Diet Cokes ?

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Replies

  • bblue656
    bblue656 Posts: 159 Member
    edited November 2016
    I avoid pop/soda all together now. I was addicted for a good 10 years. It makes me retain ALOT OF WATER. So recently i quit pop all together and im 1 month off of it, it doesnt make you gain weight..it just makes you retain water. theres a difference. i personally dont have anything against them :)
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
    SLLRunner wrote: »
    For some people it does cause cravings, for other it doesn't. You just have to go by how diet soda effects you personally.

    I'm one of those people that is/was greatly affected by artificial sweeteners. It did affect my cravings, I did gain a tremendous amount of weight drinking them (b/c it affects cravings which affected my appetite). And to top it off, the AS gave me a severe case of pancreatitis while pregnant (not a good thing!). Needless to say, I abruptly stopped my 6-8 can a day diet coke habit 15+ years ago and can't touch artificial sweeteners (they still affect me). That said, I still like a fizzy drink once in awhile so I drink Blue Sky Root Beer sweetened with stevia. Neither stevia nor xylitol seem to affect me. But I don't drink it often. Maybe one a week. I'm a water girl mostly. Because of my experience (and plenty of reading), I am firmly in the corner of the stuff is crap and no one should touch it. But like Christine said, not everyone is affected the way I was.

    After such experiences I understand why you are in the camp of YOU shouldnt drink it ( although you could of experimented with drinking less than 8 cans a day - you know, context, dosage) but I dont understand why you are in the camp of " no-one should touch it" - given, as you said yourself, it doesnt affect everyone the way it affected you.

    That is like someone saying I have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts so I am in the camp of they are bad for ME - nobody would dispute that.

    But most people dont go on to say therefore nobody should touch them.

    Oh, no kidding. The issue was, I literally craved Diet Coke so I drank it like water. Any sort of diet soda would satisfy the need but I preferred Diet Coke. That's where I do think that aspartame does have addictive possibilities because there's nothing else in it that would indicate that kind of pull.

    I can too understand why you choose not to drink diet soda, but saying Aspartame has addictive possibilities implies that it's possibly a drug. However, one will most likely never steal to get a hit of Aspartame, or go into a recovery program and say, "I'm an addict and I've been clean of Aspartame for ten days."

    There is nothing at all wrong with Aspartame, just as there is nothing wrong with diet coke, but it's all about what is right or wrong for the individual. Obviously, for you, Aspartame and diet coke are not the best choices because they do make you hungrier.

    I like Aspartame and diet coke, but I use neither because (1) Aspartame exacerbates my IBS and (2) diet coke, and any carbonated drinks, exacerbates my acid reflux.


    I am firmly in the camp that aspartame is not safe. I don't care if others want to fill their bodies with it. So be it. But I do not believe it is safe and I do not believe AT ALL that this issue is settled in the health community. Having read plenty on how aspartame got approved by the FDA was just the beginning (besides my own experience). The FDA lists 92 side effects of aspartame. No thank you. To each his own. People can drink away all they want. My issue is the attacks on people that are putting out another view point. I do not bow at the feet of "studies" because a huge majority of them are backgrounded by the industry themselves. I believe nothing coming out of the FDA. They are completely corrupt as far as I'm concerned.

    That said, I do not go around telling people they CAN'T drink it. But I have no issue with others posting the reasons why they believe it's bad for someone either. People on this forum can't seem to allow both sides of an issue to be laid out and for others to read and decide for themselves what to believe. There are those here that like to think they have science on their side. I'll try not to laugh the day the health community comes out and says they screwed up and this stuff is crap for people and oh, yes, aspartame is not only addictive but it does cause one to gain weight and have issues with their blood sugar, etc. etc . etc. And if they never do, then I will happily say I was wrong. But until then, I continue to stand on the side of "it's crap and not good for anyone." The FDA is notorious for backtracking on things they once approved for human consumption. I see aspartame as one of those things that is eventually going to come home to roost on the FDA's doorstep.

    Be well......
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    tomdomurat wrote: »
    Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!
    Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!
    If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!


    These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
    Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.

    Aspartame:
    What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
    And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
    This leads to weight gain instead of loss.

    Caramel Color:
    Caramel coloring uses a combination of sulfites and ammonium.
    This concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals does not occur in nature.

    Phosphoric Acid:
    Phosphoric acid in its pure form is a colorless, odorless crystal extracted from rocks with sulfuric acid or by burning off elemental phosphorus and adding water to the byproduct.
    It’s a corrosive acid and can form toxic fumes when it comes into contact with alcohols, ketones and other organic compounds.
    It’s used in fertilizers, livestock feed, soaps, polishes, dyes, polishing metals and in many other nonfood products.
    It’s added to soft drinks to provide a sharper, tangy taste and to help slow the growth of molds and bacteria in sugary formulas.

