Is Diet Coke really that bad? Anyone feel better after quiting?
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JeepHair77 wrote: »JeepHair77 wrote: »CatchMom13 wrote: »Jeremy_zcjj1138 wrote: »I noticed that my level of dehydration after drinking diet Coke was off the charts. No matter what i drank it with i would need to have so much water to offset both the real bloating and the feeling of thirst. Bad is subjective, ask a smoker.
1) You actually think smokers don't know that smoking is bad for them?
2) There's nothing whatsoever in Diet Coke that would cause dehydration. It's 95+% water. The amount of caffeine in a soda is nowhere near enough to cause diuresis sufficient to negate the hydrating effects of the water in a can of soda. The "feeling of thirst" part is subjective - the dehydration part is not.
3) "Bad" isn't subjective when there's scientific proof one way or the other.
1) Believe it or not, there's plenty of smokers that believe that the "bad for you" is hyped up. They will give you examples of "grandma smoked for 30+ years and...." blah blah blah... They will rationalize their use whenever they can if they're not the type to just tell you that they don't give a hoot.
3) There's scientific proof that drinking soda of any kind is not good for you so...
links to said scientific proof????
I used to work with a guy who was always citing some "study" that the artificial sweetener in Diet Coke caused brain cancer in mice, therefore, it would cause brain cancer in all of us. He'd walk through the office and point out anyone drinking a diet coke, all, "brain cancer!!!"
We blew him off, so one day, he actually sent us the link to the study. A normal-sized human would have to drink like, a truckload of diet coke every day for years and years to even come close to replicating the study they did on mice.
So... I'm not too worried.
so your saying there is a chance?
Actually there isn't a chance to do it drinking diet soda - you would die from water poisoning well before you consumed the amount of aspartame that would be needed to replicate the doses fed to the rats.
Now if you could actually obtain pure aspartame, then if the sweetness of the stuff didn't kill you first, you might be able to consume enough to duplicate the numbers and put yourself at risk.
I was being sarcastic..guess it did not come through..
I got ya. Dumb and Dumber, right?
Lol yup0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »It depends who you ask..
-People who have a dependence on it and need to drink it everyday will say soda is the nectar of the Gods and will shut down anyone who points out anything negative about it.
OR
-People who have successfully kicked the habit, or others who had to stop drinking because it affected them in a negative way.
Both groups will have a vehement opinion on either side.
Odd, this doesn't fit me at all. I used to drink quite a lot of diet coke (drank plenty of plain water too, at the time), and now I rarely drink it, as I don't seem to want it much (lost my taste for it -- I usually prefer non sweet beverages). I sometimes drink quite a lot of coffee (so replacing the caffeine plus) but I also sometimes take a coffee break or cut down. (I drink tea and iced tea, no sugar added to either, nor milk, but not so much as I prefer coffee, which is my favorite beverage and I like black, iced and not.)
Anyway, as I said above, I feel no different drinking soda or not. I don't feel different drinking coffee (or tea) or not either, although I think I overdo caffeine when drinking lots of coffee, which is why I take breaks to see if it helps sleep and to cut down.
Saying diet soda doesn't seem to have any negative effect is not an "excuse," it's just a fact. If I thought it had a negative effect it would be the easiest thing in the world to say and to stop drinking it entirely, as I rarely drink it now, as I said, but it just doesn't. I find it weird that you claim this is an "excuse" but if someone claimed meat was bad for me and I said I wasn't convinced by the evidence and prefer to keep eating it (in much greater quantities and more regularly than I consume diet soda), you'd not insist that was an "excuse."
Also, plenty of people who go on about diet soda seem fine with artificial sweetener in other contexts, which I personally find odd, as it's the same thing.4 -
I probably drink 3 cans of diet soda a week. Sometimes more, sometimes none at all.
Naturally, people like to comment any time they see someone drinking diet soda, so I often get the, "you know, that stuff is worse for you than the regular soda!" And "that makes you fat!" BS.
I tell them I lost 85lbs while drinking diet drinks, then they get kind of flustered trying to argue and don't know what to say.
