Diet sodas

[Caprock94]

No carbs and no sugar. Doesn't raise my blood sugar at all. However, some say they make you hungry. I'm starting to think this is true. Need to break this habit. Thoughts?

 

[bulkbiker]

Unnatural so best avoided?

 

[Caprock94]

Unnatural so best avoided?

I guess. Lots of debate on this one.

 

[Hotpepper20000]

I guess. Lots of debate on this one.

My view before I was diagnosed with type 2 and even more so now is that I am trying to keep everything that i eat as natural as possible.
Personal choice but I am trying to keep from craving sweet.
You know how you feel after consuming artificial sweeteners. Is it worth it?? Only you can decide.

 

[MrsA2]

I think one of the theories is that a large consumption bloats the stomach with air and it feels full, and gets used to feeling full, hence the urge to drink another and another. But a lot of the insulin resistance research is showing that we need to be empty often, and for longer, so that our metabolism start to work properly again. By keeping tummies artificially inflated isnt giving your body time to do its stuff.
This is why the intermittent fasting only has clear, flat, sugar free liquids in the fasting periods (water, tea, coffee)
Theres also theories that some substances in diet sodas maybe addictive.

You could try lengthening the time between each over a couple of weeks until you are down to none and see effect?

 

[Marie 2]

If you don't mind stevia, they have Sweetleaf stevia drops in all flavors, cola, root beer, lemon, watermelon etc. I love the chocolate added to soymilk. You can add the drops to water or seltzer water. Plus just good ol lemon, lime, cucumber or berries added to seltzer water is delicious and gives you the fizz.

 

[Caprock94]

I think one of the theories is that a large consumption bloats the stomach with air and it feels full, and gets used to feeling full, hence the urge to drink another and another. But a lot of the insulin resistance research is showing that we need to be empty often, and for longer, so that our metabolism start to work properly again. By keeping tummies artificially inflated isnt giving your body time to do its stuff.
This is why the intermittent fasting only has clear, flat, sugar free liquids in the fasting periods (water, tea, coffee)
Theres also theories that some substances in diet sodas maybe addictive.

You could try lengthening the time between each over a couple of weeks until you are down to none and see effect?

Good advice. Thanks!

 

[VashtiB]

This is a topic of debate. At the moment I am still drinking diet soda and diet mixers with alcohol. I often have one can over 2 or more days- other times it's once a day. I drink water during the day and something else at night if I feel like it.

I probably will want to give up some day but I have the rest of my life for that. I do find I crave more of the things made with artificial sweeteners but since I keep to less than 10 grams of carbs a day that limits what I can have.

 

[Amanda61]

I find diet sodas make me more thirsty, and just go back to drinking cold
Water, which quenches my thirst better. Sometimes I put in a slice of lime
Just to make it a bit more interesting.

 

[Bildad]

I suffered with chronic migraines (15 + per month) for many years.I hoped whe I went keto in 2018 they would stop but they didn't. Itried elimination of all the usual trigger foods to try to stop them chocolate, cheese etc without any effect. I was prescribed medication which caused side effects worse than the migraines themselves. I was drinking quite a lot of diet soda so in Jan 2020 I gave up all artificial sweetened products. (It was the only thing I hadn't tried to see if that was the trigger) I have not had a migraine since even with the stress of lockdown etc.
I can only speak from my experience but I will not ever touch them again they are not safe for me.

 

[bulkbiker]

I guess. Lots of debate on this one.

There may be lots of debate but there's nothing essential in diet sodas so don't have them?
Just my way of looking at it.

 

[Brunneria]

My attitude to this changes every few months or years.

I found that certain sweeteners gave me headaches and insomnia - so I stopped them
But I have no problems at all with xylitol, stevia, monkfruit and erythritol which are a heck of a lot less 'artificial' than aspartame or saccharine. Although I find stevia and monkfruit pretty vile tasting. And xylitol is poisonous to the dog half of our household.
Then I went all natural and so on, and tried to avoid any sweet stuff at all. That got old fast.
Then I discovered that sucralose, used in cheap fizzy drinks, causes me no problems (except the odd hunger pang) and this has opened up a slot for the occasional lemonade on a hot summer's evening, with a jolt of unsweetened, home made sloe gin in it. Heaven. I always drink it after a meal, so any hunger pangs are completely quashed.

