Diet Soda Addiction
 

Hello,

Does anyone else seem to be addicted to diet sodas? I feel like I have to drink one everyday. If I don't I'll start having withdrawl. Also, when I drink the soda, I have a tendency to eat junk food and/or candy. I've heard some pretty bad stuff about aspartame (e.g. http://www.aspartamekills.com/). I drink plenty of liquids, meaning I drink more then enough water a day.

Anyone else have problems like this? Any solutions? I really like bubbly and cold drinks. I buy sparkling mineral water often. While the mineral water helps, I still get the "jones" for diet drinks (in particular Diet Coke). :(

Have you tried the Diet Coke with Splenda? I love it vastly more than I ever loved regular Diet Coke (and that's saying a lot). It seems to me that more and more companies are switching to Splenda as a sweetener (Waist Watcher soda comes to mind) and to me that's a good thing since it tastes sooo much better to me.

I wouldn't consider myself addicted, but I drink a lot of diet pop everyday. Yesterday I drank half of a 2 liter of the new diet berries & cream Dr. Pepper within a span of 10 minutes. I also drink many cups of tea a day and I put 3 packets of Equal or Sweet N Low in each cup. It hasn't had any kind of negative effect for me, so I completely overindulge. And it definitely hasn't hindered my weight loss. I've read about the possible dangers of aspartame, but I tend to agree that it's harmless.

But since you said it triggers you to eat badly, I'd recommend to you to stay away from it. I've heard of it triggering a sugar craving because of its sweetness.

Stick with the sparkling water, and maybe just save the pop for rare occasions.

Originally Posted by harrypotterybarn:
Have you tried the Diet Coke with Splenda? I love it vastly more than I ever loved regular Diet Coke (and that's saying a lot). It seems to me that more and more companies are switching to Splenda as a sweetener (Waist Watcher soda comes to mind) and to me that's a good thing since it tastes sooo much better to me.

I have tried that version of Diet Coke. I do like it also. I think my biggest problem is being addicted to the drinks in the first place. I can't just get by with water. I need to have a drink during lunch, between lunch and dinner, etc. I am not a coffee/"hot drink" kind a of person. Sometimes I grab a soda on my way to work in the morning.

Originally Posted by HarpoChicoGroucho:
Stick with the sparkling water, and maybe just save the pop for rare occasions.

I am committing to not drinking soda for one day then!

Thanks! :carrot:

I drink 2 cans of Pepsi Max a day - it fills me up and gives me something to do!! :lol: However I try to limit it to 2 cans and on a weekend I'll probably go without any, depends how tired I feel and how much I want to eat other junk!

For me, it satisfies the junk food craving, because I know it's not got anything in it that my body needs, but it tastes nice and it has no calories :D

There's a lot of debate on these boards as to whether it's good/bad/indiferent for you! I think it's a matter of preference. However, if you start getting "withdrawal" symptoms - and it's encouraging you to eat more junk, then I would cut back. If you still want a soda, try caffeine-free, that should stop withdrawals happening once you're weened off the caffeine ;)

i am addicted to diet soda but i believe it has slowed my weight loss down so i am going to try to cut back and drink more tea and water

I recently went cold turkey on regular sodas and didn't give too much thought to diet till last week when I HAD to have a soda! Diet Coke. I didn't drink it all day, only a glass at dinner. The very first night I had it with dinner I started craving sweets after dinner, which is something I hadn't had a problem with in a few weeks...I won't be finishing off that Diet Coke! LOL. And the natural sugars (fruit, yogurt..stuff like that) didn't seem to fill the craving, I could have gone to the sugar bowl and eaten it with a spoon!

Now I remember why I was having the diet stuff everynight! The caffiene!!! I was waking up in the mornings with awful caffiene headaches!

Kim

Aspartame has been around longer than splenda and recent studies show there's no link between aspartame and cancer risk. However, splenda (sucralose) is fairly new and has had some concerns raised about it.

Sucralose is produced by chlorinating sugar (sucrose). This involves chemically changing the structure of the sugar molecules by substituting three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups.

