Diet soda makes you eat more?

This article was just in Yahoo headlines:
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

On Mar 25, 7:57 pm, " wrote:
This article was just in Yahoo headlines:http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

Without seeing the study myself, I'd right away call it inconclusive
at best. There's too many "studies" flying around that aren't backed
by..well, anything anymore.

The thing I've heard a lot of about diet soda is that it makes your
stomach empty sooner ( http://www.google.com/search?q=diet+soda+alcohol
), which makes it a popular chaser among some --- ahem --- younger
constituents, because this results in a higher BAC, quicker.

Maybe this stomach-emptying effect accounts for the higher
consumption.


Personally, I find diet soda essential to my day on my diet (go
figure!). It's a easy-to-find, zero-calorie (!!!), SWEET drink. And
it contains caffeine, to boot! It's great. When I really want to
snack on something, it's usually because I feel like I've been 'good'
and need to treat myself. So I treat myself to a diet soda, or if
I've been REALLY Dr.Diet, I get myself a Diet Snapple Peach Tea.
Heaven in a bottle.

A lot of people say aspartame is 'bad' for you, but I've NEVER read
any research that suggests that drinking diet soda has severe negative
effects*, or really any. I'd love to, I just haven't come across it.
I think people just want to believe that aspartame and EVERY 'man-made
chemical' is bad for you, because they see something wrong with
manipulating the laws of nature for convenience. But that's all new-
age hooplah and philosophy. The bottom line is, diet soda works GREAT
for a lot of people. Some people think this or that about it, and
avoid it because of what some magazine slop or two-bit blogger says
about it, and that's fine for them.

Until I see either the effects myself, or some strong research that
clearly lays out the problem with diet soda, I'll never go completely
off the stuff.



* - Caffeine IS a diuretic, and dehydration is obviously no good for
anybody. However, if you drink even a fraction of the various
recommendations of daily water intake, you're likely to overcome the
diuretic effect of diet soda without even thinking about it.

On Mar 25, 7:18*pm, James G wrote:
On Mar 25, 7:57 pm, " wrote:





This article was just in Yahoo headlines:http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

Without seeing the study myself, I'd right away call it inconclusive
at best. *There's too many "studies" flying around that aren't backed
by..well, anything anymore.

The thing I've heard a lot of about diet soda is that it makes your
stomach empty sooner (http://www.google.com/search?q=diet+soda+alcohol
), which makes it a popular chaser among some --- ahem --- younger
constituents, because this results in a higher BAC, quicker.

Maybe this stomach-emptying effect accounts for the higher
consumption.

Personally, I find diet soda essential to my day on my diet (go
figure!). *It's a easy-to-find, zero-calorie (!!!), SWEET drink. *And
it contains caffeine, to boot! *It's great. *When I really want to
snack on something, it's usually because I feel like I've been 'good'
and need to treat myself. *So I treat myself to a diet soda, or if
I've been REALLY Dr.Diet, I get myself a Diet Snapple Peach Tea.
Heaven in a bottle.

A lot of people say aspartame is 'bad' for you, but I've NEVER read
any research that suggests that drinking diet soda has severe negative
effects*, or really any. *I'd love to, I just haven't come across it.
I think people just want to believe that aspartame and EVERY 'man-made
chemical' is bad for you, because they see something wrong with
manipulating the laws of nature for convenience. *But that's all new-
age hooplah and philosophy. *The bottom line is, diet soda works GREAT
for a lot of people. *Some people think this or that about it, and
avoid it because of what some magazine slop or two-bit blogger says
about it, and that's fine for them.

Until I see either the effects myself, or some strong research that
clearly lays out the problem with diet soda, I'll never go completely
off the stuff.

* - Caffeine IS a diuretic, and dehydration is obviously no good for
anybody. *However, if you drink even a fraction of the various
recommendations of daily water intake, you're likely to overcome the
diuretic effect of diet soda without even thinking about it.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Snopes debunks the adverse health claims about artificial sweetners
too. If I didn't love the stuff, I wouldn't use it though. This
article appears to be something published for entertainment, since
they aren't really selling anything, but it is akin to all those
health pill ads where they take one or two relatively insignificant
and often questionable actions of some mineral or vitamin or herb and
blow it all out of proportion giving it unproven, untested and
sensational health benefits, just to sell you their latest
revolutionary snake oil product.

The caffeine fix could be a reason I also like the diet pop so much. I
know I like the colas like diet coke, diet pepsi and diet Dr. Pepper,
and I don't care for diet 7-up. Heck, caffeine probably adds a little
to weight loss because it tends to make you more active.

