No Calorie Sodas and Weight

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Replies

  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
    edited July 2017
    I skimmed over the replies so i might have missed it.. but there is also the medical correlation that is being ignored as well for the "diet soda makes you fat" bs. people can make choices for medical reasons such as diabetes to pick that diet soda over regular. Diabetes is one of those medical issues that has an increased chance to appear in obese people.

    As I know people with Diabetes it has always bothered me to hear people say "oh look they are having a cheese burger and fries and of course a diet soda will make it all ok".
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,645 Member
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    I had a boyfriend once who was a smoker. I could barely eat his cooking. Sooooooo much heat, salt and pepper. Holy *kitten*. Gave me the worst fire hole. He later reported that he didn't do so much of that after he quit smoking and could eat like a normal person.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    because chemicals are bad, and diet soda is fake sugar/chemicals???

    I was drinking cherry coke zero for 2 years before I figured out the "food poisoning" symptoms were really that and not the food.

    The fake sugar isn't even the worst, it also has copious amounts of dihydrogen monoxide, under chemists also known as the universal solvent. Just imagine what that can do to your intestines!

    LOL.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
    This topic can be a little confusing because of the idea that calories are the only thing that matters, which is not the whole story. The reason behind the claim that zero calorie drinks can lead to weight gain has nothing to do with the calories; it's the sugar or artificial sweeteners that are used in the product. When sugar enters the blood stream, insulin is produced to turn sugar into energy. If you consume too much sugar, over time the body would begin to produce more insulin than needed because the body is no longer responding to a normal amount of insulin, also known as insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Leptin, the satiety hormone, can no longer do its job or at least not as efficient because insulin stops listening to leptin, which leads to overeating because your brain is getting a delayed signal to stop eating.

    With artificial sweeteners, although some are zero calories, they can confuse the body. The taste bud receptors get a signal that sugar is coming but never receives it. This causes insulin to be produced but has nothing to bind on to, which creates the same effect as if you ate sugar. More insulin is being produced, leptin can't do its job, and you are left wanting to eat more.

    After successfully losing 50lbs, improving all my health markers including normalizing a prediabetic glucose number, and then successfully maintaining the weight loss and better health for years now- I can assure you that my body is not confused by the diet soda I drink :p I don't crave sweet food or feel the need to eat more, and I also have fasting glucose numbers in the 80s (again-former prediabetic here).
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    Well, I've been drinking diet soda since fresca first came out in the 60's <shudder> and I've been fat, thin, and everywhere in-between. I drink diet coke now, and for me it absolutely doesn't cause me to crave sweets (or anything else), and is helpful when I'm a little hungry but not ready to eat. My insulin response is just fine, I haven't grown 2 heads or a third eye, and since I recently lost about 38 lbs and have started riding metric centuries again I'm pretty sure my body is not confused about anything. And trust me, I'm not a special snowflake.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
    Low calorie drinks do not cause weight gain, but you won't lose weight just by switching to diet soda because you will tend to eat more of other things.

    Not my experience at all.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    I think if you're not actively trying to lose weight, you're not really mindful about what goes into your mouth. I have a similar issue with those memes about how "if you just stop putting butter on your toast each morning, you'll lose 10 lbs a year". The problem is, when you aren't trying to lose weight, you're probably not measuring out the butter, so the amount you're taking varies. You may not be having toast every day. And in the big scheme of things, just because you've cut butter on your toast doesn't mean you're not making up those calories during the day with other stuff—because if you aren't monitoring your food intake, you're probably not eating mindfully.

    Similarly, if all you do is switch out regular for diet, yeah, you're likelier to eat more other stuff. Plus, there's the whole "I'm having diet, therefore the calories in the rest of the meal don't count" mindset.

    But if you're eating more mindfully, you're much more aware of the calories/macros/however it is you're trying to maintain a deficit and—in my experience—the 'eating more of other things' doesn't happen beyond, "Hey, by saving 240 calories here, it means I have 240 calories more, so it looks like I'm having a baked potato after all!"

    You said what I was thinking :) I switched to diet soda when I started my weight loss phase and never had an issue with eating more because of it, because I was intentional about my calorie intake.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    Low calorie drinks do not cause weight gain, but you won't lose weight just by switching to diet soda because you will tend to eat more of other things.

