[jillybean720]

Diet soda hasn't affected my weight loss at all, so I'm gonna keep on drinking! I really think the biggest connection is that sometimes when people have the diet soda, they eat more food, but since I'm tracking my food consumption so closely, I know that's not an issue for me.

I've also read that the phosphoric acid in cola-type beverages (both regular and diet) can leech calcium from your bones. Jeff and I drink diet ginger ale, which has no phosphoric acid. Artificial sweeteners have never bothered me, so I don't limit my consumption (not that I go purposely adding it to things where it's not needed or anything--I don't want to sound like I sit and eat aspartame on a spoon as a snack ).

[Schmoodle]

I thought the issue with the sodas was the artificial sweeteners and the fact that people that drink a lot of soda were consuming a lot of them. I never got in the soda habit, so the most I drink is an occasional glass of Diet Root Beer to kill a sweet craving. But I have been using consumption of lots of artificial sweeteners as a crutch, and even though it's helped me lose a lot of weight, I don't think it can be good for you. I think it's odd that this diet focuses on healthy and nutritious whole foods and yet encourages the use of sweeteners. I guess the limits come in the sweet treat calorie allowance, but if you're like me, you can get around that - f'rinstance, a latte is really milk, so I count it as dairy, and the shot of sf syrup doesn't count at all.

Anyway, I recently came up with new rules for Schmoodle. I think this will be key for me in continued weight loss an maintenance. If I'm binging now on artificially sweetened stuff, how easy will it be to go back to the real stuff? I've also come to the conclusion that I'm one of those people that is set off by the sugar alcohols. My goal is to one day become the person that can have A cookie and walk away. Lots of work to be done there yet.

So, no more NSA fudgesicles, pudding, hot chocolate, SF jello, candy, etc. around here. I'm going to allow myself moderate treats made with agave nectar or dark chocolate a couple of times/week and we'll see how that goes. I think I just need to learn to eat the real stuff sanely.

[murphmitch]

I recently read this in "You, Staying Young" by Dr. Oz:
"Studies show that people who drink fizzy or syrup based drinks twice a day or more run a 90 percent higher risk of getting cancer of the pancreas than those who never drink them".
That really caught my attention. I drink a lot of diet pop. I really need to work on getting off of it. I have noticed increased tooth sensitivity to cold food & pressure. My dentist said I need to quit drinking acidic drinks. They wear down the enamel. Also, because I have GERD, I need to get off of it. Carbonated drinks aggravate reflux. I really am addicted to Coke Zero. My new resolution is to drink more tea, less diet pop.

[Dingo]

Sorry to say it ladies but it looks like aspartame(nutrasweet), sucralose(splenda and saccharin(sweet n' low) all trigger the same mechanisms that plain ole sugar does in your body. The mechanism I speak of is that of insulin release which is the very hormone we are trying to restrict secretion of on the South Beach Diet. The release of insulin from your pancreas tells your body to store fat!
Now the effects of artificial sweeteners may not produce as LARGE an increase in insulin levels as sugar simply because not as much is used in recipes (they are much sweeter than regular sugar, classified as high intensity sweeteners). This is probably the reason why we still lose weight when consuming these sweeteners, in addition to the fact that we may all metabolize synthetic compounds differently.
The point is this, if we are trying so hard to adjust our diet and are living though relative misery by eating only low carb food, why hinder all these efforts by drinking soda?
I would call myself as addicted to diet soda as the next dieter and have been trying my damnest to wean myself off of it over the last few months. I find it very frightening that I crave it in such a fundamental way (much more then I would ever crave water). So I guess I am just really just trying to convince myself not to fall off the wagon here
Oh, and these artificial sweeteners are in Crystal Light, On the Go, and pretty much everything else that says "Diet" on it.

[KO]

Just so you guys know lipton makes a cold brew iced tea bag no sweetener so you control how much sweetenr you want