diet drinks: myth or fact?

[Miranda]

I tried to type in "diet pop and fat" or to that affect in the search engine here, as I know this has been touched upon. The search results were really mixed up, so I'm posting...

Alright... what's the deal...

Does diet pop really make you fat, or what?

I have Googled some articles about it, thinking the sweetner itself was the culprit, but all this "he said, she said" jargon research came up. I starting getting a headache, so I decided to ask the wise women of TE.

I was a diet pop junkie. Then I totally ditched the stuff (for 3 years). Actually, to even try to drink it made me SICK. But, over the holidays, I somehow slide back to the diet Satan in a can. I refer to the skinny soda as Satan because I do know that for ME it causes major carb loaded (not good carbs) cravings.

Getting back on the band wagon, I'm detoxing from diet pop. Not a drop since the New Year. However, I'm sitting here drinking a Snapple "diet" green tea wondering if it will make me fat?

I hate green tea. I'm trying to drink it at the advice of a die hard green tea drinking GF who says it's so good for you, helps you lose weight, etc.

The Snapple bottle says it's sweetened with "Splenda"...

Is it the fake sugar that makes you crave the real stuff, or what?

Brain explosion clean up in aisle four...

EDIT: great *grumbles*, my green tea to go Lipton packets you dump in bottle water has fake sugar in it too. Crud, maybe the receipt for return is still in my coat pocket.

[Mr. Bloom]

I can't speak for scientific fact or fiction...but I am convinced that the sweeteners MAKE ME voraciously crave sweet foods.

[Eden]

Personally I think fake sugars taste nasty.....

As far as green tea goes.... its not really meant to be served with sugar and IMHO doesn't need it at all as there are few bitter notes in a good green tea. I do generally prefer sugar with black teas. That said its difficult to find a mass produced iced green with no sugar added unless you have access to a natural food store or asian food store. If you like a sweeter tasting green tea try unsweetened jasmine green if you can find it. The jasmine flower brings a sweet note without needing sugar.

[Miranda]

I can't speak for scientific fact or fiction...but I am convinced that the sweeteners MAKE ME voraciously crave sweet foods.

I would agree with that. Pizza is a food example of mine. Even with ditching the pop, anytime I would have a massive white bread crust, greasy meat, pizza... I HAD TO HAVE DIET POP! Then, it's like the vicious cycle.

[Miranda]

Personally I think fake sugars taste nasty.....

As far as green tea goes.... its not really meant to be served with sugar and IMHO doesn't need it at all as there are few bitter notes in a good green tea. I do generally prefer sugar with black teas. That said its difficult to find a mass produced iced green with no sugar added unless you have access to a natural food store or asian food store. If you like a sweeter tasting green tea try unsweetened jasmine green if you can find it. The jasmine flower brings a sweet note without needing sugar.

Thanks for that tip, Eden. I really love black tea. I like the strong taste. I usually get it iced as a treat at my fav coffee house with lunch. It must be good leaves. When I tried to brew my own green tea at home, it was so nasty. Like a cross between yard grass clippings and green snot. However, we do have a pretty good health food all natural type market next town over from Mayberry. I might see what they have. The jasmine too is an option. I'm always looking for new stuff to try but just don't know what to pick.

[emily_in_nc]

Here ya go:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Sto...4271246&page=1

[Blueberry]

Thanks for that tip, Eden. I really love black tea. I like the strong taste. I usually get it iced as a treat at my fav coffee house with lunch. It must be good leaves. When I tried to brew my own green tea at home, it was so nasty. Like a cross between yard grass clippings and green snot. However, we do have a pretty good health food all natural type market next town over from Mayberry. I might see what they have. The jasmine too is an option. I'm always looking for new stuff to try but just don't know what to pick.

Brew green tea with 175 degree water for 2 minutes. It gets really bitter with a longer steep or hotter water. Hopefully that will help

CA

[Eden]

Brew green tea with 175 degree water for 2 minutes. It gets really bitter with a longer steep or hotter water. Hopefully that will help

CA

Very true! Interestingly enough I've found the better the tea, the more carefully you must treat it.... an inexpensive green tea will be more forgiving than a very good one. Some brands can just be icky... I had one Chinese tea that no matter how you brewed it tasted salty and grassy. I don't think I've ever had a Japanese tea I didn't like (and have had plenty of good Chinese teas too).

I also really like Japanese Genmaicha, which is green tea with roasted rice and sometimes pop corn in it. It's very hearty.

[Miranda]

Here ya go:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Sto...4271246&page=1

Thx for that link. There were so many different articles that came up when I googled. I think it means "the sweet" just makes you crave more "sweets" in general. I wonder in the study of people if it's a sense of false hope?

Meaning, "well, even though I'm at McDonald's drive thru getting a BigMac meal with french fries, I'm drinking a diet pop, so that's a calorie saver".

That reminds me of a life changing diet book I read. It was bought originally for DH's high cholesterol. "The South Beach Diet". That doc's book made the most sense to me of anything I have ever read.

At the time, I was on the "fat free diet" approach. The SBD doc says all they did was strip out the fat, and load the product up with sugary bad carbs that just make your blood sugar skyrocket and crash. Which leads to craving more sugar/carbs to balance yourself out.

I'm going to dig my book back out and see if he mentions the fake sugars.

[Miranda]

Brew green tea with 175 degree water for 2 minutes. It gets really bitter with a longer steep or hotter water. Hopefully that will help

CA

That I did not do. But I will now. Thx! My lame tea prep was a cup of H2O in the microwave with a baggie dipped in it.

[Eden]

Interesting article. It sounded like they don't really know why the artificial sweetener rats overeat, if its physiological or psychological, but the researcher seemed to be leaning toward physiological. If that's the case then does it go for all non-sugar type sweeteners or only truly artificial ones? So say aspertame or saccharine would be bad, but stevia or sucralose OK?

[Zen]

I like splenda, hate diet soda and make my own green tea blend (cut the grassiness with a bag of Earl Grey).

So there ya go.

[Kalidurga]

If you like drinking bottled tea for convenience or whatever, Honest Tea's Honey Green and Just Green are both good, as are their black teas. On the whole, the company uses very little sugar in their products, if any.

Though my preference is always for a good robust black tea with a lotta raw sugar. White sugar just doesn't seem to have as much flavor as raw, and all of the artificial sweeteners taste funky to me.

[Jolt]

Looks like somebody already mentioned the study on this topic that I had heard about and was going to bring up. As for diet soda etc. and anything with fake sugar, I just don't think they're good for you regardless. Too many funky chemicals with unknown long-term effects (besides, they just taste icky IMHO). Try putting a little bit of honey in the green tea and see if you like it better that way. You can also add lemon juice.

[Blueberry]

I also really like Japanese Genmaicha, which is green tea with roasted rice and sometimes pop corn in it. It's very hearty.

Just goes to show we're all different - Genmaicha is the one tea I've found that I absolutely do not like

CA