what's the deal with sodas?

[hydroflame]

should I trust the 0 carb diet sodas, or should I completely stay away from them? I have been craving them lately, and the label on the back makes it even more tempting. Is it going to cause a stall in my motabolism? anyone had any experiences?

[blueberrylady]

I would avoid them during induction because they do tend to cause cravings. After that, it's best to stay away too but I find if I drink one shortly before bedtime, I sleep through any cravings they may cause.

[SunnySmile501]

There is plenty of evidence that diet sodas are as bad for you as regular sodas. There is nothing in them that is healthy, but plenty of unhealthy. They are extremely acidic and leach calcium from bone because of the high phosphorous content.


At your young age, you should be cutting anything out of your diet that contributes to a health hazard. Here are two articles that you should read for yourself.

Excerpts from:

Drink More Diet Soda, Gain More Weight?

Overweight Risk Soars 41% With Each Daily Can of Diet Soft Drink

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson Mathis, MD

June 13, 2005 -- People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity," Fowler tells WebMD. "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."
In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.

"There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.

More Diet Drinks, More Weight Gain

Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.
. . .
That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.

"If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered," Fowler says.
Perhaps, Bonci says, our bodies are smarter than we think.

"People think they can just fool the body. But maybe the body isn't fooled," she says. "If you are not giving your body those calories you promised it, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Some soft drink studies do suggest that diet drinks stimulate appetite."

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight

xx

Excerpts from 8 Ways Soda fizzles Your Health

pH of Soda = pH of Vinegar
For one, soda, no matter who makes it, is the most acidic beverage you can buy, with a pH of about 2.5, about the same as vinegar. Why does that matter? Acid oxidizes whatever it comes in contact with. If you put soda or vinegar on metal, it will rust it quickly. Check out this table of acid levels of your favorite sodas.

Drink Soda, Leach Calcium
If you drink soda, which also contains high levels of phosphorous, you will leach calcium from your bones. Dr. Michael Murray from the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine concluded, “It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis.” Furthermore, Dr. Elson Haas, author of The Detox Diet states, “Tooth loss, periodontal disease, and gingivitis can be problems, especially with a high phosphorus intake, particularly from soft drinks.”

Diet Soda Isn’t Any Better
For those of you with a diet soda in your hands, the news isn’t any better, in fact it’s worse! Carol Simontacchi from her book The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children states, “One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. When several of these beverages are consumed in a short period of time (one day, perhaps), as much as two hundred fifty milligrams of methanol are dumped into the bloodstream, or thirty-two times the EPA limit.” So, you’re poisoning your body, too.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.waterforlifeusa.com/blog/uncategorized/8-ways-soda-fizzles-your-health/

xx

[Elizellen]

Great information, Sunny

I was going to mention that we are only supposed to be having up to 3 servings of sweetener in one day, and that most canned drinks contain at least 1.5 servings, but that reason for abstaining pales into insignificance compared with what you have posted

[SunnySmile501]

Originally Posted by Elizellen

Great information, Sunny

I was going to mention that we are only supposed to be having up to 3 servings of sweetener in one day, and that most canned drinks contain at least 1.5 servings, but that reason for abstaining pales into insignificance compared with what you have posted

I think my not liking sodas goes way back into my youth. We very seldom drank them when I was a child, but occasionally had one as a treat.

I am the youngest of 11 children, with several nieces and nephews older than me. I had a niece, Becky, whom was nine months older than me, and I spent a lot of time in her home. Her mother drank 6 to 8 large cola sodas a day. At that time, about 1960, there was a study on how colas would completely "eat up" a piece of raw bacon in three days. Becky and I tried it, and after three days in a bottle of Pepsi, a thick slice of bacon was completely gone. I can still picture that bottle of Pepsi on the window sill in Becky's bedroom.

I know it scared me straight! I imagined it eating up my stomach. After that, I would only drink an occasional Orange or Grape Crush and have a complete distaste for any kind of cola. I never really liked the sweet taste, anyway, so it wasn't hard to never drink them again.