June 02, 2009

Wait a minute... it said DIET soda on the label

Okay, pop quiz time. Which of these terms does not belong in this list?

Red meat, fried food, diet soda, George Clooney

Original photo courtesy SanFranAnnie


Yes, you're right!
Turns out old George is not likely to give you metabolic syndrome issues.


According to the National Institute of Health the other three are.

Wait a minute.

Red meat and fried food I know are bad for me, but ... diet soda? Yep.

Maybe you all already knew this, but that was news to me. Not juice, not regular soda, but the diet stuff leads to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome.

Would the National Institute of Health lie? Yes, I know they're part of the government, but they're a pretty dull part so I'm going with "no." At least as far as this study is concerned. Diet soda was strongly associated with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome, although sweetened beverages such as juices and regular soda were not. According to the NIH, other recent studies have found links between diet soda and metabolic syndrome as well as weight gain.

The NIH considers that "findings in rodents suggest that artificial sweeteners may lead to increased intake because they may interfere with the body's ability to properly assess how many calories are in foods."

That goes against everything I thought I knew about satiety.
They always told me the stomach sends messages of "full" to the brain about 20 minutes after you really are full, so I thought satisfaction was caused by a feeling of fullness. Just drinking a ton of water should make you feel full, let alone a ton of water flavored with artificial sweeteners.

Why else does gastric bypass surgery work? I mean, people who have their stomach stapled feel full after two bean sprouts and a celery stalk, so they lose weight. Right?

Original graphic courtesy of willietling

I'm kinda freaked by the idea of the body having an internal calorie counter. Can't stop from picturing a little guy with a white coat and a clipboard, stationed somewhere near the entrance to the stomach and counting the calories as they come in to make sure they're the right sort.


Protein? Check.
Fat? Definite check.
Carbs? Okay, we're low. Send down another 4 g of carbs, stat!

Another study, which I gleaned from a classic post on The Great Fitness Experiment, is even worse. This study claims that artificial sweeteners make you gain weight because they alter your brain chemistry.

Ack! It might not be on a level with Einstein's, but I'd like to keep my brain and its chemistry set the way it was designed, thankyouverymuch.

When a study that I don't like comes along, I feel like putting my fingers in my ears and singing La, la, la -- only it would sound a lot better than that, in fact Simon Cowell would applaud when I stopped. (Or because I stopped.)

But when a bunch of studies come out and they all point in the same direction, there's only one possible conclusion I can come to. It's a government conspiracy.

Did you all know that diet soda was the spawn of Satan? Do you still drink it anyway or has the government shown you the error of your ways brainwashed you with its evil conspiracy?

59 comments:

  1. I'm worrying now that I really am the last person on the face of the planet to learn that diet soda causes weight gain.
    Did anyone else not know this?

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  2. Yes, the dangers of soda (dissolving your bones & contains addictive substances, including caffeine) and the aspartame have been known for ages. Together they are diabolical and they do cause weight gain... Do people lose weight when they drink diet soda instead of regular soda? No, they don't!

    You know me... I have strong opinions about food and I try to eat very well most of the time, but on the (very) odd occasion, I'll have something that I know is unhealthy, like cake, meat, pasta, cheese, etc. But I never, never consume anything with artificial sweetener in. I just can't bring myself to do it - for me it would be like taking a swig from a bottle of drain cleaner...

    The government is only saying it now, but scientists have been saying it for years. The debate about aspartame has been raging since 1973 and it's been banned in some countries... But we've been so brainwashed by advertising!

    A friend of mine noticed enormous health improvements when she stopped consuming this poison. You really are better off without it!

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  3. Dissolves my bones?
    Wait a minute, Hanlie, did you say diet soda dissolves my bones?????

    That sounds like something out of a Stephen Frickin' King novel! Yikes and double yikes!

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  4. Excellent post. My brother drinks diet soda and I tell him its better than regular but its still not good. I wasn't really sure why, I just know it has no nutrional value. Thanks for the post, I might send it to him. Great info!

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  5. I knew this, and not having really drank soda much at all, I just switched over to regular the once in a blue moon that I do order the good 'ole american coca-cola! All the stuff they put into soda is dis-gust-ing! I heard they use coke to clean blood off highways (It has about a .5% chance of being true, but either way, eek!)