    Well yes, if you eat more other things you won't lose weight.

    BUT, if you "just switch to diet soda" you will lose weight.
  • joolie1234
    joolie1234 Posts: 126 Member
    edited July 2017
    I think if you're not actively trying to lose weight, you're not really mindful about what goes into your mouth. I have a similar issue with those memes about how "if you just stop putting butter on your toast each morning, you'll lose 10 lbs a year". The problem is, when you aren't trying to lose weight, you're probably not measuring out the butter, so the amount you're taking varies. You may not be having toast every day. And in the big scheme of things, just because you've cut butter on your toast doesn't mean you're not making up those calories during the day with other stuff—because if you aren't monitoring your food intake, you're probably not eating mindfully.

    Agreed.
    I also eat butter nearly every day.
    Butter UP!
    :smiley:

  • MiViVe
    MiViVe Posts: 13 Member
    These kinds of studies remind me of the "tanned people are healthier, so go get a tan and lose weight" studies. Skinnier people are more likely to be tan because they're outdoors getting exercise. Has nothing to do with the tan itself.

    Diet soda can cause you to crave actual sweets, but other than that, the only health issues are stomach lining and teeth corrosion. Nothing to do with weight loss.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Colt1835 wrote: »
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.

    I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.

    My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.

    When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.

    I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I think if you're not actively trying to lose weight, you're not really mindful about what goes into your mouth. I have a similar issue with those memes about how "if you just stop putting butter on your toast each morning, you'll lose 10 lbs a year". The problem is, when you aren't trying to lose weight, you're probably not measuring out the butter, so the amount you're taking varies. You may not be having toast every day. And in the big scheme of things, just because you've cut butter on your toast doesn't mean you're not making up those calories during the day with other stuff—because if you aren't monitoring your food intake, you're probably not eating mindfully.

    Similarly, if all you do is switch out regular for diet, yeah, you're likelier to eat more other stuff. Plus, there's the whole "I'm having diet, therefore the calories in the rest of the meal don't count" mindset.

    But if you're eating more mindfully, you're much more aware of the calories/macros/however it is you're trying to maintain a deficit and—in my experience—the 'eating more of other things' doesn't happen beyond, "Hey, by saving 240 calories here, it means I have 240 calories more, so it looks like I'm having a baked potato after all!"

    You said what I was thinking :) I switched to diet soda when I started my weight loss phase and never had an issue with eating more because of it, because I was intentional about my calorie intake.

    Yep, really good points.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Colt1835 wrote: »
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.

    I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.

    My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.

    When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.

    I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.

    ^What she said. Especially the bolded.
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Colt1835 wrote: »
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.

    I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.

    My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.

    When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.

    I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.

    I was simple giving my personal experience. Of course, everyone is going to have different experiences with tastebuds. I'm not one of those people who thinks added sugar is bad. I don't buy it because I have no use for it, not because I'm afraid of it.

    I think it's a bit strange that people have said that eating/drinking less sugar has caused them to enjoy less sweet foods more and so many people have pretty much said they are wrong about their personal experience. I mean, it's almost like if I said I hate tomatoes and somebody says I must be wrong because tomatoes taste great to them.

  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Colt1835 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Colt1835 wrote: »
    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.

    I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.

    My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.

    When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.

    I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.

    I was simple giving my personal experience. Of course, everyone is going to have different experiences with tastebuds. I'm not one of those people who thinks added sugar is bad. I don't buy it because I have no use for it, not because I'm afraid of it.

    I think it's a bit strange that people have said that eating/drinking less sugar has caused them to enjoy less sweet foods more and so many people have pretty much said they are wrong about their personal experience. I mean, it's almost like if I said I hate tomatoes and somebody says I must be wrong because tomatoes taste great to them.

    The problem is that people phrase it as an absolute:

    I agree that there's no absolute in this situation. I assume my experience is probably not as common as yours, but if it has worked that way for me I'm sure some folks would like to know that it's possible it could do the same for them.

    I don't think your argument is with me. I'm aware that what works for me in this case will not necessarily work for others.


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