Too many "diet" drinks while studying?

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usermike8500

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During college, I would consume about 4-6 cans of diet coke per day and usually a diet energy drink ever couple of days. I know there's all this controversy over aspartame and the DHT-resembling sucralose sweetners used in diet drinks. Do you think I've compromised my health by consuming such a large quantity of diet drinks over the years?

I've cut back on diet soda consumption recently but fear that I'll take up the habit again when I start med school this Fall. I just love studying with a diet soda in hand lol. I don't know why, but it relaxes me and just seems "right" for studying. Kinda like a hot dog at a ball game, or popcorn at the movies. What do you think?
 
Yes, there are the neurotoxicity issues with Aspartame, and then there's the Phosphoric Acid, which leads to the demineralization of your teeth and bones.
 
I used to drink diet soda in the morning when I worked in a research lab. After awhile, I noticed that I was slightly less able to focus after drinking it. Maybe it's just me, but I think there needs to be more research on the cognitive effects of aspartame.

I prefer coffee too, but it seems like organic black tea would be the way to go if you're looking for a relatively "healthy" caffeinated beverage. 🙂
 
Why diet? Drink regular and less of it.

And if you're worried about getting fat from drinking non-diet, exercise.

Win-win-win
 
bigbad said:
Why diet? Drink regular and less of it.

And if you're worried about getting fat from drinking non-diet, exercise.

Win-win-win
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Haha, I don't see any wins in there. Those compromises sound like they are only slightly better than losses.
 
Bcblazer said:
Yes, there are the neurotoxicity issues with Aspartame,
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If that's true (which I doubt), it has not been borne out in literature.

Once you realize that aspartame is just a dipeptide, it's surprising people even expect ill-effects at soda-dosage levels.
 
Okay, so my curiosity got the best of me, and I just checked out some reports, abstracts, and summaries of aspartame research from various sources. It seems there is quite a controversy regarding its potential neurotoxicity - while many studies have found no negative effects, much aspartame research seems also to have been funded by its manufacturer. I'd have to read a lot more to be convinced either way, but just something to think about.
 
Yeah, I have been worried about diet drinks as well. In my case, Diet A&W Root Beer.
I would drink regular but I don't want to get fat. And I don't have time for exercise.
I don't want my brain to degenerate though with aspartame. I think I'm going to cut out diet drinks. It's going to be so hard though.🙁
 
Agree with the above posts. Our biochem class had to do a project on Aspartame and you can find bias on both sides, but there was never anything legitimate published about negative impacts. I would say to not worry about that - but I believe too much would definately cause dental problems and maybe intestinal too. And 4-6 a day really? Everything in moderation....
 
Not exactly addressing your question, but i think that even diet sodas are bad for your teeth (and not just color-wise).
I usually drink black or green tea, without putting anything in it, although many people don't like that
 
flavored black teas are awesome- bigelow in particular- plus calorie free 🙂
 
I'm going to have to agree with the "Drink Water!" crowd. Living on my own and making my own money now, I really just can't bring myself to spend money on non-alcoholic drinks as a daily thing. It's like 😕 Don't get me wrong, I love soda, but I refuse to fund it as an everyday thing.

So I generally drink water and if I can motivate myself to make it, I'll drink tea or coffee. Every now and then my boyfriend brings me sodas because he loves me. 😀 And sometimes I'll splurge on some sodas myself or orange juice or something. It's nice to be able to treat myself so easily. I dunno. I like keeping things special.

I really can't say anything about the health aspect, but I'm sure your wallet will thank you. And if you think you love your daily sodas, you'll love them even more when they're weekly or monthly!
 
Personally, I wouldn't touch the stuff. I look at cans of diet soda like cans of evil drink lol...I was brought up this way though. My dad used to grab food out of my hand as a kid, and throw it straight into the trash! I especially feel awful for the parents that give their kids the stuff. I despise anything diet, and I can detect diet products easily, they just taste off! Then again I'm one of those "health freaks" that won't even hold a cell phone to my head for very long. I try to live as primitiveley as possible. I avoid hyrdrogenated oils, artificial colors, preservatives, msg, high fructose corn syrup. high amounts of animal fat, and a whole lot more! I eat a lot of huge salads, only eat very minimal amounts of processed foods. I hate eating un-organic meat too! If I'm at a restaurant having the occasional burger and fries, I will get a regular coke, but I only sip on it, to fulfill my craving

I'm not saying the stuff isn't safe, but atleast if I ever get cancer I can be SURE it wasn't because of my diet 🙂

I'm also gravely afraid of getting cancer, I do not know why, because no one in my family have ever gotten it, or any other disease for that matter.

Anyway don't take my advice, I just wanted to share 🙂

I will add this though- just because we don't know for sure if aspartame is harmful or not, doesn't mean that you aren't gambling with your HEALTH!
 
