Diet soda
run2brazil
Posts: 11 Member
Hi all! My aunt has been trying to lose her extra weight and has struggled in the last year specifically, (endured many health scares this year too). The one thing (that she constantly goes back to) is EXCESSIVE diet soda drinking. I'm positive this does not help the weight loss, but she gives it up and then always goes back, harder than ever. Any suggestions to help her kick the habit?!
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Replies
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Diet soda is not affecting her weight loss. Eating more calories than she maintains at is affecting her weight loss.26
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Drinking a virtually zero calorie drink isn't going to hinder weight loss is it?
My tip would be to log her food and drink accurately and learn where the extra calories are coming from.10 -
There have been studies done that show you consume more calories when drinking diet sodas. I'm not sure if it's a mind-game with your brain (you think you can eat more since your soda is diet) or if something physical happens in your body to make you crave more food/sweets. She does need to log her calorie consumption which would fix any problems that may or may not be caused by the diet drinks.22
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It isn't the diet soda! I keep hearing about these studies, but never actually see them11
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There have been studies done that show you consume more calories when drinking diet sodas. I'm not sure if it's a mind-game with your brain (you think you can eat more since your soda is diet) or if something physical happens in your body to make you crave more food/sweets. She does need to log her calorie consumption which would fix any problems that may or may not be caused by the diet drinks.
There have been studies about whether you consume more calories when drinking diet sodas. They have not shown any such thing.17 -
The studies being discussed are small studies on mice and are basically insignificant. You can check out the Sept. 2017 article from WebMD magazine online for free. When I chose to cut back on diet soda I drank iced tea. The biggest favor you could do for her if she wants to lose weight is show her how to use my fitness pal and buy her a food scale.8
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run2brazil wrote: »Hi all! My aunt has been trying to lose her extra weight and has struggled in the last year specifically, (endured many health scares this year too). The one thing (that she constantly goes back to) is EXCESSIVE diet soda drinking. I'm positive this does not help the weight loss, but she gives it up and then always goes back, harder than ever. Any suggestions to help her kick the habit?!
I'm curious what makes you so positive that a zero calorie drink negatively affects her weight loss, when weight loss is all about calories. If that's the case, then drinking water also won't help weight loss (and it's worth noting that soda is around 99.4% water).9 -
There have been studies done that show you consume more calories when drinking diet sodas. I'm not sure if it's a mind-game with your brain (you think you can eat more since your soda is diet) or if something physical happens in your body to make you crave more food/sweets. She does need to log her calorie consumption which would fix any problems that may or may not be caused by the diet drinks.
There have also been studies showing that deaths by falling out of a wheelchair go up when the unadjusted price of 16 ounces of potato chips rises. That's the kind of ridiculous conclusions that can be reached when people confuse correlation with causation:
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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.18 -
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.
How is it bad for your health?10 -
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.
"Excessive" amounts of anything can be bad for your health. Excessive consumption of organic kale can be bad for your health, as it crowds out other macro and micronutrients. Excessive exercise can be bad for your health. Excessive consumption of water can kill you (hyponatremia). As has been said, "the dose makes the poison".
I suppose first you'd have to define what you're considering "excessive" before any rational/useful discussion can take place about it. Context and dosage matter.7 -
I cut down on soda by switching a lot of it to sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice in it. Still very fizzy and refreshing. Depending on the drink, your aunt may also be craving the caffeine, and that can suck to wean off...4
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ive lost 100 pounds and drink diet coke every day.
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run2brazil wrote: »Hi all! My aunt has been trying to lose her extra weight and has struggled in the last year specifically, (endured many health scares this year too). The one thing (that she constantly goes back to) is EXCESSIVE diet soda drinking. I'm positive this does not help the weight loss, but she gives it up and then always goes back, harder than ever. Any suggestions to help her kick the habit?!
Does your aunt want to give up soda? If she wants to then there are tons of different drink options she could try out. But if she doesn't want it then there's likely very little you can do to make her. It will have to be her choice and her tastes and needs will affect the next steps.
