4 ms·

Back 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 wit

Back 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 ago
It sounds like you’re confusing the effects of eating unhealthy food with the effects of drinking soda
- daniel_reetz 4y ago
  There's some clinical evidence that artificual sweeteners are associated with weight gain. It's interesting stuff and worth a look.
themitigating 4y ago
I 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 ago
    What 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.
    - rr888 4y ago
      The real solution is you should be drinking water or tea instead of Sode. Diet soda sounds equally healthy but keeps your palette wanting sweet.
    - culi 4y ago
      It's true that refined sugar has been very clearly proven to be associated with terrible consequences to your health. But most of the sugar substitutes used in "diet" products simply don't have those warnings because they're just newer and less studied. But there's been a lot of recent research showing just how bad these artificial sweeteners can be even in small amounts. Some studies have even shown long-lasting and intergenerational effects on the gut microbiome[0] and increased cancer risks.[1] The impacts on the gut microbiome[2] are particularly worrying to me. Many of these sweeteners love to sit in your gut for a while and can lead to really weird microbiome makeups and possibly even be a risk factor for diabetes and/or metabolic syndromes [0] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.795848/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.79584... [1] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/ More reading: - https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-su... - https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...
      - popcube 4y ago
        what is wrong here? your citation looks ok and new... get down vote
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  Aspartame which is often used for 'diet' drinks is rather crappy chemical stuff you really shouldn't be putting in your body in the first place. People feel they are doing something for their health when its really not the case since they still remain well within the junkfood category (something akin to using denser filter in cigarettes - less big particles may well mean finer stuff is kept in lungs for longer, and travels deeper)
- m463 4y ago
  IHMO you are confusing product marketing with good health advice. Marketing is just a legal way to tell only the good side of a story. "low-fat" usually means sugar. "sugar free" usually means artificial sweeteners (or something made without sugar anyway). Even "no added sugar" is suspect. What I've found hilarious is the new "KETO!" marketing craze. I really suspect that most of these products will not induce or maintain ketosis. (the actual health impact of ketosis is not clear to me anyway)
  - gigaflop 4y ago
    A ketogenic diet is ultra-low-carb, to the point where your body enters ketosis, and becomes much more amenable to burning your fat reserves for energy. Essentially, keto-friendly means very low carb/sugar.
    - m463 4y ago
      But if you go to costco, and browse the "keto" section, I have doubts that the products (mostly dessert/snack products) are really keto-friendly. "keto crackers", "keto bombs", "keto clusters", "mini cookies", "keto cups", etc... I suspect they must be sharply constrained in serving size
x3iv130f 4y ago
The trick is to do an 4:1 dilution of sparkling water and diet soda. You will end up with 1-2 cans of diet soda heavily diluted by water. After you get used to it, ordinary canned soda will start tasting like the carbonated syrup it actually is.
- jansan 4y ago
  Oh no, the trick is to buy the sirup from a discount supermarket (for example Aldi's Diet Orange soda sirup) and dillute it with water from your sodastream (or sodastream knock-off, also from Aldi). This way you will always know that there are three components in your soda: sirup, tap water and CO2.
  - kreeben 4y ago
    Ok so there's an even better trick, hear me out. Don't drink soda. It's sugar, water, and purple. Two of those are not good for you.
    - culi 4y ago
      It's wild how far we go to keep doing our bad habits. It's like with veganism. That major EAT–Lancet study found that, although vegetarianism and veganism had many positive impacts on measures of environmental impacts, vegetarianism was actually more beneficial than veganism on impact of biodiversity. This is basically because vegans consume more "fake meat" and other such products that require a lot of processing and packaging and end up having a terrible impact on the environment Curry is great! I do veganism occasionally for periods of time and I personally believe that if you can't do it without craving meat you are just not creative enough. There's plenty of amazing food and flavors out there that don't need meat. Not to mention, you'd probably have a smaller environmental impact by buying some really expensive meat/eggs from some free-range farmer from your local farmer's market than if you buy that fake meat stuff that's probably made of the soybeans grown on the soy farms that are rapidly replacing the Amazon
- Raphael 4y ago
  Sparkling water on its own is fine.
systemvoltage 4y ago
What would have happened if you continued to drink Diet Dr. Pepper while also joining the weight-loss startup, eating healthier and exercising?
treeman79 4y ago
Between personal experience and Having talked to a lot of weight loss people. Diet sodas seem to increase overall hunger. Making it harder to stick to a good diet. People have one can lose weight on a Twinkie diet. Doesn’t mean it will work for the 99% of us.
jamal-kumar 4y ago
The fact may be that artificial sweeteners may alter your microbiome and cause you to crave more calories as a result [1] Not to mention the most carcinogenic ingredient? It's the dark caramel coloring, which is why you get in Denmark 'clear cola' from their local brands (North Americans can enjoy some Zevia in this way). I guess that's just burnt sugar off the bottom of a vat or something. [2] Not to mention the phosphoric acid in there for the 'taste', which is a pretty sweet ingredient for stripping rust off of chrome! [3] I don't know why I still drink this stuff on occasion hahaha. They even take that acid out of stuff like hardware store rust strippers these days. [1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-can-turn-healthy-gut-bacteria-into-pathogens/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-can-... [2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289687 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289687 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OdX42NjWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OdX42NjWQ
stordoff 4y ago
> around the time I joined a weight-loss startup in 2011, and started eating healthier I'm not sure how you can distinguish between the effect of the change to the drinks and the effect of the other changes. Personally, I've gone from drinking 6+ cans of Diet Coke a day to 1-2 plus water with no other changes and noticed no effect from it.

