Seems like more and more people might be agreeing with me on this idea that diet soda might not be the cures to our ‘diet’ woes. Or maybe I was agreeing with other people first…at any rate…
An article in Men’s Health said that while diet soda may be lower in calories than regular soda, the average american is still consuming useless calories and is replacing water for diet soda. We should drink mostly water each day. Depending on where the information is coming from (and activity levels), we should either drink at least 64 oz (even for a relatively sedentary person, or more obviously with high levels of activity) or half our body weight in ounces. Either way you cut it, Americans don’t drink that much water on a daily basis. I have to constantly remind my patients to drink more water, which can help to decrease inflammation.
Also mentioned in this article (though briefly, and didn’t get nearly the coverage I would’ve liked) were the dangers lurking in diet soda, mostly aspartame. This is not a safe product, though approved by the FDA (can we really trust the FDA still after all their blunders lately?). Side effects include mood changes, memory loss, dizziness, diarrhea…all this from a supposedly safe alternative for diabetics.
The way I figure is…humans are mostly made out of water. We can’t live without it, so most of our liquid consumption should be in the form of water…pure water. I know many who try to avoid drinking water by saying they drink vitamin water…it’s a step in the right direction at least. I’ve told some of my patients in the past to cut some fruit up and put that in water to flavor it a little.
We’re all so used to flavored drinks, that when we drink water…we complain that it has no flavor (and yet, somehow…tastes bad). I grew up drinking sprite, so I’m not much different in that respect. It took me a long time to make the transition to drinking mostly water. I definitely have cravings for soda or juice or gatorade, but drinking water is the best choice.
And remember…diet soda = bad.
3 Comments
January 8, 2009 at 2:50 pm
When you eliminate other choices for drinking besides water, you become accustomed to the idea that you just don’t consume them. Eliminating both diet and regular soda from your diet will help you lose weight. A colleague decided to eliminate his 5 diet sodas a day from his diet and in two months lost 15 pounds. That was the only change he made. Think of the possibilities! Besides, carbonation actually attacks and breaks down human cell tissue. It is that harmful. Thanks for your post!
May 17, 2009 at 6:11 am
A detailed video with dr Russell Blaylock about aspartame and msg ( the are both excitotoxin so they have the same effect on brain) :
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2141666279271222294&ei=EeIPSqbiFtaI-Aa-192vDA&q=russell+blaylock
May 18, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Thanks for that video. Haven’t watched it all yet, but it does share quite a bit of information.