Hm I haven't seen anything bad about sucralose that doesn't involve ridiculously high doses. Quite frankly diet is probably better for you than regular on a volume by volume basis, but I wouldn't assume that means you can drink all the diet you want. Try healthier alternatives like green tea. An advantage of not consuming caffeinated beverages every day is that its effect can be more potent when you need it. But speaking for myself, I'm addicted to caffeine and I'd have to endure massive headaches to quit. It's not quite as bad for me now that the delivery drink isn't mountain dew, though. 🙂
 
Definitely get it out of your diet or cut back if you are consuming in those quantities. I used to drink that much diet coke too, but then quit cold turkey. You feel a little headache and the cravings for a couple days but eventually you won't even miss it. I've been 3 months clean from soda of any kind. Drinking tea helps if you're looking for something with flavor.
 
Bcblazer said:
there's the Phosphoric Acid, which leads to the demineralization of your teeth and bones.
Click to expand...

Because Diet Coke has no real sugar, it can't stick to your teeth like regular sodas do, so the acid is pretty much washed away immediately upon contact of the enamel.

If you're worried about the aspartame, you can always go with the Diet Coke that's sweetened with the other artificial sweeteners-Splenda and Phenylalanine. When it comes to fake sugar these days, there are plenty of choices to choose from.
 
londongal said:
Personally, I wouldn't touch the stuff. I look at cans of diet soda like cans of evil drink lol...I was brought up this way though. My dad used to grab food out of my hand as a kid, and throw it straight into the trash! I especially feel awful for the parents that give their kids the stuff. I despise anything diet, and I can detect diet products easily, they just taste off! Then again I'm one of those "health freaks" that won't even hold a cell phone to my head for very long. I try to live as primitiveley as possible. I avoid hyrdrogenated oils, artificial colors, preservatives, msg, high fructose corn syrup. high amounts of animal fat, and a whole lot more! I eat a lot of huge salads, only eat very minimal amounts of processed foods. I hate eating un-organic meat too! If I'm at a restaurant having the occasional burger and fries, I will get a regular coke, but I only sip on it, to fulfill my craving

I'm not saying the stuff isn't safe, but atleast if I ever get cancer I can be SURE it wasn't because of my diet 🙂

I'm also gravely afraid of getting cancer, I do not know why, because no one in my family have ever gotten it, or any other disease for that matter.

Anyway don't take my advice, I just wanted to share 🙂

I will add this though- just because we don't know for sure if aspartame is harmful or not, doesn't mean that you aren't gambling with your HEALTH!
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dude, I am almost exactly the same. Though my primary short-term goal of such habits is to avoid at all effecting cognition due. I may be slightly OCD about it, but it doesn't bother me.

The concerns of people here are not unfounded and I woud not listen to those saying "I have never come across such literature...". Then look for it. Its not overly difficult to find.
 
just a thought...
perhaps one of the reasons why you drank so many diet sodas was because your body was craving sugar. Yet you constantly slammed down diet sodas, and thus had to ingest more of those before you satisfied your sugar needs. Now, if you simply drank a regular soda, you might have not needed to drink so many diet sodas because your body would have satiated its craving.
 
Oh I also care for that, and since I'm a "girl" I also care about food that ages you (as in - ruins your skin), like all this processed crap. I read the book "Eat To Live" It was most awesome, it's all about eating a high nutrient to calorie ratio. People will not believe the amount of sustained energy/euphoric feelings you can get by eating unprocessed, straight from the earth, natural foods. I've never felt so good in my life, and I used to eat a pretty bad diet (bad in my standards).

I used to always be feel so slugish and fatigued, for no reason! (or so I thought), I would sleep too much and always feel like crap. Most Americans by now would be consuming lots of caffeine, which will deceive them into feeling normal, and full of energy. This is the problem, people need to realise that you can get the feeling that coffee gives you by eating right, and exercising. I remember a cool line from the book, it went something like: American's are the most overweight population in the world, and also the most malnurished.

My brother insists that fish oil helps with cognitive function too, I have a bottle of the liquid stuff in my fridge, but I've been lazy on taking it.
 
good point! There was a news article recently on CNN, it was talking about people who use sweetners, actually gaining more weight. Perhaps this ties in.
 
kingofthehill said:
Because Diet Coke has no real sugar, it can't stick to your teeth like regular sodas do, so the acid is pretty much washed away immediately upon contact of the enamel.
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Good point I never thought of that - but when dealing with something you come into contact with 4-6 times per day, there's probably more to it. I looked around and found this:

"Although diet soda does not contain sugar and cannot form acid from this beverage alone, when consumed with other foods high in sugar or carbohydrates, it can produce acid that leads to erosion. Dentists have noted an increase in teens presenting with rampant decay associated with soft drink consumption, especially among those who work in fast-food establishments where there is unlimited access to soda pop. The continual bathing of teeth with a liquid that is acidic and high in sugar can result in dental decay that is not only disfiguring but also presents serious health risks."[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Denehy, Janice. The Health Effects of Soft Drinks. The Journal of School Nursing 2003 19: 63-64 [/SIZE].
 
