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Yeah, I said pop, deal.

But do you? I'm considering giving it up.

I drink tons of green tea and water. But with food I drink Diet "pop" colder the better.

Got to have something fizzy

I used to drink tons of diet soda - Diet Coke to be exact. But, my trainer said that's what was hindering my weight loss because of the tricks it played on my brain. It thought I was eating sugar, then when it realized I hadn't, it wanted sugar, so I was always craving sweets.

I've since gotten down to 1-2 Diet Cokes a week and it's REALLY helped. I no longer crave sweet stuff all the time. I've replaced the diet soda with water and green tea.

I'm a Diet Dr. Pepper addict. A couple years ago i was drinking 4litres a day, finally kicked the habit after 5 difficult months.

A few friends died, fell off the wagon 1.5yrs ago and am back up to 2Litres/day. Trying to kick it but just can't do it yet.

I empathize completely with smokers.

Any ideas anyone?

26mileman saidAny ideas anyone?

I used to have such a sweet tooth. After each meal I would get an intense sugar craving which lead to heavenly vices like chocolate and ice cream. But now I am getting most of my carbs from fruit and my sugar cravings have disappeared. It worked for might, might work for you.

halltd saidI used to drink tons of diet soda - Diet Coke to be exact. But, my trainer said that's what was hindering my weight loss because of the tricks it played on my brain. It thought I was eating sugar, then when it realized I hadn't, it wanted sugar, so I was always craving sweets.

I've since gotten down to 1-2 Diet Cokes a week and it's REALLY helped. I no longer crave sweet stuff all the time. I've replaced the diet soda with water and green tea.

I've heard this, but I usually just drink more diet soda when I want something sweet. I don't have sweets in my house because I tend to eat the whole world.

I'd heard that aspartame or caffeine or something in it causes water retention, though. Think it'd be ok if I drank a bottle of water between them?

if im gonna drink something carbonated- make it a gingerale or birthbeer- sprite zero if not. if im at a party or something and my option is coke or diet coke, of course i'll drink the diet coke in preference over the regular. but its all so bad for you.

i was raised with only one soda a week allowed, so i never really got hooked- its a once-in-a-while treat to myself kinda thing, like in movie theatres.

im a tea junky.


ALTHOUGH, i will confess to drinking WAY more diet rockstar than can possibly be considered safe lol- the campus rep for it is a brother in my fraternity house so we get cases shipped regularly to us for free- and we all have an endless supply of them on hand.

I cant even remember the last time I had some pop/soda. The thought of it makes me feel sick. The closest I come to soda is drinking seltzer water.

Tyinstl saidYeah, I said pop, deal.

But do you? I'm considering giving it up.

hahahaha pop!

but seriously, no i dont. I feel like you shouldnt drink most/any of the chemicals in diet products- my organic chem preffesor scared me out of it! And beside, i HATE diet aftertaste

I drink Diet Pepsi Jazz sometimes in public - but mostly I drink a concoction I put together, which is half grapefruit and half lime juice - over ice. It is great and keeps me away from the pop.

We didn't evolve to deal with the crazy-ass chemicals in diet soda. Eventually the crap comes back to haunt you, and more immediately causes the body to do weird things (like crave more sweets, or think it has acquired energy). Plus aspartame (NutraSweet) gives me headaches.

The closest thing I'll have is seltzer with a little fruit juice in it.

Never drink the stuff.

caffeine is a diuretic , you lose water.

halltd saidI used to drink tons of diet soda - Diet Coke to be exact. But, my trainer said that's what was hindering my weight loss because of the tricks it played on my brain. It thought I was eating sugar, then when it realized I hadn't, it wanted sugar, so I was always craving sweets.

I've since gotten down to 1-2 Diet Cokes a week and it's REALLY helped. I no longer crave sweet stuff all the time. I've replaced the diet soda with water and green tea.

The same thing happened to me! I was always craving sweets. So, I cut out diet soda and went to just water. I don't crave sweets anymore. It was really amazing.

26mileman saidI'm a Diet Dr. Pepper addict. A couple years ago i was drinking 4litres a day, finally kicked the habit after 5 difficult months.

A few friends died, fell off the wagon 1.5yrs ago and am back up to 2Litres/day. Trying to kick it but just can't do it yet.

I empathize completely with smokers.

Any ideas anyone?

haha, the metric system. how quaint!

Whenever I hear pop, I think of an ex of mine in Seattle.

Diet water all the way for me. If I happen to pick up a can of soda, it's going to be diet.

czarodziej said

im a tea junky.

Me too. Green tea, and herbal tea mostly.

I don't drink any soda (let alone diet). On a rare occasion, I'll have a Red Bull if I'm going out and it's late.*



*by "late" i mean past my normal bedtime of 11pm, lol.

Yay for Tea! The only problem is, no convenience stores in my area sell *gasp* UNSWEETENED TEA!?

