[xLindsay46]

I drink diet soda...a lot. Thinking about cutting it out of my diet and just sticking to water and crystal light mix. I would love to hear some success stories about how big of a difference this can really make. I feel like it would help motivate me to give up on diet soda for good. Thanks!

[124chicksinger]

Years ago, like maybe 10, I stopped drinking about 6 diet pepsi per day. I didn't just drink it as a go to drink, I craved it. I would literally feel the NEED for it and say "I have to have a diet pepsi" it was that bad. I loved it with popcorn or pretzels - that salty/sweet. Anyhow, I read an article somewhere (can't even point you to it) that the chemicals are worse than sugar, and also that there are studies suggesting that diet foods don't necessarily equal weight loss. That your tongue senses the sweet, and your body prepares for the sugar load that never arrives.

It also has a lot of sodium, right?

As a substitute for years my drink was seltzer or club soda. Since July tho, I've found I actually prefer water now and that is my main drink. I have coffee daily with skim milk, and the occasional cup of tea, but other than that, its water--even when I'm out to eat.

If you're wanting to drop it because of the artificial sweeteners, then go sparingly with the other stuff. I don't use anything with AI's in them anymore. If I want something sweetened with sugar, I'll just have a tiny bit.

I can't say how giving up the AIs has affected my weight loss, but I'd like to think it was been beneficial to my system and my health.

Good luck to you. (Probably I should have shut up at just good luck? lol)

[KatTheAmazon]

While it didn't make me lose weight, I did feel a lot better when I gave up Diet Coke. I wouldn't have a lot during the day, but it was my coffee in the morning and my lunch drink. Usually only 2 cans a day, sometimes 3 if I was tired.

Now that I don't drink it (special occasions only when caffeine calls - only 3 times this year!), I really feel a difference. I can't quite put my finger on it, but my body feels different. I gave up soda BEFORE I start my lifestyle change, so I know it wasn't just eating healthy 'cause I wasn't!

[mhill0823]

When I cut sodas out of my diet completely (I was addicted to diet coke and diet sundrop)... I lost my first 10 pounds...
I started drinking only water and buying the different flavors to try in my water
but it made a HUGE difference, not only in my weight loss but also in my mood. Always drinking water makes you feel better on top of the feeling of cutting something out of your life that it bringing you down!
It gave me a whole new type of motivation
a few months after I totally gave it up I had a craving one day so I bought one, two sips in and I wasn't happy I ended up throwing it away.
Once you detox away from it, it doesn't even taste the same anymore
Which I'm thankful for lol

[candice1022]

My cousin who is a few years younger then me was probably close to 300lbs and he drank ALOT of pop everyday probably the only thing he drank and I remember he said he was going to do an experiment and see how much weight he could lose by just cutting out pop from his diet and drinking water in place... he never exercised by the way and he lost about 100lbs .... seems like a lot and very drastic but when you think about all the sugar and salt and crap that is in those and when you drink quite a few of those a day thats way less crap in your body... im not making any of this up at all!!! he did lose 100lbs i saw it with my own eyes and he looked fantastic... no exercise at all i swear!! after he lost all the weight he did start to play floor hockey with a few guys and has pretty much stayed his same weight .... but 100lbs is 100lbs

[kaplods]

Crystal Light is essentially the same as diet soda (minus the bubbles), so giving up one and not the other probably wouldn't be of much benefit, I would think.

I know when I gave up caffeine and aspartame for almost a year, and drastically cut diet soda, it didn't really change my weight at all. I went from two cases of diet Mountain Dew Code Red per week (6-8 cans a day) to only having diet soda when I went out to eat about twice a month.

When I added them back in, I didn't gain weight or have any harder time losing.

I never went back to the chaing-guzzling but I haven't noticed any difference either way. Some months I drink quite a bit, and other months hardly any, and it doesn't seem to affect my weight loss or health issues one way or the other.

I have cut way back on artificial sweeteners and prefer Splenda over aspartame, but mostly that's because cutting back because my tastes have changes.

I make a frozen strawberry daquiri by whizzing frozen berries, a spash of Crystal Light lemonade or Diet Mountain Dew in my Rocket blender (like the Magic Bullet). The original recipe also called for sugar free strawberry Jello - but that was too sweet, so I'd use just a bit of Splenda. Now I use little or no splenda and often don't even use the Crystal Light at full strength.


