Soda Drinkers

I've never been a big fan of sodas but do have a diet soda once in a while for a change of pace. Having a Coke Zero as I type this. I have maybe on a week.

Both sugar and artificial sweeteners increase your appetite.

If i drink diet soda I find it really difficult to stay in my calorie range.

It's better to avoid artificial sweeteners than to drink them, but if you're desperate for a treat and the diet sodas make you happy, I don't think it's a big deal. Personally I've switched to mostly drinking plain carbonated water (made at home with a Soda Stream) with some lemon or lime added for flavour, but I still have the occasional Diet Coke (used to be a major habit - now it's an "every now and then" thing). Saves a lot of $$!

You do have to be careful about the sodium. One diet soda may only have a small amount of sodium, but if are drinking a lot of them then you are taking in a lot of sodium. Sodium makes you retain water weight, and is bad for your heart. I found a drink called Sparkling Ice...it's favored sparkling water, but it doesn't taste like the carbination it has a pleasant taste and is carbonated more like a soda. They are very cheap and very good! Crystal light is wonderful too but even they have artificial sweeteners as does the Ice.

I drank a lot of soft drinks, mostly diet but I also enjoyed the "fully leaded" version from time to time. I finally figured out that what I was craving and enjoying was the carbonation, not the actual soft drink. So I now enjoy carbonated or sparking water with no artificial sweeteners. I have a diet drink no more than once a week.

You just have to figure out what works for you.

I rarely drink pop since I don't like diet that much, and I don't usually have enough calories left for the regular stuff. When I am being extra careful with calories and I go to a restaurant or to the movies, I will get fountain diet (but has to be fountain). I have no problem losing weight when I drink diet pop---but my body does like me more when I drink water instead. I don't always feel the greatest after drinking pop.

Regular Soda = High Fructose Corn Syrup = Poison
Diet Soda = Aspartame (or any other fake sweetener) = ???

I am leery of anything remotely sweet with 0 calories. Even without a whole lot of (conclusive) studies, I would say stay away from it. Whether or not it helps or hurts a diet? I will never know because I think "diet" anything tastes horrible.

BTW, the sodium is added to make you thirstier so that the companies get richer from you buying more and more of their poison.

um, 50 mg o f sodium is not likely to trigger thirst....

Um, last time I checked...Any amount of extra sodium introduced to the bloodstream triggers thirst. Is 40-50mg going to make you feel like you're dying of thirst...of course not.

Right. So the 35 mg in my can of diet pepsi isn't going to make me thirsty if it's within my RDA and not extra.

When I decided to change my diet and my life by getting this weight off I quite drinking my Cokes. It wasn't diet I drank Reg. Coke. I don't think having 1 a day hurt anything but I stopped drinking them because of how it made me feel to drink it. When I drink those drinks I feel bloated so after a week I stopped drinking it all together. I didn't have one for over a month then I bought one and gave it to my son after 1 drink it was SOOOO SWEET. I have had a couple of Sprite's here and there but I REFUSE to start buying them again and bringing them into my house. If I am out somewhere I might order one. I just have a problem saying "I will never" because I don't want to cut out everything I want to learn to balance what I want with my new lifestyle. So if I want a slice of pizza or some spaghetti I want to have it because if I don't then I fear I'll end up binge eating with it. I just adjust my calories and as long as I stay in my calories for the day I am not going to cut anything out completely.
Angel

Right. So the 35 mg in my can of diet pepsi isn't going to make me thirsty if it's within my RDA and not extra.

Not exactly how it works...so by your theory if we all stay within our RDA for sodium we will never feel thirsty? You ingest sodium...you get thirsty...your body craves water to equalize the salt in your cells and the bloodstream. RDA has nothing to do with thirst. The RDA pertains to hypertension, kidney stones, and all the other bad stuff.

Your body does not wait until the end of the day to determine if you went over your "RDA" for sodium, and then trigger the thirst response or not based on the results.
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I'm quite aware of the processes by which the thirst mechanism is triggered and how and why fluid is retained by the body. (ADH, blood pressure, serum sodium levels etc.) You do realise that you do need to have some sodium in your bloodstream at all times and if your sodium level is too low you can die? Our body eliminates sodium through urine, sweat etc so we do need dietary sources of it. Does your body care if you get 45 mg of sodium from 1.5 cups of broccoli or a can of diet pop? Not really. My point is that as long as a person doesn't take in too much sodium (hence the reference to the RDA) the sodium one gets from a can of pop is fine and will not cause excessive thirst and/or fluid retention. And yes I'm also aware that broccoli has more nutrient value than pop. Just don't understand why so many people think that the sodium in pop is an issue.

I'm not trying to convince you or anyone to drink the stuff if you don't like it. The data on artificial sweeteners is not conclusive. For me , I enjoy it as it satisfies my craving for something sweet without calories and it doesn't make me crave anything else sweet.