I had a coworker who kept trying to eliminate Diet Coke from her diet to lose weight. I never understood it. She kept eating enormous amounts of food and going out to eat multiple times a day, but she thought doing away with a calorie-free drink would be the thing that made her lose weight. She swore her pants started getting looser, though. *shrug* - I just nodded and told her that's great.1 -
JeepHair77 wrote: »CatchMom13 wrote: »Jeremy_zcjj1138 wrote: »I noticed that my level of dehydration after drinking diet Coke was off the charts. No matter what i drank it with i would need to have so much water to offset both the real bloating and the feeling of thirst. Bad is subjective, ask a smoker.
1) You actually think smokers don't know that smoking is bad for them?
2) There's nothing whatsoever in Diet Coke that would cause dehydration. It's 95+% water. The amount of caffeine in a soda is nowhere near enough to cause diuresis sufficient to negate the hydrating effects of the water in a can of soda. The "feeling of thirst" part is subjective - the dehydration part is not.
3) "Bad" isn't subjective when there's scientific proof one way or the other.
1) Believe it or not, there's plenty of smokers that believe that the "bad for you" is hyped up. They will give you examples of "grandma smoked for 30+ years and...." blah blah blah... They will rationalize their use whenever they can if they're not the type to just tell you that they don't give a hoot.
3) There's scientific proof that drinking soda of any kind is not good for you so...
links to said scientific proof????
I used to work with a guy who was always citing some "study" that the artificial sweetener in Diet Coke caused brain cancer in mice, therefore, it would cause brain cancer in all of us. He'd walk through the office and point out anyone drinking a diet coke, all, "brain cancer!!!"
We blew him off, so one day, he actually sent us the link to the study. A normal-sized human would have to drink like, a truckload of diet coke every day for years and years to even come close to replicating the study they did on mice.
So... I'm not too worried.
Correct.
They used mice that
a) have something like a 50% chance of getting cancer even when left alone,
b) only had an increased amount of cancer when given the equivalent of multiple gallons of diet coke every single day for their whole natural life and
c) the most ironic part, the dose that was closest to normal amounts of diet coke actually had them have less cancer than the group that didn't get any.
Also apparently the institute that did that study, the Italian Ramazzini institute, I heard they're a bit of a laughingstock in the scientific since apparently everything they test supposedly causes cancer and can never be reconstructed.5 -
Everyone has their opinions, but if you're asking for real experience, I definitely feel better without the diet soda/regular soda in my system. I was at the point where EVERY time I was thirsty, I reached for a diet soda instead of water. Not only did it cause me to be in a perpetually dehydrated state, it totally works up your sugar cravings. From personal experience, I'd say the science is right. Even though calorically it may not have an effect on your weight, the artificial sweeteners big time trigger me to eat more, which I suppose is why I drop weight way faster when I'm not putting that poop into my system. It does taste magical though....so I can't really blame anyone for using it as a crutch....1
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Cola drinks (diet or not) contain phosphoric acid. (Other flavors, like lemon-lime, etc. don't have it.) There is evidence that the phosphoric acid may leach calcium from bones, so if you have a genetic tendency toward osteoporosis you might want to limit your intake.0
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nicknock01 wrote: »Everyone has their opinions, but if you're asking for real experience, I definitely feel better without the diet soda/regular soda in my system. I was at the point where EVERY time I was thirsty, I reached for a diet soda instead of water. Not only did it cause me to be in a perpetually dehydrated state, it totally works up your sugar cravings. From personal experience, I'd say the science is right. Even though calorically it may not have an effect on your weight, the artificial sweeteners big time trigger me to eat more, which I suppose is why I drop weight way faster when I'm not putting that poop into my system. It does taste magical though....so I can't really blame anyone for using it as a crutch....
Even if you were to drink nothing but soda that would not necessarily put you into a dehydrated state.5 -
I used to drink diet soda, though haven't had caffeine for about 18 years (other than whatever is in the occasional chocolate I ingest).
Bottom line, if people like it and want to keep drinking it, no amount of research that says it's unhealthy will matter. There are studies that show people who drink diet soda have higher waist circumferences that those who don't. Personally, I found that my sweet tooth was abated by quitting diet soda. Natural sugars, like those in fruits, taste sweeter to me now than they did when I drank diet soda. My sweet cravings have greatly diminished, but that took place over a 2-3 year period. It doesn't happen overnight.