I have seen the argument made that since people started using
artificial sweetners, the average weight has gone up. While this seems
to be true, no cause and effect has been shown and the association
could be incidental. If you looked into it, there is probably also a
correlation between wt. gain and PCs or wt. gain and big screen TV's,
etc., but if there is, it doesn't necessarily mean there is any
connection between the two events. Like in politics and news snipets
though, it is something that can be presented in a sound bite and
seems to catch on whether it is accurate or not. Also like politics,
if someone already doesn't like diet soda, they will glom onto this
article as proof of its harmful effects, but others like myself who
love diet pop see the article as misleading and invalid. dkw

On Mar 26, 7:25 am, " wrote:

The caffeine fix could be a reason I also like the diet pop so much. I
know I like the colas like diet coke, diet pepsi and diet Dr. Pepper,
and I don't care for diet 7-up. Heck, caffeine probably adds a little
to weight loss because it tends to make you more active.

To my knowledge, caffeine is a mild appetite suppressant. It
certainly seems to be! Either way, it's a zero-calorie fluid, and
fluids are always filling. (Personally, I actually prefer a HOT drink
when I'm hungry; hot fluids like coffee o


I have seen the argument made that since people started using
artificial sweetners, the average weight has gone up. While this seems
to be true, no cause and effect has been shown and the association
could be incidental. If you looked into it, there is probably also a
correlation between wt. gain and PCs or wt. gain and big screen TV's,
etc., but if there is, it doesn't necessarily mean there is any
connection between the two events.

http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/001857.php

Like in politics and news snipets
though, it is something that can be presented in a sound bite and
seems to catch on whether it is accurate or not. Also like politics,
if someone already doesn't like diet soda, they will glom onto this
article as proof of its harmful effects, but others like myself who
love diet pop see the article as misleading and invalid. dkw

Either way, the bottom line is that some people drink it, and some
don't. Without any scientific data promoting one way or the other,
it's a sheer matter of preference.

On Mar 26, 3:55*pm, Cynthia P wrote:
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:57:11 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
This article was just in Yahoo headlines:
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

I wouldn't stress over it... frankly, they claim that artificial
sweeteners period make you eat more... and I've not found that to be
true at all. I use Splenda in moderation, it's not a problem.

There's always been a lot of hysteria over artificial sweeteners, I
suspect this is mostly more of the same. Not that I think people
should be having the artificial stuff constantly, in every drink, in
every meal, but a little here and there is unlikely to be a problem.

Now, it's true that consuming a given substance may tend to affect
some people more than others. But geez, we are all different. Some
people can't eat peanuts, some don't tolerate dairy, and on and on and
so forth. My mother became deathly allergic to sunflower seeds. She
stopped eating them.

If someone feels like they DO eat more after consuming an artificial
sweetened item, then they can choose to stop consuming that item! It's
not rocket science! We DO have choices.

I did notice that when I drank diet soda regularly, that the constant
sweet taste tended to make me crave salty, crunchy foods. So, I don't
drink diet soda regularly anymore. An occasional one doesn't have that
effect, it was just the constant intake that caused "sweet overload"
for me.

I've also seen a study that suggests people eat more after consuming a
regular sugary soda as well.

--
Cynthia
262/225.4/150http://www.garbagethatgoo.com(my weight loss blog)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What I notice about diet pop and artificial sweetners in
general...especially those in X-tra gum... leaves you with an altered
taste even hours later. It doesn't stop me from eating what I want,
but it does detract from the taste a little even though it is not as
bad as saccharin. Remember Tab. I think they still make it. It used to
be sweetened with saccharin and tasted nasty with a strong aftertaste.
Heck, this aftertaste phenomenon alone might cause people to eat less,
not more. There's a little anecdotal evidence in the little article,
but it isn't convincing. I prefer Equal to Splenda because package for
package it seems to taste sweeter, but neither have any significant
aftertaste that I can discern. Equal costs half as much too. You just
can't cook with it cause high heat causes it to lose its sweetness.
Apparently the claim that it changes into formaldehyde when heated is
not true though. If it were, the govt. would have removed it long ago.
I don't necessarily trust uncle Sam about everything, but I do think
they would have no reason to allow an unsafe sweetner on the market
and my gosh they've been tested for years now. dkw

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:57:11 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

This article was just in Yahoo headlines:
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

I wouldn't stress over it... frankly, they claim that artificial
sweeteners period make you eat more... and I've not found that to be
true at all. I use Splenda in moderation, it's not a problem.

