Training & Nutrition - How bad is diet cola?

I'm now just gettling into cycling and I drink a LOT of diet pepsi. I know its worse than water, but I don't know why. Has no calories, carbs, fat, nothing .What kind of negative effects does diet cola have? I have been a heavy drinking on diet pepsi all my life and I'm thinking of quiting it now. But if I do limit myself to say 5 -6 cans a week is that still going to effect my riding?

The only thing in a diet soda that might affect your riding (or anything else) is the caffeine. If you tolerate the caffeine now, then don't worry about it.

terrible for you. do a google on artificial sweeteners and see what you come up with, can be frightening. also, cola has a lot of acid in it. at one time, some state troopers used to keep a case in their trunk b/c it worked well for washing blood off of the road.....yummy!

I'm now just gettling into cycling and I drink a LOT of diet pepsi. I know its worse than water, but I don't know why. Has no calories, carbs, fat, nothing .What kind of negative effects does diet cola have? I have been a heavy drinking on diet pepsi all my life and I'm thinking of quiting it now. But if I do limit myself to say 5 -6 cans a week is that still going to effect my riding?
I'm not a doctor and I love diet cola, so my opinion will be ignorant and biased :D

Artificial sweetners are not good for you, but they're better than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is worse than crack cocaine.

Caffiene is used by cyclists all the time, so I can't imagine cola being a problem. I know lots of people who'll down a cup of coffee before a ride.

WARNING WILL ROBINSON
I do believe that the carbination/acid can wreak havoc on your kidneys if you consume A LOT. A friend got sick some years ago and was told by the doctors it was specific to her soda consumption.

As far as I can tell they're harmless despite the opinions of the hysteria types. The water used in cola is ultra-filtered and probably the cleanest water you can buy. Probably the only concern is if you drink less nutritious stuff like milk because you're drinking so much diet cola.

5-6 cans a week isn't likely to hurt you. Just be sure you're also drinking water, especially at exercise time.

I just read an article (forgot the mag) stating that people who consumed diet colas as opposed to regular cola gained more weight. Interesting if it's true.

I just read an article (forgot the mag) stating that people who consumed diet colas as opposed to regular cola gained more weight. Interesting if it's true.
it may be true but it's a type of false positive if you will. I believe they found that people who drank diet soda gained more weight because they indulged on food since they were being good with their drinks.

terrible for you. do a google on artificial sweeteners and see what you come up with, can be frightening. also, cola has a lot of acid in it. at one time, some state troopers used to keep a case in their trunk b/c it worked well for washing blood off of the road.....yummy!

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

If you limit yourself to one can a day, you should be fine.

edit: Cola is hard on the kidneys. Rootbeer is better and clear soda is even better.

no, but don't believe in the "science" posted by lab studies paid for by the industries responsible for selling these products. most of the reputable science has shown that it's not good for you, and if you know anything about physiology and chemistry, you'll know a lot of the crap in these drinks could have detrimental effects on the body over the long term.

it may be true but it's a type of false positive if you will. I believe they found that people who drank diet soda gained more weight because they indulged on food since they were being good with their drinks.

That's exactly what they found, the soda wasn't doing anything about the weight, just the people who drank it tend to eat more, perhaps because of drinking diet softdrinks and perhaps not because of that. Although they did theorize that because you are consuming something with no calories your body may set off some kind of a "craving" trigger which would make you want to eat something to get some calories, but that sounds a bit funky to me (as drinking something like water would do the same thing).

Sort of like saying burglary is related to ice cream sales, summer has more crime, summer has higher ice cream sales.

I wouldn't worry much about the diet soda intake, 1-2 a day is probably fairly harmless in the grand scheme of things.

Andrew

I'm now just gettling into cycling and I drink a LOT of diet pepsi. I know its worse than water, but I don't know why. Has no calories, carbs, fat, nothing .What kind of negative effects does diet cola have? I have been a heavy drinking on diet pepsi all my life and I'm thinking of quiting it now. But if I do limit myself to say 5 -6 cans a week is that still going to effect my riding?

My father was losing his memory and there is no history of Alzheimers in the family. He drank diet Coke and put aspartame in his coffee. He tried all kinds of treatments, but his memory didn't improve. I read about how artificial sweeteners affect memory. I told him about the research and so he stopped drinking Aspartame sweetened drinks. Now his memory is MUCH better. I think Spenda is not so bad, but natural foods are always better for you than chemicals.

it's evil......

