is diet coke really bad?

becca6492
becca6492 Posts: 6
edited September 29 in Food and Nutrition
I've always wondered about this. I love diet coke and drink a few a day. I've recently thought about cutting them out completely from my diet. Has this worked for anyone?

Replies

  • fridayjustleft04
    fridayjustleft04 Posts: 851 Member
    I switched from regular to diet and lost weight, but I can't cut out my diet sodas. I need the caffeine. If you do research on this subject, you'll find opinions and "facts" on both sides of the fence. I'd say to find out if it works for you, stop drinking them for a week and record your weight/inches (as long as you don't change anything else).
  • catecn
    catecn Posts: 84
    well what is the alturnative? if you are going to replace diet soda with water then its def. better. however, i use diet soda when i want something sweet, and the caffine is great. if you can cut it out, its prob great since u will be consuming less artifical things, but if u replace it with caloric beverages it might not be worth it. it depends on what you are worried about
  • KourtneyP83
    KourtneyP83 Posts: 319
    I think the hang up is that it has a lot of sodium in it...but if you are getting a lot of water in also to flush that out I'd say its ok. I went down to only drinking half a coke a day but I could probably have a whole one or more with the calories and sodium i have left.
  • whisperingdragon
    whisperingdragon Posts: 334
    I drink diet coke daily, and I'm losing weight. The only thing that I notice is that when I drink it, I seem to get hungy right away as opposed to when I don't drink it. :flowerforyou:
  • goron59
    goron59 Posts: 890 Member
    I cut out all carbonated junk drinks years ago and now whenever I do have one, it's so tasteless and really quite pointless from a nutritional point of view. I prefer water with a dash of fruit juice to add flavour where possible.

    Not sure if it helps with the weight loss - just a matter of taste I suppose :)
  • lindainlv
    lindainlv Posts: 11 Member
    I believe that several years of drinking 4 or 5 diet sodas a day is partially responsible for my getting Type II diabetis & for my large waistline. Go on the internet. There has been some research regarding this. I have stopped drinking diet soda completely. Also, if they are sweetened with aspartime, you should research what kind of effect that has on your body. I have some kind of allergic reaction to it & it makes me cough. There is so much more information available out there about diet & nutrition. I wish I would have known more of this 20 years ago. It might have made a difference in my health now that I am a senior.
  • mathgirl
    mathgirl Posts: 61 Member
    Skip it as much as you can. Ruins your teeth, diet or not :\
  • cheeksv
    cheeksv Posts: 521 Member
    cutting sweets out of my diets as much as possible ( no soda, cake, cookies, candy etc) has helped me a lot. The sugar is bad for your teeth and diet drinks are just better disguised and still not good for you in their own way. Try to sub some shwepps carbonated water with lemon for a soda see how you like it. you still get the fizz and not the sugar.
  • papastu
    papastu Posts: 737 Member
    I stopped drinking it when they said about it cleans old coins and toilet bowls !!! What on earth does it do to your insides
  • taem
    taem Posts: 495 Member
    I am one of those that are against soda pop, diet or regular. Coke has caffeine, a diuretic that makes you lose free water. Then it has sodium that makes you thirsty, so they hide the salty taste with sugar, another addictive substance. You mention diet coke and then I say it has aspartame: methyl ester or wood alcohol makes up 1 of the 3 molecules of aspartame. methyl ester is found in MSG which no one eats anymore. With aspartame, you get a toxic substance in your body that is sweet.

    So you have sucrose, but now it is high fructose corn syrup or you have aspartame (that contains a molecule that is toxic).

    This is really not a debate as filtered water wins hands down.

    you can look at this video for sugar/high fructose corn syrup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
    you can look at this video for aspartame: http://www.documentarywire.com/sweet-misery-a-poisoned-world

    Good health to you
  • suzycreamcheese
    suzycreamcheese Posts: 1,766 Member
    it depends what youre comparing it too.

    Better for your waistline than full fat coke, but not as good for you as water
  • taem
    taem Posts: 495 Member
    I also want to add a general point of losing fat (weight loss), and that is the role our liver plays. Our liver has two major functions (it has more but work with me for a minute): 1) to help our body get rid of toxics and 2) processes fats. If we constantly subject our liver to chemicals like aspartame, we are in effect, and in my opinion, not allowing the liver to do its other jobs which is also important.

    http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=191#tocd
  • B3h1ndgr33neyez
    B3h1ndgr33neyez Posts: 21 Member
    I look at it like this, calories in, calories out. They say that drinking diet soda tricks your body to think that it is about to get calories, then doesn't, which apparently makes you eat more later. I don't know HOW true that is since they're still doing study's...I say just make sure you're eating patterns are fine, and I don't see anything wrong with a diet soda once in a while...I drink one just to get out of the same taste of water. Sometimes you just need something different, you know?
  • jujubean1992
    jujubean1992 Posts: 462 Member
    i rarely drink diet drinks... i drink full cal or water with a little lime juice. if i do drink a coke zero or other diet pop i'm usually at work and need some caffeine. since there is no place to get coffee around i drink a soda. but i do like a good diet Dr Pepper with a hearty meal. can't tell the difference but i do know that there is an artificial sweetener in most diet drinks that can cause birth defects. (i read labels. >powerade zero is loaded with the stuff and there is a warning label on it:noway: )
  • suzycreamcheese
    suzycreamcheese Posts: 1,766 Member
    I look at it like this, calories in, calories out. They say that drinking diet soda tricks your body to think that it is about to get calories, then doesn't, which apparently makes you eat more later. I don't know HOW true that is since they're still doing study's...I say just make sure you're eating patterns are fine, and I don't see anything wrong with a diet soda once in a while...I drink one just to get out of the same taste of water. Sometimes you just need something different, you know?

    i saw an experiement with that, where they gave two sample groups soda, one group diet, the other full sugar, without telling which was which, or about the experiment, then they put a buffet out, and the ones who drank the diet drinks, consumed on average 100/200 more calories at the buffet than the ones that drank the sugary drink.



    If you are regulating your calories, i guess you can just make sure you dont do that, but remain aware that it can stimulate the appetite.
    My other thought was that the 1 or 200 extra calories consumed is probably either equivalent to the calories in a can of drink, or slightly less anyway, plus you get the joy of both eating and drinking for the same calories rather than choose
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    I'm not sure about the impact on weight loss because I don't drink it anymore.
    But, my personal experience is that it is very bad for your teeth.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    I have read loads of stuff about how evil diek coke is, so i limit myself to 1 per day...

    i'm considering trying to cut it out all together and having it just as a treat, but i have a can as my mid morning 'snack' as the bubbles fill me up!
  • keiraev
    keiraev Posts: 695 Member
    Anything is bad if you have too much of it. I don't drink it at home but will gladly drink it if I am at a pub and don't want to drink alcohol as surely it's better than some of the other alternatives.
  • missy_1975
    missy_1975 Posts: 244 Member
    Aside from what others have posted about the artifical sweeteners (toxicity to brain, difficulty for liver to detoxify, confusion in pancreas which may be unable to differentiate between glucose and sweetners etc), all carbonated drinks demineralise the bones (pull calcium from the bones), and as osteoporosis is known as the "silent killler", I'd rather drink water, fresh veggie juices, red wine, whisky :-P Like everything else, the odd coke or gin and tonic ain't what causes the problem, it's the endless onslaught on your body's systems (including the liver) that consuming daily drinks like this causes.
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