There was a study done in 2006 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/170237230) that found caffeinated sodas did have an effect on bone density.
I boil it down to - if it works for you, then stick with it. All in moderation.1 -
I was a Diet Coke Junkie for many many years. Literally a 3-4 Super Big Gulp a day habit for a good 15 years. I was experiencing some really bad headaches for long periods of time and brain fog bad, fatigue... so I went to my dr and after nothing showed up on blood testing and after talking about my diet she recommended that I stop drinking the diet coke and see if that helped any. Coming off of it was horrific, she did tell me to ween myself off but I knew if I didn't do it cold turkey I would have never stopped so with that said, I have a new found respect for addicts and totally understand why they are unable to quit that lifestyle because I had the sweats, the jitters, the headaches were worse than ever and the mood swings were horrific. It took me literally 3 months before all that went away. I have been diet coke free for little over a year now. The headaches/brain fog/fatigue is a thing of the past and a bonus to it all is I no longer have sugar cravings anymore. I think everyone is different, I have a friend who drinks it like a champ and has no issues, and others that swear that the chemicals will kill you and/or cause brain cancer. The morning after Irish Day Shenanigans, I was in need of a fountain diet coke to help sooth my belly LOL... I took a sip and it was so disgusting to me, I don't even know why I was an addict for all those years.
I know this is probably of no help to you on if you should or shouldn't but like I said, its going to be an individual preference. Good luck! 2 -
I was a Diet Coke Junkie for many many years. Literally a 3-4 Super Big Gulp a day habit for a good 15 years. I was experiencing some really bad headaches for long periods of time and brain fog bad, fatigue... so I went to my dr and after nothing showed up on blood testing and after talking about my diet she recommended that I stop drinking the diet coke and see if that helped any. Coming off of it was horrific, she did tell me to ween myself off but I knew if I didn't do it cold turkey I would have never stopped so with that said, I have a new found respect for addicts and totally understand why they are unable to quit that lifestyle because I had the sweats, the jitters, the headaches were worse than ever and the mood swings were horrific. It took me literally 3 months before all that went away. I have been diet coke free for little over a year now. The headaches/brain fog/fatigue is a thing of the past and a bonus to it all is I no longer have sugar cravings anymore. I think everyone is different, I have a friend who drinks it like a champ and has no issues, and others that swear that the chemicals will kill you and/or cause brain cancer. The morning after Irish Day Shenanigans, I was in need of a fountain diet coke to help sooth my belly LOL... I took a sip and it was so disgusting to me, I don't even know why I was an addict for all those years. I know this is probably of no help to you on if you should or shouldn't but like I said, its going to be an individual preference. Good luck!
What you're describing is low level caffeine toxication.4 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »My tastebuds got happier when I switched to Cherry Coke Zero. I love diet drinks. I feel good with or without them (at least, once the couple of days of lethargy while I deal with lack of caffeine pass).
Yes. I wish more bars stocked that. Alas, cherry vodka + plain diet coke it is (in lieu of the above + rum).1 -
I don't drink it at home though..never did. I am way too lazy to even consider carrying it. (I live in a first world country with running water G*d*mit..no F*ing way am I lugging jugs of ~99+% water home).0
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I don't drink it at home though..never did. I am way too lazy to even consider carrying it. (I live in a first world country with running water G*d*mit..no F*ing way am I lugging jugs of ~99+% water home).
It actually boggles my mind that so many people do buy it..especially those that have to walk to/from the store.0 -
Yes. and Yes. All the posters justifying this sound like the smokers of the 1970's. Oh its not THAT bad for me. For some folks their bodies may process the chemicals better than others. Marketing is a persuasive thing. Remember how "cool" the Marlboro man was? Same with all the young folks having fun on today's commercials. Big companies don't want you to think for yourself and come up with what's best for your body. They just want you to spend your $$$ on their product. Wait for another 30 years, soda will have the same stigma as cigs have. Just think about all that when feeding soda to your children...2
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Yes. and Yes. All the posters justifying this sound like the smokers of the 1970's. Oh its not THAT bad for me. For some folks their bodies may process the chemicals better than others. Marketing is a persuasive thing. Remember how "cool" the Marlboro man was? Same with all the young folks having fun on today's commercials. Big companies don't want you to think for yourself and come up with what's best for your body. They just want you to spend your $$$ on their product. Wait for another 30 years, soda will have the same stigma as cigs have. Just think about all that when feeding soda to your children...
