Coke Zero as Water?

No problems here with Coke Zero, though soda is not my beverage of choice.

If you're getting 6-7 other glasses of actual water, then counting a Coke Zero as a water isn't going to hurt anything. The "8-glass" recommendation doesn't take into account that you are already getting some water from the food you eat. I'd count the can of Coke Zero as one glass and make sure you are getting at least 6-7 of plain water, and call it good.

I agree with the first commenter however, you are taking in unnecessary sodium which in turns increases your water retention, and scale weight. I wouldn't recommend soda of any type if you are watching your sodium.

If it's the sweet carbonated beverage you enjoy I would recommend looking at a beverage that doesn't have sodium. Unfortunately I'm not in the US so I can't make a recommendation, but here in Canada we have several beverages like this. For example: http://reviews.presidentschoice.ca/6584/F6143/reviews.htm

Good luck!

I say enjoy your soda at lunch but still drink your 8 glasses of water a day.

caffine dehydrates your body so i would say no. im drinking pepsi max though.

the biggest ingredient in any soda is H2O and it's H2O you want for hydration.

The biggest ingredient in Sea Water is H2O and it's H2o you want for hydration - sounds silly, doesn't it?.

Drinking a diuretic with water will mean you will flush out more water than you take in. This isn't healthy, is it?

"Caffeine Free Diet Coke" Ewwww - why bother? :-)

Here's some advice: don't count your water. Watch your body cues for signs of dehydration. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy's bit from the 90's:

If your urine has an orange tint to it, you might be dehydrated.
If your skin is perpetually dry, you might be dehydrated.
If your mouth feels like you've just chewed a wad of cotton, you might be dehydrated.
If you're only peeing a couple of times a day, you might be dehydrated.
If you notice that you're retaining a lot of water, you might be dehydrated.
If you're getting a lot of headaches, you might be dehydrated.

Some people need 8 cups of water a day. Some people need less. Some people need more. And some days you'll need more than others. You can get hydration from other beverages, it's just not as efficient as plain water. Case in point: I used to know a man who literally never drank anything but Coke. Full sugar, full caffeine. He's not dead yet. He drinks it by the case. Now, he's not the healthiest person, but he's not shriveled up into a human raisin either. If you're having one soda per day, it's fine. But listen to your body cues, and look at the color of your urine. If it's almost clear, just a little yellow, then you're hydrated. If not, you need to drink more.

The point of water is to hydrate your body. Coke zero, as well as any number of other drinks, contains caffeine, which is a diuretic, which forces your body to create more waste liquid, i.e. urine. So by drinking coke zero as a substitute to water, you may be reducing the amount of water your body is getting from the actual water you drink. Coffee is the same principle.

Not to be overly anecdotal, but I've known many a person who refused to drink water, just plain water, who ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration to the point where they were placed on IV to rehydrate the body.

Studies have shown that the diuretic effect of caffeine is minimal espeically in those who consume caffeine regularly.

Many people do not drink "plain" water and do not suffer from dehydration.

Another poster had mentioned the sodium in diet pop; I don't know how that myth ever got started. Certainly not by anyone who has read a label on a pop can. It's usally less that 50mg. A case a day would be less than 25% of max daily reommended.

Drinking a diuretic with water will mean you will flush out more water than you take in

rather depends how effective the diuretic is.

When they put people in controlled conditions and feed one lot water and the other lot diet soda they can't tell the difference in hydration status. They can't actually agree what to measure to indicate hydration either, but that's a minor issue.

Same happens with caffeinated drinks. Practically all water, provides hydration.

Water's a diuretic, by the way ;-)

"Caffeine Free Diet Coke" Ewwww - why bother? :-)

Caffeine free diet coke is awesome!!

No. Coke zero is chemicals.

You may not count it as water.

It's 99% water...what do you say to this?

I realize that no one has posted on this thread in about a year, but I was just wondering the same thing that the OP was asking, so Google led me here! I just have some questions/comments in regards to things that others have posted.

First of all, the "8 cups of water a day" concept seems pretty low. I've always heard the best way to determine how much water a person needs to drink in one day is to drink half of their body weight in ounces. Meaning if you weigh 200 pounds, you would take half of your weight (i.e. 100) and drink that many ounces of water per day. 100 ounces converts to 12.5 cups. In order to get away with drinking only 8 cups of water a day (which is 64 ounces) like many people are suggesting, the person would need to weigh no more than 128 pounds. Therefore, unless we're talking about a much smaller female, 8 cups a day is only about 60-70% of what is actually recommended.

That being said, it's very difficult to drink upwards of 12 cups of water a day (this is probably the average amount for adult males), especially if it's just "plain water". I don't think there would be any harm whatsoever in substituting 1 of those 12 cups for a can of diet pop/soda. To me it seems a lot like the difference between white and whole wheat bread. Sure the whole wheat bread is slightly better for you, the same way plain water is slightly better than a carbonated beverage. But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? A slice of white and whole wheat bread are pretty much identical if you read the nutritional information (the whole grain bread might net you 1 extra gram of fiber, but the calories/carbs/protein/fat/etc. are all identical. I'm using the bread analogy because I think it's the same way with water and diet pop/soda. The water may be a better choice, but if you've already consumed 5 or 6 bottles of water to get to 10 or 12 cups, then 1 can isn't going to hurt.

From purely a weight-loss (or weight-maintenance) perspective, the diet or "zero" or "max" drinks still have 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 carbs, 0 sugar. The diet Mountain Dew I'm drinking right now only has 3% of the daily recommended intake for sodium. For comparison's sake, I also have a 500-mL bottle of Nestle Pure Life water, and even it has 2% of the daily recommended sodium allowance. So as someone else said earlier, unless you drink cases and cases of it a day, that extra 1% of sodium is not going to be significant enough to cause water retention.

Now to actually get to my question... I read a few people's posts talking about how caffeine is a diuretic and therefore will make you lose more water than you actually gain. I'm not that knowledgeable with caffeine, but I was also under the impression that caffeine is beneficial for weight loss. I've even had a personal trainer at the gym recommend I drink a cup of black coffee each day because the caffeine jumpstarts your metabolism and increases fat burning. Caffeine is also listed as a main ingredient in many weight loss pills because caffeine increases your heart rate which in turn will burn more calories and body fat. But as I said I'm not overly knowledgeable about the actual effects of caffeine, so I'm wondering if anyone can confirm or discredit this information?

But to summarize if someone drinks 1 can of Coke Zero or Diet Coke / Pepsi Max, etc. I don't see how this could be significant enough to cause any adverse effects. That being said, I know there are also a lot of people out there who think just drinking diet pop will make them skinny without changing their diets at all. I used to work at McDonalds and it would always make me laugh in my head when a 300-pound guy walks in, orders a double Big Mac meal, supersize the fries, and then get a diet Coke (because he's watching his calories...lol). But if people are eating properly and consuming enough plain water as well, surely this can't be as harmful as some posters are insinuating?

Can anyone confirm the information about caffeine's effects on the body for me? All thoughts/comments are appreciated! Thanks

Chemical **** storm

:yawn: