Diet soda

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  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,097 Member
    run2brazil wrote: »
    rileysowner wrote: »
    run2brazil wrote: »
    I didn't mean for this to be a debate- I thought this community forum was meant to be supportive of one another. It's my first time writing on it, and likely my last. Thank you to those who understood and offered tips for her.

    My opinion: I do believe that soda is bad for your health- please look closely at the nutrition facts. I'm surprised to see someone on this discussion comparing drinking too much soda to eating too much kale. Quite a bold comparison, leading me to think that we look at food and ingredients very differently. I've looked into the ingredients in diet soda and I am not sold on the fact that diet soda did not contribute to my aunts cancer this past year. If you drink it and it works for you, that's great. I just don't believe that calorie free and healthy are the same thing. Sorry to cause so many disagreements in my post when I was just asking for health tips.

    The thing is, most of the contents of diet soda is water. There are some other things included to give it the taste and color it has, but those things make up only a small percentage of the whole.

    As for support, if you want support of things that is scientifically incorrect, you are not going to get that here. Since we don't even know what you consider excessive consumption of diet soda, you are in essence asking us to say diet soda is bad, hard stop. It isn't. It is in most cases neutral in terms of health. There are exceptions, but I have no idea is your aunt is one of them. The stuff that is known to contribute to heath is things like eating an appropriate number of calories for your sex, height, weigh, age, and activity level; having the majority of your food come from nutritionally dense source so you get enough of the required nutrients, and the like. In terms of where it sits among those things, diet soda consumption, unless it prevents a person from consuming the nutrients they need, is very low down the list.



    So glad to know where you stand! Good luck on your health journey! I hope considering soda to be "mostly water" works out for you

    You are welcome.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Your Aunt does half marathons? Good for her! How much weight does she want to lose?
  • run2brazil
    run2brazil Posts: 11 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Your Aunt does half marathons? Good for her! How much weight does she want to lose?

    Yes she does! Badass right? She hasn't run a half since the end of her treatment recently, but wants to get back to it ASAP. She has started running 5ks again since treatment! I believe She wants to lose up to 30 lbs, so I suggested her logging her calorie intake on here. Do you run?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    run2brazil wrote: »
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Your Aunt does half marathons? Good for her! How much weight does she want to lose?

    Yes she does! Badass right? She hasn't run a half since the end of her treatment recently, but wants to get back to it ASAP. She has started running 5ks again since treatment! I believe She wants to lose up to 30 lbs, so I suggested her logging her calorie intake on here. Do you run?

    Your aunt might already be in a healthy BMI. The soda is not hurting her. If the extra zip helps her get in her fluids, all the power to her.

    I have been running for a couple years but I'm sticking to 5K right now.
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
    run2brazil wrote: »
    Ok so weight loss aside, we can all agree that excessive diet soda drinking is bad for your health? I'm wondering if anyone has tips to help her kick the habit.

    Severity: I've run half marathons with her and she seeks out diet soda at the finish line instead of water.

    She could try...you know...drinking less of it. If that's what she wants to do. It's not "healthy", but it's not "unhealthy" either.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,981 Member
    I never drank diet soda at all until i started trying to lose wight - one of the first things i did was swap regular soda for diet version.

    Amazingly I then lost the amount MFP said I would lose (consuming calorie level it told me to)



    Yes I know I posted exact same post on a diet soda thread a day or so ago - but here it is again.

    Because it is relevant again - or perhaps because I am a schill for the artificial sweetener industry ;)B)

  • Calichusetts
    Calichusetts Posts: 100 Member
    I am a very healthy and fit person and live off of diet ginger ale and seltzer. I probably only drink 1 12oz water and the rest of the time one or the other. Can't speak for all diet soda but mine is caffeine free and calorie free. Its basically flavored carbonated water with salt.

    As with most discussions, this thread got a little derailed. Nonetheless, diet soda is really not the issue. Could be genetics, probably her actual diet. But something else is going on if she is running half marathons and not losing weight.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
    OP, if you want some science based on Aspatame, I would recommend this video from Dr. Layne Norton. His PhD is in nutritional science (someone actually trained in the field) and his research is specific to his field.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dod6bUZYz4w


    There are studies that suggest that aspartame can cause cancer, but a human would have to consume the equivalent of 17 2-L bottles a day. There is observation studies to suggest that we eat more when we drink diet soda, but that is more likely behavioral (i.e., we eat more because we just offset some calories by drinking diet).

    Here is what I say. I lost 50lbs, kept it off for 5 years now and improved all my metabolic markers with 2-3 diet sodas a day (I also consume 120-150oz of water). I, also, workout 5-6 days a week and my off days are chasing my child and/or playing sports.

    Of all of the things that are unhealthy and that can have a substantial impact on health, diet drinks are not one of them. Your bigger concerns are obesity, inactivity and genetics. The biggest con about sodas is impact on teeth health.

    If your aunt is struggling to lose weight, it's because she isn't controlling calories. Ironically, most of my friends that run marathons never lose weight, quite often because they don't control calories and the amount of exercise they do induces hunger. So getting your aunt to control the amount of calories is key to losing weight.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    edited October 2017
    I'm very sorry about your aunt and her medical situation. Cancer is a terrible disease and with any devastating medical diagnosis, people often look for something to blame, rather than face the fact that sometimes really bad things happen to really good people.

    That said, there is no research from reputable scientific peer reviewed studies that suggest that aspartame or other artificial sweeteners, consumed in moderation, cause cancer in humans. Artificial sweeteners are one of the most studied additives of the last 50 years and time and again they have proven to be safe to consume. The "research" you're referencing is correlative at best and likely is more about pseudoscience and fear mongering than actual science.

    I think it's admirable that you want to support your aunt and she sounds like an amazing lady. The fact is that the diet soda didn't cause her cancer and it isn't preventing her from losing weight. If she enjoys drinking it, maybe your efforts would be better focused in other areas - getting her ready for another race, encouraging her to use MFP for logging all the foods she eats to help achieve her weight loss goals, etc.
  • sunfastrose
    sunfastrose Posts: 543 Member
    Just to give my n=1 experience...

    I run half marathons; I've even run one full marathon. I drink a lot of Diet Mt. Dew. I have maintained a 50 pound loss for over 15 years.

    My sister, who literally has had maybe one soda in her life (flat, when she was sick to try to soothe her stomach)? Cancer. My father, who doesn't drink soda unless it's a sip from someone else's? Cancer. My stepmother, who doesn't drink soda? Cancer.

    Cancer sucks, and for most kinds the causes are not directly known.

    BTW - for all the above, the outcome has been good. My sister and stepmother have been treated and are in full recovery. My father has had three good years, and only last week was diagnosed with a recurrence.

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