the great diet soda debate

I am 27 years old and have been drinking diet soda probably since around age 12 when my family switched to it.  I absolutely love diet soda and I am sure many of you can relate!  I also have used sugar substitute in my coffee since I started drinking it, probably around age 16.  I guess you can say I really like the taste of artificial sweetners. 

After doing much research, I am concerned about using artificial sweetners because of possible connections they have to cancer.  My friend and I were talking about soda and how we have both heard and read that eliminating regular soda (either by switching to diet or not drinking it entirely) alone can help a person drop 10 pounds a year.  My friend argues that she would rather drink regular soda than consume the artificial sweetners (she has also gone back to regular sugar in her coffee).  I, on the other hand, really don't like the taste of regular sugar in my coffee, and honestly cannot stomach the taste of regular soda with sugar in it.  I don't drink that much soda or coffee during the day, but if these sweeners are connected to cancer, it seems like maybe I need to eliminate them from my life entirely.  The problem with that is that I truly madly deeply do love diet soda!  Has anyone successfully quit soda and coffee entirely?  I am not even so much concerned about the caffeine aspect as just missing the tase of these things!  I also do not like seltzer so that would not be an adequate substitution.  Any help in this area would be appreciated!!

I've been off of sodas for nearly a month now, minus the few.. maybe 3 times I rewarded myself with a Coke Zero. (One of them was when i walk/ran 3.1 miles.)

But I drink Crystal Light all the time, which is better for me, because I'm drinking so much more water, but.... has artifical sweetener in it, lol.

Try to have it once in a while and dilute the regular with seltzer water :)!!  It really worked for me! 

I gave up regular soda when I was a teenager (too many years ago to fess up to) for weight control (but I only drank about 1 per week).  I gave up diet soft drinks about 8 years ago because they trigger headaches for me (once again, I only drank about 1 per week).  I prefer coffee unsweet, so never used artificial or real sweetener in coffee, but I also gave up caffeine as a headache trigger.

For me, the best reason to not drink sodas is because they are not very thirst-quenching (compared to water) nor very filling for the calories (for real sweeteners, not diet).  Also, they are expensive vs. tap water (which I drink at home).

I seriously doubt that cancer is the primary concern for soft drinks (I mean, if rats, which are very prone to cancer, can tolerate it, humans probably can).

But, drinking soft drinks, real or artificial, is highly associated with obesity (not saying it is causal, just associated) and also with osteoparesis (where it may be causal because the phosphoric acid causes your blood to pull Calcium from your bones to buffer the pH).  Why not just learn to drink water when you are thirsty and eat food when you are hungry and not eat or drink when you are neither?  Good luck!

Whenever I have drank soda, it is diet. And I do use artificial sweetner in my coffee too.  Although I've heard the arguments against artificial sweetner, and against "diet soda" it's hard for me to completely give it up. I've tried using real sugar in coffee & tea also, and though sometimes it tastes pretty good, I only use it when artificial sweetner is not available.  I guess I am hung up on the idea of the amount of calories I'd be consuming if it wasn't diet, or when it is real sugar.  I've tried introducing other types of drinks but they mostly use artificial sweetner too.  I have had friends say that the carbonation contributes to overweight, even if there's artificial sweetner in the beverage. And sometimes, they do taste better than water. So I may not be much help here, but I'm in the same boat I suppose.  Has anybody out there completely given up the low or no calorie beverages, and had it work for them? I'd love to know...Thanks.

Studies have been done to show that Artificial sweetners do not increase your risk for cancer but can make you crave sweets. Aspartame, an artificial sugar found in many diet sodas is also known to be undigestable so its stays in your body.   If you are still concerned with the risk of cancer limit yourself to one diet soda every once in awhile and drink water the rest of the time. If you do not like selzter you might want to try mineral waters like pellegrino or perrier or just drink regular all the time.

i love diet soda.... i can't give it up!

Thanks for your response 'Kinda Hungry" - I have heard that also, that artificial sweetners give your appetite an artificial boost, and actually cause you to crave sweets?  I have to say, I've cut back on diet sodas, though just when I thought I'd discovered "diet seltzers" I'm also hearing that they are bad.  So, I'm back to water, though I have to admit that sometimes, I like some flavor. Now, I've been using a little bit of juice (when I found I had to increase my fluid intake), but trying to embellish a small amount of it with my "diet" seltzer. I think it tastes great, though again, I'm not sure how much good it is.

Original Post by imkindahungrywbu:

Studies have been done to show that Artificial sweetners do not increase your risk for cancer but can make you crave sweets.

 I do think this is the most updated information available. The FDA does set a daily limit that you should keep your intake of individual artificial sweeteners under and unless you are consuming a can of soda or cup of coffee with a spoonful of fake sugar in it nearly every hour of the day it is unlikely you'll hit that mark.

everything in moderation

I stopped drinking diet soda for my new years resolution this year...lasted 7 months. Then i drank a diet soda because i really wanted a cookie...but my point is that not drinking diet soda didn't help me lose weight at all. The only reason they say it will help you lose weight is because supposedly people who drink diet soda crave more sugar foods. However, if  you can have self control then you can drink diet soda. As far as the artificial sweetener, its almost impossible to avoid those unless you go on a raw diet. Maybe cut down to one to two diet sodas a week instead of every day

I used to drink diet sodas regulary for most of my adult life.  A few years ago, I committed to healthy eating, and as much as I can, as often as I can, my goal is to put only healhty choices into my body.  I've only got one, body that is, you only get to eat so much food, and in my mind, it's such a waste to be filling it with things of questionable value, like diet sodas.  One can debate the good and bad of diet sodas until the cows come home but I don't really care if one can scientifically prove whether artificial sweeteners are good for me or not.   I know the diet sodas and all factory made drinks, juices, energy drinks etc.  are not produced for my good, but simply to sell product, regardless of any potential health consequences.  I'll stick to water to quench my thirst and other more natural drinks.

I used to have a coke and a coffee every day.  Gave up the coke first... That was relatively painless, and I drank water instead.  Then gave up the coffee a couple months later.  Both were done cold turkey.

Since then, I've relaxed my coffee "rules" a bit.  I have maybe 1 or 2 a week, but with half the cream and sugar I used to have (used to be 2 cream, 2 sugar).  But I'm not really enjoying them like I used to, so I think I might just ditch them again.  I haven't really noticed any improvement in how I feel by getting rid of them, but neither drink really does anything for me.

On the plus side, I think it's around 400 calories per day that I avoid simply by drinking water instead of the coke and coffee... That adds up to a pretty nice weight loss, over time. 

Typically, I try to avoid the regular consumption of "empty" calories like sugar, and I try not to drink/eat too much of the artificial sweetners as well.  I doubt they'll cause any real issues, but who needs 'em? :)

Clint

Another thing you could do is add a little squeeze of lemon or lime to your water if you want some flavor. I always add lime because its a fairly cheap way to give your water flavor.