Although the caffeine in Diet Coke might have done her in anyway. Diet Coke Caffeine-Free would probably be the best bet for ‘healthiest’ Coke varieties.
What is this tooth concern you guys are referring to?
Finally, someone that understands me.
A study was recently reported to show that diet soda (and regular soda, for that matter) caused as much tooth decay as crystal meth or crack.
Acid is an issue, but it’s an issue with all soda. Brush your teeth, but wait ~30 mins after drinking acidic things or eating sugar.
What country are you in? Sodium cyclamate is supposedly used in some countries (not the US), and the USDA considers it maybe a carcinogen. In the US it contains aspartame (like Diet, although I assume lesser quantities?) and acesulfate potassium (“Ace K”)
And cut back for Crissakes! I do about 1 can per day, and feel bad about it then.
And you’ll hear people tell you that it’s 100x worse (sic) than sugar soda, and will make you fatter than sugar and/or give you cancer. I’ll let you read the contradictory research yourself, but you should cut back for other reasons than these.
I was told (by someone whose health advice I don’t really hold much stock in) the other day that I shouldn’t drink Diet Coke as it causes diabetes.
And it’ll put you into a com(m)a.
If I can add a rider question…
What the hell’s the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero? Or Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max?
The artificial sweetener they use, and the flavor of the beverage overall. Coke Zero tastes similar to coke (not the same but very close), diet Coke tastes like diet Coke.
Aside from the different artificial sweeteners used, they are formulated to taste different and are marketed towards different groups. You could throw Tab in the mix, since it’s basically the original diet Coke.
Well, some people do assert that drinking diet sodas contributes to your “expectation” that you need sweetness all the time, thus causing you to eat more sugary stuff in general, which makes you fat, and thus you should avoid all sweetened foods altogether if possible. (Though one could also argue that it’s a way to satisfy a sweet tooth without a huge amount of caloric damage.)
But the idea that the chemicals themselves make you fat would be another thing entirely.
Exactly. I don’t doubt that Diet Sodas are somewhat bad, but the possibly woo on the internet suggests that they the the evils. Although “expectation” here doesn’t necessarily mean that we consciously think that, but that our bodies are expecting sugar and don’t get it.
Re: the chemicals making you fat: the people who claim that never seem to differentiate between which chemicals are present, in my experience. They treat all diet sodas as the same.
Coke Zero, Pepsi One, Dr Pepper Ten et al. are marketed towards men. They aren’t sissy diet sodas! :dubious: Dr Pepper Ten’s ad campaign from a few months ago explicitly covered that. Pepsi Max is similar, but it’s supposed to have ginseng and more caffeine.
So, those artificial sweeters have no biological impact?
I have my doubts. It’s not sugar, for sure. But it’s something, and just might be likely to have a negative impact when consumed in huge quantities. Anything over one or two per day seems suspicious to me.
Just because it’s zero-cal doesn’t mean it’s practically water.
I lost 60 lbs with diet drinks (soda and ice tea) being my prime drinks of choice. I understand there is some science behind the warning, but IMO it’s more of a statistical correlation rather than causation. There are a few possible psychological mechanisms that would cause people to overeat and I could see sweet tasting but calorie free drinks could have an impact.
I don’t think anyone said that. But it’s a long way from saying we don’t have any evidence of artificial sweeteners causing diet problems for the vast majority of people to that. They’ve been studied quite a bit and, while not completely benign, we haven’t uncovered many downsides.
Given the choice, plain water is probably a better choice. But I still drink a Coke Zero most days.
OK, I’ll volunteer to be the idiot. What’s the wordplay I’m missing?
The OP’s questionable taste in beverages and punctuation.
Woo-ish claims, contradictory findings, arguments over the semantics of “junk food” and “highly processed” … but I can’t even get to all that stuff, because I just can’t wrap my head around this first part (which you sorta have to accept in order to answer the rest of the OP).
I think I gotta go pee just reading about drinking that much fluid! :eek: OP, are you sure you meant 2 liters per day of additional water? If so, your bladder must be the size of a basketball!
As has been pointed out, the OP is only drinking 4 Coke Zeros in addition to the 2 liters of water per day.
Now. But used to do 12 + 2, so bringing it up is still quite valid.
As for junk food, Coke Zero can’t possibly be junk food, as it’s not food at all. It has no calories. You have to have calories to be food. You have to have a lot of calories (and little to no nutrition) to be junk food.