I don't really care about the teeth. I'm more concerned with the brain. I gotta have it intact to last through medical school.
 
koffein said:
dude, I am almost exactly the same. Though my primary short-term goal of such habits is to avoid at all effecting cognition due. I may be slightly OCD about it, but it doesn't bother me.

The concerns of people here are not unfounded and I woud not listen to those saying "I have never come across such literature...". Then look for it. Its not overly difficult to find.
Click to expand...

Feel free to cite a well-designed study that shows sucralose is dangerous in reasonable quantities. But as has been said, few things are harmless in large quantities.
 
BlueElmo said:
I don't really care about the teeth. I'm more concerned with the brain. I gotta have it intact to last through medical school.
Click to expand...

ask old people. your brain will last (most likely). Your teeth won't. 😀

and my teeth are rotting faster than any. I am a med student- I go to fast food restaurants, get a salad and a diet coke, and study for 2 hours, drinking god knows how much diet soda. Oh, well. It definately helps my concentration (and grades).
 
Aspartame breaks down to form methanol an thus alcohol dehydrogenase will convert it to formaldehyde. HOWEVER! This happens in such a small ppm quantity that it is harmless unless you are a lab rat getting an aspartame IV delivering the equivalence of 300 cans of diet soda into your veins in an hour.

Sucralose does not resemble DHT...its a chlorinated hydrocarbon..thats the only way it resembles it. NOT ALL CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS ARE BAD!!! DHT is not NEARLY as bad as originally thought...


I could go on forever and cite over 20 journals I've researched on this for school..but it all comes down to

TOXICITY IS IN THE DOSAGE!!!!

People are rididuclous...I could desisgn a study saying I gave a rat 5 times its blood volume of dihydrogen oxide and it died. The next day there would be *****s claiming water is a carcinogen..
 
nicotine is toxic in large doses too. Does that mean it's fine to have 1 cig a day, or 1 a weak? Either way it's not good for you, and over the long haul, maybe even this much will cause problems.

If something is toxic at a high dose, surely having small doses everyday of your life is also harmful.

Everyone's susceptibilities are different. Who's to say that a lil' bit of sucralose everyday won't hurt...in the long run
 
ALASKA21, we all know that you can die from TOO much water, that has nothing to do with nutrition or dietary issues though.
 
londongal said:
nicotine is toxic in large doses too. Does that mean it's fine to have 1 cig a day, or 1 a weak? Either way it's not good for you, and over the long haul, maybe even this much will cause problems.

If something is toxic at a high dose, surely having small doses everyday of your life is also harmful.

Everyone's susceptibilities are different. Who's to say that a lil' bit of sucralose everyday won't hurt...in the long run
Click to expand...

Nicotine has been used as an insecticide, but its main effect in tobacco products is that it is an extremely addictive stimulant. The substances that actually cause most of the harm for chronic use are all the crap that comes with nicotine. Nicotine is significant in how difficult it makes it to quit.

The primary therapeutic use of nicotine is in treating nicotine dependence in order to eliminate smoking with its risks to health. Controlled levels of nicotine are given to patients through gums, dermal patches, lozenges, electronic/substitute cigarettes or nasal sprays in an effort to wean them off their dependence.

However, in a few situations, smoking has been observed to apparently be of therapeutic value to patients. These are often referred to as "Smoker's Paradoxes".[32] Although in most cases the actual mechanism is understood only poorly or not at all, it is generally believed that the principal beneficial action is due to the nicotine administered, and that administration of nicotine without smoking may be as beneficial as smoking, without the higher risk to health due to tar and other ingredients found in tobacco.
Click to expand...
(Wikipedia citing Cohen, David J.; Michel Doucet, Donald E. Cutlip, Kalon K.L. Ho, Jeffrey J. Popma, Richard E. Kuntz (2001). "Impact of Smoking on Clinical and Angiographic Restenosis After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention". Circulation 104: 773. doi:10.1161/hc3201.094225. PMID 11502701. http://www.data-yard.net/34/circulation_2001_104_773.htm. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Therapeutic_uses
 
I get my caffeine from unsweetened tea, when I'm feeling virtuous, or from this awesome Yerba Maté soda called Sol Maté when I want something fizzy. I only drink regular soft drinks when nothing else is around.
 
BlueElmo said:
I don't really care about the teeth. I'm more concerned with the brain. I gotta have it intact to last through medical school.
Click to expand...