If she does quit, just remember she'll need to step down the caffeine if she's drinking a lot.
And I second everything everyone has said about soda not stopping her weight loss or damaging her health. There are a lot of things I'd suggest focusing on first if you want to help her lose weight instead of managing what she drinks.4 -
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.29 -
diannethegeek wrote: »run2brazil wrote: »Hi all! My aunt has been trying to lose her extra weight and has struggled in the last year specifically, (endured many health scares this year too). The one thing (that she constantly goes back to) is EXCESSIVE diet soda drinking. I'm positive this does not help the weight loss, but she gives it up and then always goes back, harder than ever. Any suggestions to help her kick the habit?!
Does your aunt want to give up soda? If she wants to then there are tons of different drink options she could try out. But if she doesn't want it then there's likely very little you can do to make her. It will have to be her choice and her tastes and needs will affect the next steps.
If she does quit, just remember she'll need to step down the caffeine if she's drinking a lot.
And I second everything everyone has said about soda not stopping her weight loss or damaging her health. There are a lot of things I'd suggest focusing on first if you want to help her lose weight instead of managing what she drinks.
She does want to stop but it's very similar to a smoker- she stops for a bit then falls off the wagon. She has horrible headaches after stopping drinking it and gets body pain each time. Her cravings are strong, even when replacing the caffeine component with tea. When she stops drinking it, she immediately loses weight even if she keeps everything exactly the same. She can't explain it. It may be due to drinking much more water when she's not drinking soda, flushing out her system or something. Who knows! I will continue trying to help her in any other way I can. My sister also claims to be addicted to Diet Coke. It makes you wonder what's really going on, if nothing else.
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What is with all the diet coke posts lately? Did another brain dead documentary get released that I have not caught wind of yet?16
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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.6 -
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
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She can buy a soda stream and make her own minus the artificial sweeteners.
There's a fizzy drink called La Croix (i think thats the name) that is aspartame free.3 -
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.4 -
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.
Yeah this is the wrong place to get support. You ask a simple question and down the worm hole you go. Bunch of bro science here anyway. Not exactly where I would be going for advice. Best of luck to you.27 -
Your Aunt does half marathons? Good for her! How much weight does she want to lose?0
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Let's cut through the woo and fearmongering and science it up a little bit, shall we?: https://examine.com/nutrition/is-diet-soda-bad-for-you/6
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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?
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Good grief. She asked a simple question, no need for the interrogation. There's enough active research on the issue of diet soda that it's good to think about and I think the jury is still out. See for example http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/17/349270927/diet-soda-may-alter-our-gut-microbes-and-the-risk-of-diabetes
And this from the other day about carbonated water and soda: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2017-05-15-can-fizzy-water-make-you-fat-/
Obviously not at all conclusive, but suggestive, and hopefully to be studied further. And regardless, diet soda is also very acidic, so not good for your teeth and can make acid reflux worse. Her aunt wants to cut back so maybe it would be better to suggest alternatives than to bash the OP.
I didn't drink excessive amounts, but 12-20 oz most days with lunch. It was very hard to stop, and it took months before I didn't have strong cravings for It. I switched to plain water, but some days I'd have a carbonated water (like la Croix, no artificial sweeteners) and it did satisfy some of the desire for something cold and bubbly. I didn't notice any effect on my weight, but my reflux got much better. It's been several years since I drank it regularly and I still get cravings sometimes.
Unfortunately I don't think there's an easy answer, she needs to power through, and try alternatives to replace some of the qualities she likes about it. Good luck, and way to go for being a caring niece!20 -
run2brazil 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.1 -
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.4 -
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.
Yeah, I've finished hundred mile bike rides, the 3-day walk for breast cancer, now 5K and 10K runs... even a triathlon... and always have a cold Diet Coke waiting for me at the finish... take that back I don't even care if it's cold
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