interesting Points regarding Diet Pop from my trainer

Diet pop is manufactured by companies that want to make money, not help you lose weight. This is the first red flag.

My personal trainer and Boot Camp Trainer each week sends out interesting emails each week and this is one i thought i might share with you guys.

Read carefully - This is something that could be hindering your weight loss success


It blows my mind when I go through a mall and I see loads of people walking around drinking diet pop, diet juice, or coffee and tea with artificial sweeteners - most of these people being overweight or obese. Diet pop is manufactured by companies that want to make money, not help you lose weight. This is the first red flag. The second red flag is the fact that artificial sweeteners were made in a scientific lab by people who configured a chemical substance to taste like sugar. That's disgusting when you actually think about it. Not only should these two facts be alarming alone, but why would you want to put something in your body that is fake, just to save a couple calories? Our bodies are supposed to be the temples that we live through. We need to feed ourselves quality food to influence good health and live with vitality.

Here's my take on diet drinks - they make you fat, and keep you fat. If you want to be healthy, you don't want to drink anything with artificial sweeteners. Especially aspartame!!!! Artificial sweeteners come with health risks, have addictive properties, and shut down our bodies natural ability to count calories. Our bodies don't understand how to metabolise things like aspartame, and actually sees artificial sweeteners as toxic. When we consume toxic things, our bodies go into a protection mode, making us store fat cells and water weight "to save us" from these foreign substances. We want to lose fat cells - not make them! Things like aspartame also turn off the satiation centre in your brain, making you crave more food later on, potentially causing you to reach for the wrong foods and over-eat. It can also diminish your serotonin levels, which are the feel-good chemicals you produce in your brain. When serotonin levels are down, you can feel sad, tired, *****y, hungry, and reaching for foods that quickly pick up your serotonin levels like white bread, cookies, chocolate, chips or more pop! Not something you want to do if you're trying to lose weight - it makes you crave the bad carbohydrates. This has personally happened to me. I used to be fully addicted to diet pop, and noticed I was putting on weight, feeling tired and not wanting to workout, kind of sad, constantly hungry, experiencing hormonal problems, and the weirdest thing - sometimes leaking a little bit of pee in my pants. Not cool!!!! I knew something was up, and that was the only major change I had done with my "diet", so I started to research and educate myself on it. Some of the things I learned were so alarming that I immediately stopped drinking diet pop, and even though I went through some withdrawal symptoms like headaches and cravings, I then soon lost weight, became energized, and stopped having little pee accidents. Yeah! This experience has made me very passionate about how bad artificial sweeteners are for you, so if you can learn anything from me, have it be this - don't drink diet pop!!!! Now, I don't even chew gum, and I always check food and drink labels for aspartame - like yogurts, and so-called healthy drinks. This is a choice I have made, and plan on sticking to, because it has made me feel loads better. After reading this, the choice is yours.

Here's some other quick facts and links if you'd like to learn more:
#1. Brand names of aspartame: NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure, Amino-Sweet - check for these on your food and drink labels.
#2. Aspartame is being linked to MS, Lupus and Parkinson's disease. I know a couple people that have MS through friends and family - they all have, or still do, drink diet pop. Here's a link to learn more. http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/aspartame-poison.html http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-information.html
#3. Healthy sugar replacements: Natural honey, 100% pure maple syrup, coconut (palm) sugar, and stevia. Stevia is naturally carb free and made from a plant source. I buy the palm sugar at the bulk barn, and grab the stevia from the superstore. They both have properties to help you with blood sugar control, unlike most sugars that throw your blood sugar onto a rollercoaster ride and cause you to store fat.

I always say, don’t drink or eat anything that says “Diet” on it, it will make you fat. Ever see a skinny person drinking diet pop? I rest my case.

Actually, most of the skinny people I know drink diet soda. I lost 135 lbs in high school drinking diet soda, and I kept the weight off for 8 years (while continuing to drink diet soda). And the reason you see fat people drinking it is not because it made them fat, but because they're trying to lose weight (and, sadly, often think that giving up sugary sodas is all they have to do to achieve that goal).

I've read the essays on the evils of diet sodas. I've also read the American Diabetes Association's, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists', and the CDC's positions on diet sodas. I'll take science over woo-woo pop-nutrition any day. I'm diabetic, I need to go for the factual stuff.

