what about diet soda's??

[JohnC]

Most, if not all, are made with aspartame (equal). Can we drink these on this woe?

[Georgiana]

Dr. Atkins observed that diet sodas sweetened with aspartame interfered with weight loss for some of his patients. This is why he recommended avoiding aspartame.

But why do you want to drink diet sodas and not just water?

[JohnC]

Thanks Georgiana for the reply. I usually drink water (90% of the time) but occasionally I like cherry pepsi zero. I don't think that the 1-2 bottles per week will hurt.

[just4me]

Diet crush cream soda and Diet crush orange are sweetened with splenda. I'm In canada I don't know where you are or if these are available.

[Georgiana]

We all used to like many foods/drinks before Atkins. Liking them too much and making bad choices is what made us overweight. Atkins is our chance to turn this around and start choosing nutritious foods. Diet sodas are anything but nutritious.

As for losing, everyone reacts differently to diet sodas. I've seen people who were slowed down by them or were cephalic responders (see, for e.g., this thread: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...xperiment.html (One Month no Diet Soda Experiment)) and people who drink them without a problem. Since Induction is important in order to determine your degree of metabolic resistance, I would stick to nutritious, minimally-processed foods from the Acceptable Foods List.

[just4me]

I do know this, but as for being someone addicted to diet pepsi I did find when I've done atkins to transfer to diet crush cream soda or orange with SPLENDA not aspartame, easier to come down from.

Water and other choices are the most natural yes, but if looking for a soda it is good to know that these are out there.

[Beatin'PCOS]

I also find that Diet Coke keeps me satisfied.....it almost becomes my new 'thing'... If I feel like a cheat I just grab a Diet Coke instead.....It keeps me sane....I drink around 3 lit of water a day also.........also green tea.....sometimes you need a diet coke though!

[amazon1]

OMG. Diet soda has become my new guilty pleasure. I can't give it up! What's wrong with aspertame? If it was interfering would I be ketonic (or whatever the phrase is?) I just tested and my strip came out "moderate".

[Georgiana]

Ketosis does not equate weight loss. Ketosis simply means you are using fat (body or dietary fat) as your primary source of energy.

Dr. Atkins observed that about a quarter of his stalled patients that contacted the Atkins Center for help were stalled by diet sodas sweetened with aspartame. There are three possible reasons for this: an intolerance to aspartame, an intolerance to any of the other ingredients or the citric acid in diet sodas (which, according to some studies, has the ability to interfere with ketosis). Dr. Atkins assumed the culprit is aspartame (I guess these patients were in ketosis, based on ketostix), hence his recommendation in DANDR 2002:

We discourage the use of aspartame (marketed as NutraSweet and Equal).
--- Chapter 11

Treat aspartame (NutraSweet or Equal) with caution. Avoid whenever possible. This includes products sweetened with this ingredient, such as diet sodas and diet Jell-O.
--- Chapter 18

Now you need to keep one thing in mind: before DANDR 2002 was published, aspartame was what Splenda became in the 2002 plan. While Dr. Atkins had years to look at the effect aspartame has on his patients, he didn't have the time to look so close at sucralose (Splenda). Who knows, if it hadn't been icy weather in NY in April 2003, maybe the rules about diet sodas sweetened with sucralose would have been different. I've seen Atkineers stalled both by aspartame and sucralose.

As for "I can't give up Diet Coke"...... Is Diet Coke really the best food/drink you had in your pre-Atkins days? Because if it is, then I'm afraid you had not lived your high-carb life to the fullest.

For at least two weeks, you are giving up chocolate, cakes, candies, cookies, rice, pasta, potatoes, apples, milk, chips, yogurt, oranges, alcohol, ice cream, fruit juices, etc. You obviously can give up all these, or else you wouldn't be here. Yet, you're telling me you can't give up Diet Coke?! Oh, com'on! Of course you can! The problem is that there is no real Induction substitute for rice, pasta, candies and so on, so you must give those up. And you do. However, there is one substitute for Coke: Diet Coke. Junk food, you all know this, but hey, at least it's low carb junk food! You're fueling an addiction and/or feeding your sweet tooth (the same sweet tooth that caused you to gain weight in the first place), but at least you are doing this with low carb junk food. You're drinking some crap with no nutritional value and few pronounceable ingredients, but at least it's low carb crap. You might be wasting that hour you spent sweating your off at the gym, but nah... it's just a little diet soda... it shouldn't hurt, right? You might be messing up your Induction results and not lose at your full potential, but... can diet soda really do this? It's diet, after all.

You're doing all this because you have your mind set on "I can't". I believe you are selling yourself short. You can do much more than you think you can. You had given up, for two weeks, a bunch of foods you used to love (or, likely, still love). Just as you had given up all those, you can give up diet sodas too, once you decide to blacklist them rather than look at them as your acceptable low carb junk treat.

I am not saying you should never ever drink diet sodas. A glass of diet soda once in a blue moon is not going to kill you, but Induction is really not the time to experiment with foods. Make the most out of these two weeks and instead of treating yourself with junk food, treat yourself with nutritious foods. I'm willing to bet (on 5 net carbs ) that after two weeks without sodas, you won't "need" to drink a glass of soda anymore, and you might even discover you don't like the taste and you'd rather drink water. And don't sell yourself short by rolling eyes at me and thinking, "no way!" You might have a surprise.

Happy low carbing!

[FwL]

In my opinion, the best thing you can do for yourself is cut out the sweets.

"Diet" sweets are just as bad for your body as the real thing.