The Truth About Diet Soda - MSN Health & Fitness - Nutrition

Nothing I didn't know, or couldn't figure, before. And it won't stop me from drinking the stuff.
Mmmmm, diet Dr. Pepper <3

Ya know .. any time I see an article that begins with "The truth about ..." I have a knee-jerk reaction.

The thing is that most of these "the truth about" articles are nothing more than scare tactics. It's the same as the "what the X industry doesn't want you to know" articles. Nothing more than sensationalist media designed to get you to fall in line like a lemming.

There are some good points in that article and there are some utter bullshit points. One that particularly made me crack up is the bit about "diet sodas have no nutritional value". You wanna know something funny? WATER has no nutritional value either. Real, pure water has no vitamins, no minerals, no nutritional value except that it provides moisture. As does soda and diet soda.

Each person has to decide for themselves whether or not they want to consume artificial sweeteners, and therefore to drink diet sodas. I think there are valid points to either side of the debate.

I personally choose to drink Diet Coke IN MODERATION. That means I have 2 a week, on average. Sometimes I want the fizzyness and the caffeine. I choose to drink Diet Coke because it gives me the fizz and the caffeine w/out the added sugar. I don't personally believe that the artificial sweetener in 2 Diet Cokes a week is a deal breaker. Others do and I totally respect that.

But "the truth" about diet soda or any other artificial product is that YOU have to research it for yourself and make a decision. And I mean RESEARCH, not read scare tactic websites ... but read both points of view and make an EDUCATED AND INFORMED decision.

That, I respect. "The truth about" ... I don't respect at all.

I found the article's summation to be reasoned:

The bottom line is this: Diet soda does you no good, and it might just be doing you harm.

Couldn't the same be said for a lot of things?

High fructose corn syrup, for example. Does it do you any good? Does regular soda? Does saturated fat? Although if drinking diet soda once or twice a month reduces my stress levels and hydrates me, I'd think that's something at least!

And if switching to diet soda keeps my brother from drinking an extra 1000 calories in a day... still seems like some good. Although it seems like whether or not it does any good is determined by the individual.

I am an artificial sweetner junkie.

it POSSIBLY may do harm, but so does being fat. ill take my chances.
I know i should drink water..all the time..but sorry i cant stand it unless after sweating or doing something strenuous.

but as far as people saying "It does you harm because it makes you crave more sugar in the end, gaining weight."
Sorry I lost 75 pounds ...drinking diet sodas and artificial sweetners in teas, koolaid etc.

but seriously, more power to people who only drink water. I wish I would but..blehhh. hahah

Like everything, if taken in moderation will do you no harm. One glass of wine is good for you but a bottle, not so much. I agree that "the Truth about" articles are always more about scaring you that providing straigth facts.

When in doubt, drink water, oh no wait I read that certain brands contain high levels of chlorine, ooohhh scary. LOL!

I agree w/ Bois...well said!

Couldn't agree with you more!

I can not stand the taste of anything diet. Whether they are good, or bad, I will always choose water or juice over a diet soda. If I'm not drinking the real thing, I'll skip the diet stuff.

if im going to drink soda its always the real thing i don't mess around with diet soda's thay don't tastes the same ever and there still just as bad for ya just in other ways

I never touch diet anything. I've always believed that having less of something real is better for me. I scare easily though.

Sounds like a load of bollocks to me, if you had a can of coke, and a can of diet coke, then clearly diet just saved you 200 odd calories, thats a good thing!
I have to quote some of this garbage to put it into perspective, because its been carefully worded so it SOUNDS like they have a lot of FACTS but they don't

"emerging research" - Wheres the actual research? with facts on large number and wide range of groups (rather than a couple of college test cases)

"There remain some concerns over aspartame" - No there doesnt, there are bunches of fanatics who spread tons of unknowledgeable "facts"

"some animal research has linked " - But again no facts and animals are genetically made differently (I cant believe they are still testing on animals!)

A bunch of other things right away make me think twice about the entire story
"suggests that", "may lead to", "reported side effects",


So, IMHO, Im not saying Diet is good for you at all, but that article is really biased and baseless without any facts or references.

So you're saying you never eat Takeaways ever? Nothing processed? bwahah

I love Diet Coke!!!

Unfortunately the body is FAR more complex than a mere machine that simply takes in gas or electricity and then uses up that exact amount. There are numerous studies that determined the opposite. Here's just one example of the theories on why artificial sweeteners MAY do more harm than good.

Artificial Sweeteners Linked To Weight Gain

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," the authors wrote.

The authors acknowledge that this outcome may seem counterintuitive and might not come as welcome news to human clinical researchers and health-care practitioners, who have long recommended low- or no-calorie sweeteners. What's more, the data come from rats, not humans. However, they noted that their findings match emerging evidence that people who drink more diet drinks are at higher risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome, a collection of medical problems such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance that put people at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Why would a sugar substitute backfire" Swithers and Davidson wrote that sweet foods provide a "salient orosensory stimulus" that strongly predicts someone is about to take in a lot of calories. Ingestive and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn't followed by lots of calories, the system gets confused. Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would.

Sure there is the possibility that artificial sweeteners have no harmful effects, but if there is the opposite possibility I personally dont find it worth it more than once in a blue moon. I mostly see overweight people using artificial sweeteners and drinking diet soda, not really normal weighted people as much. To each his own .