Question regarding diet drinks

[The_Tick]

I will tell you this...

When I had my gastric bypass, this is what they told me:

Don't drink soda of any kind. Soda induces snacking.

They are right. Within 10 minutes of drinking a soda I find that my fat ass is scrounging for munchie stuff.

Try going to the movie and ordering just a soda, and not get the popcorn. Wont happen.

I have no idea if there is "sound medical evidence" to prove they are right, but hell...my head tells me they are right.

[ERCougar]

I recently read about a study that suggested that diet drinks provoke more calorie consumption by adjusting the body's normal tolerance for sweets. Even though Diet Coke isn't all that 'sweet' per se, the sugar substitutes in it still somehow up the body's craving and desire for sweet foods, so that when the person does indulge in sweet, high-calorie foods, he/she eats more than the control-group (who drank no artificial sweeteners) did.

Yeah! That's what I think. I wonder where that study is.

I think sugary foods are worse than fatty foods, in general. Fat causes the secretion of hormones which make you feel satisfied, or "full". This may be delayed, but at least there is some sort of "brake" on the eating process. Sugars just make you crave more. Americans need to get off their sugar-fix. I really think that a person could forget about calorie counts and just rid their diet of added/artificial sugars and totally control their weight. I saw this happen in one case where a woman just stopped eating "sweets". That's it. No going crazy about reading labels--if it looked/sounded like a "sweet", she wouldn't eat it. She lost 50+ lbs and has kept it off for years now because she lost her addiction to sweets. I think there's something to this.

[Solon]

Yeah! That's what I think. I wonder where that study is.

I think sugary foods are worse than fatty foods, in general. Fat causes the secretion of hormones which make you feel satisfied, or "full". This may be delayed, but at least there is some sort of "brake" on the eating process. Sugars just make you crave more. Americans need to get off their sugar-fix. I really think that a person could forget about calorie counts and just rid their diet of added/artificial sugars and totally control their weight. I saw this happen in one case where a woman just stopped eating "sweets". That's it. No going crazy about reading labels--if it looked/sounded like a "sweet", she wouldn't eat it. She lost 50+ lbs and has kept it off for years now because she lost her addiction to sweets. I think there's something to this.

Here's where I read about it, although on second-reading, my paraphrase was a bit crude: http://www.economist.com/science/dis...id=E1_TDGRRGNS

(I think it's a premium article for subscribers, though, since it's now over a year old.)

My younger sister has been off of "sweets" for about a year now. She wasn't really overweight (maybe 10 lbs.) but now she's really lean and ripped (in the female bodybuilder kind of way). No dieting, just cut out the "sweets".

[Pheidippides]

I saw this happen in one case where a woman just stopped eating "sweets". That's it. No going crazy about reading labels--if it looked/sounded like a "sweet", she wouldn't eat it. She lost 50+ lbs and has kept it off for years now because she lost her addiction to sweets. I think there's something to this.

I completely believe this. I have cut out sweets as well (and I mean completely) and I don't really have a taste for them anymore. I allowed myself one serving of ice cream the other day and I found that it was too sweet all of a sudden.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I drink lots of diet drinks. But very few sweets.

[wuapinmon]

I want to try these

[Shakey]

I drink a lot of Diet Coke. A lot.

That said, I have always thought that DC and diet drinks are like a gateway drug: they make you eat lots of crap you wouldn't eat otherwise.

Drink a diet drink and eat a bag of chips, no problem.

Drink a bottle of water and eat a bag of chips, not as likely.

[ERCougar]

I drink lots of diet drinks. But very few sweets.

This is an obvious lie and a weak attempt to tear me down in order to regain your physics supremacy.

[kccougar]

How about the phosphates? I think I remember reading about phosphates interfering with calcium and weakening bone structure. Obviously this would only apply to Shakey and his 128oz-a-day Diet Dr Pepper habit.

[kccougar]

Here's where I read about it, although on second-reading, my paraphrase was a bit crude: http://www.economist.com/science/dis...id=E1_TDGRRGNS

(I think it's a premium article for subscribers, though, since it's now over a year old.)

My younger sister has been off of "sweets" for about a year now. She wasn't really overweight (maybe 10 lbs.) but now she's really lean and ripped (in the female bodybuilder kind of way). No dieting, just cut out the "sweets".

Here's another article that probably addresses the same issue (I couldn't view the one you posted).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/he...er&oref=slogin

[Shakey]

How about the phosphates? I think I remember reading about phosphates interfering with calcium and weakening bone structure. Obviously this would only apply to Shakey and his 128oz-a-day Diet Dr Pepper habit.

True. I'm an all-or-nothing guy. I can drink no Diet Coke or 128 ounces. Nothing in between. I would be happy if I could have my can a day or every other day.

[scottie]

This was not a healthy way of losing weight, but about 6 years ago I got some serious focus and lost 20 lbs in 30 days, went from 185 to 165. I did it by vastly reducing my daily caloric intake plus some exercise (rode a stationary bike for 20 minutes every other day is all). I didn't care how much fat I was eating, all I cared about were the # of cals. What I felt got me through it physically (maybe more so mentally) was Diet Coke; I was seriously drinking 100 ounces of it a day. A can of DC kept me from wanting/needing to eat something.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I have a sneaking suspicion that diet drinks are counterproductive to weight loss. No one's been able to prove this, but if you look at our country over the last 30 years, the prevalence of "diet" products, including soft drinks, has exploded. So have our waistlines. Obviously, this could be a reverse causation, i.e. Americans are fatter due to other reasons, their demand for diet products has increased, and thus the higher prevalence of these products. But you'd think that with so many people drinking and eating diet products, there would at least be some effect.

Here's my theory--Americans are addicted to sweet tastes. They simply don't go for anything that's not intensely sweet. Some have managed to break this addiction and we call these people "thin". Some haven't and simply go the diet route. However, they haven't addressed the root cause of their fatness--addiction to sweet tastes and lots of them. Diet drinks support this until their next binge.

In the end, to lose weight and keep it off, you have to develop a taste for good, healthy food. Diet drinks hinder this.

A lot of people that buy diet food also buy copious amounts of it and other garbage. My dad has a secretary that had a gastric bypass done, and now has gained a lot of the weight back and just munches on crap all day, most of it "lite."

I bet there's a strong correlation between the proliferation of corn syrup into American food and obesity.

[UtahDan]

I read a long time ago that the aspartame in nutrasweet causes you to crave salty food.

[Colly Wolly]

Switching to only diet sodas and crystal light resulted in my losing about 20-25 pounds over the course of a year. No other aspects of my lifestyle changed (particularly exercise levels) other than I tried to cut back slightly on the sweets and junk.