symlinkk 4y ago

It sounds like you’re confusing the effects of eating unhealthy food with the effects of drinking soda

daniel_reetz 4y ago
There's some clinical evidence that artificual sweeteners are associated with weight gain. It's interesting stuff and worth a look.

themitigating 4y ago

I 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 ago
  What 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.
  - rr888 4y ago
    The real solution is you should be drinking water or tea instead of Sode. Diet soda sounds equally healthy but keeps your palette wanting sweet.
  - culi 4y ago
    It's true that refined sugar has been very clearly proven to be associated with terrible consequences to your health. But most of the sugar substitutes used in "diet" products simply don't have those warnings because they're just newer and less studied. But there's been a lot of recent research showing just how bad these artificial sweeteners can be even in small amounts. Some studies have even shown long-lasting and intergenerational effects on the gut microbiome[0] and increased cancer risks.[1] The impacts on the gut microbiome[2] are particularly worrying to me. Many of these sweeteners love to sit in your gut for a while and can lead to really weird microbiome makeups and possibly even be a risk factor for diabetes and/or metabolic syndromes [0] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.795848/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.79584... [1] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/ More reading: - https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-su... - https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...
    - popcube 4y ago
      what is wrong here? your citation looks ok and new... get down vote
saiya-jin 4y ago
Aspartame which is often used for 'diet' drinks is rather crappy chemical stuff you really shouldn't be putting in your body in the first place. People feel they are doing something for their health when its really not the case since they still remain well within the junkfood category (something akin to using denser filter in cigarettes - less big particles may well mean finer stuff is kept in lungs for longer, and travels deeper)
m463 4y ago
IHMO you are confusing product marketing with good health advice. Marketing is just a legal way to tell only the good side of a story. "low-fat" usually means sugar. "sugar free" usually means artificial sweeteners (or something made without sugar anyway). Even "no added sugar" is suspect. What I've found hilarious is the new "KETO!" marketing craze. I really suspect that most of these products will not induce or maintain ketosis. (the actual health impact of ketosis is not clear to me anyway)
- gigaflop 4y ago
  A ketogenic diet is ultra-low-carb, to the point where your body enters ketosis, and becomes much more amenable to burning your fat reserves for energy. Essentially, keto-friendly means very low carb/sugar.
  - m463 4y ago
    But if you go to costco, and browse the "keto" section, I have doubts that the products (mostly dessert/snack products) are really keto-friendly. "keto crackers", "keto bombs", "keto clusters", "mini cookies", "keto cups", etc... I suspect they must be sharply constrained in serving size

x3iv130f 4y ago

The trick is to do an 4:1 dilution of sparkling water and diet soda. You will end up with 1-2 cans of diet soda heavily diluted by water. After you get used to it, ordinary canned soda will start tasting like the carbonated syrup it actually is.

jansan 4y ago
Oh no, the trick is to buy the sirup from a discount supermarket (for example Aldi's Diet Orange soda sirup) and dillute it with water from your sodastream (or sodastream knock-off, also from Aldi). This way you will always know that there are three components in your soda: sirup, tap water and CO2.
- kreeben 4y ago
  Ok so there's an even better trick, hear me out. Don't drink soda. It's sugar, water, and purple. Two of those are not good for you.
  - culi 4y ago
    It's wild how far we go to keep doing our bad habits. It's like with veganism. That major EAT–Lancet study found that, although vegetarianism and veganism had many positive impacts on measures of environmental impacts, vegetarianism was actually more beneficial than veganism on impact of biodiversity. This is basically because vegans consume more "fake meat" and other such products that require a lot of processing and packaging and end up having a terrible impact on the environment Curry is great! I do veganism occasionally for periods of time and I personally believe that if you can't do it without craving meat you are just not creative enough. There's plenty of amazing food and flavors out there that don't need meat. Not to mention, you'd probably have a smaller environmental impact by buying some really expensive meat/eggs from some free-range farmer from your local farmer's market than if you buy that fake meat stuff that's probably made of the soybeans grown on the soy farms that are rapidly replacing the Amazon
Raphael 4y ago
Sparkling water on its own is fine.

systemvoltage 4y ago

What would have happened if you continued to drink Diet Dr. Pepper while also joining the weight-loss startup, eating healthier and exercising?

treeman79 4y ago

Between personal experience and Having talked to a lot of weight loss people. Diet sodas seem to increase overall hunger. Making it harder to stick to a good diet. People have one can lose weight on a Twinkie diet. Doesn’t mean it will work for the 99% of us.

jamal-kumar 4y ago

The fact may be that artificial sweeteners may alter your microbiome and cause you to crave more calories as a result [1] Not to mention the most carcinogenic ingredient? It's the dark caramel coloring, which is why you get in Denmark 'clear cola' from their local brands (North Americans can enjoy some Zevia in this way). I guess that's just burnt sugar off the bottom of a vat or something. [2] Not to mention the phosphoric acid in there for the 'taste', which is a pretty sweet ingredient for stripping rust off of chrome! [3] I don't know why I still drink this stuff on occasion hahaha. They even take that acid out of stuff like hardware store rust strippers these days. [1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-can-turn-healthy-gut-bacteria-into-pathogens/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-can-... [2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289687 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289687 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OdX42NjWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OdX42NjWQ

stordoff 4y ago

> around the time I joined a weight-loss startup in 2011, and started eating healthier I'm not sure how you can distinguish between the effect of the change to the drinks and the effect of the other changes. Personally, I've gone from drinking 6+ cans of Diet Coke a day to 1-2 plus water with no other changes and noticed no effect from it.