I am asked almost every week why I quit Diet Coke. Here is what I KNEW when I made the decision to quit diet soda (I refer to it all as Diet Coke):
- I had been consuming multiple Diet Cokes pretty much every day of my life since I was 7 or 8 years old
- I had been 10 – 30 pounds over-weight since I was about 9 years old
- Every diet or weight-loss plan I ever tried ALLOWED me to drink my Diet Coke
- The only constant in my diet that I had never stopped consuming was Diet Coke
One day I read an article about a woman who quit drinking Diet Coke and lost 60 lbs in a year. Now she was quite a bit larger than me, with more weight to lose, but it did leave me thinking…” Diet Coke…could that be the culprit?”
I know many SKINNY people who drink Diet Coke. My theory is this; for some reason, in some people, artificial sweetener wreaks havoc! Soda is Big Business and I think it will be years before it is PROVED that Diet Coke is bad for us, but slowly more and more research is being done and the findings keep leaning towards the dark side! The theories basically range from our bodies don’t recognize artificial sweeteners so the signal to our brains may get screwed-up leaving us thinking we are hungry when we are not, or that artificial sweeteners are not recognized by our bodies so the taste leaves our body craving actual sugar and there is higher likelihood that you will consume more food after drinking your diet soda.
The 2nd scenario was definitely true for me. It always seemed after I had a Diet Coke I needed a little somethin’-somethin’. I would find myself searching for a snack, almost without realizing it. WEIRD!
So I basically quit Diet Coke because it was the only thing I had never quit, and for me it worked. Granted, I eat and live totally differently now too, but that is because I am not driven by my cravings, headaches, low-energy, and poor food choices, which I PERSONALLY believe were all fueled by my MASSIVE Diet Coke consumption!
What are some GOOD Reasons to quit Diet Coke?
1) It has NO nutritional value
2) We are made up of 60 to 70% water. Every soda you drink is water your body is not getting.
3) When you are thirsty, like you need a drink NOW, you are ALREADY dehydrated, grabbing a Diet Coke will just make it worse, and lead to low energy and possibly headaches.
4) It cost money. 4 ppl drinking 2 Diet Cokes a day is 8 sodas per day, or 56 per week, which equals 4.6 12 packs per week. So let’s round up since we all know the open unattended soda gets tossed and a new one opened….so 5 cases of soda a week. So with no sales tax, at $6.99, that is $1800 dollars a year on POP! OMG! Say you don’t let your kids drink soda until they are 10 (good luck if you drink it) then that is 8 years of 4 ppl drinking 2 pops a day (will probably be more)….so 15k (give or take) on pop….that could be a year of college!
5) You are teaching your kids that soda is OK! You may drink Diet Coke, but odds are your kids will chose regular Pop, leading to boat-loads of added sugar in their growing bodies!
6) Soda creates an acidic environment so when coupled with sugar it creates the perfect environment for tooth decay (see the advice from my friend Dr. Amy!)
7) Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio found that with every can of Diet Coke you sip daily, your risk of becoming overweight rises by 37 percent. Other studies hint at why: Regular use of artificial sweeteners may interfere with the body’s ability to estimate calories you’ve ingested, so you eat beyond what you need.
8) Don’t say you need the caffeine! Diet Coke has ONLY 47 mg of caffeine, compared to an 8 oz cup of coffee which has between 95 and 200 mg depending on brand. (Plus studies are showing coffee is GOOD for us).
9) People with diets filled with artificially sweetened sugars or sodium, may be at risk for faster kidney decline. A recent study conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting revealed a very significant twofold increase in quickened kidney function decline with 2 or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda. The mechanisms by which artificial sweeteners affects the kidney is at this point yet unknown. A second study using the same 3000 female participants showed that in women with well-preserved kidney function, high dietary sodium intake was associated with greater kidney function decline as well.
So to summarize…it is NOT food, it does not hydrate you, it has no nutritional value, it is filled with artificial ingredients, it creates an acidic environment in your mouth creating a breeding ground for tooth decay, it is a potentially expensive habit, it does not have very much caffeine, and though studies are not totally conclusive it seems it CAN make you fat and potentially accelerate the aging of your kidneys.
I think everything is fine in moderation. A Diet Coke is not going to kill you. However if you drink massive amounts of ANY artificially sweetened beverage you may want to rethink your beverage of choice! I knew when I felt so cruddy the first few days without my DC that I had a problem. That in itself was enough to know it didn’t matter if Diet Coke was making me fat or not, it could not possibly be good for me!
(And a HUGE SHOUT OUT to Sandra who is on day 22 of no Diet Coke! No small task! 21 days to make/break a habit, you are Looking Good!)
