That annoys me too! My husband drinks beer or some alcoholic drink every night, but loves to tell me how unhealthy my 1-2 bottles of coke zero are. Hilarious.

I was an avid coke zero drinker. I drank more of that than water. I did the research about the chemicals and really it didn't make me stop drinking a diet soda. I think stopping on my own, without anyone else telling me how bad it was, was the only thing that helped. I started by adding an extra glass of water here and there. Before I knew it I didn't have room for soda. Don't get me wrong! I still crave it!!

BUT, I don't deprive myself. If I really want one I go get one. But it has become very rare. I need water to exercise, soda doesn't quench my thirst the way water does. Everyone is different with addictions. And diet soda with the chemicals is very much an addiction.

It's hard, I know. I even tried "natural soda" one called Zevia. It was ok. It is made with stevia. The taste is similar to diet soda, but it has a strong underlining taste I can't pinpoint. Anyway for me, I just want something other than water every once in a while. But never everyday.

The days I stayed off diet soda my skin looked better and my headaches werent as bad. So thats a plus! But again, this is just how it affected me.

my salvation
 

I drink Diet Coke... it is the one thing that keeps me going. I gave up chocolate and fried foods, etc. If the worst thing I do is drink diet soda, I think that is not so bad.

I used to drink full sugar soda. Like 5 or 6 cans a day. Unlimited amounts. I haven't drank it in 4 years though. I quit cold turkey. But I could NEVER stand the taste of diet soda. It completely and thoroughly disgusts me.

I still drink diet soda, but I use it as a kind of dessert or a snack, all by itself, rather than a beverage that I sip on continually all day long. When I finish lunch or dinner and am craving a sweet thing, I pour a glass of Diet Fresca or pop open a can of Diet Cherry Pepsi. So that's maybe two cans a day, sometimes three. I'm fine with my rate of soda consumption. I don't aspire to purity in my diet. Extreme puritanism has always backfired on me. Sometimes when I don't have something, the substitute that I grab later is an even more unfortunate choice. I am not looking to binge on some coworker's powdered sugar donuts when my cravings are unslaked because I wouldn't let myself have something sweet in the form of a diet soda.

I have no taste for full-sugar soda at all anymore. Diet Pepsi/Pepsi Max or Coke Zero scratches that itch, and I rarely even want a whole can or bottle.

Diet Coke can die in a fire though, undrinkable!

If anyone's giving up diet soda today, feel free to mail me any left over cans/bottles you have! (Just kidding guys. :p) I'm have 0 plans to stop drinking diet soda, ever. Aspartame is safe so long as you don't have phenylketonuria, which is a genetic disorder, and I don't have that.

I understand diets are very, very personal... I cut out most carbs, and that would be a disaster for lots of people. Not because low carb is unhealthy, but because different people just like different things. If I started eating carbs in larger amounts again, the only bad thing that would happen is: it would be harder for me, personally, to comply with my diet without overeating.

If you don't have a problem with diet soda, and you personally enjoy drinking it, I would humbly suggest you DON'T cut it out.

Re: aspartame, I just finished writing an article about artificial sweeteners, for which I interviewed several leading doctors and scientists. They also gave me a bunch of peer-reviewed scientific papers to read. The verdict: aspartame has been studied extensively and found to be safe for human consumption.

F.

I can't speak for aspartame, but I can speak with some authority on personal care products. I'm an environmental exposure epidemiologist and I did a recent study that has linked personal care product use to increased phthalate concentrations in urine samples. Phthalates are a class of chemicals often used a plasticizers, but can be found in many other common household products. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with the body's natural or endogenous hormone functions. Researchers don't really know how exposure to them and how their health outcomes rank among other environmental exposures, but if anyone wants more info on phthalates, just send me a PM.

All things in moderation!

However on the news just last night pop of any kind is linked to depression, very interesting. I wonder is depressed people just drink more pop or the pop causes the depression....hmmmm

I get depressed when there's no diet coke? ;)

I get depressed when there's no Cherry Coke Zero! Why is it so hard to find!?

That is what I was gonna say. And I too am a dr pepper addict, but when my dr asked how much soda I was drinking at 155 lbs I told him one a day, he said "don't!." But I did have elevated sugar levels. I tried to have a fountain drink one the other day and it was just too sweet.
Maybe u can bring yourself down to a cup with dinner or lunch.

Cherry Coke Zero has only just hit the market here in Australia. My husband loves it but (and absolutely no disrespect!) I've found that no matter how it's prettied up, fake cherry flavoring ALWAYS tastes like medicine.
Maybe it's because here in Aus for the longest time the only available medicine flavours were cherry or strawberry *chuckle*.

At any rate, cherry flavouring never lasts long here because there's rarely a big enough market (cinnamon is the same thing too... Just doesn't take over here) for it to stay selling enough to hang around. I told my husband he better stock up because while there's heaps in stores now I'm pretty sure it won't last heh.

When it comes to diet 'pop' which we call 'softdrink', I honestly would rather have one every few months than drink the empty calories of the regular stuff. I'm not a huge softdrink fan anyway, never really been that keen on it. But I do like a bit every now and again and I figure it's no worse than some of the other chemicals we unknowingly consume.

I substituted diet coke with chilled fruit ice tea... (Just tea wit a little bit of sweetener)