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  6. I don't tend to drink it much unless I am out and stuck for something to drink while my friends are consuming vast amounts of alcohol. But I had been noticing so many people saying they are giving it up on blogs etc and wondered what the deal was. Now, I see. Very interesting, will switch to drinking spring water when I go out now....

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  7. Yes diet sodas are awful, but I do know someone who lost a reasonable amount of weight switching from the real sugar one to the diet version. Anyway, what's that point about your internal calorie counter!?! I'm intrigued - do you have any research on it or a tiny link about where I could read more?

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  8. Hey Spring Girl,

    This is a starting point:

    Artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body's ability to count calories:
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040630081825.htm

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  9. this is a hard one for me.
    I totally employ the C-word here. DAILY.
    CHOICE.
    I know it
    I choose otherwise
    I choose to have one a daily
    pretty much every day
    but I also choose NOT to have more than one for the reasons you have pointed out
    do I wish I didnt even have my one?
    No :) not really.
    I HEART MY MOMMY MERLOT, errr, Diet Dr Pepper...

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  10. It's one of the many reasons I switched to water only. I don't even want it anymore. I had known it was "bad", but never knew why until reading one of Dr. Oz's books.

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  11. Another reason why I'm glad I'm hooked on unsweetened iced tea and not diet drinks. Now don't tell me about the evils of caffeine *sticks fingers in ears* lalala I can't hear you!

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  12. I'll fess up: I drink diet soda. Not huge amounts, but probably about 5 a week. I also use splenda in my coffee, and am experimenting with truvia.

    It's one of those things that while research says it might lead to weight gain for others, for me it doesn't. It's helped me maintain weight loss over a number of years.I still feel like I need more scientific consensus that it it's bad for ME, not for some hypothetical person who is eating more sweets because of it.

    Many of the other alarmist reports on the web about diet soft drinks have not been accepted by mainstream sources, and there has been a fair amount of research saying that at least Splenda won't kill you. I need something really concrete and convincing to give up something I enjoy--I suspect I would go back to sugar rather than abstain entirely, which I don't think would do great things for my health either.

    However, I need to check out this new info on metablolic syndrome and see what's up with that. I hope they controlled for the fact that people who drink diet sodas would likely be a different (and possibly heavier) segment of the population than people who don't.

    (I loved this line, Merry: "Would the National Institute of Health lie? Yes, I know they're part of the government, but they're a pretty dull part so I'm going with "no.")

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  13. Guess I am lucky, because I absolutely LOATHE soda, diet or otherwise. Hanlie - I thought I was the only one who referred to it as poison! :-) Diet soda I can sort of understand someone drinking, but never understood when folks practically bragged about downing 6-8 cans of regular stuff a day - don't they realize how many empty calories that is?? Not worth it to me...

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  14. I can't stand the taste of diet drinks. I know people who have lost weight on them, but I also seem to know a lot of people who are overweight that still drink the stuff.

    Just give me a plain old, unhealthy, sugar-containing soda instead.

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  15. I have read about these studies for quite some time now. Not just diet soda but artificial sweeteners being the cause. I used to drink diet soda way back before work stress & them did not mix with my tummy & then I stopped & never went back. I do use artificial sweeteners now. Neither has caused me to eat more nor did they cause probs BUT I have heard others say differently. Maybe for me, just using them helps me stick to the way I want to eat. Just never had a prob with all that but I still don't drink diet sodas. Water & my beloved flavored coffee!

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  16. I don't drink it anymore. I do use stevia to sweeten my coffee and iced tea, but that's about it.

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  17. I vaguely remember reading something - years ago now - saying that drinking diet soda can cause you to consume more calories because you are drinking something that tastes sweet so your body expects calories, leading you to end up eating more...Or something like that; it was a long time ago.

    I don't like diet soda. I do like soda (love my Coca-Cola) and for a while I tried switching to diet, but I just never got used to the taste. I would rather just have a can of the real thing once a week.

    And internal calorie counter? Wha? I'm thinking an awful lot of people (me included) have faulty ones...

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  18. I drink it occasionally but I drink water most of the time, I'm not a fan of anything processed or artificial so I try really hard to keep it out of my diet.
    sometimes of course failing miserably. lol

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  19. I'm nodding along here to what Crabby McSlacker's saying.

    I dropped the coke-a-day habit years ago, but nowadays if I'm going to a movie or grilling up some veggie dogs, I'll have a coke zero (or coke zero vanilla!) For me, it's a way to enjoy a soda without adding a couple hundred calories to whatever I'm eating.

