diet drinks: myth or fact?

[channlluv]

My favorite natural sweeters are Stevia (you can buy it in packets, like Splenda, et. al., but it's natural, not chemical) and Agave nectar, which is a little pricy, but similar to honey in consistency and delivery (in a sqeeze bottle).

Roxy

[Biciclista]

I also really like Japanese Genmaicha. Never use sugar, and i drink it 360 days out of the year. I even take it with me on trips.

Earl Grey i like but i can't really drink it without sugar. weird, huh.

We eschew anything with artificial sweeteners in them.

[lph]

i don't drink diet stuff, but i dislike the taste of most artificial sweeteners and i find most sodas way way too sweet anyway, like drinking syrup. i love fruit juice though, and smoothies, and edible sweets, so go figure. (literally, i guess )

daily i drink black coffee, green tea w/lemon with a small teaspoon of raw sugar and extra lemon juice, white tea with berry flavour unsweetened and peppermint tea or similar in the evening, maybe a tsp of sugar. eat a cookie or two with it. i find my sweet tooth gets accustomed to sugar over the xmas holidays, for instance, and takes a while to get down again. have tried cutting out those final tsps of sugar, but i don't find it worth it.

[badger]

I was going to mention stevia as well, though I don't know how good they taste as one kind I tried was absolutely disgusting. I had to throw my coffee out.

I do think microwaving tea is blasphemous, but whatever works!

Personally I love exceptionally strong black tea, and I'm on the hunt at the moment to find the perfect tea for me. My neighbourhood tea merchant is happily sending me home with one sample after another.

As for green tea, the better the quality, the lighter in colour. A lot of bagged tea (black or green) are basically dregs of the whole leaf variety and usually not the best. So, if you brew green tea and it's brown, it's pretty low quality (I might be wrong on this, as I know a lot of Chinese green tea are supposed to come out light brown).

I also find that really good quality Japanese green tea like sencha make me pee like crazy. Detox? Caffeine? whatever it is, I never drink it past 3pm.

I'm also drinking a lot of rooibos and honeybush. Non-caffeinated and substitutes quite well as black tea if I want something heartier at night. Rooibos chai is nice with the spices.

I don't drink very much water at all. I figure if I'm drinking good quality organic teas (both caf and non-caf), it's probably better than just drinking straight water.

Btw, about the decaffeinated tea, make sure it's not done so chemically. You're better off drinking the caffeine than the chemicals they use.

[ny biker]

FWIW, I drink about 32 oz. of Diet Coke every day. I lost 10 lbs. last year. My ribs are visible.

[GLC1968]

Diet sodas won't 'make you fat' in an of themselves. I have always prefered diet soda to regular just because they are less sweet to me. That said, I don't like most diet sodas (just diet Coke)!

Artificial sweetners do not trigger the desire for more sweets for me. My triggers are chemical, not taste related (except with raw onions...but that's a whole different topic!!), so things like sugar, honey and white flour (simple carbs) trigger the need for more carbs and in my case, that usually comes in the form of a sugar craving. Drinking a diet Coke while I'm actively trying to lose weight is like a mini 'safe' treat and I go ahead and occasionally indulge.

I do know of plenty of people who find that any sweetner (even no calorie but natural stevia) will trigger cravings for more. It's very individual so it's best to know your own reaction to things (studies be damned!).

That said, any artifical sweetner is clearly 'fake' and makes me worry that the chemicals are not good for you, particularly long term.

[OakLeaf]

I have always prefered diet soda to regular just because they are less sweet to me. That said, I don't like most diet sodas (just diet Coke)!

that's weird, because diet Coke is so much sweeter than diet Pepsi! I don't drink any of that any more, but when I did, it was real Coke or diet Pepsi, because those are the less sweet versions.

[GLC1968]

that's weird, because diet Coke is so much sweeter than diet Pepsi! I don't drink any of that any more, but when I did, it was real Coke or diet Pepsi, because those are the less sweet versions.