I'm now just gettling into cycling and I drink a LOT of diet pepsi. I know its worse than water, but I don't know why. Has no calories, carbs, fat, nothing .What kind of negative effects does diet cola have? I have been a heavy drinking on diet pepsi all my life and I'm thinking of quiting it now. But if I do limit myself to say 5 -6 cans a week is that still going to effect my riding?

You don't need it, so why drink it?
Like everything else in life, if you are a little disciplined and are interested in stopping, you can do so with ease. Think of the money you’ll save and think of the reduced exposure to non-natural agents.

Mark

diet colas are teh debil

If you must drink them, follow a can of it with a equal amount of water to flush out the toxins...

diet colas contain a lot of sodium, which makes you retain water. If you flush it out, you won't retain as much water.

diet colas contain a lot of sodium, which makes you retain water. If you flush it out, you won't retain as much water.

There's less sodium in a Diet Coke than in a serving of Gatorade (40mg for 12Oz vs 110mg for 8Oz), the same as a vanilla Gu gel pack (varies between falvors), etc.

If the worst thing in your diet is a can of diet pepsi every day then I'd say you're doing a lot better than 98% of the population.

diet colas are teh debil

If you must drink them, follow a can of it with a equal amount of water to flush out the toxins...

diet colas contain a lot of sodium, which makes you retain water. If you flush it out, you won't retain as much water.
uhh, the thing is, people who exercise a lot need more sodium than those who don't. I'm assuming that most members here exercise more than your average person.

on an average 2-3 hour ride, you can use up as much sodium as the FDA recommends for daily intake. That means, if you follow the FDA guidelines and you ride a fair amount, you'll go into electrolyte imbalance.

Diet soda can be good depending on what is used to sweeten it.

Nutrasweet is the most common and the problem with it is that it triggers an insulin reaction just like real sugar. This reaction can make you feel lethargic and crave more sugar. If your blood sugar is already low and you ingest nutrasweet you can get dangerously low and begin getting dizzy and having headaches. In moderation and with a healthy diet it's not too bad though.

Splenda is better than nutrasweet. It tastes sweeter and does not cause insulin reactions like nutrasweet. It helps prevent cravings and dips in blood sugar. Splenda isn't used widespread yet and can only be found in a few brands like Diet Right. Coke just released a splenda sweetned diet coke that's pretty good though.


Personally I would rather drink filtered water. It's just more refreshing.

I don't know about the sweeteners but as for the diuretic effects I have read that people who routinely drink caffeine are not really affected by its water absorption blocking capabilities.

One the other hand, the carbonation in any soda has some short term adverse affects. Part of the CO2 ingested will enter into the bloodstream and attach itself to hemoglobin which can then no longer transport Oxygen throughout the body. This decreases efficiency for a short time. Not really important to training but might make the difference in competition.

Be forewarned, coming off the caffeine in diet Pepsi will hurt some. If you choose to refrain buy some aspirin.

Actually I thought that the intestines didn't absorb gasses otherwise we would have methane in our blood. :)

The body well regulates carbon dioxide in the blood stream because of it's PH. I can create carbonic acid and your body likes to maintain a certain PH so the rest is pushed out through the lungs.

Hyperventalating can actually lower your PH enough to see a difference on a litmus test.

Read "The Andromeda strain" by Michael Crighton? In it, a virus from outerspace kills off an entire town and the only survivors were a baby and a drunk. The baby survived because it screamed alot and lowered it's PH, and the drunk survived because he got high on sterno which raised his PH and the alien bug could only exist at a narrow PH in the body. Hehehe.

Stomach acid is far more acidic than carbonated beverages, so no worries there. Carbonated beverages make you burp and fart more. This could be a good or bad thing depending on your attitude towards flatus.

I've always considered diet soda a "chemical cocktail." Nothing real in there other than water! Kind of scary if you ask me. :eek: Diet Mountain Dew tastes pretty good though.... :p

Good riding,
desmobob

lol, used to work at the golden arches, the amount of people that came in and ordered a large double quater pounder meal with bacon, cheese, 'chicken' nuggets, ice cream, with a 'diet' coke would suprise you.

lol, used to work at the golden arches, the amount of people that came in and ordered a large double quater pounder meal with bacon, cheese, 'chicken' nuggets, ice cream, with a 'diet' coke would suprise you.

Gotta start somewhere.

Yeah, order a 1700 calorie meal and cut back 100 calories by getting a diet Coke... heh, heh... ;) Would've been better to order just 1/2 as much stuff and get the regular Coke...

