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Sugar-Free Fizzy Drinks...

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macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 4, 2006
3,264
3
Kent, UK - the 'Garden of England'.
All my life I've loved Coke. The regular stuff, or "full fat" as a friend of mine would call it. As I rumble though my 20's, though, I've noticed that a can of Coke really does feel like it has as much sugar in as it says. Sometimes I can't even finish a can, it just gets too sickly, and then an hour or so later I might get a headache or become tired.

Recently I've started drinking Diet Pepsi and, well, it's very nice. Very fizzy, as Pepsi is, but light and a can goes down easily. Now it says on the can that it contains 0% of an adults RDA of sugar, and about 1 calorie. It still contains caffeine, hurrah, but I'm guessing it must also contain an absolute stack of sweeteners?

Now I've read stuff about sweeteners before but I was wondering what the MR communities thoughts on them was. Is it better to drink "full fat" drinks containing natural sugars (I don't think we use that manufactured glucose-fructose syrup stuff in the UK/Europe that you guys in the US have used/still use) as part of an otherwise healthy and active lifestyle, or are sweeteners better for (and safe for) the body in the long term?

And what's your preference? Naturally sweet, or artificial?
 
I like the naturally sweet better (although I try to only drink diet), but I only have a "fizzy drink" once every other month or so. I've pretty much stopped drinking that stuff. Now beer, that's another story.
 
I tend to like the naturally sweet but I'm not too picky or all that excitable about fizzy drinks. I don't entirely trust artificial sweeteners and I've heard the artificial sweeteners can make you more hungry, for whatever reason. Maybe not such good news for dieters after all.
 
Keep in mind that those "full fat" or non-diet drinks usually contain HFCS, and if they do have natural sugar it'll be on the can. As you may know Pepsi has gone back to natural sugar.

Your better bet is natural sodas if you don't want to drink diet. I drink diet soda, I rarely have a non-diet soda as it's like candy to me. I also use splenda in my coffee.
 
Natural sugar else saccharin.

I had a stockpile of Pepsi Throwback. It's hard to resist when it's $11 for 5 dozen cans. ;_;
 
I'm a big fan of Coke Zero and Diet Coke with Splenda. However, if you're trying to avoid the chemicals, I highly recommend Pellegrino. I buy it in case lots of 750 ml glass bottles for about $1/bottle here in the US, perhaps it's less in the UK. A little pricey per oz, but given my addiction to soft drinks, it works out to be less $ per day, since I drink less of it overall.
 
I need my caffeine, warm drinks make me sleepy (I can do a double espresso before bed and sleep like a baby), so soda is my vice.

First, if you can afford the calories (~150-160/12 oz. can) drink the regular stuff. I can't - went to diet soda 20 yrs ago. You will get alot of people who tell you the artificial sweeteners (aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, etc.) are the work of the devil, and will cause cancer, brain tumors, or some other dread disease. The are, however, no long-term studies to suggest any of these in humans (and they have been studied). I spend more time wondering about exposures/chmicals to which we are exposed that have not been studied. However, the phosphoric acid can eat away at tooth enamel, and may have some effect on bone mineralization.

If you like a sweater drink, get your hands on a diet Pepsi Wild Cherry. Mmmmmm!
 
I drink diet coke and love it. I can't stand regular coke anymore--it tastes like cough medicine to me.

I think diet soda is much better than drinking a can of corn syrup every day. Once you get older a can of sugar will have an even more dramatic impact on your health than artificial sweeteners will. Most who rail against artificial sweeteners are the tin foil hat types. If it weren't for artificial sweeteners, I'd be 600lbs by now. :)
 
^ That's it! Thanks. A little cruel irony there, eh?

jessica. said:
Keep in mind that those "full fat" or non-diet drinks usually contain HFCS, and if they do have natural sugar it'll be on the can. As you may know Pepsi has gone back to natural sugar.

Your better bet is natural sodas if you don't want to drink diet. I drink diet soda, I rarely have a non-diet soda as it's like candy to me. I also use splenda in my coffee.
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Fortunately the UK doesn't use that HFCS crap nearly as much (as the US does) in our food/drink stuffs. I'm not certain in the case of coke/pepsi but I thought we had the real sugar stuff in our fizzy drinkles here. HFCS is nasty and not in the fun way.
 
themoonisdown09 said:
When you take in artificial sweeteners, you're tricking your body into thinking that you're getting sugar, but you're really not. So, therefore, you crave more sugar.
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I don't believe this--at least its not been my experience. I don't crave sugary items at all after drinking diet coke. However, if I happen to eat real sugar I start wanting more sugary items.
 
jessica. said:
Keep in mind that those "full fat" or non-diet drinks usually contain HFCS
Click to expand...

Here "full fat" Coke (great saying btw) uses sugar. And it's very lovely stuff.

We bought a box of Coke Zero a few months ago but that stuff is dog awful. I'm not sure what the benefits are but they've sacrificed a lot of taste for it.
 
themoonisdown09 said:
When you take in artificial sweeteners, you're tricking your body into thinking that you're getting sugar, but you're really not. So, therefore, you crave more sugar.
Click to expand...
It seems to curb my desire for something sweet just fine.

The actual content besides taste is another story of course.
 
eawmp1 said:
I need my caffeine, warm drinks make me sleepy (I can do a double espresso before bed and sleep like a baby), so soda is my vice.