Few human studies of safety have been published on sucralose. One small study of diabetic patients using the sweetener showed a statistically significant increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (Hba1C), which is a marker of long-term blood glucose levels and is used to assess glycemic control in diabetic patients. According to the FDA, "increases in glycosolation in hemoglobin imply lessening of control of diabetes."

There have been 598 studies on aspartame. Only 19 on sucralose. Of those 19 studies, the sucralose caused many problems in mice, rats and rabbits. Now, I don't particularly believe all these studies (of COURSE any chemical is going to cause problems in these poor tiny animals, especially when force-fed massive amounts) I'm just posting about what I've heard. Some of the problems found are as follows:

Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage)
Enlarged liver and kidneys.
Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
Increased cecal weight
Reduced growth rate
Decreased red blood cell count
Hyperplasia of the pelvis
Extension of the pregnancy period
Aborted pregnancy
Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
Diarrhea

Do I eat products with splenda? Yes. Have I ever had any problems? No. I've never had any problems with aspartame either and I've been ingesting it for years.

Other reports on sucralose:

The FDA acknowledges that sucralose "is produced at an approximate purity of 98%." While that may sound pretty pure, just what is in that other 2%? It turns out that the final sucralose product contains small amounts of potentially dangerous substances such as:


Heavy Metals (e.g., Lead)
Arsenic
Triphenilphosphine Oxide
Methanol
Chlorinated Disaccharides
Chlorinated Monosaccharide

Although manufacturing guidelines do specify limits on these substances there is no guarantee that such limits will always be met.

And just to add - I'm not bashing splenda, nor am I saying aspartame is better. I'm just saying that it hasn't been around long enough for us to know everything. Although I DO eat products that contain splenda, I try to keep from eating too much of it. I just have this sinking feeling we don't know enough about it yet.

Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Yikes! That's interesting stuff about Splenda! I only just started buying it, and I really like it. Part of me is thinking whether I should just ween myself of the sweet taste anyway... If I get used to stuff without Splenda, then I'll always find "real sugar" foods far to sweet KWIM? I also find that I use a lot more Splenda than I would use of sugar, perhaps because there's "no calories" in it. ;)

Interesting, thanks for digging up those articles Linda!

Originally Posted by 2frustrated:
Yikes! That's interesting stuff about Splenda! I only just started buying it, and I really like it. Part of me is thinking whether I should just ween myself of the sweet taste anyway... If I get used to stuff without Splenda, then I'll always find "real sugar" foods far to sweet KWIM? I also find that I use a lot more Splenda than I would use of sugar, perhaps because there's "no calories" in it. ;)

Interesting, thanks for digging up those articles Linda!

No problem :)

I've been doing some reading on it, but I don't allow myself to take it all to heart. It's a given that there's gonna be risks with any new product, especially one that messes with chemicals and molecular structure, lol.

That's just damn scary.

I gave up soda almost two years ago. I was drinking any where from 3 to 4 cans a day. Finally I just went cold turkey and drank water. Now I love the walmart brand of there flavored water. Now I hate soda and I can not stand the taste of it.

Personally, I think people freak out way too much about the artificial stuff. Those of you who are organic, purity people, please don't start ragging on me about it, it is just my opinion. BUT, the biggest thing to remember about soft drinks is they are LOADED with sodium so you need to watch that as it will definitely make you retain water and may make it hard to lose. There is also the caffeine, and believe me, like one of the other posters said, the caffeine headaches are UNBELIEVABLE if you quit drinks with it in them!

When you are dieting, there are so few things that you can really enjoy from your "former" life on a regular basis so my suggestion would be just to cut back some. I was a regular soda drinker and drank gallons and I mean gallons a day as I don't care for tea or coffee. I kicked the habit (again) and only have a diet soda when I am having something like burgers or something like that and with my occasional chip snack or whatever.

Originally Posted by gma2one:
Personally, I think people freak out way too much about the artificial stuff.

Some people in this world do, yes. That's why I said I don't take it all to heart. I recall years ago when they were saying mustard caused cancer.

Uh-huh. Sure.