Diet sodas have been studied for 30 + years. And with some correlation to increased cavities, there isn't any studies linking to health issues... this is unlike smoking which have a very high correlation to lung cancer and other problems.4 -
blueiii31062 wrote: »I used to drink diet soda, though haven't had caffeine for about 18 years (other than whatever is in the occasional chocolate I ingest).
Bottom line, if people like it and want to keep drinking it, no amount of research that says it's unhealthy will matter. There are studies that show people who drink diet soda have higher waist circumferences that those who don't. Personally, I found that my sweet tooth was abated by quitting diet soda. Natural sugars, like those in fruits, taste sweeter to me now than they did when I drank diet soda. My sweet cravings have greatly diminished, but that took place over a 2-3 year period. It doesn't happen overnight.
There was a study done in 2006 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/170237230) that found caffeinated sodas did have an effect on bone density.
I boil it down to - if it works for you, then stick with it. All in moderation.
I assume you are referring to the nurses study (your link isn't working)?0 -
Yes. and Yes. All the posters justifying this sound like the smokers of the 1970's. Oh its not THAT bad for me. For some folks their bodies may process the chemicals better than others. Marketing is a persuasive thing. Remember how "cool" the Marlboro man was? Same with all the young folks having fun on today's commercials. Big companies don't want you to think for yourself and come up with what's best for your body. They just want you to spend your $$$ on their product. Wait for another 30 years, soda will have the same stigma as cigs have. Just think about all that when feeding soda to your children...Diet sodas have been studied for 30 + years. And with some correlation to increased cavities, there isn't any studies linking to health issues... this is unlike smoking which have a very high correlation to lung cancer and other problems.
Honestly, I think that it's more likely that in 30 years diet sodas will be looked at much more like Butter was when margarine was invented, and that HFCS will be looked at like margarine.3 -
I don't drink it at home though..never did. I am way too lazy to even consider carrying it. (I live in a first world country with running water G*d*mit..no F*ing way am I lugging jugs of ~99+% water home).
It actually boggles my mind that so many people do buy it..especially those that have to walk to/from the store.
I think of it as bonus strength training.
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musicfan68 wrote: »erica_k_jefferson wrote: »The only problem I've noticed is that when I drink diet coke, it's usually in place of water. So then I get a little dehydrated and have a harder time getting my 8 cups of water in. So now I limit my soda intake to one/day at the most.
That doesn't make sense. Diet Coke is basically just colored, carbonated water. Unless drinking say 12 ozs makes you not thirsty so you don't drink for hours on end, which might slightly dehydrate you. If you drink 12 oz can of diet coke, you don't need to drink 8 more glasses of water. At least one of those was in the form of Diet Coke.
Diet Coke used to be the only thing I basically drank. I was not dehydrated in the least. I have lowered my amount to about one a day, and drink other things like milk, water, crystal light, and I feel no different than when I was getting most of my hydration from Diet Coke.
And that's exactly what I usually end up doing. I don't drink a bottle of Diet Coke as fast as I drink a bottle of water or Crystal Lite. I always have a bottle of something to drink nearby; it keeps me from snacking while I work. So I can drink 4 bottles of water in one work-day without even trying, but might only drink 2 bottles of Diet Coke.
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Not directly to your question but related. I gave up caffeine completely about 3 years ago. Never had so much energy in my life.
The main reason is caffeine prevents the adenosine in your cells from calming your body down. The problem is, your body burns energy at a faster rate and when the caffeine effect wears off, you're more tired than if you had not had caffeine at all.
Now of course at that point you can 're-dose' but your just expanding the problem because now you depend on caffeine to have energy. It can also cause you to have trouble getting a good night's sleep which leads you to need....more caffeine
Giving up caffeine is hard. Very hard. But after 30-60 days personally I never felt better. My friends and family all describe me as a guy with unlimited energy. I'm always going. I sleep 6-8 hours on average and don't feel tired very often.
Maybe it's not for everyone, but I'm a believer 2
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