Breaking the Diet Beverage Addiction
 

Yesterday, I ran into someone who hadn't seen me in a few months. She looked at me and began gushing about how thin I looked and how my stomach was gone! Of course, it felt great to hear the compliments. However, as I wrote in a post over on the 40s chat awhile ago, I have been experiencing bursts of hunger that lead to me binging and feeling gross.

One possible answer that his been in the back of my mind is my addiction to Diet Snapple. I cut out non-diet and diet soda a few months ago. However, I am still totally addicted to Diet Snapple and drink at least 8 cups per day. I know that I should switch to ice water (room temperature water makes me gag!), but I can't seem to make the commitment.

Someone told me that artificial sweeteners actually increase your appetite. Has anyone found this to be true? How do you break the addiction?

I made a bunch of changes all at the same time, one of which was to reduce (nearly to extinction) consumption of diet soda. As part of that group of changes I definitely felt better and reduced my 'sweet tooth'. Since then I've had a couple of days when I had 2 or 3 diet soda drinks in a day and it seemed I had more impulsive eating then also. But it's a chicken or the egg situation, I'm not sure if I drank the diet soda because I was already in a bit of a reckless groove or if drinking the diet soda contributed to it... For me at least they seem to go hand in hand.

As far as making a commitment to stop, some people feel really strongly that artificial sweeteners are very terrible chemical stuff. I suspect that it's one of those things that affects different people differently, but look at it this way, there isn't anything in there that is GOOD for you. I'm not sure about Snapple, but with soda at least it definitely has calcium leaching properties, so it's at the very best case it is at least somewhat bad for you and possibly it is really really really bad for you.

I am a diet coke addict. I swear this stuff is going to come out as bad as cigarettes. The seetener aspartame was approved ny the FDA when Donald Rumsfeld was the CEO of the pharma company and Reagan was President. The head of the FDA ended up going to work for the pharmaceutical company. I bet those guys DO NOT drink this stuff.

Good luck with quitting.

What about squeezing lemon or orange into your water?

I've quit my diet soda habit before. For a good six months and honestly didn't notice any difference in my sweet tooth or urge to eat or anything else for that matter.

I've dieted with and without artificial sweeteners, caffeine, and soda, and if there was a difference, it was a negligible one.

I gave up caffeine, artificial sweeteners and diet soda for almost a year (because a friend convinced me that my fibro would disappear if I gave up aspartame and caffeine).

I didn't lose weight spontaneously and my fibro didn't improve either. I was considering an medication for fatigue, and my doctor said the safest med for fatigue was moderate use of caffeine.

I'm not a huge fan of coffee or tea, especially without sweetener, so I asked my doctor about diet sodas (for the caffeine), and he said that since I'd been off artificial sweeteners and caffeine so long, that if I had a problem with either I should notice right away. I didn't so I am drinking diet sodas, Crystal Light and am learning to like tea by mixing it with Crystal Light, and gradually adding more and more tea and less Crystal Light).


I believe that artificial sweeteners do probably feed a sweet tooth, but in my experience real sugar is a far worse sweet tooth and hunger trigger. So I do try to reduce and limit my exposure to sweet foods, but sometimes artificial sweeteners are the lesser of two evils. I have more control of my diet when I'm using artificial sweeteners than I do when I'm eating large amounts of sugar (even when it's coming from natural, healthy sources of sugar such as fruit).

Thanks for the feedback. I still am going to try to cutback on the diet snapple and replace a few servings with water. Maybe I will try to add some lemon, lime, or orange to ice water and see how that tastes. Sounds like people have not found much a difference in weight loss or appetite when reducing artificial sweeteners - although there is nothing healthy about them, so to cut back can't hurt.

Did much better this weekend with my water intake! I did have about 4 diet beverages this weekend - better than the 10 or more I usually consume. Hope I can keep it up!

I like flavored sparkling soda water. No cals and a light flavor. I prefer mandarin orange and lime flavors. I like them to pack in the cooler with all the soda's, beer and other drinks. I like the bubbly texture without the sweeteners.

I have realized that soda or any kind of sparkling/seltzer water gives me horrible.....gas! Yikes! So, I am sticking with non-carbonated beverages. The other day I had a shot glass full of sparkling cider at a friend's house....I was holding back the "toots" for the rest of the night!

Give it a week and you will feel better :) Drink lots of water...I use lemon & sometimes lime. Never thought about using orange...I'll have to try it.

I call Diet Coke my "diet crack"! I have cut back to 2-3 per day from 4-5. I don't drink coffee or tea, so it's my only source of caffeine. It does seem to help when I'm hungering for "something" to drink a diet coke.

I too am a Diet Coke addict... I used to drink at least 3-4 cans a day but have finally cut it back to 1-2 a day. Instead of diet coke I started drinking watered down juice, 1/4 juice 3/4 water. With watering down the fruit juice, not fruit cocktail, it decreases the sugar intake and increases the water intake. I find that as long as I am drinking something I don't miss the diet coke as much.
I also don't drink coffee but I do have a hot cup of tea once in awhile...but nothing tastes as good as a diet coke!

Mine is Diet Dew - I have cut some of them out but have one every morning and by one I mean a 32 oz. I know my dr told me that if I kept it in my diet it could cause trouble down the road with the connection to the sweetner and wanting sweets. I know since i have stopped dieting and started maintaing over a year ago only recently has it caused me trouble. My sweet tooth has been crazy - I resist mostly but its still tougher and maybe if I cut it out all together it might help me.

I was using Crystal Light .... and noticed horrible sugar cravings, headaches and Nausa.... quit all aspertame and to double check tried it again a month later and sure enough...all the Symptoms came back.... Stevia, and Lemon juice added to my water hot and cold makes drinking my water easy!!!! Other than that it is real sugar for me.... Good luck all

I switched from Diet Dr. Pepper to Diet Peach Snapple. I have done the water change before also and I know that water is suppose to be better for me, but I just can't drink just water. I haven't really noticed that I have been craving sweets. But then again, sweets aren't my downfall. I don't think the diet snapple has the sodium in it like the diet soda's do. I might be wrong though.