I used to drink a two liter of regular Coke every day. For the past six months I’ve switched to Coke Zero and I’ve lost 40 lbs. It’s not just because of that, but it’s a big part of it.
I’m still fat. Just not AS fat.
So that is why you’d see this fat girl drinking a Coke Zero.
Does it even occur to the OP that even overweight people are capable of making intelligent choices? I eat a relatively healthy diet, which includes diet soft drinks (not just Coke). This way I keep my weight down, keep my blood sugar stable, keep my cholesterol and blood pressure down.
If I guzzled syrupy calorie-laden soft drinks that jeopardize my health, would that make you happy? Or would you find another reason to be judgmental?
When the OP mentioned other choices, I wonder if s/he has ever taken a good look at the sugar free choices that most places offer in soft drinks. I can rattle them off the top of my head for 95% of restaurants and fast food places out there: diet coke, water, coffee and (sometimes) unsweetened iced tea.
Of the listed choices, my personal favorite is the unsweet tea, but only if it’s fresh (around here, sweet tea is the default). If that’s not available and it’s not breakfast, then it’s diet coke.
Would I like to have as many options as the folks who drink sugared drinks? Hell yeah! Start with diet pepsi or tab for colas, add something with no caffeine, like diet A&W or sprite zero, then move on to stuff like selzer, sugar free lemonade or crystal light-type beverages. I would order any of those instead of diet coke in a heartbeat.
If it’s diet coke specifically that you’re wondering about, it’s because it’s the one of the few sugar-free options available at most venues.*
missred…fatty…has been drinking diet beverages for forty years because I like them!
*If it’s diet drinks in general, then, well, everybody else has pretty much covered that.
Oh get off it. Worse has been said by others. Maybe not in this thread, but don’t be all gasp when we’re having a discussing on a controversial subject with valid points being stated on both sides.
I’m not being all gasp. I’m far too immature for that. But telling everyone to just put the fork (or soda can) down and all their problems will be solved is pat and not helpful or polite. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you have unleash your inner rudeness.
This describes me, except that I won’t be drinking diet Coke, or any diet soda. Anyone seeing me for the first time will see that I’m quite overweight. They won’t see that I’ve lost well over a hundred pounds lately, and I’m still losing. People who see me regularly will occasionally comment that my face looks thinner, or that I seem to be walking with less difficulty. When I go out to eat, it’s a treat. My husband and I usually eat homecooked meals, because that way, I can better control what’s in the food we eat. At home, I try to eat foods that have been minimally processed. For instance, I’m likely to make some sort of rice dish from scratch, rather than use a boxed rice dish, even though the box dish is usually a lot easier. Someone who sees me eating some manicotti at a restaurant doesn’t know that I’ve already asked for a box, because I know that I can’t eat that whole serving, and they don’t know that for the past week I’ve been eating stirfries that are mostly veggies, and very little rice. They only see that I’m eating some manicotti, which is, I admit, loaded with fat. Or at least it sure tastes that way.
I generally will just drink water, unless I’ve decided to let loose and have tea. Some artificial sweeteners will trigger my IBD, and sometimes I can have them with no problem, and sometimes I can have a limited amount of them, and sometimes they will trigger a monstrous attack. I prefer to avoid them altogether, and eliminate that potential attack. Usually I can drink one or two glasses of tea, but if I drink more, then again, the caffeine sometimes triggers an IBD attack. There’s also the issue of freshness. Fresh tea is the drink of the gods, stale iced tea is horrid. I can usually have some Sweet’N’Low, but I have to limit myself, again.
Before I had full-blown IBD, I could and I would try to choose soft drinks that had no sugar and no caffeine in them. Oddly enough, it’s not just colas that have caffeine. I’ve found it in cream sodas, orange and strawberry sodas, and even in lemon-lime sodas. Some brands of root beer have it, others don’t. Usually caffeine free sodas will put those words on the front of the can or bottle. Sodas that contain caffeine will usually list it in the tiny ingredients field.
As for people not liking water, I’m lucky in that I live in a city that has decent tasting water. I’ve visited Chicago a couple of times, and if I lived there, I’m sure I’d have a home water cooler. Chicago city water tastes FOUL, it has sulfur in it. Chicago has many things to offer, but good tasting water is not one of those things. There are other cities that also have bad-tasting water, but Chicago sticks out in my mind because I remember going down to the hotel lobby and buying several bottles of water, just because I couldn’t stand what came out of the faucet.
Mom very rarely allowed us soda as kids, and that carried over to my adulthood. I drink a soda less than once a week, and at that time I get a Coke Classic. Yahoo! I think of it as liquid candy.
I’ve noticed that Diet Coke is insanely popular, but it tastes chemical to me.
I also don’t care much for water. I drink coffee almost exclusively, and sometimes get painfully dehydrated.
Or, possibly, (to respond to the OP) Fatty McFatterson (who’s snerk having a diet Coke with their burger - who does she think she’s fooling with that?) also has blood sugar issues and is not drinking full-sugar beverages as part of an overall effort to avoid diabetic coma and subsequent death.
Or Fatty McFatterson there has low blood sugar issues, and doesn’t drink full-sugar beverages as a lifestyle choice to avoid a heinous blood sugar crash later in her day. You can be fat and still have problems with persistent low blood sugar. In fact, it’s possible to be fat in part because you have problems with persistent low blood sugar.
Basically anyone with blood sugar troubles (diabetes, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, any one of several metabolic disorders that scramble the body’s blood sugar regulation) is well-advised to avoid the Hell out of full-sugar sodas. If you really want a beverage with a load of sugar in it, you’re miles better off having fruit juice. Hell, even pastries are a better idea than a full-sugar Coke. Not all people with blood sugar issues are slender.
But, hey, don’t let me stop you from poking fun at fat people drinkin’ diet soda.
I’m not convinced your points are valid. People aren’t addicted to calories. They may be addicted to feeling full, or have some sort of need to eat all the time, but addictions are about cravings. If you can satisfy the craving for a sweet drink with a diet drink, you aren’t going to go looking to obtain extra calories from pizza. That’s nonsensical.