First, if you can afford the calories (~150-160/12 oz. can) drink the regular stuff. I can't - went to diet soda 20 yrs ago. You will get alot of people who tell you the artificial sweeteners (aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, etc.) are the work of the devil, and will cause cancer, brain tumors, or some other dread disease. The are, however, no long-term studies to suggest any of these in humans (and they have been studied). I spend more time wondering about exposures/chmicals to which we are exposed that have not been studied. However, the phosphoric acid can eat away at tooth enamel, and may have some effect on bone mineralization.

If you like a sweater drink, get your hands on a diet Pepsi Wild Cherry. Mmmmmm!
Click to expand...

Well see, that's not entirely so. If you remember the "Nutrasweet causes cancer" thing from 15 years or so ago, what they did was feed the lab rats the Nutrasweet equivalent of 80,000 diet sodas a day or some outrageous number. Of course that's going to cause health problems.
 
when i started being healthier a few years ago, i cut out pop cold turkey - haven't had one since and anytime i've had a little sip, it tastes disgusting!

Coincidentally, i lost alot of weight around that time.

If I were you, i'd do the same - just drop all fizzy drinks altogether. Some folks use little flavouring packets to flavour water so that may help.

Pop is just plain disgusting. Sure, it tastes good, but when you think of all the crap put in it just to make it taste good - you'll realize how brutal it is for the body.

I personally (probably in the minority) believe that junk food shouldn't be made period - no potato chips, no pop etc... if those companies turned their efforts on making better food for the human body (instead of the human mind - ie. need chips to satisfy craving), then we'd have a healthier society - both physically and mentally.

just my 2 cents :)

(btw, don't get me wrong, I love chips just as much as the next person, but if they didn't make them, I wouldn't miss them :)
 
Keebler said:
when i started being healthier a few years ago, i cut out pop cold turkey - haven't had one since and anytime i've had a little sip, it tastes disgusting!

Coincidentally, i lost alot of weight around that time.

If I were you, i'd do the same - just drop all fizzy drinks altogether. Some folks use little flavouring packets to flavour water so that may help.

Pop is just plain disgusting. Sure, it tastes good, but when you think of all the crap put in it just to make it taste good - you'll realize how brutal it is for the body.

I personally (probably in the minority) believe that junk food shouldn't be made period - no potato chips, no pop etc... if those companies turned their efforts on making better food for the human body (instead of the human mind - ie. need chips to satisfy craving), then we'd have a healthier society - both physically and mentally.

just my 2 cents :)

(btw, don't get me wrong, I love chips just as much as the next person, but if they didn't make them, I wouldn't miss them :)
Click to expand...

Healthy foods will become cheaper and more available when people start buying them. Forcing people to eat what we believe is good for them isn't right. Besides, I'm a guy at a healthy weight who goes to the gym regularly--but I want some ice cream every once in awhile. Don't stand in my way. :D

By the way, I noticed your name is Keebler so I'm not sure you're being honest here. ha ha
 
The only time I drink pop is with a whiskey or when I am doing meat prep once every 2 weeks (for some reason the fridge is always stocked with nothing but pop).
 
barkomatic said:
Healthy foods will become cheaper and more available when people start buying them. Forcing people to eat what we believe is good for them isn't right. Besides, I'm a guy at a healthy weight who goes to the gym regularly--but I want some ice cream every once in awhile. Don't stand in my way. :D

By the way, I noticed your name is Keebler so I'm not sure you're being honest here. ha ha
Click to expand...

Healthy food isn't really that expensive right now (except maybe the opportunity cost to prepare it), if you go to the local farmers market they will usually bargain with you too.

The problem is that people want healthy food that tastes good and is fast to prepare, these three don't mesh all that well.
 
CHAOS STEP said:
My experience of trying sugar-free or diet stuff has always been that they taste bad and are probably not that much better for you anyway.

Mind you it's worth having them around to see some fatty ordering a big mac and a DIET coke.
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I've noticed that too. However, I don't think diet soda so much causes people to be overweight as much as it becomes a psychological trade off. I think they believe that they aren't doing so bad with the 2 Big Macs and large fries as long as they skip the sugar in the regular soda.
 
CorvusCamenarum said:
Well see, that's not entirely so. If you remember the "Nutrasweet causes cancer" thing from 15 years or so ago, what they did was feed the lab rats the Nutrasweet equivalent of 80,000 diet sodas a day or some outrageous number. Of course that's going to cause health problems.
Click to expand...

I said human.
 
Really great responses, thanks everyone! :eek:

Personally, my weight is pretty good and I'm quite sure I can take the odd can of full fat Coke. Better still, I'll split a 330ml can with a friend (plenty of plastic cups at work that are 150ml in size) and then it's just right. I'm sure it's real sugar in the UK... but I'd like to get confirmation on that!

For me the like of Diet Pepsi is that I find it filling (probably the fizz...), it gives me a caffeine boost (I've actually got a lot done since I made the original post earlier, lol), and it has a nice taste - without crashing an hour later when the body gets over the massive sugar shock.

I guess I'll continue to drink both, in moderation! I've become a bit of a believer in enjoying little bits of everything as I've got older.

A general Cokeservation, if you will. I grew up drinking Coke almost exclusively. I suppose my parents didn't know better. I made the decision to change that in my teens, and quickly found that my mood and energy levels stabilised dramatically. While I doubt growing up on Coke will do me any good in later life, I think I'm glad that I was at least drinking sugar and not a cocktail of sweeteners while I was developing - perhaps there's hope for me yet.
 
I like full fat coke for something w/ real sugar in it. but if i wanted something diet, i would prefer to have pepsi over coke, as the diet coke tastes god awful. It tastes far too sweet.
 
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