So I am 2 days into my giving up diet coke - and most carbonated beverages (I will have the occational beer) - I have heard that caffeine and diet coke don't help with the weight loss - and plus I shouldn't be dependant on caffeine (I don't want those headaches! which I had all day yest!) or aspartame. Water water water. Whoo hoo.

So I have bought some carrot juice and soy milk and mint leaves and lemon to put into my water to make it a bit more exciting. Any other suggestions?

B

I could NEVER give up my diet soda, congrats!!!!

I'm not a diet coke addict, but I do drink it sometimes.
Congratulations on making a decision to cut it out because I'm sure other beverages are MORE healthy.. however.. is diet coke UNHEALTHY? I've heard other people give up carbonated bevs and diet sodas... but what is so bad about them? I'm just curious.

I have never liked DC at all. I dont really drink that much "coke." I figure one real coke a week has to be better than DC everyday. But thats just me.
Now Sweet Tea!! Thats another story.
But now I don't make Sweet Tea at home and drink water or skim milk instead. Then I use ST as a treat when I go out to eat

Mmm... caffiene...

I'd like to stop drinking diet coke (well, Diet Pepsi, which doesn't taste so strongly of aspartame imho)... though I'm not ready to give up caffiene just yet! I still need my morning coffee. Soda, though, I can do without... it's sooo sweet and I'm very sensitive to sweet drinks for some reason. (I had my first sip of sweet tea in years and it grossed me out... haha, sorry SD) If I drink it a lot though I get desensitized to it and crave it more.

I tried the V8 twister thing... fruit and veg juice... it's actually really good! It's got a full serving of fruits and vegs too. May be loaded up on sugar but at least it has *some* nutritional value

Mine is diet pepsi too. I find now that I am drinking 6 liters of water a day, I barely drink a whole can anymore. Some days I have none. I figure one day a day won't kill me haha I can't cut out everything I like!

bad things - just brain cancer in rats
no but it is supposed to trigger your sweet tooth and make you more hungry. And I need to be less hungry!
I drank like a million glasses of water and still drank a million dc (ok prob like 80 oz of water and 4 cans diet coke but there was a time in my life I drank a 2 liter every day - we called it sauce! great days. must be better about that!)

B

Congratulations on giving up the diet coke bida. I've given it up too (5 weeks now).

WastedThermos, you asked what is so bad about diet coke and other sodas. The main reason I gave up the diet coke is because I noticed some worrying things that were directly related to how much dc I drank, and my family noticed them too.

Basically, dc seems to increase my cravings. I have more cravings for sweets, chips and general junk foods when I drink dc regularly . In fact since I have basically given it up, my cravings have become virtually non-existent.

Dc also seems to affect my mood and behaviour. When I drink a lot of it, I am more depressive , irritible and aggressive . I make myself more isolated as well. My mother works in mental health, and says that she has definately noticed that excessive consumption of real coke makes a definate impact on mood and behaviour (one of her clients drinks a 2litre bottle a day)

And finally, apparently the phosphoric acid in all cola drinks can adversely affect bone density in women. This could lead to a greater risk of fractures or osteoporosis.

The suggestions that the aspartame in diet drinks (and many other things) can cause cancer in humans is something that has been debated and studied a lot. The opinion of the majority is that cancer is not caused by aspartame from foods and drinks. However, it is an additive, and all additives have been shown to affect behaviour and mood, so I think it is best to avoid them when possible. By no means do I stop eating anything with additives, that is virtually impossible and certainly impractical, but I do try to reduce my consumption of soft drinks and other things with lots of artificial colourings, sweeteners or preservatives.

Congrats!

I drink diet caffeine free coke....but I only drink 2/day...I don't think I could give up diet coke, I am not addicted, but sometimes when I am hungry for a sweet, I can drink a diet coke and it will eliminate my craving.

congrats patchyderm.

Onto Day 3 - hopefully no more headaches today.

I'm with Alaynna... Sometimes if I've got a bad sweet tooth a diet soda will help it go away, not trigger more...

Does anyone notice that DC or Pepsi will make them sleepier?

I use my Pepsi Max to perk me up, I've noticed a few times when I'm feeling ok, but then think that I'll have a Pepsi to wake me up, I often find I wind up feeling sleepier than before I had it!

However I've noticed it does improve my workout performance, but just not my "awakeness"!

that is my problem with caffein - even before I became such a dc addict - it would either wake me up or make me sleepy - and I didn't usually know which it would do - even coffee - I would hope it would wake me up though...
So I am also giving up caffeine for a while (day 5 am I on - and I have even had a headache on day 4 - though it may have been from a long walk and not enough water) so that maybe it does what it is supposed to when I need it. No more reliance for me!

Interesting... Good to know the downsides of carbonated sodas.. even the diet ones. I think it will help me pay more attention from now on to how my body reacts to them. Although, I am still on my water/green tea kick right now, so I don`t have to worry about it just yet.