    Potassium Benzoate:
    Potassium benzoate is a chemical preservative that is commonly added to some foods and drinks, but most notably soft drinks.
    It is an effective preservative because it blocks the growth of some bacteria, yeast and mold.

    Caffeine:
    Linked to many side affects such as Insomnia, Nervousness, Restlessness, Irritability, Stomach upsets, Fast heartbeat, Muscle tremors.

    This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. Those first three lines..... I can't even. Is this the logic we are supposed to use? So the only things we are allowed to eat or drink are the things we feed babies, domesticated animals, and that wild animals would have access to and choose for themselves? That's really going to limit my dinner menu... Dry Dog food? Nope. Baby can't chew it. Pureed baby food? Nope - the deer can't open the Gerber jar with their hooves. Well crap.

    My dog eats cat crap? So following @tomdomurat's logic, do I have to feed my kids cat crap?

    Mine does too!!!! So disgusting. Well, I hope my kids are ready for what's on the menu for tonight!

    Let them eat cake.

    Kitty litter cake, that is!

    dczaw9vm734o.jpg

    Here's the recipe:

    http://www.kristianhoffman.com/kitty-litter.htm
  • August_1958
    August_1958 Posts: 110 Member
    University of Texas Health Center and the Harvard Medical School says diet sodas ARE in fact bad for you. Read the study here...

    https://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/05/23/ut-health-science-center-study-reveals-how-diet-soda-contributes-to-obesity-poor-health/

    I personally do not and never have consumed any diet drink in my life, so I cannot state my own personal opinion whether it helps or hinders a weight loss regime. I have had several bad reactions to desserts that were made with artificial sweeteners, which is why I have elected to stay clear of all artificial sweeteners. Let me add, I do not drink regular soda either. Let your preference and conscious lead you to your decision. If you LOVE Diet Coke and it helps you lose weight, the choice is yours! ;)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Um, seriously? Can I ask you if you really thought that this was a convincing argument, because if so I am just mystified.
    tomdomurat wrote: »
    Do you or someone you know have a young baby....Would you give them DIET COKE??.... WHY NOT?!

    Young babies are quite limited in what they can eat. I would also not give a baby a peanut butter sandwich or cow's milk or coffee, yet I don't think those drinks are bad for me.
    Do you see animals in nature drinking Diet Coke?..... WHY NOT?!

    It's usually not available to them? It has no calories, so why would they want to?

    I see animals eating lots of stuff I wouldn't, though, and my cat turns up his nose at some foods I think are quite good for humans. Chicago is encouraging people to adopt feral cats to help cut down the rat population, and yet I don't think I will go chow down on a rat soon. I'll stick to a vegetable omelet as breakfast (one of those foods I never see animals eating in the wild).
    If you have a dog and/or cat, would you give them Diet Coke?.... WHY NOT?!

    I don't give my cat coffee either. Or pasta.
    These are "chemical" ingredients of Diet Coke:
    Carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine.

    Yeah, so? (Note, main chemical ingredient is H2O.) There's a whole thread on aspartame, as that's apparently the most controversial one. It seems harmless to me.
    What appears to happen is that when a person eats something artificially sweetened, your body knows the difference. It knows there are no calories to deal with, so leptin is not released to trigger satiety.
    And when leptin is not released, ghrelin continues to be released, causing us to eat more.
    This leads to weight gain instead of loss.

    This is a theory. It might be true that SOME people are more prone to cravings or hunger if they consume artificial sweetener (not just aspartame). But if you watch calories you KNOW whether you eat more or not, and I don't on days that I have diet coke. I find the argument that we might accidentally eat more for people who are logging or otherwise monitoring their intake (I don't log much anymore) to be very weird. And I never found that consuming some diet coke hurt my weight loss efforts.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    @amandapleighse92 @August_1958 Those links aren't taken seriously because there's not a shred of scientific evidence in them.
    University of Texas Health Center and the Harvard Medical School says diet sodas ARE in fact bad for you. Read the study here...

    https://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/05/23/ut-health-science-center-study-reveals-how-diet-soda-contributes-to-obesity-poor-health/

    I personally do not and never have consumed any diet drink in my life, so I cannot state my own personal opinion whether it helps or hinders a weight loss regime. I have had several bad reactions to desserts that were made with artificial sweeteners, which is why I have elected to stay clear of all artificial sweeteners. Let me add, I do not drink regular soda either. Let your preference and conscious lead you to your decision. If you LOVE Diet Coke and it helps you lose weight, the choice is yours! ;)

    Please provide links to the actual studies. That article was not a study, merely a layman's synopsis.

    ^Agreed.

    Come on, guys...it's like playing Frisbee by yourself.

    Wouldn't that be good for calorie burn, though? :)

    I guess it would. :lol:
    Then we can all have a nice tall glass of cold diet....
    Oh. Wait. It's the new Devil now. We'll leave this one to Sam and Dean.