Ultimately, go with what's working for you. If diet sodas seem to make you crave more sweets or don't work for you in your weight loss scheme, then definitely ditch them. But there's no need to demonize them--they work for many of us.

Kris

just because someone is a personal trainer does not mean you should take their advice. I know a trainer who is type 1 diabetic, bodybuilds does steroids and is now dying from heart complications caused by poor management of the diabetes and the use of steroids. Not someone I would look to to tell me how to live.

I wouldnt take advice from the personal trainer you are talking about either - but some do more more then others and know more then the average person also.

I don't drink diet pop but once in awhile - maybe once a month i will have a reg gingerale or some coke in my rum.

No one is telling anyone to stop drinking pop or stop using artificial sweeteners - this is just someones opinions whether you want to agree or not is totally upto you - no one is telling you yes this is the true facts and to stop drinking pop now - the choice is yours and yours only.

So funny how there are always the ones who have to disagree on everything!

You're right--whether or not someone wants to disagree is absolutely up to the individual. Not anyone else. And that disagreement can and should be openly expressed if so desired, if done without rancor or inflammatory language. Preferably without resulting in a label of "disagreeable."

<insert big smile>

Kris

Stevia is definitely natural. It wasn't made in a lab either

/sarcasm

Rebaudioside A has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the stevia plant. To produce rebaudioside A commercially, stevia plants are dried and subjected to a water extraction process. This crude extract contains about 50% rebaudioside A; its various glycoside molecules are separated via crystallization techniques, typically using ethanol or methanol as solvent. This allows the manufacturer to isolate pure rebaudioside A.[41]
The National Research Council of Canada has patented a process for extracting sweet compounds from stevia by column extraction at temperatures from 0–25 °C, followed by purification by nanofiltration. A microfiltration pretreatment step is used to clarify the extract. Purification is by ultrafiltration followed by nanofiltration

Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener

(Stevia)... is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

It's not healthy for you and obviously water is a better choice but it is not going to prevent you from losing weight. Weight loss is calories in vs. calories out and diet soda= zero calories. And I know from experience (I have lost weight many times drinking ALOT of diet soda). I actually find it to be helpful when dieting. If I feel like snacking I just grab a diet soda and it satisfies me. I hope to quit one day because it is not healthy but right now my priority is weight loss and I see no reason to cut it out for that reason. I didn't get fat from too much diet soda, I got fat from shoving tons of cookies, dunkin sticks, krispy kremes, ice cream down my mouth.

Stevia is definitely natural. It wasn't made in a lab either

/sarcasm

My nutritionist told me I could buy the plant and use the leaves in my food. Don't need a lab for that. Sure, the extract you get at the store is processed but it isn't "made" in a lab. The sweetest part of the plant is just extracted using various methods to make it easier on the consumer.

Rebaudioside A has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the stevia plant. To produce rebaudioside A commercially, stevia plants are dried and subjected to a water extraction process. This crude extract contains about 50% rebaudioside A; its various glycoside molecules are separated via crystallization techniques, typically using ethanol or methanol as solvent. This allows the manufacturer to isolate pure rebaudioside A.[41]
The National Research Council of Canada has patented a process for extracting sweet compounds from stevia by column extraction at temperatures from 0–25 °C, followed by purification by nanofiltration. A microfiltration pretreatment step is used to clarify the extract. Purification is by ultrafiltration followed by nanofiltration

Then go read about how aspartame is actually made in a lab and tell me there isn't a difference. Or read the definition:

Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener

compared to:

(Stevia)... is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.

Edit: missed a backslash

This article is this guys opinion, none of it is fact. I would like to see real, scientific journal articles from a real medical journal. Many 'trainers' call themselves nutritionists, when they are not, in fact nutritionists or dietitians. I know plenty of people who drink diet drinks who are not overweight or obese. Excess calories and sedentary lifestyle cause weight gain. Diet drinks have ZERO calories, therefore, will not cause weight gain. Now, what if those who are drinking diet colas rationalize by saying "i saved 300 kcal by drinking diet instead of regular, I deserve the Big Mac and fries"? Is it the diet cola that caused weight gain? Or the Big Mac and fries? Am I saying diet cola is good for you? Absolutely not. Especially when it replaces healthier options like water and milk. Does it cause weight gain. Absolutely not. Be smart. Moderation is key.

I always say, don’t drink or eat anything that says “Diet” on it, it will make you fat. Ever see a skinny person drinking diet pop? I rest my case.