It hasn't helped my weight loss, or my health issues, but I do spend a lot less money on artificial sweetener.

[indiblue]

Cutting out Diet Coke has significantly reduced my sweet tooth. I used to use artificially sweetened (sugar-fee jello, diet colas, etc) desserts as a substitute for regular desserts. I realized after a while it was not reducing my dependency on sugar and started cutting them out. I eliminated Diet Coke and most sweets, and replaced desserts or a sweet craving with dates and figs.

It's incredible what a difference this has made. Now most juice and all candy are too sweet for me. I only drink Diet Coke when I'm at a social event and don't want to have alcohol... and I usually can't even finish a glass. Even the dates I love to use as a dessert are sometimes a bit too strong. This is coming from someone who could eat her way through a bag of Jelly Bellys and Sour Patch Straws, washed down with a diet cola, and still want more.

I doubt it's affected weight loss but it sure does help me reduce my sugar intake.

[Riestrella]

Diet soda or any soda is just bad for you no matter what. Sugars, sweeteners, caffeine; it's just filled with things that our body can do without or we can find elsewhere in healthier options. Your body needs water, it's just as simple as that. Diet soda also contains a lot of processed sweeteners to give it a sugar taste because of the lack of real sugar. Your body just doesn't know how to process these sweeteners, they're like alien invaders going inside you!

Definitely give up soda. I was addicted to Coke when I was younger and it was awful. I would be drinking up to 3 pints of it a day. When I tried to cut back I experienced awful symptoms: shaking, mood swings, headaches, serious cravings - it just goes to show what damage it had done to me! I treat myself to a soda when I'm out with friends or at a meal, because I still love the taste and one in a while isn't going to get me hooked again, but while I'm at home, at work etc I stick to water.

I always see a difference when I spend the day drinking water consistently. Soda is now a once in a while treat, and even when I have 1 glass I always feel like it's a bit too much. It will sort out your sweet tooth cravings for sure if you successfully kick the habit!

[candice1022]

Originally Posted by Riestrella

Diet soda or any soda is just bad for you no matter what. Sugars, sweeteners, caffeine; it's just filled with things that our body can do without or we can find elsewhere in healthier options. Your body needs water, it's just as simple as that. Diet soda also contains a lot of processed sweeteners to give it a sugar taste because of the lack of real sugar. Your body just doesn't know how to process these sweeteners, they're like alien invaders going inside you!

Definitely give up soda. I was addicted to Coke when I was younger and it was awful. I would be drinking up to 3 pints of it a day. When I tried to cut back I experienced awful symptoms: shaking, mood swings, headaches, serious cravings - it just goes to show what damage it had done to me! I treat myself to a soda when I'm out with friends or at a meal, because I still love the taste and one in a while isn't going to get me hooked again, but while I'm at home, at work etc I stick to water.

I always see a difference when I spend the day drinking water consistently. Soda is now a once in a while treat, and even when I have 1 glass I always feel like it's a bit too much. It will sort out your sweet tooth cravings for sure if you successfully kick the habit!

I agree... not to scare anyone with this story but my uncle wife was a heavier lady and she used to drink close to a half a case to a case of coke a day .... for whatever reason i cant remember but she had to have surgery and they opened her up and found almost 2 inches of coke residue on the inside of her stomache..... when you drink that much or any for that matter it takes a while to break down ... its full of sugars and fake crap and it just builds up and SLOWLY breaks down but when theres that much it just stays there .... hence why her stomache was just growing and growing and why she was so sick and heavier....

[sontaikle]

I still drink Diet Coke. I always have. Regular soda is too sweet for me.

It doesn't make me hungry and it doesn't make me crave sweets. It actually fills me up. I still limit myself to one can a day though.

[Razorbackbritt]

I don't get headaches anymore since cutting diet sodas. I quit buying them...and I keep a pitcher of crystal light in the fridge for post workouts. I crave salt after a workout to replace the salt I lost....and a glass of crystal light is better for me than a handful of pretzels.

I would echo the others that said crystal light is just as bad as diet drinks...except for the caffeine. The artificial sweetener is screwing up your body more than you can imagine.

[ade903]

Artificial sweeteners actually really screw up your taste buds. The sweetness level is crazy and messes with your cravings.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96849.php haven't read that article, but I was just trying to find something similar to what I've read in the past. Rats that consume artificial sweeteners eat more calories overall.