I don't know about you, but I'm more concerned about teeth. They're not covered on my insurance, though the rest of me (including my mind!) is.
 
I think if the biggest thing you have to worry about is a diet soda addiction you're in pretty good shape. 👍 There are far worse things you could be doing.

anyways, when you get to med school, you'll find that everyone has their favorite method of caffeination. i recently quit drinking coffee and most people gave me a look of horror and then admitted that they couldn't do it.
 
londongal said:
If something is toxic at a high dose, surely having small doses everyday of your life is also harmful.
Click to expand...

I just listened to Goljan tell me that Tylenol should be pulled from the market. I think you are making the same mistake he is. But don't be insulted, he is a freaking genius.
 
londongal said:
If something is toxic at a high dose, surely having small doses everyday of your life is also harmful.
Click to expand...

Probably the most incorrect statement in the entire thread sorry.

Potassium is very toxic at high doses...but without "small doses'' your dead.

What about every metal in your entire body. Zinc anyone??? Iron??? Jesus...come on people; it scares the **** out of me people going into medicine don't think about this kinda stuff.

TOXICITY IS IN THE DOSAGE!!
 
londongal said:
ALASKA21, we all know that you can die from TOO much water, that has nothing to do with nutrition or dietary issues though.
Click to expand...


Water has nothing to do with nutrition or diet? Um. You also fail to consider the fact that the way these sucralose and aspartame studies were performed were the equivalent of pumping someone full of water til they die, they claiming water is toxic.

Have you ever read studies on aspartame or sucralose toxicity? Have you SEEN the dosages given? Please, research before you claim my valid points have nothing to do with the issue.
 
img0637r.jpg


That's just from today, and 12 per day is after having cut back. I used to drink diet pepsi max. My goal is to eventually get down to 6 per day after my diet is over.
 
EkramVahsedi86 said:
img0637r.jpg


That's just from today, and 12 per day is after having cut back. I used to drink diet pepsi max. My goal is to eventually get down to 6 per day after my diet is over.
Click to expand...
you're drinking coke zero for a weight loss diet of some sort? Wouldn't something like water be more effective? If that's too bland for you, throw an Emergen-C packet in for taste. 😳
My diet is nothing special. The results I am achieving are a result of expending more calories than I take in. Exercise is teh awesome.

ALASKA21 -- I noticed you're a bodybuilder, how much do you weigh (if you don't mind my asking)? Do you notice a fluctuation of +/-5 lbs after you've a reached peak fitness level (when you consider yourself to be "in shape")?
 
LiveUninhibited said:
Wouldn't that be more of a carb thing... as opposed to pepsi zero.
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No. You're consuming in excess of 1 gallon of water in soda form alone. If you're that thirsty, there's potentially an underlying pathology.
 
EkramVahsedi86 said:
img0637r.jpg


That's just from today, and 12 per day is after having cut back. I used to drink diet pepsi max. My goal is to eventually get down to 6 per day after my diet is over.
Click to expand...

Dude I love the picture with your empty 12pk of coke zero right next to your MCAT books. I know it was probably planned that way, but it makes me think of you at 2AM in the morning, jittering, with a No.2 and your desklamp, drawing inclined planes and screaming "PARA AMINO" at no one in particular.
 
let's try to leave diagnosis out of this. SDN is not a place to seek or offer medical advice. If anyone is concerned about an issue, he/she should seek advice from their PCP.
 
LiveUninhibited said:
And why do some people say diabetes like it is spelled above? Seems to be older people.
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I think that's old school brooklyn or jersey accent. One of the two. And I mean really old school.

edit- yeah, so its in annie hall, so wherever those jewish new york types are, they used to say it.
 
starfishprime said:
No. You're consuming in excess of 1 gallon of water in soda form alone. If you're that thirsty, there's potentially an underlying pathology.
Click to expand...

Heh. The thirst from hyperglycemia doesn't make me want soda (I have DM-1), which is good because it would be counterproductive IF it had carbs in it. For a few months before I was diagnosed I started drinking at least a gallon of water a day (polydipsia), and of course peeing a lot (polyuria). I rarely had any desire to drink water before that. Neither soda nor anything else I had drank before sounded appealing anymore.

That cat picture is funny though. It looks like the guy who talks on one of those commercials for blood glucose meters.
 
LiveUninhibited said:
Hmm... Wouldn't that be more of a carb thing... as opposed to pepsi zero. Not saying a half rack of pepsi zero a day is ideal though.

And why do some people say diabetes like it is spelled above? Seems to be older people.
Click to expand...

Really? The Coke marketing team would be :bang: if they saw that.

There also are a TON of MCAT books in that picture :laugh: How many could you possibly need?
 
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