11 ms·
Diet Coke probably isn't a cognitive performance enhancer
- bena 4y agoI wasn't even aware this was a question. I'd also consider the possibility that high-achievers realize that drinking calories is hardly ever worth it. And if you want something that tastes like soda but has all the nutritional value of water, Diet Coke is your best option.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rpmisms 4y agoProtein shakes are great!
- reidjs 4y agoThose have a massive amount of calories
- mlyle 4y agoThey really do, but if you power a couple down in substitute for lunch and aren't tempted to snack, then it can be an OK thing to do.
- gardenhedge 4y agoThey should be used as a supplement and not a substitute.
- mlyle 4y agoEh. If you want to slightly lower your caloric intake, and you normally eat a 700 calorie lunch... replacing that with 350 calories of protein shake a few times per week and still eating a healthy dinner, etc, is reasonable.
- gilmore606 4y agoWhy? I've been drinking a 250cal protein shake for lunch almost every day for years. When will I die?
- SoftTalker 4y agoIf you just want the protein you can buy unsweetened protein powder and mix it with water. If that's too bland you can add a little juice, still way less calories than the typical bottled protein drink.
- prvit 4y agoCheck out isopure protein drinks for a lower calorie alternative. 0 carbs, lactose free. http://www.theisopurecompany.com/en-au/product/isopurezerocarbrtd.html http://www.theisopurecompany.com/en-au/product/isopurezeroca... They aftertaste is a little weird, but still much easier to drink than protein shakes.
- nkozyra 4y agoHonestly one of the worst things I've ever tasted - I haven't seen them around for years. Plain protein powder (Optimum Nutrition / whatever you like) is generally mostly protein so if you're good with just chucking it in water you have a nearly equivalent macro breakdown.
- thoughtpalette 4y agoYMMV. I LOVED the taste of those (used to get the green tea flavor). I have now switched to an "infusions" variety [0]. Has a better taste (I mix with water) than chocolate in water, and is very refreshing after you let it sit for about a min after shaking. [0]:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FHPGS4V?pd_rd_i=B07FHPGS4V&pf_rd_p=7672bfb7-93b0-4322-b745-2104db09c4df&pf_rd_r=1Q6YEDFQD9D1P32317DV&pd_rd_wg=ufmb0&pd_rd_w=OFWNy&pd_rd_r=47812379-37f2-48f1-8bb7-a3d12b958730 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FHPGS4V?pd_rd_i=B07FHPGS4V&pf_r...
- nkozyra 4y agoThey can, or they can't, depends on what's in them. A scoop of protein powder in water or almond milk might hit 130 calories and will satiate, unlike diet coke.
- friedman23 4y agoFor the amount of protein they contain this is just false
- jacobmischka 4y agoThey really don't at all given their nutritional value. 25g of protein (which should suppress appetite a bit) for 120 calories is by no means massive.
- gigaflop 4y agoI use them as a convenient way to guarantee protein and calories, and use them as a way to help hammer out my hunger after the gym. 2-ish scoops, whole milk, mmm. Drink it fast, because it is not meant to be savored. 600 calories, tops.
- rpmisms 4y agoYes, and they have a purpose. Drinking those calories is good.
- wollsmoth 4y agoThey are but I like a constant stream of cool drink around. Usually this is just water or seltzer but sometimes it's a coke zero :-)
- the_lonely_road 4y agoThis is me so long as you consider me a high-achiever. I got addicted to coke when I was young and as an adult I drink lots of Coke Zero (previously Diet Coke) because I can't or don't want to break the habit and I want to preserve every spare calorie I can for desserts. Not gaining weight as I transitioned into an old man required me to severely cut back on my consumption and liquid calories have always been at the top of the list.
- bombcar 4y agoThe absolute best pipeline is to go Coke -> Diet Coke -> Coke Zero -> Caffeine Free Coke Zero -> colored water -> water, but there is no pipeline at all. It was cancelled, and people should be aware of what they drink and drink mindfully and responsibly.
