Poll of the Day > Why do people act like Diet soda is bad for you?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's soda, but you don't get fat.

Like, literally. I'm someone who gains and loses weight easily and have tested eating the same meals for a month straight but replacing diet with regular soda. You don't gain anything with diet. You can lose with diet. It's crazy.

because excessive amounts of artificial sweetener can be harmful for your health.. but like obscene amounts. people just capitalize on that.

I just feel like there are just better things you could drink than soda, diet or not. Why drink diet when you could drink seltzer water? Or water? Ice water is pretty good.

The smartest thing Donald Trump ever said
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/257552283850653696?lang=en

Theres idiots that think just because theyre drinking diet, theyre safe to gorge themselves.

I'm sure the science on it changes constantly.
Aspartame in particular we know is bad. But supposedly all artificial sweeteners still cause you to produce insulin so your body is ready to store sugar as fat of whatever you eat. I guess the theory is it turns good food into fat as well.

Only fat people drink diet soda.

Yellow posted...

I just feel like there are just better things you could drink than soda, diet or not. Why drink diet when you could drink seltzer water? Or water? Ice water is pretty good.

The smartest thing Donald Trump ever said
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/257552283850653696?lang=en

I have, maybe he needs to get out more.

I have to agree with the trumpet on this one.

Because it's still junk food

I know I've heard people say one of the problems with diet soda is that it tends to make you feel hungrier so you wind up eating more than you realize, and thus wind up consuming more calories than you otherwise would have, but I have no idea if that's true.

I also know my dentist said it was bad for teeth - because even without the soda there are things in soda that are a problem, and which should be avoided if at all possible. Though I'm not sure of the specifics.

I still drink way too much of it anyway, though.

I was trying to find something to drink when I tried to stop drinking soda a few years back. Apparently artificial sweeteners are linked to increased appetites, which explained why I gained a few pounds when I stopped drinking soda. I can't drink tea it tastes so bad, so I was trying to drink the sparkling waters which all have sucralose or fructose.

It's not 'good' for you, and to many people that means bad and not neutral.

Dr Mike says diet soda isn't bad for you. But like most things in excess, isn't good for you.

He encourages people to drink diet soda who are on diets because the alternative is a crap ton of sugar.

https://youtu.be/TguFyTJkLKk?si=oUhBLDOhpoiNAQ1Q

diet ones suck

zero sugar ones that actually taste like what they're supposed to are the key

Yellow posted...

I just feel like there are just better things you could drink than soda, diet or not. Why drink diet when you could drink seltzer water? Or water? Ice water is pretty good.

Unsweetened iced tea. Not only is it calorie free, it also contains caffeine which revs up your metabolism to burn more calories, and it contains antioxidants and polyphenols like EGCG.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I know I've heard people say one of the problems with diet soda is that it tends to make you feel hungrier so you wind up eating more than you realize, and thus wind up consuming more calories than you otherwise would have, but I have no idea if that's true.

Depends how they're sweetened. Some artificial sweeteners (sucralose being the main offender because it's so chemically similar to sugar) trigger receptors in the digestive tract that are normally triggered by sugar and prime the rest of your body to expect some sugar to process. If you then don't get that sugar, you end up craving it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I also know my dentist said it was bad for teeth - because even without the soda there are things in soda that are a problem, and which should be avoided if at all possible. Though I'm not sure of the specifics.

It's mostly the acid. All carbonated beverages are solutions of carbonic acid, with soda usually clocking in at a pH of 2.5-3.5. By comparison, lemon juice has a pH of about 2 and white vinegar is about 2.5, so that's pretty acidic and does a lot to accelerate the erosion of your teeth. That's particularly bad when paired with a high-sugar solution that fuels bacterial growth that further erodes them, but even without that sugar it's not something that's good to frequently expose your teeth to.

As with most things in the body, though, the actual impact will vary a lot from person to person. The rate at which your teeth erodes can be accelerated by acid, but it also depends on the calcium and phosphate concentrations in the surrounding environment. If you've got plenty of those ions in your saliva, that will help buffer the pH of your mouth and slow down the erosion process, so you won't see the same results as somebody who drinks the same amount of soda but has a less robust buffer. That's beyond the average layperson's ability to measure, though, so it's still just a good idea across the board to limit soda intake instead of hoping that you lucked out with more resilient saliva chemistry.

captpackrat posted...

it also contains caffeine which revs up your metabolism to burn more calories,

Caffeine's impact on metabolism is pretty minimal, and most people build up enough tolerance to it that it stops having a metabolic effect pretty quickly. It can help lose weight through its appetite suppressant properties, but I still wouldn't lean too heavily on that, particularly where high caffeine intake comes with its own problems.

Whats the actual difference compared to the regular shit?

I had a drink sweetened with Stevia recently that I didn't dislike

EvilResident posted...

Whats the actual difference compared to the regular shit?

regular shit has carbs and some form of sugar, either sugar or hfc

diet/zero shit has 0 carbs, no sugar/hfc

diet usually tastes different, zero usually tastes the same as regular