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Coke zero as a treat

Dzialo said:
I read online that diet drinks are not advised because of the side effects it can cause but how about coke zero?? My friend tells me that's the best non sugar drink you'll find??
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Please read what I have posted about artificial sweeteners Dzialo and stop taking the zero coke to protect your health.
 
Caroline777 said:
Hi Opalshards I am glad to see that you know the truth about Aspartame as well so many more people need to know the truth about this toxic sweetener.
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People also need to be aware that aspartame is not only used as a sweetener in diet drinks, but also alongside sugar in the regular versions of the drink. When I decided to give up artificial sweeteners several years ago, I could only find one orange squash in my local supermarket which did not contain aspartame.

When I became diabetic my nurse asked if I had read the Diabetes UK booklet that she had given me. I said 'yes', but I had put it away again because there were at least three bits of advice in there that I considered to be bad.
1. drink diet drinks.
2. eat wholemeal carbs.
3. eat 5 portions of fruit and veg daily (not enough)

I began drinking diet drinks in the first place because I had a leaflet from my local surgery about weight loss saying 'drink as much fluid as you can, diet drinks are ideal' It's easy to make the mistake of blindly following what health care professionals tell you...until you have been caught out by bad advice. Then you learn to research it.
 

I agree. In me, aspartame caused fatty liver, which in turn caused insulin resistance, which caused weight gain ( several stones), which caused diabetes, which caused worse eyesight. I have had heart problems, but I believe these were in the most part caused by a combination of blood pressure tablets, as I had given up all sweeteners for a few years before the problems started.

Of course this is wonderful for the 'diet' industry because I now really DO need to lose weight.
 
Hi Zand,

How do you know it was aspartame that caused your fatty liver? And does fatty liver cause insulin resistance? Not being deliberately argumentative, just genuinely interested as someone who also has suffered from elevated liver numbers. Thanks.
 

Can't remember which liver test it was, sorry, it's the one that should be below 35. Well mine was 154 and 158 in the next one. The only thing I changed was stopping the diet drinks and it went down to around 80. I had been to the doctor because I couldn't lose weight. She wasn't very helpful so I bought a load of books and read about syndrome X and insulin resistance. It all fitted. I remember reading that fatty liver and also a high cholesterol ratio could cause insulin resistance.. Since cutting out the worst carbs...bread, sugar , pasta, potatoes, rice ...my reading has gone down to 40. I did read on a thread here the other day that the body 'thinks' diet drinks are like carbs, so this could explain why. Sorry, I can't remember which books now, it was a long time ago.

I decided to work on my liver because if that wasn't working properly, how could I lose weight?

I should also mention that my intake of fats, both saturated and unsaturated has gone up during this time.

I realise this isn't very scientific, but nowadays I tend to listen to anecdotal evidence, especially if I have heard the same thing from 3 or 4 people. I have found out many valuable pieces of advice this way. Hope this helps, it may or it may not.
 
Thanks for such a comprehensive answer. Very helpful. I have found that reducing carbs and losing weight has helped my liver numbers but still a way to go on both counts. Thanks again
 


Thanks for all that info, I would be interested in the sources of your information.

When it comes down to it, it really is an individual choice just as everything else is but I don't think that putting anything artificial foodwise into my body can be a good thing can it? It would seem to me to be extremely difficult to avoid all sources of artificial food really but as I try to eat products that are as natural as I can find I am doing all I can to improve my previous bad habits.

I am not too convinced that very small amounts of artificial product now and again will kill me but I don't drink any artificial drinks anyhow so am probably not qualified to talk about that.

We have water pumped to the house from a tank in the garden, It tastes pretty 'earthy' so we have a water filter out of necessity. I find a squirt of lime or lemon juice and a couple of ice cubes are enough for me.
 
The only problem with all of this, is that most of the research on sweetners was funded by the sugar industry.


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/02/magazine/29mag-food-issue.html?ref=magazine#/health
 
I found this, not offering any opinion on my part but Healthy Food Guide here in NZ doesn't haven't any axe to grind or anything to gain, they are, as far as I am aware, an independent publication. Even if you are incensed by this, try to get to the end of it, the last paragraph is useful.

http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/articles/2008/november/ask-the-experts-diet-drinks

Just noticed the date of this article, it may not be the most up to date I suppose but does seem pretty comprehensive.
 
Dzialo said:
I read online that diet drinks are not advised because of the side effects it can cause but how about coke zero?? My friend tells me that's the best non sugar drink you'll find??
Click to expand...


30 years ago there was a scare about fizzy drinks using saccharin as a sweetener, but you needed to be drinking 300 bottles per day to get cancer. Some sugar free drinks are better than others though, the worst you'll get is an upset tummy. Cola based drinks though used to potentially cause kidney trouble, but that was the coca, not the sweetener. Again, just go easy on quantity.

My favourite is Morrisons Diet Lemonade, which is zero calorie, zero carbs and zero lemons. So I add the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon into it along with some of the yellow flesh - not the pith or rind. The flesh is high in soluble fibre. The result, if you keep the lemonade in the fridge, is an excellent quality fresh lemon fizzy drink, better than any so called gourmet lemonades. I use a whole lemon to one large glass. Satifies for at least an hour.

Learn to love iced green tea too. Here a mintyy version of it:

 
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Hi Popsy I will have to go back over my notes etc - will give you links in a day or so. Because of the freedom of information acts you can trace back and read how bribery and corruption got aspartame in to the food and especially drink products, even some medication. However, unless you know about aspartame you are not going to access this information in the first place so most people wouldn't know that it is there.
 


Hi Popsy and anyone else who want to find out more:


Here are some of the websites I went on – they have changed their websites somewhat now to when I last went on them but you can find a lot of stuff about Aspartame on them. Please remember I did months and months of research on this so do read as you can and you will be amazed and horrified at what you find here.


http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-information.html


http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/aspartame-poison.html


http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/aspartame-and-diabetes.html


http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/


http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/burdock/


http://thetruthaboutstuff.com/review1.html
 
Well said Joe Sweatthang. I totally agree with you.
 
I don't know how uk is. But in US, I tend to use Splenda. Which is considered one of the top choice for diabetics.
If I really wanted something fizzy,
I would get club soda, cut some lemon, strawberry or raspberry ( I only eat berries and kiwis) put a pack or two of Splenda with some mint leaves . Last for a long time and very refreshing
Long ti


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