BTW, I ran into Spurlock at a local club a couple weeks ago. He's doing a new show on binge-drinking... hope to be one of his "stars"... :)

Here's Dr Mercola's take on diet soda, http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/9/soda_dangers.htm

Regards, Anthony

I was wondering how long it would take for that to show up :rolleyes:

One the other hand, the carbonation in any soda has some short term adverse affects. Part of the CO2 ingested will enter into the bloodstream and attach itself to hemoglobin which can then no longer transport Oxygen throughout the body. This decreases efficiency for a short time. Not really important to training but might make the difference in competition.

CO2 doesn't do this - CO does. CO2 is harmful because it displaces the oxygen around it, so it would be dangerous only when breathing air with a higher than normal CO2 level.

I don't care much about the CO2. Whenever I drink a diet pop, I get a major headache. I come to find out it is the aspertame that is the real enemy. As far as I am concerned, it can cause MS, and other neurological symptoms/problems.

It may all be a bunch of hooey, but all I know is if I stay away from it, I am a much happier, and healthier guy.

diet cokes demystified (http://leslie.harpold.com/presents/000696demystifying_diet_cokes.html)

From that webpage:
Coca Cola Light The European version of Diet Coke - slight variations from country to country based on food regulations, water quality and fidelity to syrup to water ratio account for taste variations, but this is largely Diet Coke with a different name to conform to local food labelling laws.

They must do this in Japan, too. My teeth always feel sticky after drinking the stuff here.

I'm pretty convinced that as long as it's taken in moderation, the worst effect of diet cola is discoloration of your teeth.

I'm now just gettling into cycling and I drink a LOT of diet pepsi. I know its worse than water, but I don't know why. Has no calories, carbs, fat, nothing .What kind of negative effects does diet cola have? I have been a heavy drinking on diet pepsi all my life and I'm thinking of quiting it now. But if I do limit myself to say 5 -6 cans a week is that still going to effect my riding?
How bad is diet Coke!!! I used to drink 20 cans aday! Now I drink 2 a week.I drank so much I was sponsored locally by diet coke for Ironman New Zealand 1995! I suffered a kidney stone in 1999 due to my soda addiction during a race! OUCH, also Cola and pepsi leach out the calcium in your bones... as cyclists we need strong bones.I just broke my collar bone and immediately went cold turkey on soda drinking water , milk etc..Also since giving up diet sodas, I have lost weight as sodas tend to make you bloated, so look more trimmed! I still am a caffine junkie love the stuff, get it through coffee and hammer expresso gel! Next time you want to clean you toilet save money and put a coca cola down there and it will clean the deposits in the toilet! Imagine what it is doing to your insides!
I do not care what the scientists say or researchers, I speak only from experiance that Diet cola and pepsi are addictive and can be harmful to an athlete, they will give you his and lows and irritability .. in one sentance Sodas are bad for you!! Hope this helps

How come you still drink two per week after all it's put you through?

Why drink it ? Because it's the only sweet thing you can have on a diet.

The only problem is it rots your teeth - because of the phosphoric acid in it.

Well, how long has diet cola been out? 25 years? I think it's definitely pretty safe then.

-Jason Keller

An experiment I, and others have done in Science classes. If you take a tooth or nail, place in a cup with soda overnight - voila! It dissolves. Reason enough to quit!!!
I have a Ph.D in Physiology

I am a diet coke addict too. I have no idea how to quit... I need it every few hours. It must be the caffeine, but I hate coffee and can't have it black.

Well, how long has diet cola been out? 25 years? I think it's definitely pretty safe then.

-Jason Keller


I wonder if similar statements were made about DDT and asbestos.

not to mention ether, bloodletting, and mercury!

The diet coke / weight gain thing relates to how artificial sweeteners 'reset' your body's knowledge of how sweetness affects blood sugar. Your body craves sweet things because it wants to raise blood sugar, and it knows that a certain amount of 'sweet' correlates to a certain increase in blood sugar. You stop craving once you've had the amount of 'sweet' required to bring your blood sugar to the right level.

Artificial sweeteners give you sweet, but with no blood sugar increase. Your body adapts to this, and recalibrates its understanding of how sweet and blood sugar correlate. You may crave sweet food more, because your body doesn't believe that it has the same effect on blood sugar that it actually does. Hence, for some, diet sodas increase cravings for sugar, and can make losing weight harder, which is supported by studies.

In general, I avoid weird random chemicals that don't have any purpose in my body. They may or may not be safe, but I KNOW clean water is safe, so I go ahead and drink that.

peace,
sam

Nutritional stuff aside, diet cola is not good because it conditions your taste buds to expect the taste of sweetness all the time.

[edit]-- oops, which is basically what phidauex just said!