I completely cut out soda about 4 years ago and didn't touch it until about 6 months ago when I couldn't resist the diet vanilla pepsi any more. Then I tried the diety cherry vanilla dr. pepper and now I'm hooked on both again. I really, really want to cut soda out of my diet again completely. I felt so much better when I wasn't drinking it. I just depend on the caffiene and find myself justifying it by making the excuse that it's better than a chocolate bar nutritionally. But I need a kick in the pants to get me going here. I really, really need to know all the reasons that diet soda could be impeding any weight loss progress, and generally having a negative effect on my health. Thanks for any motivation! I spotted Diet coke with splenda at the store today and frankly I need help.

Hi, Gray.. I'm with you. I love soda and I know how hard it is to give up. I think the worst thing about diet sodas are that they make it so much harder to beat your dependency on sugar and other sweets, especially the better-tasting ones made with Splenda. They do fill you up, but they're a nutritional waste land. The chocolate, in moderation, actually would be better! It's fillled with all kinds of good stuff. I don't know if this is true or not, but I had heard that if you spill Coke on a car, it'll erode the paint. Whenever I am really tempted to have soda and want to talk myself out of it, I try to imagine what it can do to your stomach lining if it can eat paint off of a car!

Not sure if this would work for diet sodas, but once in a while, I use regular Coke to remove the sediment in my kettles and pans (yeah, our water here is crappy). Makes you wonder what's in it exactly

http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/c...107/108476.htm

Very timely!

My mother drank soda the whole time she was dieting she is addicted and she lost 70 pds in about 6 months!!!

it rots your teeth! there's more sugar in a can of diet soda than in most other foods even though it has no calories. it makes you feel icky and can cause constipation in large amounts

I don't know much about it, but I've always gotten the impression that diet soda is bad for your teeth and has zero nutritional content.

I found that too much sugar and soda makes me more depressed in the long run.It may just be me,but you never know.

That is not true. Read a the ingredients of any diet soft drink and point out to me WHERE the sugar is, please. There is none. The reason it can be bad for your teeth is because of the acid, not because of any phantom sugar content.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with drinking them. I know some people try to eat as few processed foods as possible, and it would make sense to stay away from them in that case. Also, for folks who KNOW they feel better without, or who feel that it keeps the taste for sweets alive, etc., then obviously they might want to cut them out. Logicially it would follow you'd also want to not use drink mixes like Crystal Light, as well, flavored waters, any kind of sweetener in tea and coffee, etc.? I also think that if you're drinking diet drinks to the EXCLUSION of water, that's a good reason to cut back. But, I don't see anything wrong with them in and of themselves -- it just depends on your personal philosophy and your personal physical reaction to them.

If it's really the caffeine that's gotten ahold of you and you want to kick that, you could try weaning to minimize the withdrawal. However much you are drinking now, cut that in half for a week, then cut that in half, etc. til you're down to nothing.

There is NO sugar in diet sodas. They are all sweetened with saccharin, aspartame/Nutrasweet, or Splenda/sucralose. If you are drinking cola drinks, then the caffeine is a health factor. If you are having one cup of coffee per day, or maybe 1 or 2 diet sodas, then that is in moderation, but any more than that and you are really taking on too much caffeine.
Also, even though they are sugar free, ALL diet sodas (and regular sodas) have acids in them that damages the tooth enamel. Regular sodas are a double whammy with the sugar+acid, but all sodas cause tooth damage.
My husband used to have a really bad Mountain Dew habit (sugar+acid) and since we have been together (8 years) he has had a tooth pulled, about 4 root canals with crowns over them, and a few fillings that were large enough to have to have crowns placed over them. He is about 1/3 of the way there to his own personal set of "permanent" false teeth. If you want to get into the financial aspect of that...we can, and that should be motivation enough to keep your soda habit under control.

I know that Funniegrrl already answered this but I just had to respond...

...Whaaa....??????

Of course there is no sugar in diet soda!

And as far as the claim that it 'makes you feel icky' and 'causes constipation in large amounts' - I think that really depends on the PERSON. Some people are sensitive to artificial sweeteners and/or caffeine and just might have those reactions, but most people don't seem to have those problems.

As far as the study link above - did anyone happen to read *page 2*?

Personally, I believe that there are lots of folks who (for example) go into a McD's or what have you, order a diet drink and then (thinking they're being good by having a no-calorie beverage) something high-calorie to go with it - say, an order of french fries. (Laura Fraser, in her book Losing It called this the 'diet Coke and doughnut strategy').

I must be pretty weird because I've been drinking diet sodas daily (average of 1 or 2 cans per day) and I've still been able to maintain my weight. In fact, I find them an AID to maintaining my 100+ lb weight loss, personally.

As far as the teeth are concerned - my enamel is fine.

Snopes has an interesting page regarding teeth and acid in Coke that is worth reading.

Another Snopes page refers to the rumors regarding acids in Coke.

The article about people going to eat fast food but ordering a diet soda totally made me remember when I was a teenager working at the KFC. There was this family of four that would come in to eat, they were all 300+ lbs. They would order a 21 pc. bucket of chicken, a dozen bisquits, 2 large orders of mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw etc. and then 4 large diet cokes!! Even back then I was like..why bother with the diet coke!!! C'mon!! They didn't leave with a take home box either, they ate it all!!

I am a soda addict although it has nothing to do with the sugar for me. I drink diet, and have cut back quite a bit. I usually will have some with my lunch but that's about it. I have lost 30 lbs since the end of February.

I ate at KFC this weekend. I knew it was going to be a high fat, high calorie meal, but I was still surprised when I actually looked up the calories. I had a two piece dark, with cole slaw and baked beans. Back in the day, I would have gone for a 3 piece dark, and had mashed potatoes and gravy instead of beans. I knew I was doing some damage, but I thought that it wouldn't be *that* bad.

According to KFC's online nutrition calculator, it was over 1000 calories for that one meal. I was pretty surprised. I can't imagine what a meal the Mom of 3 mentioned would be running. 21 pieces for 4 people, is over 5 pieces per person!

Why does fried chicken have to taste so good, but be so bad?

Hubby and I are the people who order a bunch of fatty food, and still get the diet soda. That's because we always drink diet, but we don't always get a bunch of fatty food...so why would I get a regular soda just because I order fried chicken? But I imagine it is pretty funny for the fast food employees.

I have to admit that I was always the type to order the bacon cheeseburger, biggie fries, and a diet coke. I never tried to fool myself into thinking it was healthier that way though. I just prefer the taste of diet soda to regular, because I like the sweetness of it.

Thanks everyone for all the replies. The tooth decay is one I keep in mind often, because I have sensitive weak teeth anyway and I really have to work hard to keep them healthy. I think that's going to be one of my biggest pieces of "ammunition." I just really need to break this habit, and it's so hard! I appreciate all the info and posts. Thanks to all of you. I WILL defeat the diet coke addiction!