- corrral 4y agoFor me it was Various Kinds of Sugary Soda -> Club Soda or sparkling mineral water sometimes with a squeeze of citrus. I craved the carbonation more than I craved the sugar, it turns out. Club soda instead of seltzer water because seltzer often has ~0 salt in it, which tastes pretty damn gross when combined with carbonation (to me, anyway) I find artificial sweeteners intolerable, so skipped that phase, I guess.
- gardenhedge 4y agoI dislike comments like this because it is stated as a fact. There is no pipeline at all.
- bombcar 4y agoI'll update it for you!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kibwen 4y agoSprite Zero has zero caffeine, if you must have a sugar and caffeine-free Coke product.
- sph 4y agoOne thing is certain: after years of Coke Zero, I've come to dislike regular sugary Coke. It's undrinkable, makes me even thirstier, and the American version with HFCS might be even worse. Also, Coke Zero >> Diet Coke, it's the perfect version of the Coca-Cola formula in my opinion. The other day I had a sip of some no sugar soda, and I had to double check if I had by mistake bought the full sugar one, it tasted so sweet. Nope, it was sugar free. They're real good these days, though I don't know how healthy.
- jaywalk 4y agoI find Coke Zero disgusting. But I feel the same way about regular Coke, and Coke Zero is supposed mimic the way it tastes. So that makes sense.
- pigtailgirl 4y ago-- can't drink coke zero or regular coke, regular coke is so disgusting - coke zero is meh - however - easy to knock off 3 or 4 diets cokes in a work day - tastes so good --
- arnejenssen 4y agoI agree. I'd think it would inhibit the cognition. Just by the fact that it is ultraprocessed "food". And we don't see smart people drink sodas.
- algoatecorn 4y agoFun fact: Diet Coke has 34% more caffeine than regular Coke https://www.coca-colacompany.com/faqs/what-is-caffeine#:~:text=People%20are%20often%20surprised%20when,Coke%20caffeine%20content%20is%2046mg https://www.coca-colacompany.com/faqs/what-is-caffeine#:~:te....
- echelon 4y agoWhat a domain name. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that.
- jaywalk 4y agoNot a lot of companies have a dash in their name like that.
- MrPoush 4y agoIt can be very helpful when providing clarity about where a word break should be. There's a reason that Experts Exchange uses http://www.experts-exchange.com http://www.experts-exchange.com rather than the hyphen-free version.
- gowld 4y agowww.hy-vee.com www.winndixie.com www.coca-cola.com !!
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoLet me check my spam folder - yeah, there are tons of phishing attempts with unusual combinations of hyphens, no hyphens, and company/inc/group that have similar amounts of legitimacy. A domain of coca-colacompany.com doesn't seem that unusual. Oh, you mean the #:~:text= URI fragment - yeah, that is weird! I wonder what the function of the :~ emoji is in their CMS. I know from painful experience that XML names can begin with a colon [1]; I fear that an identifier which is only a colon features prominently in their schema... I also enjoyed the line at the bottom, in corporatese nonanswer to the question "Is caffeine addictive?" > We know that not everyone drinks caffeine and not everyone wants to drink it all the time, so we also offer a range of caffeine-free beverages, including [insert local caffeine-free example] so people can make the choice for them and their families. Someone in some committee vetoed 'including water', much to the chagrin of the Dasani and Smartwater reps in the meeting... or maybe they were duking it out with the new Aha guy and there was no clear winner yet. [1] https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#NT-NameStartChar https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#NT-NameStartChar
- anonymouse008 4y ago> More concretely, phenylalanine is in all sorts of foods like eggs, chicken, milk, soybeans, and breast milk. Remember how phenylalanine is an essential amino acid? And remember how you’re reading this right now and not dead? From these facts, we may conclude that you consume phenylalanine all the time. Oh man, this had me chuckling and is a great TLDR for many supplements.
