Soda is bad for you period. It causes dehydration and you're not getting the nutrients you need. I don't mean to be gross but once after drinking a small glass of diet coke I felt sick and needed to vomit, when I did, the soda, the only thing in my stomach, came out SOLID.

My point is it does nothing for you. The reason we can't stop is because of the addictive additives in the soda. Drink water, if you need flavor, crystal light powder is great and you still drink the water you need for the day.

Diet soda does not dehydrate you. Quite the contrary.

Diet soda is not good for you due to the artificial sweetners which cause cancer given enough intake. The jury is out on exactly how much is too much but then again using a cell phone exposes your brain to microwaves which also cause cancer and no one knows how much is too much there either.

In a perfect world you should not drink diet soda. In this perfect world you should not drive on the freeway either (stressful and you're exposed to cancer causing fumes.)

In my opinion it's just not that big of a deal one way or the other unless you're drinking a lot. I would rather not define alot. :D

Coffee, tea, broth, even beer and wine do not dehydrate. Virtually all fluids "count" toward your daily water requirements. My mom learned this the hard way and was hospitalized for water intoxication (essentially water overdose, which washed out too much sodium from her blood - which water overdose tends to do, and which puts a person in iminent danger of cardiac arrest because the heart needs sodium and other elecrolytes to function). She was only drinking a little over a gallon a day, but was following her WW leaders advice to compensate for coffee with additional water. So the milk, coffee, water, and diet beverages she was drinking (about a gallon total and almost never diet soda) was too much. While my mom was in the hospital (for over a week as they tried to stabilize her electrolytes) her doctors put her on a 2 liter maximum for all fluids (and that meant everything - even the fluid in her food was measured). She was so used to drinking twice that, that she was in constant thirst and would beg the nurses for more water, which she couldn't have.

The kidney specialist called in on the case told us that all liquids count, even the liquids in foods. It's even possible to get all your water needs from food (though most of us don't eat enough fruits and veggies to do that). He pointed out that if coffee or diet soda was dehydrating, then people who drink nothing but these not-technically-plan water beverages (and there are many such people), they would be dying of dehydration (and they don't).

In the middle ages, no one drank water (because it was toxic) so beer and wine were practically the only safe beverages (and even children drank them).

Even beer and wine add more water to your system than the alcohol takes out. The only beverage that truly dehydrates is alcohol that is so pure it's barely drinkable. So even rum and coke probably isn't going to dehydrate you.

Also there is no science behind the claim that your body needs water in a pure form, without "stuff" in it - because water doesn't naturally occur that way. All drinking water has "stuff" in it, and if you take the stuff out you've got distilled water which isn't recommended for long-term drinking because it could (at least in theory) leach minerals from your blood/bones through osmosis.

Water myths get passed around like a game of telephone - the myths getting bigger and bigger therefore more and more dangerous).

If you're on a low sodium diet and/or on any medications, especially blood pressure medications, talk to your doctor about your liquid requirements and how to fill them before assuming that your can or should be drinking more than 3 liters of liquids (from all sources).

Diet sodas were developed for people with diabetes, they were not intended for weight loss.
It's irrelevant if it's 'calorie free' because diet sodas are loaded with crap.

Since I gave up diet soda my weight loss has definitely increased. I missed it at first, but after making myself drink water with lemon for a few weeks I actually love it now and never crave diet soda.

Ah, it takes posts like these to remind me that even if there are no calories in the drink, it isn't always good for you! Thanks for the information everybody!

Everyones body reacts differently to things. I use to drink a 2 liter + a day of diet coke, and people would joke the only water I drank was if it got in my mouth during a shower. I will say that cutting down on the diet coke helped my weight loss big time. I will have it once in a while, or if I go out to eat now, but for the most part. Mornings are coffee, and afternoons/evenings is water water water.

I try to drink one cup of water for every diet dp i drink... which ends up being alot through the day. water is very important, so if you are drinking so much diet soda and NO water, then you should definetly change things up a bit.

This is why I don't drink sodas period, diet or not:

http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/fe...a-osteoporosis

As far as impact on weight I doubt it would have any other than the typical diet food mental impact ( "this is low fat so I can eat 2 of them" or "I can have that sundae since I had a diet drink with dinner" style thinking)

Other than my GNC Lean Shakes, nothing artificial goes past my lips these days. I was never a junk food junky, but one of the "new me makeover" ideals I have is to eat as whole foodsie as I possibly can. Watching my Mother die with diabetes and osteoperosis causing further aggravation to an already traumatic process (metastatic breast cancer) was a serious wake up call.

But you'll get my San Pellegrino when you pry it from my cold, wet, dead fingers ;)

Originally Posted by H82Sweat:

But you'll get my San Pellegrino when you pry it from my cold, wet, dead fingers ;)

I love that stuff!!! I broke it out tonight and made a "Nojito" with lime and crushed mint leaves and a tbs of splenda. :) Yummy!

But for me I am a caffeine free Diet pepsi girl. I will have a large glass once a day. But I have made a habit to reach for the water with a squirt of Mio (which isn't natural at all, but neither is crystal light). I've lost more when I make sure I drink water, in addition to my morning latte and diet pepsi. :)

Seltzer?
 

I'm trying to wean myself away from my beloved Diet Pepsi. While vacationing in Cancun I discovered mineral water with a wedge of fresh lime -- quite refreshing! The closest thing I've discovered here in the States is Pelagrino, but it's $2 a bottle at my grocery store, while seltzer is only $1 a bottle. Anything bad in seltzer that should discourage me from drinking it?

I was a diet coke ADDICT - probably 7 cans a day. The only water I ever drank was the ice I put in my glass with the diet coke.

BUT - I have changed my ways. I drink lots of water now and have one small glass of diet coke from a 2-liter (so I don't have to drink the whole can) in the mornings.

What changed? About a month ago, I was very seriously considering weight loss surgery. During that process, I found out that I would have to give up carbonated drinks forever. I almost went into shock. Then, I found out the reason why. The carbonation would stretch the stomach pouch that surgery creates. It made sense to me. Carbonated drinks make you feel hungry because they counteract the "full" feeling that you get from food and even from just plain water. All of the work that I was doing to lower my stomach volume through eating less was being eroded with something that didn't have calories in it!

In preparation for surgery, I started trying to wean myself from it. I found that plain water really did quench my thirst best and I started noticing that it took less food to fill me up. Now, instead of spending all that money on soda, I treat myself to a small pack of lemons to have lemon water like they do in restaurants. Ironically, I have lost enough now that I don't want surgery and want to finish this journey without it.

Do I think you can lose weight drinking lots of diet soda? Sure. If you take in less calories than you burn. Of course you can. But, for me, drinking water and not the carbonation makes it easier for me to stay on plan so that's the choice I'm making.