Giving up Diet Coke!

Sadierhianne

Aspartame is vicious stuff can cause some pretty severe side effects including infertility, yet it is packed ibnto kids drinks - fruit shoots being one i think and lots of low sugar drinks - it is actually safer to drink the full sugar version and i'd rather my children's teeth rotted than them suffer aspartame damage.

That said, all this time i thought that i was addicted to brandy and now i realise it may just be the coke.

LouBlue

I read so many different reports on aspartame. And if you are drinking very high levels, then yes possibly, but I only drink, at most, 3 a day, as I said.

And lets be honest, most of us eat or drink something on a regular basis that has consequences.

I do know I should drink more water though, so am going to try but don't really see that giving up DC is something I seriously need to address.

But I am on here for info, so ta.

OliveOyl_2

Sorry I haven't read ALL this thread, so I don't know whether this has been mentioned before; but Coke (diet or fat) is awful for bones.

A friend of mine only drinks the stuff, nothing else and his knees are so bad, and the damage is irreversable and inoperable. (no replacement knees for him) The bone-doctor (What are they called? ) blamed the Coke.

I believe it is the acid in it (after all don't OS use leftover coke to clean the toilets?)

(BTW I think I'm addicted to brackets [I use them all the time:o ])

falady

Hi Will,

I'd like to join you on this one! I started drinking diet coke a lot a few years ago when i was suffereing with deptessuion (it helped keep me awake and vaguely alert a work!) but found that i was getting though 2 cans a day, or even 3 sometimes. Its too expensive!

Anyway, i have given up on the cans and have just bought some bottles (threee 2 litre bottles for £3 in asda at the mo) which I keep at home, so a glass or two on a night is all i'm having now. I'll try to cut it down even more!

Good luck in your quest. persevere!

Ali xx

Willsnarf1983

ah well i am rubbish at this, i've swapped diet coke for caffeine free diet coke but thats about it, i drink between 2-3 ltrs a day so not brilliant!

I however don't drink tea or coffee and i drink prob 1ltr of water a day anyway

Will

ZTD

LouBlue wrote: »

Why should I not be drinking it?? Its one of my few pleasures. We all have them. I don't have insomnia, I sleep like a baby, my teeth are fine....etc Yes, I know its linked with cancer but so are a lot of things.

If it is really causing me some serious damage, then please tell me, because I would need serious motivation to give up the only drink I really like.

Many thanks.

Right, from the top.

It has caffeine in it. If that's a problem, then it's a problem. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.

It's acidic. This thins out and softens your tooth enamel. Don't brush your teeth immediately after drinking, because you'll be wiping your enamel away.

It has phosphoric acid in it. Phosphoric acid (as opposed to other kinds) is bad for you because it displaces calcium from your body. You drink phosphoric, and calcium from your teeth and bones is excreted through your urine.

It has aspartame in it (boo! hiss!;)). Aspartame is aspartic acid and phenylalanine bonded together with methanol.

Phenylalanine is probably the least bad of the three - yes, some people who can't excrete this will die. You're not one of those people because you're not dead yet. It's also possibly carcinagenic.

Methanol is the active ingredient of meths. It causes nerve damage. Shakes, blindness, all the other bits and bobs like that...

Aspartic acid has been termed an excito-toxin. You'll be happy to know I'm not going to go into the depths of the calcium channel or any stuff like that, but just to say: If a brain cell comes into contact with aspartic acid, it needs to use its internal energy to counteract its effects. If it doesn't have enough energy, perhaps you're ill or there's just too much - then that cell will die.

There is something called the "blood-brain" barrier which tries to keep Aspartic acid out of the brain, but there's a few things to consider.

It doesn't cover *all* the brain - some structures have no protection.
It isn't 100% impermeable.
The chances of it having no holes in it are the same as you having flawless skin.

Questions..?

kika

You didn't mention oesteoporosis but I'm still addicted. I've cut down and buy tesco's own but total cost is not cheap.I'd like to cut down more so this thread is great.

ZTD

kika wrote: »

You didn't mention oesteoporosis

I did imply it when I talked about excreting calcium from the bones through the urine. The strength of bones is mostly derived from the calcium. Though I have heard some people wondering if there was an alternative mechanism for the osteoporosis, rather than just the phosphoric acid leeching.

kika wrote: »

but I'm still addicted. I've cut down and buy tesco's own but total cost is not cheap.I'd like to cut down more so this thread is great.

However there are a couple of things I didn't mention...

Diet drinks make you fat: When your tongue tastes something sweet, your body releases insulin to pull sugar out of your blood. Why? Because your body knows you're just about to dump a whole load of sugar into your blood from the sweet thing you've just swallowed. Except with a diet drink that doesn't happen. So you have low blood sugar, and want something sweet. So you drink a diet drink... Eventually, you have "a chocolate/cake/biscuit/sweet moment" and the real sugar from that brings your blood-sugar back up to normal. But of course since it was a craving, you've actually consumed more calories than if you'd just had a sugary thing in the first place.

Though that doesn't just apply to diet coke.

Also - there are some people who believe that aspartame affects satiety. Normally when you drink, you feel a little bit less thirsty, so stop drinking. It's believed by some that aspartame affects that, so when you drink, the "wet feeling" soon goes, so you want another one. And another. And another. Just because the feeling of long term satiety (what's the drink analogue of the food feeling of "full"?)

Of course companies would pay good money for this, which does explain aspartame's almost ubiquity in drinks. Even "full fat" stuff often has aspartame in, and things sweetened by other sweetners (such as sacharrine) also have aspartame in.

Which would be a weird thing to do, thinking about it, if you didn't take the satiety thing into account.

hypno06

Is there anything that you DON't know, Z

Clever clogs

ZTD

hypno06 wrote: »

Is there anything that you DON't know, Z

Oh there's shed loads of stuff, and that's not including stuff I don't actually want to know about.

Backwardation and contango - can never remember which is which and what the implications are.
Real bills - just still can't get my head around them.
Wood gas - probably just going to have to bite the bullet and buy a book.
Women - still don't have a clue...

hypno06 wrote: »

Clever clogs