- whoomp12342 4y agoi so confused. is phenylalanine good or bad?
- sharedfrog 4y ago> essential amino acid Essential means you both need it to live and your body can't make it on its own - you must get it from diet.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- FredPret 4y agoCausing one to be not dead weighs heavily in its favour by my reckoning
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tetraca 4y agoIt generally isn't. Some people don't have the ability to metabolize phenylalanine, and it will slowly poison them. However, if this is you, you would definitely know.
- amelius 4y agoSo if your PA level is constantly high because of drinking Diet Coke, then you will poison yourself too?
- jp57 4y ago"Placebo enthusiasts" is a great term.
- runjake 4y agoTrivia: Diet Pepsi has 177mg Aspartame, so a rounding error's difference of phenylalanine. Perhaps this started as a Diet Coke marketing viral campaign?
- htk 4y agoSo they just decided to ignore the Caffeine in it for the sake of making a point?
- jacobmischka 4y agoYeah, this article makes no sense. Caffeine is absolutely a cognitive performance enhancer and is undisputably in Diet Coke.
- kraquepype 4y agoIt isn't mentioned, but maybe they used caffeine free diet coke?
- d23 4y ago> (Except for the caffeine of course, and maybe that it’s so delicious?) It's the first line of the article.
- ck2 4y agoIt took me many years but a great thing you can do for yourself is quit all soda.
- rbarragan 4y agoEven these "cognitive enhancer" sodas?
- amelius 4y agoI found out that when I stop drinking Diet Coke, I get depression symptoms. (Reproduced three times now). It must have something to do with the aspartame in it. When I take DLPA pills (a breakdown product of aspartame), the depression goes away quite fast. Drinking a can or two of Diet Coke also does the trick.
- johndoughy 4y agoYou sure it’s not just the caffeine? Caffeine withdrawal symptoms includes depression and a host of related symptoms.
- jamal-kumar 4y agoI'd talk to your doctor about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_dependence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_dependence
- bradlys 4y agoTry caffeine free and see if it persists. I drink caffeine free. I’ll be going on a multi month purge from it though. Water only for a few months. It’ll be brutal especially because I have high standards for water. (And most water tastes terrible)
- uf00lme 4y agoI’m not sure all the attention on caffeine vs caffeine free is deserved, I suspect that a ton of other chemicals are involved. It took me months to get over drinking diet sodas with a ton of withdrawal symptoms along the way, but it was worth it - addiction is terrible.
- sandworm101 4y agoBiggest advantage over regular coke: does not get sticky when you spill it.
- Dragonai 4y agoStains from diet soda are also way easier to completely clean up due to the lack of sugar! I've seen Diet Coke/Coke Zero stains vanish from light-colored clothing within minutes.
- BeefWellington 4y agoAlso, does not attract ants.
- musicale 4y agoSee: Diet Coke and Mentos.
- dougdonohoe 4y agoBack in the dot-com days, thanks to employer-subsidized soda fridges, I was drinking easily 6+ cans of diet soda a day (in my case, Diet Dr. Pepper). Along with other startup related behaviors like eating fast food (Carl's Jr, what's up?) and not exercising, my weight increased to around 220 lbs on a 6'1" frame. I stopped drinking diet soda around the time I joined a weight-loss startup in 2011, and started eating healthier and I end up dropping down to around 175 lbs, which I more or less maintain to this day. I personally think "diet soda", even though "0 calories" doesn't do anything great for your metabolism or weight and is a great oxymoron of a product.
- symlinkk 4y agoIt sounds like you’re confusing the effects of eating unhealthy food with the effects of drinking soda
- daniel_reetz 4y agoThere's some clinical evidence that artificual sweeteners are associated with weight gain. It's interesting stuff and worth a look.
- themitigating 4y agoI think everyone knows that "diet" in a product name means it's healthier than the non-diet product. It also does help with your health if you were going to consume the non-diet version of that product in similar quantities.
