Training & Nutrition - 0 calorie sodas?

The too good to be true
light is going off, and i've heard
about the 0 calorie stuff referred
to as 'sugar alcohols'?? What's
up with this seeming miracle..
My own common sense tells me
that if i heated the stuff up enough
it would burn--so it's not really 0
calorie, but how can they claim
it is? or is it!? And it's not just
sodas, i've seen other tempting
foods that claim to have 0
calorie sugar substitutes. What's
the deal?

I've got a buddy that works at the CDC here in Atlanta. I asked him about this, and the several year old internet rumour about aspartame turning into alcohol in your system.

What he told me was that the basic idea behind the fears is grounded in truth... aspartame does indeed convert into something very similar to wood alcohol when it metabolizes. However, and this is a big however, a can of soda creates only a minute amount of alcohol and the body metabolizes it very quickly. He did the math comparing the speed of the body to absorb and deal with this small amount, and the amount coming from a can of soda and determined that you would have to drink well over 200 sodas in a 1 hour period in order for it to start to become a problem.

And if you drank that much of any liquid, you'd have more problems than a little alcohol poisoning.

So the moral of that story is that any short term effects are negligible.

Az

but how about long term problems

all I know is that I am only drinking water because it's healthy and it has been proven.

I suspect that aspertame is so sweet that it takes less than 0.5 kilocalories worth of the product to sweeten a serving of soda. Hence, they round the calorie content to the nearest whole number (zero).

In a packet of aspertame, most of the material is filler. The amount of sweetener is very small.

but how about long term problems


I'm sure that it eventually causes death. But most things do, including life.

I really don't think a soda once in a while is going to be a problem.

Az

think about it people who usually have a soda every day where mst teenagers do and they increase to 2 what will happen, will they lose weight, turn green? I don't know just wondering for some info

i'm not worried about worst case scenarios,
i'm just wondering if, in my effort to lose
weight, drinking this stuff is really going
to be the same as a glass of water??

Aspartame breaks down into methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid. All of which are poisonous to humans. However, sugar carb calories does no harm, you just burn it off when you ride (watch out for excess sugar though). Do a basic google search for "aspartame methanol formaldehyde formic acid (http://www.google.com/search?q=aspartame+methanol+formaldehyde+formic+acid)" and you'll have more than enough research for your PhD. No need to waste bandwidth here...

... go for the water...

Last thing i want, is to get
into a tussel with "Big Sugar".. :)

thanks much, i'll google it, i so
love the soda and it just sounded
'too good to be true...'

How about Splenda (Sucralose). Its the newest sweetener on the market. Chemicaly, its siimilar to sucrose (sugar) but doesn't get absorbed by the body.

It tastes more sugary than aspartame or saccharine

Sucralose and aspertame are both safe sweeteners, despite some of the scare monger websites. I believe that sucralose has an advantage of being more stable than aspertame and can be used for baked goods. Aspertame breaks down quickly with heat. Try storing an aspertame sweetened soda in a hot garage over the summer and you'll find it to be noticeably less sweet than a new one.

When aspertame was first introduced in the US, it was used in a blend with saccharine. This was done to extend the shelf life of the soda as saccharine is also a more stable sweetener than aspertame and would maintain the sweetness of the soda.

So if i pig out on this stuff,
i won't get fat?
(what i should have asked
to begin with) :)

Soda is just chemicals and sugar, and it should never touch your lips. Water is best, fruit juice is second (good sugar).

So if i pig out on this stuff,
i won't get fat?
(what i should have asked
to begin with) :)

"pig out" on anything (even water) and you're asking for trouble.

Moderation . . .

And be sure to moderate your moderation...

And be sure to moderate your moderation...
OMG! :D
now i've heard it all! perhaps there is niche market
for a binge camp--taking people with regular fitness
routines and sharing with them the way of the junk
food.. 'Everyone have a good ride? Excellent. Ice
Cream is almost ready!...."
I am so there. :)

Soda is just chemicals and sugar, and it should never touch your lips. Water is best, fruit juice is second (good sugar).

Actually, we're talking about diet soda which generally doesn't have any sugar.

And don't look now, but that water you're drinking is a chemical. H 2 O. Sugar is C 6 H 12 O 6. Same moleucles as water, except with the addition of carbon, which we all know is the basis of life on this rock.

Az

since i'm wondering stuff...
"Bacardi and Diet Cola has zero
carb calories." !?
How? What kind of calories
are they? Protein? Ha ha
So how can they say that?

Gasoline is made from C H O as well... :)

I suspect that aspertame is so sweet that it takes less than 0.5 kilocalories worth of the product to sweeten a serving of soda. Hence, they round the calorie content to the nearest whole number (zero).

In a packet of aspertame, most of the material is filler. The amount of sweetener is very small.
full stength one drop would do atleast way more then 1 gallon.

since i'm wondering stuff...
"Bacardi and Diet Cola has zero
carb calories." !?
How? What kind of calories
are they? Protein? Ha ha
So how can they say that?

Well, no carbs in straight hard alcohol....but alcohol does have 7 cal/gram. I think it's still somewhat of a mystery how that actually gets metabolized though, and whether an alcohol calorie will fatten just like other calories. It's better not to think of such a thing at all when getting drunk :)

Or just get drunk and not worry about the calories. :)

How about Splenda (Sucralose). Its the newest sweetener on the market. Chemicaly, its siimilar to sucrose (sugar) but doesn't get absorbed by the body.