That is odd...because I can't drink diet Pepsi because it's too sweet for me! And I'll take regular Pepsi over regular Coke because regular Coke is too sweet to my taste buds. I guess it's all what you are used to?

[Eden]

I was going to mention stevia as well, though I don't know how good they taste as one kind I tried was absolutely disgusting. I had to throw my coffee out.

It's not just you... I think stevia is disgusting, natural or not.... One of the local clubs has a stevia sweetened sports drink sponsor blech :-P it tastes like baby aspirin. I've had something else sweetened with it too and found it to be pretty foul, so I'm guessing its stevia in general and not just one brand.

I've come to rather enjoy honey in my Earl Grey. I think it needs some sweetener to bring out the bergamot.

[solobiker]

I used to drink 1-2 diet sodas a day and just a little while ago my stomach started bothering me shortly after I drank them. I stopped drinking them and now I feel much better. I tried a little sip of one the other day and I did not like the taste at all. I have not had one in about 1 month. I have also noticed that I am sleeping much better. I used to wake up several times during the night and I always had a hard time falling asleep. I am not sure if no longer drinking the sodas has helped with my sleeping but it sure is nice to sleep through the night.

[sfa]

Interesting thread, especially the research about diet drinks not helping and possibly harming efforts to lose weight. It kind of bugs me, though, that a food (or food-type product--I'm not sure that diet drinks can count as food!) can take the blame for weight gain or lack of weight loss. Regardless of whether the food increases cravings, one of the challenges of dieting is to have cravings and not give in to them. The problem isn't the food, but the willpower of the person eating the food.

And here's where I begin my rant about weight loss--all of the promises in magazines and diet books about losing weight without being hungry, or having the pounds melt off easily are just setting people up for failure. Why not acknowledge that losing weight is hard to do? It's work, and it's no fun, and it's going to take longer than you want it to, and yes, you're going to have cravings and it's best if you don't give in to them, but not the end of the world if you do. There's no one food that will destroy your efforts to lose weight and no one food or vitamin or supplement of any sort that will be the magic bullet to ensure your success. Sure, there are things that help and things that harm, but ultimately it's about the willpower and stubborness of the person trying to lose weight.

End of rant.

For the record, when I drink soda at all, I choose diet versions because they taste better to me (less syrupy). I think most tea tastes like boiled weeds (last year I gave up coffee for Lent and replaced it with tea. That was the hardest thing I've ever done for Lent! Giving up caffeine was way easier. Turns out I'm addicted to coffee itself more than I'm addicted to caffeine). Agave nectar is a pretty good sweetner (especially if you like sweet but not cloying/syrupy). I've never tried stevia that I know of. And hot drinks in the morning, no matter what the weather, is the only way to get my system going. And I drink my coffee with real sugar.

Sarah

[divingbiker]

It's not just you... I think stevia is disgusting, natural or not.... One of the local clubs has a stevia sweetened sports drink sponsor blech :-P it tastes like baby aspirin. I've had something else sweetened with it too and found it to be pretty foul, so I'm guessing its stevia in general and not just one brand.

I used to hate stevia, too, until I tried the Truvia brand that's sold at Whole Foods. It tastes pretty good, without the disgusting after taste.

[ny biker]

I prefer tea with breakfast but I'll drink Diet Coke if no tea is available. When I was in college, I drank regular Coke 24/7. I also used to have frosted cherry pop tarts for breakfast every day back then. And yet I've never understood how anyone can eat cold pizza for breakfast. To each his own, I guess.

As for drinking the recommended amount of water each day, I saw an episode of Food Detectives the other day where Ted and his food techs determined that we get about 30% of the water we need each day from the food we eat. For the rest, I've heard from several sources that you can include beverages like coffee, tea, and soda even though they have caffeine when you're figuring out how much fluid you've had to drink each day. And of course juice counts too.

I drink lots of water on most days. I keep a water bottle with me at work and in the car, and I drink from it all day. At home I keep a glass of something nearby while I'm watching TV or sitting at the computer and I refill it as soon as it's empty. I find that just having it handy is the important thing, because you take regular sips, and it all adds up.