I mean, cmon, the only time i can find some good unsweetened tea is if i make it myself or happen upon Honest Tea in an all natural supermarket. Cant snapple just come up with some unsweetened varieties of its black/green/white teas? Is that too much to ask!?

lol /rantoff

Pop. It's a midwestern thing.

The bad thing about diet sodas though is if they use aspartame/Nutrasweet. Aspartame actually will increase your appetite, making you hungrier. If possible, I stick to pop that has Splenda instead.

diet soda, can you say "cancer"?

sprite! but only with my vodka.

As to the original question: yes. I have a strong sweet tooth, and it seems better to me not be satisfying it primarily with empty calories. I drink primarily water, but when I'm craving a sweet liquid, I find it helpful to have a diet soda around.

A few of the points others have brought up are worth responding to:

"caffeine is a diuretic , you lose water."

Caffeine is a diuretic. That does not mean that things which contain caffeine are diuretics, though. In general, since beverages which contain caffeine are still mostly water on the molecular level, and caffeine is only a mild diuretic, you do gain net hydration from drinking even caffeinated beverages.

"We didn't evolve to deal with the crazy-ass chemicals in diet soda."

For the most part, we didn't evolve to live past 40. Evolution's good at molding us to live long enough to pass on our genes and raise our offspring to the point where they can survive without us. After that, not so much. Most of our Western-style diseases are essentially beyond the reach of evolutionary pressures, because they don't start to have an impact on us until we've already stopped having kids. So, for example, evolution will do much more to drive out juvenile leukemia than it ever will high blood pressure, even if the latter kills way more people than the former. From a health perspective, artificial is not necessarily bad, just as natural is not necessarily good--I'd much rather have my drinking water filtered, chlorinated, and fluorinated than drink untreated water, for example.

"diet soda, can you say "cancer"?"

The idea that aspartame is a carcinogen is common, but the science really isn't there at the moment. Essentially anything other than water is a carcinogen if given in high enough doses, but the link to cancer in the levels of aspartame even a heavy diet pop drinker would be consuming is, at best, very tenuous, and the majority of studies have shown no statistical significance at that dosage level. If you want to believe it happens anyway, go ahead, but be aware that your belief is based off of pure belief, rather than data.

only diet "soft drink" i drink is lipton doet green tea and that is when i pick it up by accident, normally it is the regular green tea.

MSUBioNerd said...blah blah blah...

Thanks, nerd...I was gonna hop in with some of this, but you beat me to it. Good to have some science sanity to stave off the Whole Foods rhetoric.

I did read a study this past year that demonstrated a correlation between diet soda (pop, for the OP) and obesity, but no comment on causality. Some have surmised this elucidated the "sweet tooth" theory, but I'm doubtful about that.

Some people have complained of headaches from aspartame, but most people who don't shouldn't have anything to fear.

I won't argue that diet soda is better than water, but there's a hell of a lot worse to consume when you have a hankering.

To answer the question, yes, yes i do.
But i have no idea where you guys are getting this sweet tooth thing from. Are you relating it to the diet coke ? If so, then why is it that ive never experienced this. Diet coke is my savior just because it keeps me away from regular soda. And besides, whats really wrong with it ? No calories, no sugar, sounds like a complete win to me. In fact, im drinking some right now. Diet soda has never "tricked" my mind into something that it wasn't suppose to. Or maybe im wrong, can someone enlighten me ? I Thank the stars that diet soda was invented today because then i would really have a problem with watching what i drink.

I get pretty bad headaches from diet sodas and I can't stand the taste, so I drink just about anything else.

I figure that I would rather be responsible (or irresponsble) eating things that have more fat or carbs in them instead of eating or drinking anything that has artificial sweeteners in them.

say no to ASPARTAME!

MunchingZombie said
I used to have such a sweet tooth. After each meal I would get an intense sugar craving which lead to heavenly vices like chocolate and ice cream.

Hence, the name "Munching"zombie?

Malibu saidDiet soda has never "tricked" my mind into something that it wasn't suppose to. Or maybe im wrong, can someone enlighten me ? I Thank the stars that diet soda was invented today because then i would really have a problem with watching what i drink.

You may still have a problem with what you're drinking. Take a look at this article. It might help explain what artificial sweeteners do to your brain and body.

http://articles.directorym.net/Do_Artificial_Sweeteners_in_Diet_Soda_Cause_Obesity_Philadelphia_PA-r868621-Philadelphia_PA.html

I like diet sunkist, diet mountain dew, stewarts diet orange & cream, and most diet root beers taste ok to me.

NO .. I used to drink Diet Coke then I switched to Crystal Lite & Green Tea. Oh what a different! i don't miss it anymore.

take away my coca-cola zero and you will be facing one mean, grouchy, pissed off 6 foot one 240 pound weight lifter.....

If I drink pop, it's Mountain Dew. Switching that to diet kinda defeats the purpose. Oh, and it tastes horrible.