    WRT rat studies, I would be interested to see how much artificial sweetener they were getting. A lot of times I hear these alarming claims only to find that the amount of whatever substance the rats were getting is the equivalent of a human drinking 12 gallons of diet coke every day.

    As for there being a correlation between artificial sweetener consumption and metabolic syndrome, it's interesting, but like any correlation, it should be the beginning of deeper research not a cause for alarm.

    And this is totally anecdotal and so worth about nothing, but I grew up eating no artificial sweeteners, but I sure as heck loved fatty and sweet foods. I became obese and developed metabolic syndrome. Now I eat far more artificial sweeteners than I ever have before (although still not many, maybe a few packets of splenda per day most days) and am losing weight and improving all my health numbers.

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  20. It’s all quite distorted now. It’s like we are in some kind of fatness maze, and we can’t get out so we keep trying different go nowhere paths. The key is not to keep trying to find the cheese. The key is making the cheese, or diet soda as it were, much less the center of our lives.

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  21. I'm right there with Crabby. I do have probably 1-2 diet sodas a day, and occasional splenda.

    Drinking diet soda was a transition from the fully-loaded kind i drank throughout my childhood/college years.

    Maybe i should experiment by going water-only for a week or two and see what happens? Could be intriguing.

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  22. I gave up diet soda oh so many years ago and now strictly go with water. I found out I didn't feel great since the caffeine was still in there.

    I just stole this from Wikipedia: Animal studies have indicated that artificial sweeteners cause body weight gain. A sweet taste induces an insulin response, which causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues (including fat), but because blood sugar does not increase with artificial sugars, there is hypoglycemia and increased food intake the next time there is a meal. After a while, rats given sweeteners have steadily increased caloric intake, increased body weight, and increased adiposity (fatness). Furthermore, the natural responses to eating sugary foods (eating less at the next meal and using some of the extra calories to warm the body after the sugary meal) are gradually lost.

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  23. thanks, your article is very informative.

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  24. Just to get another opinion:

    "The February study, “A Role for Sweet Taste: Caloric Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats,” alleges a link between low-calorie sweeteners and weight gain. However, previous studies in humans have shown that low-calorie sweeteners can be helpful in weight control. “Everything old is new again: similar studies on the uncoupling of sweetness and calories in humans were conducted back in 1989 – and to no great effect,” noted Drewnowski. Among criticisms of the study identified by nutrition experts were:

    Small sample size. The original clinical study by Rogers and Blundell (1989), not cited in this report, used 24 humans. The present study is based on 27 rats.

    Preabsorptive (“cephalic phase”) insulin release, the body’s supposed reaction to non-caloric sweet taste, is cited as the potential mechanism for overeating. The problem is that there is no cephalic phase insulin release in humans following the ingestion of aspartame, as demonstrated by Abdallah et al (1997) and not referenced here.

    A recent study, also based on rats, showed that any flavor associated with a lack of calories led to overeating – even salt. However, that effect was observed only in very young rats (4 weeks) and disappeared 4 weeks later.

    Findings in animal (e.g., rat) studies are not necessarily applicable to humans. Generally, clinical studies with humans follow animal studies. The present study went backwards.

    Some have blamed “sweet tooth” and sugar calories for rising obesity rates. Others now blame “sweet tooth” and the absence of sugar calories for rising obesity rates. The human desire for sweet taste is an innate reflex that is present at birth: it is not learned, it is not acquired, it is not conditioned – and it is not going away anytime soon." "

    You can read the full article here
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/kc-sct020808.php

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  25. I'm not so surprised by the fact that diet soda can contribute to weight gain as I am by the fact that regular soda (and juices) don't seem to contribute to metabolic syndrome. Huh??? How can that be?

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  26. I'm still not sure I can give up my one diet coke a day.

    But since I'm worried about my brain size (lack of B 12 ya know) I may have to re-think my pre-breakfast habit.

    Pretty soon there won't be anything for me to mix my rum with. :)

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  27. The last sentence of the previous post pretty much sums up my conundrum! I don't know - I drank diet whatever for years and quite liked it. I won't touch regular soda with a ten-foot pole and so it seemed like a good compromise. But if it's actually making me fatter?? Egads.

