Is Diet Coke bad for you??

[DCJunkie]

Hi,

 

I work inredibly long hours sitting at a computer all day. I often get tired and need a bit of a sugar hit. We have bar fridges in our office so I end up drinking a lot of diet coke, probably 3 or 4 cans a day. I know its better than eating biscuits and lollies like a lot of other people, because it has no sugar, but then again there is all this crap out there about not drinking any soft drinks on a diet.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Cheers

[Outcast]

A recent study showed that people who drink diet soft drinks gain even more weight than people who drink non-diet soft drinks. In both cases, drinking soft drinks was correlated with quite a shocking amount of weight gain.

 

Do you eat enough of the proper foods? If you have some (not tons) protein at each meal plus some carbs, that should keep you going. Have a mid-afternoon snack of cheese or yogourt or something with protein. Also, people often feel fatigued because they are dehydrated. You may just need a drink of water or herbal tea rather than a soft drink. You can also get up and walk around for a bit or do some desk exercises to wake yourself up.

[HotCaliGirl]

I haven't had a carbonated soft drink in at least 10 years....and the diet kinds with the fake sugar are extremely bad for your health. Plus the carbon sucks all the calcium out of your bones and teeth and is bad for the lining of your stomach.

 

Try drinking water with real fruit and a little sugar mixed in. The pre-made fruit juices in the stores have so much sugar that one glass knocks me out and I feel like sleeping in a coma-state so stay away from those.

 

Also every hour or so try walking up and down the stairs if your building has any to boost your energy and for a change of scenery otherwise it is unhealthy to sit for hours on end at your desk drinking diet sodas!!!

[SoftDrink]

i lost about 25 pounds switching to diet coke in about 2 months. i have lost more since then, and i have not gained any of it back.

 

i did however, hear that aspertame (in the sweetener) can become toxic in your blood at extreme teperatures (fevers).

 

i have also heard that people with MS who drank a lot of diet soda noticed a lessening of their symptoms after cutting down/ stopping their diet soda intake. (my aunt has MS, her doctor told her of the study.)

 

i don't know if any of it's true, but you never. i just know i lost weight switching from regular to diet.

[pearlsasinger]

That's a lot of caffeine! I bet you'll feel better if you cut it out. Or at least go down to 1 per day.

 

Ween yourself off slowly. Start replacing some of your regular diet coke with caffeine free and take baby steps to less and less. Gradually, try to drink more water too. I know the headaches and no energy feeling you get the first weeks sucks, but you'll thank yourself. I, too, sit staring at a computer 40 hours a week (ugh). I was addicted to diet pepsi but now just drink caffeine free or water.

 

As for the fake sugar, I'm no nutritionist but from what I've researched online it seems that is still a big debate. I found stuff like this....

 

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame

 

"Aspartame is one of the sugar substitutes used by diabetics. Products containing aspartame usually have a warning label that they contain phenylalanine, in compliance with U.S. FDA guidelines. Phenylalanine, a natural amino acid found in many foods, is deleterious only to sufferers of the genetic disorder phenylketonuria."

 

....while other sites warn about the dangers. They make it sound pretty scary.

 

What do others think?

[HotCaliGirl]

there's no debate as far as studies showing that aspertine causes cancer in 100% of mice tested...the only "debate" by the companies who use aspertine is that they argue that since the test is not proven on humans (which is illegal and all medicine we take have been tested on mice to begin with) the study is obsolete. I'll stick to regular sugar!

[pippen_2k]

I dont know if this is mediaclly proven or anything, im just going by what ive experienced.

 

I too work long hours behind a computer, and when I either have a greasy/fatty meal for either breakfast lunch or dinner I feel fatigued and tired for the rest of the day.

 

If I eat a healthy meal and not eat till im full, I manage comfortably all day and dont get tired.

 

A good diet and exercie give you 100% more energy.

 

No need for sugar supplements.

[ReluctantRomeo]

Originally posted by HotCaliGirl

there's no debate as far as studies showing that aspertine causes cancer in 100% of mice tested...

 

Not true. See this link to the EU food committee. Which is way more cautious than the FDA when it comes to inflicting strange chemicals on citizens:

 

http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/out155_en.pdf

 

One mouse study suggested that aspartame increased cancer, another that it decreased cancer.... a more thorough study suggested that it had no discernable effects. The health risks of aspartame seem therefore to be way lower than those for regular sugar (which *are* well known).

 

That said, all that caffeine and acidity has got to be bad for you. Switch to water. With some green tea (no sugar) if you still need a little caffeine.

 

If you ditch the soft drinks, walk an hour a day and cut the amount of fat in your diet by half, you will lose weight at quite a surprising rate and maintain this in the long term.

[spinner]

Aspartame does a number on me...I may be just a small percentage of people it affects.

 

There is some good advice on here. That is a lot of caffeine, good luck on cutting back.

 

[markraine]

Diet Coke is some of the most toxic garbage on earth. Seriously if you miss the taste that bad, drink regular coke, or go buy some of those organic Hansen's sodas that have less sugar and none of the artificial sweeteners. Anything that is promoted as low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar is usually some of the worst stuff for you, it overloads your blood with toxic sweeteners and artificial ingredients that your body was NEVER EVER meant to handle. It all is individual, but eventually these things will catch up with you.

[Bogus103]

Diet coke is a drink that a lot of people with Diabettes drinks...but I still think it's bad for you..just as any diet pop is!

[Zephyr45]

There's nothing wrong with Diet Coke provided you don't react to Phenylalanine, which you don't. However, its still an artificial sweetener and I personally would not regularly drink 3-4 a day. Everything in moderation...

 

The caffeine amount isn't a big deal at all. 3-4 cans of coke is about 1-1.5 cups of strong coffee.

 

A cup or two of black coffee during the day would be a better solution than the diet coke, but even better than the coffee would be drinking Green Tea.

 

Lastly, sugar is the last thing you should be looking for to keep you alert through the day. So don't be looking for real sugar or sugar substitutes. If you want a snack, have a small handful of mixed nuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, a protein bar, or a fair meal replacement bar. (not some gimmicky fad diet bar, but a healthy bar that has good ratio of carbs, protein and fat, and where the carbs are not all sugar.

 

So to sum it up, Green Tea + meals/snacks with appropriate portions of low glycemic (ie, not simple sugars) carbs, protein and fat. You'll be most alert and lose the most weight this way. Not to mention feel better and be more healthy.