- rr888 4y ago> I think everyone knows that "diet" in a product name means it's healthier than the non-diet product. Disagree with this. Its marketing BS to focus on one diet optimization usually at the expense of something else.
- shadowofneptune 4y agoWhat would be the something else? There are occasional studies that may indicate health risks associated with diet soda, but as best as I can tell they are not really conclusive. The health issues with consuming large amounts of refined sugar on the other hand are concrete and very well documented. Dental caries, increased likelihood of developing diabetes mellitus, etc.
- sydthrowaway 4y agoCalories in vs calories out is a myth. How do diet sodas affect insulin response? Not well I suspect.
- astrange 4y ago“Calories in vs calories out” is a restatement of the second law of thermodynamics and must be true.
- musicale 4y agoUnfortunately calories out is excessively variable, as are hunger and energy, which affect calories in.
- IE6 4y agoPerhaps from a purely academic sense but in practice it's pretty reliable.
- QuarterReptile 4y ago'Calories in vs calories out' is more meme than myth. It's both true and nearly worthless to aid anyone in weight loss because it's not the thing anyone is confounded by.
- taylorius 4y agoThen how the hell did Trump do it, dammit??? ;-)
- dankai 4y agoContrary to most opinions here, I lost weight through Diet Coke and diet drinks and kept it down thanks to it. These sodas (or rather the artificial sweeteners) allowed me to cut out sugar totally out of my diet at age 16 where I weighed 250 lbs at my highest, to 140 lbs at my lowest at age 21. Now I'm 30 years old at a healthy 160 lbs. I never worked out (still hate it) and only achieved this thanks to the dietary changes I was able to make through 0-calorie sweeteners. Perhaps my experience differs from other peoples, but I personally know 2-3 other people like me. Today, like most days, I drank at least 80 fl oz of diet soda and it never had a negative effect on me.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoDo you drink water at all? Have you ever had a kidney stone?
- dankai 4y agoI do drink water sometimes. But during the day, when I'm working or out at a restaurant it's 99% diet soda. I haven't tasted sugar based Coke in over 15 years because of my aversion against sugar. Never had a kidney stone or anything like it.
- gigaflop 4y agoBack when I was losing weight, I was fueled by caffeine, anxiety, and aspartame, so this checks out with my own experience. 270 to 180, sitting now around 205. I did mostly cardio back then, but now lift weights. Switching to 0-calorie drinks has allowed me to better balance my diet for my personal wants/needs.
- birdemic 4y agoMy story is pretty much identical, although some of the numbers are a bit different. At 22 I was a massive 95 kg (210 lbs). I drank about 2 L of cola every day and decided commit myself to a "don't drink calories rule," and switched from regular Coke/Pepsi to Coke Zero/Pepsi Max. I made no other changes to my lifestyle and after 6-7 months was down to a non-overweight 70 kg (155 lbs). 16 years later (yikes!), I still drink too much soda: about 1-1.5 L of diet soda and about 1 L of water. I currently weigh 75 kg, but I think the extra mass comes from much more regular exercise. I don't have any particular health issues, whatsoever, but after a few decades of daily soda abuse, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.
- rendall 4y agoWell that blows my summer plans!
- cwillu 4y agoIt is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the cola of coca that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire pits, the pits become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
- kortex 4y agoThe original impetus seems to be from this tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/AaronBergman18/status/1527333615763603456 https://mobile.twitter.com/AaronBergman18/status/15273336157... > 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine, which is an indirect precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. If "leads to dopamine eventually via some pathway" were sufficient for dopamine, hoo boy, the field of psychopharmacology would look radically different. Would certainly make treating ADHD and Parkinson's way easier (and schizophrenia and mania way harder). Or, y'know, it's the caffeine. Especially since it doesn't cause the sugar spike/crash like regular soft drinks.