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  28. NOoooOOOOoooo not diet soda too! Sigh. It's like the death of Santa Claus. Just another source of disenchantment, disillusionment and other dis- words I can't think of. Yea, oh well. Soda IS the devil, I mean, have you noticed that you can use it as a cleaning product? But about artificial sweeteners...I'm kinda bummed. I'm still waiting for a study to come out showing that Splenda makes you grow an extra appendage or something. We'll see!

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  29. I never liked artificial sweeteners. I don't like how they make things taste sweeter AFTER you've finished swallowing. It's just too weird for me.

    I guess I never really liked soda that much either. I'll usually get a can, finish about half of it, then lose interest. It used to drive my husband nuts.

    I think what this really comes down to is that you can't cheat with chemicals and other things. Just eat healthy and natural and wean your taste buds off crazy sweet and fatty foods. It hurts at first, but then later you're not fighting cravings and having to go for second best.

    And I'm more likely to believe studies that tell me not to spend my money on products while discounting studies that say buying something questionable is okay. Of course, this may result in me eating nothing but wheat grass, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

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  30. " a little guy with a white coat and a clipboard, stationed somewhere near the entrance to the stomach"

    I keep picturing mine as a tiny Cookie Monster calling up the esophagus for more.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

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  31. I don't care. I mean, I do, or I wouldn't bother responding, but I have heard so many times that the way to lose weight is to cut the diet pop and drink lots of water. And I believe it, I do. Honestly, I know that it is the way to go. But I feel like I NEED my diet coke or diet mountain dew. It is an addiction, and a pleasant one for me. I will drink more water AND more diet pop, but the only way I am going to stop drinking diet pop is to switch to regular, which I don't even like because it tastes like syrup to me. And you know what? Diet pop gives me energy throughout the day, it lets me feel like I am having treats that I enjoy, and it makes me feel full. I even drink it while hiking sometimes. And yes, caffeine dehydrates you, I know. But I figure 12 oz. of pop, since it dehydrates you, is like 6 oz. of water. So you just have to drink more of it! And really, okay,we should all be eating natural, real food that is cooked in a healthy way and is in reasonable portions. We should. But for some of us, if not many of us, that is apparently too much to ask all the time. So I do my best with most things, and totally indulge in my caffeinated beverage of choice and convenience.

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  32. I gave up diet soda last year because I realized it was giving me major stomach bloat. I'd been drinking it for so long I thought it was normal. I still have one from time to time because I think they are a lesser evil than regular soda.

    I don't know about the lab studies, but I wonder if the epi studies might have the cause and effect reversed. Rather than diet soda being a cause of metabolic syndrome, people are told by their docs that they are at risk for metabolic syndrome so they switch to diet soda.

    Sort of like that whole moderate drinkers are healthier than teetotalers. Maybe it's the healthy people who are allowed to drink and the sick ones who are told not to.

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  33. We were not allowed to drink sodas growing up. My parents said they would rot your teeth out. Also, they were expensive. So I was a soda virgin until I was 14 years old. When my parents were not around, my own grandmother gave me a real Coca-cola, in the small (6 ounce?) bottle...I took a big swig in anticipation of this nectar I had been denied for my entire childhood, and it felt like I had drank acid! My eyes teared up and it felt like it was going to come out my nose!! Tried a few regular and sugar-free ones over the years, but just never got over the trauma of my first time.

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  34. I gave up diet drinks and anything that contains Aspartame or Splenda. About 5 years ago, I began having very painful connective tissue problems. Every muscle/tendon was sore as if I had just over-exercised, and it just never settled down. After tests and "treatments", I decided to go with my hunch about Aspartame and gave up my beloved diet Coke.

    It took months, but I felt normal again. Stupid me, I retested my theory by going back to it after about a year. Within a few months, the pain was back.

    I gave it up for good about 2 years ago, and for the last year and a half, I'm back to just normal muscle aches.. those that happen for a reason, and then heal.

    I don't know about the weight gain part, I just know it's not good for my body.

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  35. I just gave up artificial sweetners last week (ok last Friday) and I'm really missing my diet Dr. Pepper and skinny vanilla latte, but I do believe I'll be better off in the end. And hopefully my end will be better off as well.

    good post.

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  36. Here's another twist: American Coke (and other sodas) has switched to inferior ingredients including high-fructose corn syrup. European Coke still uses regular sugar but in smaller cans. Doesn't high-fructose corn syrup also mess with our "satiated" mechanism?

    (My guy travels and brought back a Coke can from England, and we compared ingredients. He also did this with Cadbury chocolate...the American version of the same bar had inferior ingredients, and in my opinion, tastes worst).