There's always been a lot of hysteria over artificial sweeteners, I
suspect this is mostly more of the same. Not that I think people
should be having the artificial stuff constantly, in every drink, in
every meal, but a little here and there is unlikely to be a problem.

Now, it's true that consuming a given substance may tend to affect
some people more than others. But geez, we are all different. Some
people can't eat peanuts, some don't tolerate dairy, and on and on and
so forth. My mother became deathly allergic to sunflower seeds. She
stopped eating them.

If someone feels like they DO eat more after consuming an artificial
sweetened item, then they can choose to stop consuming that item! It's
not rocket science! We DO have choices.

I did notice that when I drank diet soda regularly, that the constant
sweet taste tended to make me crave salty, crunchy foods. So, I don't
drink diet soda regularly anymore. An occasional one doesn't have that
effect, it was just the constant intake that caused "sweet overload"
for me.

I've also seen a study that suggests people eat more after consuming a
regular sugary soda as well.

--
Cynthia
262/225.4/150
http://www.garbagethatgoo.com (my weight loss blog)

On Mar 25, 5:57*pm, " wrote:
This article was just in Yahoo headlines:http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

I disagree, diet soda doesn't make me eat more, but it does make me
aware that I'm hungry while a regular soda would actually curb the
appetite and up the blood sugar if you were hungry...

A recent study (totally googlable) does say that tea does lower blood
sugar so if you drink tea regularly and are feeling constantly hungry
-- BY ALL MEANS PUT SUGAR IN YOUR TEA. Hungry people eat more (if
food is available), keep those blood sugar levels up to normal folks
or else that failsafe warning that goes off in the body signifying
starvation kicks in and produces fat.

On Mar 25, 5:57*pm, " wrote:
This article was just in Yahoo headlines:http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heal...the-diet-soda/

I can say with complete assurance that this is not universally true,
since I drink about 12 diet sodas a day, am thin, and control my
appetite and food intake very well. One other thing about diet soda.
You drink them cold, so your body actually has to burn calories in
order to keep your body temp up. I really don't know if this is
significant, but it makes sense. I'm sure all that artificial sweetner
isn't good for you, but since I've been doing this for years along
with using much more Splenda and Equal besides....with no problems far
as I know, I don't hold much confidence in the article...none for me
personally. I think it boils down to will power. There is no food or
additive I am aware of that can make you eat more if you have decided
not to, and that's the point. Unless a person has determination to
lose wt. or maintain wt. or exercise...in general do what they need to
do, any diet will fail in any case. Conversely, if you do stick with
it, almost all the diets will work provided a person has calculated
their calories in and calories out accurately and come up with the
right no. or range of calories. This argument is a little like blaming
McDonalds for people being fat. Unless McDonalds dragged me kicking
and screaming into their restaurants and forced me to consume their
unhealthy high-fat foods, I wouldn't do it, and I go to McDonalds a
lot....but for DIET SODA (and an occasional side salad). dkw

oh yeah, 12 diet sodas a day IS WAY TOO MUCH, bad for the kidneys, too
much caffeine (especially for a lightweight "thin" person) and way too
much aspartame or diet sweetener, definitely not safe. Try cutting
that to at least half of that and substituting with glasses of water
(flavored or vitamin fortified as you like) for the other half...

There are plenty of starving fat people, it's all in the blood sugar
levels baby... perhaps you've noticed the bulging bellies of starving
folks on TV -- you can't always tell by looking at a fat person
whether it's too much food or actual starvation that's the culprit.
Blame doctors for telling everyone to restrict their calories... way
too many people only understand "eat" or "don't eat" it's too
complicated for the majority and certainly not any restaurant's fault,
though quality calories do play a role...

People need to eat when they are hungry, what their bellies can
tolerate and pushing 12 diet sodas a day on people who just want to be
thin is not educated advice.

On Mar 28, 10:50 am, schizobeck wrote:


oh yeah, 12 diet sodas a day IS WAY TOO MUCH, bad for the kidneys, too
much caffeine (especially for a lightweight "thin" person) and way too
much aspartame or diet sweetener, definitely not safe. Try cutting
that to at least half of that and substituting with glasses of water
(flavored or vitamin fortified as you like) for the other half...

I agree that 12 diet sodas is entirely too much, but given the
trendiness of bashing diet soda, or really anything with chemicals
that make it more convenient, I'd like to ask if you have any reading
on the actual effects you're referring to.

As a diet soda drinker (and a geek), I'd really appreciate a much more
thorough basis to all the talk surrounding it. Particularly the big
about aspartame/sweetener being not safe.