It tastes more sugary than aspartame or saccharine

Makes my stomach upset every time I use it. I got smart and don't - except last night my wife bought some ice cream with it and I had just a little bit and have been up with a gooey stomach since 3:30 am.

Latest Medical News Today - Aspartame Causes Cancer in Rats at Levels Currently Approved for Humans (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34040#) :eek:

Gasoline is made from C H O as well... :)

so go ahead and drink gas, but only in moderation

"The authors speculate the increase in lymphomas and leukemias may be related to one of the metabolites in aspartame, namely methanol, which is metabolized in both rats and humans to formaldehyde."

Yum! As for the gas, well, it's probably got
zero lead calories...

So if i pig out on this stuff,
i won't get fat?
(what i should have asked
to begin with) :)

The problem with diet sodas is no, by themselves they do not make you fat, but the sweet tast acclimates your palette to seek out or continue to crave sweet food. Recent articles have shown that people drinking diet sodas eat more crap (that was not the technical term they used ;) ) in their diets than people drinking water. Also, most sodas contain phophonic acid, a metal (calcium) chelator. Long term overconsumption of soda is not good for the bones. There is no reason to be drinking it over water, pure fruit, or vegatable juice other than a change IMO. just my $0.02 :)

Well, no carbs in straight hard alcohol....but alcohol does have 7 cal/gram. I think it's still somewhat of a mystery how that actually gets metabolized though, and whether an alcohol calorie will fatten just like other calories. It's better not to think of such a thing at all when getting drunk :)

alcohol metabolises to fat worse than other fats. it accumulates as VAT - visceral adipose tissue (beer gut). this is not fat under your skin, but around your organs, and this type of fat is more dangerous to your health.

T Recent articles have shown that people drinking diet sodas eat more crap (that was not the technical term they used ;) ) in their diets than people drinking water.

"ya know who drinks Diet Coke?"

--"Fat People."


:D :D :D :D :D :D

Another problem with diet sodas is they don't raise insulin or leptin levels. You still feel hungry and not full after consuming them, thus making you eat more stuff to feel satiated ; usually more gruesome stuff with higher fat that you don't get even with a regular soda.

Gasoline is C&H only, unless adulterated with ethanol or methanol, generally complex mixes of heptanes, octanes, nonanes with a scattering of hexanes and *enes. O is added by the engine. Humans aren't metabolically equipped to add O to alkanes.
Steve

Gasoline is C&H only, unless adulterated with ethanol or methanol, generally complex mixes of heptanes, octanes, nonanes with a scattering of hexanes and *enes. O is added by the engine. Humans aren't metabolically equipped to add O to alkanes.
Steve
So it's ok to drink gas...? :D

so go ahead and drink gas, but only in moderation

Not recommended. Really not recommended. Sniffing the gas is also not recommended.

In the long term . . . we're dead.

Not recommended. Really not recommended. Sniffing the gas is also not recommended.
Huh. it's rich in both carbon and hydrogen--
both essential building blocks for our bodies,
and it's low fat...

Another problem with diet sodas is they don't raise insulin or leptin levels. You still feel hungry and not full after consuming them, thus making you eat more stuff to feel satiated ; usually more gruesome stuff with higher fat that you don't get even with a regular soda.
neither would water. people forget soda is mostly water.

Another problem with diet sodas is they don't raise insulin or leptin levels. You still feel hungry and not full after consuming them, thus making you eat more stuff to feel satiated ; usually more gruesome stuff with higher fat that you don't get even with a regular soda.
another problem with regular soda is that the sugar rots your teeth. the soda within an hour starts to decay your teeth. after u finish the soda u need to immediatly brush your teeth. this is not so if you are on the frreway and just finished your diet coke. this is a very good argument for diet over regular

There's very little soda that remains on your mouth after an hour. Most of it is rinsed away by saliva within minutes. However, any CHO compound has the same acid-producing effect as soda. Even with a super-high sugar/soda intake of 900-calories a day, a full 2-liters worth of soda, the other 900-calories from pastas, breads and other carbs are more likely to stick around in your mouth. It's solid foods like these, along with cakes and candies that sticks around in much more significant quantities that cause cavities. Besides, most of the dental problems we have are gum-diseases, not cavities.

All this justifying of diet-sodas by trying to come up with problems from regular sodas makes no sense. That's like trying to say that your dad is not bad when beating up your mom by trying to figure out ways your mom's also bad. That has no impact on the fact that your dad's doing a bad thing regardless. Diet-sodas have gruesome side-effects that has nothing to do with the effects of sugar-sodas. If I had to chose between the two, the health-problems caused by diet-sodas are much worse than that caused by sugar-sodas, especially if you're fit and burn off all the calories you consume and more. In which case, the sugar-sodas have absolutely zero negative effects. The real problem then is over-consumption.

= The real problem then is over-consumption.

At my work they used to have free soda pop. It was ungodly how much some of these people drank in a day. I knew some people there that would drink 10 a day! That's around 1500 calories a day just in soda. Not mention the rest of the garbage they would eat.