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  37. I've been drinking non-cola, non-caffeine diet sodas (or diet pop) since I was a wee thing back in the 60's and they've changed the sweetener several times since then. Each time they say the current one is safe and the old one will kill me.

    Now it will not just kill me, it will make me fat? Sheesh. Maybe I'll just stick to wine.

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  38. I was sitting here feeling all smug because I only drink diet sodas once in a blue moon . . . and then I remembered my daily coffee with saccharin (the only one of the chemicals that they're SURE doesn't cause cancer - unless you eat something like a pound a day).

    Damn. One more reason to get back to drinking black coffee. *sigh*

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  39. Ugh, artificial sweeteners... yuckyuckyuck! If crap goes into your body, it's a sure bet that your body isn't going to react well to it. Am with Hanlie!

    I heart George Clooney.

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  40. Yeah - I've read a few studies that talked about how artificial sweetners trick yourbrain in to thinking you have sugar in your body...but you don't...so your body gears up to digest it...but then it isn't there. Making you really hungry.
    I admit, I still drink it, but not very much, as I'm not a real pop person. I try not to though,a s I'm trying to get away from preservatives and fillers, so this seems like jsut ignoring obvious chemicals...
    And yes - Coke and other highly acidic pops can leach the calcuim from your bones if you drink a lot of it over your lifetime.

    Moderation is the key I think.

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  41. Never have consumed diet soda. I only drink real soda maybe 5x a year, and if I'm going to do so, I want the full-sugar stuff.

    Soda, in any incarnation, consumed every day is EVIL. Stick to water. Or coffee.

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  42. :`( Why? Why? Why? First marijuana is bad for you now this?! Just joking. It's one of those things that I knew it was bad but, well, I did it anyway. I swear there is something in Dt. Coke that causes addiction. I believe it whether it's true or not like most beliefs. ;-)

    So this comes at an interesting time. I just finished reading Master Your metabolism by Jillian Michaels and had never even heard of metabolic syndrome. I know I have been eating a lot of processed junk but didn't realize the full effect of what I was doing.

    Maybe I can start limiting it until I drink it no more. Trying to do better! when you've eaten cr@p all of your life it's kind of hard to change overnight. At least it is for me.

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  43. Waaaaaaay back, during a brief bulimic phase, I drank diet soda because it made me throw up. I imagine it still would if I still drank it. My compromise is about 1/4 to 1/3 glass of juice in a glass of cold water. Or just lemon or lime. This is my first comment, though I've been following this blog for quite a while. Always enjoy it.

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  44. I feel like I knew that diet soda wasnt exactly good for you, but I never knew that it could cause weight gain. I used to be addicted to diet coke and then cut back to one a day. Now I only have one a week, if that, but after reading some of the comments here, I think I might stop completely!

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  45. If I don't have my water bottle at work and I'm really thirsty I'll opt for a diet soda over a regular, but I try to stay away from all soda in general.
    Hanlie's assertion that it dissolves your bones is an old wive's tale. It's taken from the idea that if you put a bone or a tooth in a cup of soda overnight, the acids in the soda will break it down and begin to dissolve it, and if it does that to your tooth/bone what does it do to the rest of your body?
    Except that's stupid because who holds soda in their mouth for hours at a time and because our stomach acids are much stronger than citric acid et al in soda. This is a painfully dumb and unfounded reason not to drink soda, especially when there are so many good reasons (some of which you mentioned) not to drink it.
    -Karell

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  46. Really? No one else has said this?...I'm pretty sure Georgie up there is the #1 thing that's going to mess with my brain chemistry. :)

    I switched to diet soda after kicking my Mt. Dew habit from college (too many all-nighters). I gave up soda in general as my main source of liquid about 4 years ago when I first heard about the artificial sweeteners making you fat. I get it - even if it doesn't screw with your brain chemistry, the sweetness triggers my desire for more sweets. But that being said, regular soda gives me the same reaction.

    And is HFCS any better than these fake sugars? I don't know.

    I'd let soda (mostly diet) sneak back into my diet, but now that I'm el pregedente, I've given them up again. (But damn I miss my diet Dr. P.) I like Vitamin-Water10 if I need something fruity/sweet to drink. All natural sugars, no weird chemicals. And the commercial with the wolf munching on the marmots cracks me up. (Yes, I know this still isn't a "great" choice - but it's better than soda for the once a week fix.)

