Are diet sodas bad for you?

I've been trying to cut back on the calories lately and have taken a liking to colas such as diet pepsi and diet coke.

Now, when I say "bad", I mean bad in the sense that there are no harmful chemicals that are gonna give me cancer down the road. I know that any soda is bad for me in terms of caffeine, etc. However, I'm trying to cut down one vice at a time...

Thanks for any info!

worse than the original's extra calories and sugar in the long run

I managed to wean myself off of soft-drinks almost altogether without any "stepdown", I may have 1 a week maximum, just because.

It may take 1-2 weeks to get 'used' to being sugarless, but youll soon discover that you dont miss them that much, AND if you have trouble sleeping, cutting the caffeine is really helpful, even if you only have caffeine in the morning.

for you.

I never drink the shit and don't allow my kids to drink diet - maybe, a little ginger ale or sprite. Diet tastes terrible to me - I frankly haven't a clue how this stuff is so popular.

Stick to beer - all natural.

If you can find me a beer with 0 caloric content, then I will become a beer guzzling fool!

That being said, who knows how we individually metabolize the stuff. Someone recommended this book,"Handbook of Food Additives, 2nd Edition". It retails for like $270 new on Amazon but I got an excellent used copy for $20 from a private seller. It's amazing how stuff is processed. Even stuff from plants goes through a process that I think is similar to the "cracking" process of petroleum. I try to eat as much organic food as possible. Even down here in NW Florida, they have a lot of organic stuff these days.

*grammar edit*

http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html

Gee, the story just sounds soooo familiar.

...one doctor said that, strictly for health concerns, sugared drinks were better for you than nutrasweet drinks.

I've been drinking flavored water sweetened with Splenda...

http://www.fruit20.com/

Grape flavor rocks!

So I try to limit my sodas. I've found that drinking sodas from the smaller cans (more expensive, but it seems to work for me) helps. I only get 100 calories at most instead of 150 or so from sipping a full can.

about how diet sodas can corrode your teeth. I've never liked diet soda but I'm cutting calories so I drink water instead of sugar soda. A real Coke is now quite a treat, just like a glass of whole milk.

Wisconsin Dental Association has been running those ads, too.

All colas (and I think other sodas as well) contain phosphoric acid.

Let me tell you what this shit will do: I was rebuilding an engine a few years ago that was seized. The machinist I use told me he could hone the cylinder bores well enough to salvage the block, but I'd need to get the pistons out. How? "Buy two cases of diet Pepsi and a big washtub. Put the engine in the washtub, pour in all the diet Pepsi and leave it for two weeks. Then try turning the engine over with a wrench." It worked.

as the acid that naturally resides in our stomaches.

Dark colas are good for cleaning all kinds of stuff like engine grease, battery terminals, etc. Diet is good because aspartame doesn't get sticky the way high fructose corn syrup does.

American soda just blows because they use corn syrup or aspartame. If they used cane sugar, then it would taste so much better and be so low in calories that we wouldn't need diet sodas.

Which is in virtually all sodas is it prevents Calcium from attaching to the bones. Try some of the flavored carbonated waters.

takes the place of calcium.
Even girls who were athletic, but ingested sodas had more broken bones due to less calcium in the bones. This acid is different from HCL found in the stomach to digest.
In the old days (mother and grandparents) sodas were called phosphates.
And, in some diabetics, even 'fake' sugar upped their glucose count.
Splenda and another sugar product, I forget the name, have their sugar molecule reversed so the body doesn't recognize it as sugar.
BTW, refined sugar until the 19th century was sold as a pharmaceutical.

usually doesn't get close enough to your teeth to do them any harm.

Coca-Cola used to contain cane sugar--this before they realized they could save money by using corn syrup. No one ever accused that product of being low in sugar. But you're right, soda sweetened with corn syrup tastes worse than soda sweetened with sugar.

the sweetener they use converts into wood alcohol whe broken down in the body, it affects the brain by eating little holes in it plus it taste bad. I wont let the kids drink it. My motto is if I have to drink diet, I don't need it.

on edit: I think Rumsfiend used to run the company that makes it. You gotta know that that ain't good!

but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

Somerset County water is so delightfully delicious and free! If only the city water in Rochester, NY was as good.

and can give you diabetes. If you're worried about the chemicals in diet sodas, you're better off switching to water. Or at least fruit juices, which give you vitamin C along with the sugar. Or low fat milk?

fruit juices give you an overload of glucose. It is better to each the fruit along with the fiber it gives you.

I suppose it's possible..could be a dirty trick to make you keep buying Diet. :tinfoilhat:

There is something in them called "empty calories". It's been a while since I've heard it but she's not the only one to believe it.

Just kidding.

Splenda is a "reverse sugar" - it's actually a sucralose engineered without the carbohydrates - tastes, cooks, and mixes just like C & H cane sugar, to my taste. Only a slight aftertaste. No major side affects that I can find when used normally - heck, when I mix it with yeast for breadmaking as I normally would mix sugar in, it reacts exactly like sugar (unlike other "sweeteners") and does not leave the slightest aftertaste.
I suppose you can run health risks if you down an entire 24 oz box a day...
Hanson's Diet Sodas (about 5 or 6 different flavors - including a great gingerale and peach!) and Diet Rite (cola, tangerine, raspberry, white grape, peach, strawberry kiwi) are currently the major soda types that use Splenda - unfortunately, if you also have a craving for caffeine, neither brands have caffeinated colas. Diet Rite Cola has a rather unique taste as it is - unlike the other diet sodas mentioned above, RC retained the formulation to keep it tasting like a diet cola, rather than try and change it to taste more like RC Cola.

Arizona brand teas use Splenda for their diet tea drinks. I especially like their diet green tea drink. V-8 "Splash" diet drinks also use Splenda instead of corn syrup, they're very good for those on reduced carb diets as "treat drinks".
Basically, drinks using Splenda as a sweetener will be like drinking regular sodas without the carbs.

I have yet to find a diet rootbeer that uses Splenda :( - ah well, perhaps Hanson's will eventually formulate the rest of their regular soda flavors so that we can have grapefruit, vanilla cola, and rootbeer, too!

A side - be careful about the more "food" like goods that claim to use sucralose as a sweetener - I've found some use both sucralose and aspartame (NutraSweet)- "sugar free" cookies and ice cream are notorious for using that particular mixture to offset the aftertaste of NutraSweet- and anyone with a sensitivity to NutraSweet will get a nasty reaction.

Happy drinking!

Haele

the only thing that will really quench ones thirst.

NOT SODA!

Food is the new Sex.

--bkl