Diet fizzy drinks - risks?

Soldato
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In recent times, sugar seems to have become public enemy number 1, it seems that the beverage market is being populated by more and more artificially sweetened drinks, diet coke, redbull sugar free, pepsi max, the list goes on.

I drink copious amounts of these products, 95% of the time I take the sugar free options, very occasionally I *treat* myself to a full-sugar one, I also do lots of exercise, outdoor sports and hobbies, etc, my diet is "alright" but I do steer clear of fried food, red meat and stuff with lots of "red" on the labels,

I've been involved in a number of friendly debates with work colleagues and friends, who've criticised me for consuming too many diet fizzy drinks - apparently some of the sweeteners can cause a whole range of medical problems, my response has always been "show me the evidence and I'll stop drinking them" at which point it normally becomes more heated, but I've never really seen any evidence that these products cause you any real issues?

Do people worry that consuming too much of this stuff, might lead to ill health somewhere down the line - even if no evidence is currently available to show this? or is there already evidence that this stuff is bad? or is it a load of noise being made by food nazis?
 
There isn't any real evidence and it's been researched to death.
The "the strongest" evidence is a change in gut bacteria, but then so do most modern diets.

Although there's not any real evidence, anything in to much quantity isn't usually good for you.
 
Aspartame is banned from our house and so are many other so called diet foods and drinks. My daughter is not allowed any drink with it in.

If it says low fat or diet on, its not coming near my shelf.:mad:

We cook with lard now and have ditched the sunflower rubbish. We try to cook old school like my nan does, 85 by the way and still going.

Think..............

You eat low fat food, but your body releases chemicals to break down fatty food? What does it get to break down, some mad plastic so the chemicals go unused. Is that good for you?
Were do them chemicals go if they have sod all to do?

You drink a diet drink yet it tastes sweet, what does your body do?
Release chemicals to breakdown sugar, when said chemicals arrive at guts?
The is sod all, just some man made blag chemical. :mad:

I stick to old school. ;)
 
Aspartame is banned from our house and so are many other so called diet foods and drinks. My daughter is not allowed any drink with it in.

If it says low fat or diet on, its not coming near my shelf.:mad:

We cook with lard now and have ditched the sunflower rubbish. We try to cook old school like my nan does, 85 by the way and still going.

Think..............

You eat low fat food, but your body releases chemicals to break down fatty food? What does it get to break down, some mad plastic so the chemicals go unused. Is that good for you?
Were do them chemicals go if they have sod all to do?

You drink a diet drink yet it tastes sweet, what does your body do?
Release chemicals to breakdown sugar, when said chemicals arrive at guts?
The is sod all, just some man made blag chemical. :mad:

I stick to old school. ;)

Oh god, you don't have a clue. This is very much a case of a broken clock being right twice a day.
 
You drink a diet drink yet it tastes sweet, what does your body do?
Release chemicals to breakdown sugar, when said chemicals arrive at guts?
The is sod all, just some man made blag chemical. :mad:

I stick to old school. ;)

Your body doesn't do anything, time and again, research has shown no insulin spike. No cancer etc.
And it's broken down into chemicals. Yes. that doesn't make it bad. You better stop eating meat, as they break down into said chemicals aspartame break down in.
 
Aspartame is banned from our house and so are many other so called diet foods and drinks. My daughter is not allowed any drink with it in.

If it says low fat or diet on, its not coming near my shelf.:mad:

We cook with lard now and have ditched the sunflower rubbish. We try to cook old school like my nan does, 85 by the way and still going.

Think..............

You eat low fat food, but your body releases chemicals to break down fatty food? What does it get to break down, some mad plastic so the chemicals go unused. Is that good for you?
Were do them chemicals go if they have sod all to do?

You drink a diet drink yet it tastes sweet, what does your body do?

Release chemicals to breakdown sugar, when said chemicals arrive at guts?
The is sod all, just some man made blag chemical. :mad:

I stick to old school. ;)

Ive read this 4 times and even read it out loud in a scouse voice and it still makes no sense :(
 
You eat low fat food, but your body releases chemicals to break down fatty food? What does it get to break down, some mad plastic so the chemicals go unused. Is that good for you?
Were do them chemicals go if they have sod all to do?

You drink a diet drink yet it tastes sweet, what does your body do?
Release chemicals to breakdown sugar, when said chemicals arrive at guts?
The is sod all, just some man made blag chemical. :mad:

I stick to old school. ;)

While I do agree with your point, this is just mindless BS
 
I used to drink 3-4 cans of coke zero a day and I made the switch from it to flavoured fizzy water (works out cheaper) and it does make a difference in my experience. I don't seem to get as many headaches (no aspartame) and I do feel more 'alive' than with coke.

Bonus side effect is that I actually lost weight too... and this is just from cutting out the coke, no exercise or change to the rest of my diet. Coke Zero actually tastes really funny now too, doesn't taste as nice so I suppose I've got the 'addictive' side of it out of my system.
 
Personal experience - not peer reviewed obviously - but I used to get recurrent headaches. Someone suggested it might be all the diet coke I was drinking. Stopped drinking it and the headaches stopped (i.e went to several a week to not getting them regularly at all).

I'll occasionally have small quantities of aspartame and it doesn't effect me but on the occasions I have larger quantities, I still sometimes get unpleasant effects.

Never noticed a problem with other artificial sweeteners.
 
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