    I think my calorie counter in the little white coat took a permanent vacation about 10 years ago! :)

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  47. Dang it, Bdaiss, you've caught me. I just realized that I never actually verified whether or not George Clooney causes metabolic syndrome. I really should investigate this, in the interests of -- um, research. Yeah, research.

    Crabby? I'm taking a road trip for awhile ;)

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  48. I know I have to kick my diet coke addiction, but it replaced my energy drink addiction. Baby steps.

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  49. SeaBreeze - baby steps is right - diet coke HAS to be better than energy drinks!

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  50. I kicked a pretty big diet soda habit (have one now & then, but not multiple times a day like I used to), but my body can't handle a lot of sugar anymore. Sometimes the artificially sweetened item *is* the better choice for my diabetic metabolism. (And I wonder if it's as Chelsea suspects; perhaps people who choose diet soda and artificial sweeteners are already predisposed to developing metabolic syndrome.)

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  51. Just for the record, diet soda making you fat is just unfair. There, I said it.

    My suspicion is, if you're tightly controlling your calories, it will not magically make you gain, though the caramel coloring and God Knows What Else are probably not helping. I think it's the intuitive eaters or regular, non-dieting population more at risk as it heightens the desire for sweets/calories.

    My husband drank tons and I am delighted he gave it up. I like to splash a little over crunchy ice and make a diet snow cone. Yum yum. I figure I get maybe ten ounces a day that way in about 64 ounces of ice. Ice tea would be better but not so snow conealicious.

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  52. My take on this is that the people who use diet soda the most might be people who are really struggling with their weight - i know some who drink a liter or more of it a day. And I doubt it's the soda that's causing their weight problems. I think it has more to do with what else they eat (or drink) and other aspects of their lifestyle. So if I'm right, the diet soda is merely an association, not a cause.

    Merry's comment about internal calorie counter rings true, tho. When people try to satisfy their hunger without calories, it doesn't work. So drinking liters of diet soda may make them feel full temporarily, but the hunger is just masked, not satisfied. And when it rises again, it may be at a level that encourages overeating (we may be so hungry when we finally start eating something with calories, we overeat in response).

    Whether artificial sweeteners cause metabolic problems or changes in brain chemistry, who knows. But my bet again is that used in moderation, they're not going to cause any great harm.

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  53. Thanks for helping to spread the word! Just because a product says 'Diet' doesn't mean it should be part of your diet.

    I think it's funny when you see someone buy a Diet Coke and a full fat Mars Bar. Are they thiking that maybe the Mars Bar calories dont count cause they are having a 'Diet' Coke with it? :)

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  54. Interestingly enough I consume a fair amount of artifical sweetners in coffee (3 a day), diet soda (1 a day), etc for the last few years and have lost over 65 lbs. I always chuckle though when you see someone eating a pizza, buger and fries with a diet coke. Somehow I doubt it's the diet coke making us fat.

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  55. So to get this straight in my own mind.

    If i drink, which i do, several diet fizzy drinks a day but do not act on the urge to supply the extra calories my body is apparently expecting all is good?

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  56. I think the "bad for the teeth" concept comes not from sitting teeth in soda, but the high levels of phosphorous causing strange imbalances. In theory, we have lots of systems to maintain homeostasis (and I believe that we have an internal calorie counter, which doesn't mean we all pay attention), but we can easily throw them out of balance, and we do, and thus run into diseases and problems.

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  57. Yup, them studies get you thinkin... I read a few like that a few years back and haven't had a diet drink since, and to be really really honest, I don't miss them at all.

    Check out Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis' work on the internal calorie counter concept..... not so scary after all :)

    http://www.dramandaonline.com/

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  58. Totally antecdotal, but... I drank Diet Coke all of the time for YEARS (like 20 or so), and was fine (mostly) for most of that time. Until I wasn't. Now my thyroid, adrenals and hormones are all whacked out, and I do have metabolic syndrome. (Gained 25 pounds in two years, by eating better, eating less and exercising more, talk about FRUSTRATING!)

    First thing my nutritionist (at my Dr.'s office) told me. No more artificial sweeteners.

    So I'm trying. But I am a total addict.. and I don't know why they don't even taste GOOD! Blyeah!

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  59. Very insightful post! As a diet soda + vodka lover I try to enjoy every sip and switch from sodas to low calorie natural juices :) My friend told me about Voli vodka and loved it!

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