The Good and Bad of Diet Soda

As you may know, I had a minor major enormous Diet Mountain Dew addiction.  Heck, I probably still do, but it's under control at the moment. I'm down to about 1 can a day.  After I announced I was cutting back, someone (I can't find your tweet, I'm sorry for not crediting you!) suggested that I look into what's good and bad about diet soda.

The Good

Surprise, surprise - it's tough to find the good!  About all I could find, or think of, is that:

• It tastes good.
• It's 99% water (although let's not kid ourselves, it's not water).
• It's less fattening than sugary soda.
• The caffeine can give you a little boost when you need it.
• In small doses caffeine may enhance physical performance (exercise).  And if you're exercising, the caffeine may help your body use fat stores.

The Bad

Naturally, the bad is a lot easier to find.  First, the sweetener used in most diet drinks - aspartame - has side effects.  In high doses it is linked to brain tumors and lymphoma in rodents.  And while the FDA maintains that aspartame is safe, some of the reported side effects include headaches, dizziness, and mood changes.

The aspartame may also trigger your sweet tooth.  Because it is so much sweeter than sugar (even if it's a chemically sweet flavor), you may find that normally sweet foods aren't "good enough" after drinking diet soda, and you will go for extra sweet foods instead.  I know that after drinking a ton of diet soda, normally sweet items taste bland to me.  But if I drink water or tea, those same items taste much sweeter.

Next on the list is caffeine - a drug that does a lot to your body.  We all know the boost that caffeine gives us (that's why we drink it, right?) - this is done in part by adding adrenaline to our system.  Unfortunately, the downside to that boost is that you may feel tired later in the day when your adrenaline drops.

The caffeine can affect your sleep not only by keeping you awake, but by shortening the amount of "good sleep" you get.  Also, because it messes with your body's adenosine absorption, it can prevent you from easily calming down, which isn't surprising, but I assumed it was all from the adrenaline boost.

In addition to boosting adrenaline and inhibiting adenosine absorption, caffeine increases cortisol - commonly known as the "stress hormone."  This hormone increases your blood pressure and weakens your immune system.   Also, cortisol may cause you to want fatty or starchy foods, and may also cause your body to store fat in the abdomen.  NOOOOO!

Finally, caffeine also increases dopamine levels so you get an immediate "high."  But you end up with a resulting "low," and can become physically addicted to the drug.  Again, this is not so surprising considering people complain about caffeine headaches and being tired when giving it up.  Ahem.  Who, me?

The Verdict

Despite being mostly water, diet soda is not a very good water substitute.  The artificial sweetener and caffeine both can mess with your body in unhealthy ways.

Is there a "healthy" amount of diet soda?  Most information I read indicated that one or two diet sodas a day should be okay, as long as you drink plenty of plain water, and don't have caffeine after about 2pm.

-Bill

Comments

[Cooley]

Inspired by your Diet Mtn. Dew cutbacks and disappointed in myself after a week of bad dieting (disclaimer/long-story-short: circumstances were not in my favor), I decided to cut back on my diet cokes. I'd planned to go cold turkey, but I'm in a play and we're pushing through tech week, so I figured that was a bad idea. Instead, I'm down to either two cans or one 20-oz bottle a day, and it's gone well this week. I find I enjoy them more when I drink them less, and I'm getting in more water. Next week's plan is to cut down to 1 can a day, and then hopefully make it an every-once-in-a-while treat.

[suzi]

Ugh, I am a HUGE Diet Coke addict. I crave it. I absolutely know that my Diet Coke addiction is why I can't lose weight. It's obvious. How did you cut down to 1 can a day? I am at about 60+ oz a day. Ya.

suzi
pinkvanillacupcakes.com

[Bill]

I cut back by not drinking them out of cans any more. And I don't use my super enormous cups I was using either. I use a small glass (actually made of glass!) and fill it all the way up with ice. One or two of those is between 1 and 2 cans. Once I'm done I make myself to drink other stuff.

And the less I drink, the less I crave it. Now it tastes good in the morning, but when I'm done it's not that big a deal. And I was drinking a LOT (at least 2 liters, yikes!) a day.

My blistex habit is harder to break! But I'm on 3 days without and it's finally getting better.

[Daddy Geek Boy]

How about Coke Zero? It's not "diet" right? That counts? (Please tell me that counts.)

[Karianna]

Here's something that has worked on and off for me -- carbonated water.

Now, I know the "taste" is ikky initially, but when I'm only craving bubbles, it works for me.

(Alas, these days I'm craving the CokeZero taste... but should try to go back to carbonated water!)

I typically purchase cans of club soda to have on hand. (Look at what your particular grocery store calls "club soda" versus "seltzer water" because the "carbonated water" can be called different things. Usually one type has additives, like citric acid or potassium, whereas another type will be straight-up carbonated water.)

I've heard of home carbonation machines that people can use to reduce the whole environmental impact of cans. Apparently people carbonate juices that way (a little bit of juice, a lot of water) to create a flavored soda that is lower calorie than other sodas, but without the artificial sweeteners. If anyone has tried these home carbonation machines, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I do know that the dentist frowns on carbonation since it wears away tooth enamel. But... I know it is better if I drink carbonated water than choose to feed my cravings other ways!

[Alex]

I think it's scary how much soda Americans consume. It's soooooooo bad for you. Even diet soda.

Go cold turkey for a week. It's hard but worth it.
Just drink water.

You'll notice that you sleep better, you won't get gas and your skin will look amazing.

[suz]

I don't drink soda at all. I've never drank diet soda, because of the aspartame/artificial sweetener issue. I read in the past year that drinking 1 soda reduces your immunity by 30% for several hours. That was enough to push me from occasionally drinnking soda to never drinking soda. I drink water and mineral water (great, natural alternative when you need the bubbles).

[Quix]

I generally have a few random sodas a week, and if I'm drinking, I pretty much exclusively do (caffeine free if I'm home) diet coke and either rum or whiskey.

Rest of the time I stick to decaf tea or water. One caffinated soda or tea or coffee (and even more than one decaf coffee or tea) kinda makes me bounce off the walls.