Are "diet" sodas really bad

I've noticed a difference since ditching the diet Pepsi. Try some flavoured whey protein for a drink.
I think because it is soooo sweet, it makes you succeptible to eating other sweets.

rwhyte12 wrote: »

I've noticed a difference since ditching the diet Pepsi. Try some flavoured whey protein for a drink.
I think because it is soooo sweet, it makes you succeptible to eating other sweets.

^lol^
Protein is full of artificial sweeteners and about 200cals as well!! And in my experience its way more sweeter than any diet soda! In fact most proteins I find too sweet and that's not sugar that's doing that it's too much artificial sweetener! BTW I drink Pepsi max daily.....I love it!! And I hate soft drink it's also way too sweet!

Christine_72 wrote: »

Personally I'm erring on the side of caution and avoiding artificial sweeteners as much as I possibly can. Especially so, because people defend their decision to drink this stuff like they are arguing against selling their first born child.
If there was indeed such a thing as food addiction, from what I've read on here diet soda would rank highly on the list..

ETA: I've never drunk a diet soda in my life, not once. Which could be why I'm having problems understanding some peoples tight grip on this substance.

WUT?

No, I'm 'defending' (aka, talking about calories and stuff) even though I DON'T drink soda (I have maybe a couple of glasses per year or so). I don't particularly like the taste of AS but don't consider them dangerous.

Are diet sodas really bad?

Rather than labeling a food or drink "good" or "bad", I prefer to look at health risks vs. benefits or calories spent vs. nutrition gained.

In the case of regular sodas, there is a large calorie cost due to the heavy sugar load (nearly 10% of my calorie budget for just one 12 oz can) with virtually no gain in nutrition. So I say 'no' to sugary sodas. Most juices also have a heavy sugar load but counter that with some nutritional benefit. I can get most of the same nutritional benefit from a multi-vitamin without the calorie cost, so I also say 'no' to juices.

In the case of diet sodas, there is little to no hit on my calorie budget to balance little to no gain in nutrition. So we move the health risk vs. benefits. So far the anti-'artificial chemical' line hasn't been convincing. At best, all the carbonated drinks appear to pose some risk to those who suffer from most types of kidney stones by increasing the acidity of their urine. In my case, I do get calcium oxalate kidney stones. I have suffered through two in the last twenty-five years, and I'm probably due for a third sometime in the next five years. However, the risk to me of a kidney stone once every ten years does not outweigh the benefit to me on having my daily carbonated diet beverage of choice. YMMV.

In the case of drinking water. It has been mentioned that there are nearly as many 'artificial chemicals' in drink water as in diet sodas. I'm recently retired, after 31 years, from a drinking water plant in the mid-west USA where I was employed as a Senior Drinking Water Analyst, and I'll have to say... Yup, probably so. No calories vs. no nutrition so we move to risk vs. benefits. Of the many chemicals added to process drinking water, two questionable ones come to mind. Fluoride and the disinfection family of chemicals; Chlorine, Chloroamines, and Ozone. Take Fluoride first.

The move to fluoridate drinking water in my city was a public driven one. The citizens approved the measure to take whatever risk fluoridation might pose to gain the benefit in fighting tooth decay. Next comes the disinfectants.

The benefits of disinfecting drinking water is to inactivate harmful pathogens. This prevents many water borne disease, such as typhoid and diphtheria to name just two, which have ravage communities for centuries. The risks are that disinfection also react with naturally occurring precursors found in surface waters to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs), nearly all of which are carcinogenic. However the benefit of not dying tomorrow of typhoid outweighs the risk of developing a bladder cancer when one is in their 70's.

Wait! You only drink bottled water? Sorry. Most bottle water sources are the city tap, run through a carbon filter to remove chlorine and any taste and/or odor causing 'chemicals', ozonated before bottling in mostly plastic bottles. Carbon filters do not remove DBPs formed in the city's process and then you have more DBPs created by the ozone and additional 'chemicals' coming from the plasticizers inside the bottle. While I do occasionally buy bottled water, normally I dump the water out and then refill the bottle from my tap. I reuse the same bottle until the plastic walls crack from use and start leaking.

For myself, I drink diet soda occasionally and try for 2 liters of tap water every day.

lynnstrick01 wrote: »

Everybody keeps telling me "if you keep chugging those sodas you'll never lose weight" I don't understand, they are the ZERO calorie sodas, ZERO sugar ZERO Calories. Is there something about the carbonation that makes it bad?

Sodas and Wine are my 2 absolute worst enemies.. I love them both, I have cut down on the wine and when I do have a glass I cut it with V8 splash so I still have my wine and not the calories

I changed from Regular sodas (COKE) to the ZERO version.. but keep hearing negatives..can someone explain this

Yikes...wine with V8 sounds like an atrocity
In all seriousness...you're fine. I drink diet Coke a lot and its never been an issue for me in terms of weight.

I wouldn't exactly say they are healthy, but I drink 1 can of diet coke a day and it doesn't affect my weight. I've had people tell me time and time again that I need to just STOP drinking it because it's bad. I'm like, "well that pack a day you smoke ain't exactly gonna keep you living until you are 100 either, huh?.

What I figure it I really like that Diet Coke a day. And if it knocks off a few years of my life, so what...maybe it will save me from dementia.

lynnstrick01 wrote: »

WOW 191 posts, who knew this would be such a HOT BUTTON

Anyone who has been on the forums for more than a week I would say.

There are a few hot topics on this board that come up weekly where science can't overcome all the woo people believe. This is one of them.

Get some mineral water (or whatever non-carbonated water is called) and liquid stevia. Bam, healthy soda. Liquid stevia comes in many flavors like root beer, orange, grape.