Now I'm not preaching. I am working on a MS in Nutrition and am still having a hard time cutting out soda (though I drink regular based on my research...but I know I need to cut it all out).

[Riestrella]

Originally Posted by candice1022

I agree... not to scare anyone with this story but my uncle wife was a heavier lady and she used to drink close to a half a case to a case of coke a day .... for whatever reason i cant remember but she had to have surgery and they opened her up and found almost 2 inches of coke residue on the inside of her stomache..... when you drink that much or any for that matter it takes a while to break down ... its full of sugars and fake crap and it just builds up and SLOWLY breaks down but when theres that much it just stays there .... hence why her stomache was just growing and growing and why she was so sick and heavier....

You should be scaring people with that story! That's insane.

What people say is to get a class of coke, drop in a copper coin and then leave it over night. It strips away the copper coating, now just think what that's doing to your BODY and it might put you off.

[kaplods]

The coke residue story sounds suspiciously like an urban-legend email that's going around. Personally, I would suggest asking your own doctors or dietitians about this and check out the urban legends websites.

Most of the ingredients in both diet and regular sodas are extremely abundant in other foods you probably are eating in similar quantities, if you're not on a 100% organic, vegan (or only eat animal foods that are 100% grass-fed/free-range/pasture-raised), whole-food, probably paleo (grain-free) diet.

Also, some of the "myths" are technically true, but ridiculous, because other "safe" foods do the same thing.

Mythbusters and other shows have explored some of these myths - for example that coke can clean laundry, car batteries, and chrome - in their experiment it did no better than water.

As for dissolving an egg shell - yep it does that. So does orange juice and vinegar and any acid - including your stomach acid - which is much stronger than anything you can drink safely. Stomach acid will burn your throat if you vomit. If the acid in soda were so terrible you wouldn't be able to drink it without getting sores in your mouth. Acidic foods can damage tooth enamel just like the egg if you sip on it all day or allow it to sit in your mouth without swallowing (which is why you're not supposed to leave a baby with a bottle of milk or juice while napping. The sugary or acidic beverage will destroy their teeth).

Same goes for dissolving the copper off a penny - which is why the "new" pennies are said to be extremely dangerous if swallowed - stomach acid is strong enough to leach off the copper coating. Copper itself isn't as deadly as the zinc that's under the copper. So an old penny would pass without dissolving enough copper to hurt you. Babies and small dogs have died from swallowing only a few small coins.

If you put a penny in any acidic liquid - even fruit juice - it will also dissolve some metals - eventually (the Myth Busters crew could not get anything to dissolve a nail or a coin, if I'm remembering the episode correctly - I think the episode is online).

There are also a lot of urban legends about artificial sweeteners and they're worth reading too. Some of them are partially true, but misrepresented. For example methane and formaldehyde are byproducts of aspartame digestion - but what the warnings don't tell you is that many very healthy foods also do (and in much higher quantities).

One of the scary but true potential side-effects of overusing aspartame is the connection with a specific type of tumor (pituitary, I believe, if I'm remembering correctly).

These tumors aren't due to the aspartame itself, but to the fact that aspartame in very large quantities can deplete folic acid (other foods can do this too. In fact, many of the foods that are "enriched" with folic acid are also foods that can deplete folic acid - which is why the folic acid is added into these foods). So, if you're not getting enough folic acid (by eating plenty of plant foods), drinking diet sodas and other foods containing aspartame is going to worsen a folic acid deficiency or put you at risk for one (and increase the risk of these tumors).

I'm not saying that soda is healthy, but it's also relatively benign compared to what else is out there, that no one is afraid of eating. And even worse, MUCH worse, are the environmental toxins that many people use on a daily basis, but don't give a second thought just because they're not usually swallowing them. Things like household cleansers, soaps, detergents, fabric softeners, air fresheners, and cosmetics.

After digging through the research, I'm still drinking diet soda (though not as much, especially aspartame, and I take a folic acid supplement, just in case) but I've gotten rid of almost all of my cleaners and household chemicals, including dryer sheets. I gave up dryer sheets because they irritated my lungs, but was even happier that I did after seeing a Dr. Phil episode of a woman who chewed on them like gum, and they sent her to a doctor who told her that these dryer sheets contained known carcinogins and toxins.

I just find it ironic that of all the much more toxic substances we're living with, that diet soda gets such a bad rap.

[Riestrella]

I should have known you'd come back with a speech like that =p.