 percent retention.”

Another study, in the same journal in 2005, involved scientists following 59 active adults over 11 days while controlling their caffeine intake. They were given caffeine in capsule form on some days and on other days were given a placebo. Researchers found no significant differences in levels of excreted electrolytes or urine volume.

Other recent studies have found similar results.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Caffeine may not be as powerful a diuretic as it’s often said to be.


OMG artificial sweeteners will give you cancer

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

Is there an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed that cyclamate in combination with saccharin caused bladder cancer in laboratory animals. However, results from subsequent carcinogenicity studies (studies that examine whether a substance can cause cancer) of these sweeteners have not provided clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans. Similarly, studies of other FDA-approved sweeteners have not demonstrated clear evidence of an association with cancer in humans.

What have studies shown about a possible association between specific artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Saccharin

Studies in laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked saccharin with the development of bladder cancer. For this reason, Congress mandated that further studies of saccharin be performed and required that all food containing saccharin bear the following warning label: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.”

Subsequent studies in rats showed an increased incidence of urinary bladder cancer at high doses of saccharin, especially in male rats. However, mechanistic studies (studies that examine how a substance works in the body) have shown that these results apply only to rats. Human epidemiology studies (studies of patterns, causes, and control of diseases in groups of people) have shown no consistent evidence that saccharin is associated with bladder cancer incidence.

Because the bladder tumors seen in rats are due to a mechanism not relevant to humans and because there is no clear evidence that saccharin causes cancer in humans, saccharin was delisted in 2000 from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Report on Carcinogens, where it had been listed since 1981 as a substance reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen (a substance known to cause cancer). More information about the delisting of saccharin is available at http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/append/appb.pdf on the Internet. The delisting led to legislation, which was signed into law on December 21, 2000, repealing the warning label requirement for products containing saccharin.

Aspartame

Aspartame, distributed under several trade names (e.g., NutraSweet® and Equal®), was approved in 1981 by the FDA after numerous tests showed that it did not cause cancer or other adverse effects in laboratory animals. Questions regarding the safety of aspartame were renewed by a 1996 report suggesting that an increase in the number of people with brain tumors between 1975 and 1992 might be associated with the introduction and use of this sweetener in the United States. However, an analysis of then-current NCI statistics showed that the overall incidence of brain and central nervous system cancers began to rise in 1973, 8 years prior to the approval of aspartame, and continued to rise until 1985. Moreover, increases in overall brain cancer incidence occurred primarily in people age 70 and older, a group that was not exposed to the highest doses of aspartame since its introduction. These data do not establish a clear link between the consumption of aspartame and the development of brain tumors.

In 2005, a laboratory study found more lymphomas and leukemias in rats fed very high doses of aspartame (equivalent to drinking 8 to 2,083 cans of diet soda daily) (1). However, there were some inconsistencies in the findings. For example, the number of cancer cases did not rise with increasing amounts of aspartame as would be expected. An FDA statement on this study can be found at http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2006/ucm108650.htm on the Internet.

Subsequently, NCI examined human data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study of over half a million retirees. Increasing consumption of aspartame-containing beverages was not associated with the development of lymphoma, leukemia, or brain cancer (2).


OMG diet soda will make you fatter!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/04/earlyshow/contributors/emilysenay/main2330142.shtml

(CBS) For many people there's only one real reason to drink diet soda.

"Because it's got no calories and, yeah, you try to watch your weight," says Raymond Tomczak.

But, as The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay reports, some experts are now saying diet soda may be doing the exact opposite: making them gain weight.

Epidemiologist Sharon Fowler, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, presented research data on soda consumption to the American Diabetes Association.

"What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drinks, the more weight they were likely to gain," she says.

That finding was a big surprise, but it reflected what nutritionist Melainie Rogers saw in her work with obese patients in New York.

"When we would switch them on to diet soda off regular soda, we weren't seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us," Rogers says.

But why would diet soda make some people gain weight? There are only theories at this point but it may be as simple as people consciously eating more because they think they can.

Khristianne Corro says, "If I'm having one of those pig out days, then yeah, I figure maybe it'll balance it out a little bit."

And Tomczak says, "I'm drinking the diet soda and you know let me have that hamburger and fries, instead of just the hamburger alone."

Researchers say physiology may also play a role.

"When I put anything to my stomach that's not water then my stomach responds by increasing the gastric acid secretion," Fowler says. "Does that increase my sense of hunger and does that drive me to eat more?"

If diet soda really doesn't take the weight off, it wouldn't be the first time a diet product failed to perform as expected.

"You know, much the same as when we went through the fat free craze, people overate – not because there was anything wrong with the products, but they overate," says Rogers, the nutritionist. "So we're wondering are we seeing a similar phenomenon with the diet soda."

There are still plenty of questions that researchers need to answer. For instance, are these results associated with all artificial sweeteners? Or just certain ones?

And of course, it's all just a theory until larger controlled studies can be done, but the early findings are fascinating.

In the meantime, there are alternatives for people who are trying to lose weight.

There's juice and water or coffee and tea. Dr. Senay says the one thing to take away from this is moderation. Whatever you put in your mouth, don't overdo it. A diet product won't really help you lose weight if you're still getting too many calories from other foods.


Notice they say the only possible link is possibly causing gastric secretions. Otherwise they say people may over eat. if you are religiously tracking your calories, you can control that on your own.

Do what you want with the information. Just don't believe all the hype.

I drink Diet Mt Dew. I also drink plenty of water. Just had a check up and everything was fine.