All the above make me completely 100% uninterested in drinking anything sweet in pubs, bars and restaurants. I don't trust the staff to give me sugar free anything, and even if they did it would likely keep me awake and give me headaches. So occasionally at home, Tesco's own brand plain lemonade is perfect for me.

I guess it all boils down to personal tolerances, how often, portion size, and so on.

 

[porl69]

There may be lots of debate but there's nothing essential in diet sodas so don't have them?

Isnt rum essential


Without diet soda I would not be able to enjoy a rum and diet coke. They definitely do not make me any more hungry

 

[kev-w]

I prefer council pop to bubbled water but preferably served warm with milk and tea leaves & sweetex, I'd do a diet coke or fanta in a pub as they don't affect my blood sugars but mixed with rum I'd be writing the next couple of days off with man down syndrome

 

[Amanda61]

I suffered with chronic migraines (15 + per month) for many years.I hoped whe I went keto in 2018 they would stop but they didn't. Itried elimination of all the usual trigger foods to try to stop them chocolate, cheese etc without any effect. I was prescribed medication which caused side effects worse than the migraines themselves. I was drinking quite a lot of diet soda so in Jan 2020 I gave up all artificial sweetened products. (It was the only thing I hadn't tried to see if that was the trigger) I have not had a migraine since even with the stress of lockdown etc.
I can only speak from my experience but I will not ever touch them again they are not safe for me.

They say that aspartame is bad for you and that stuff is in a lot of diet drinks.

 

[JohnEGreen]

They say that aspartame is bad for you and that stuff is in a lot of diet drinks.

Depends a lot I suppose on who the "They" are that you take notice of.
"
"Sweetener linked to cancer is safe to use," reports the Mail Online.
Aspartame – a commonly used artificial sweetener – has been dogged by controversy, despite being deemed safe by food regulators in the UK, EU and US.
Some believe they are sensitive to the sweetener. Anecdotal reports suggest it can cause headaches and stomach upsets.
This study recruited 48 "aspartame-sensitive" individuals and tested whether giving them a cereal bar with or without aspartame would elicit the suspect symptoms. The study was a gold-standard double blind randomised controlled trial (RCT), meaning neither the participants nor those analysing the results knew which bar they had eaten. This made it a fairer and more rigorous test.
It showed that there was no difference in the symptoms reported after eating the aspartame-laced bar compared with the normal bar."

https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/research-casts-doubt-on-aspartame-sensitivity/

 

[MrsA2]

I confess to having had some diet ginger ale to water down some red wine tonight. This is the 4th time in 4 months. Like with most things I think occasional or 'in moderation' is fine. Problems are most likely to occur if it is regular, prolonged, excessive etc. I used to work with someone who drank 20 cans of diet coke a day. That was 40 years ago. I'd be very interested to know how he is now.

The OP mentioned "habit". That to me is a warning sign

 

[Marie 2]

But aspartame by far has been the most complained about ingredient in the US. The story behind its approval in the US is not great either.

A committee for the FDA said not to approve it. Rumsfeld/Hayes/Searle/Monsanto ended up being in charge of a new committee to get it approved and bypass all the years it was not approved. If you ever want interesting reading just put aspartame approval process into your search or how aspartame got approval in the US. Lots of articles from all different sources out there. It was a true manipulation of politics.

 

[Resurgam]

I always feel a bit spaced out, as we used to call it, when I drank something with aspartame in it. These days it is a lot less common, but I remember I was questioned as to what I was doing when I checked every version of fizzy drink along the aisle looking for something without aspartame. There wasn't anything, but the sales assistant seemed to think it was strange to 'be so picky'. I offered to drink some and drive along the road when she was on her way home if she thought it safe.

 

[Marie 2]

In the US soda wise there is all Zevia sodas sweetened with just stevia. Reeds or Virgils zero soda sweetened with just stevia. Blue Sky sugar free sweetened with stevia and erythritol. And then they are Spindrift sparkling with only fruit at 4 carbs. Also sparkling waters with no carbs and essence of fruit, nothing artificial flavor wise in Mountain Valley, La Croix, Perrier, Polar. I'm sure there is more out there too.