I'd say skip the soda than. Soda (being diet or regular) is terribly unhealthy for us anyway. Can you save your soda for special occasions?
Drink water...LOTS of water. No, it's not like drinking soda, but it's healthy and good for your body. Although I'd *prefer* to drink soda, I drink water all day and make myself get at least 64oz (but lately I've been doing more like 96oz). You'll feel so much better!!
I read this article... Does switching to diet sodas help? Although some research has suggested that people who drink artificially sweetened sodas as part of a calorie-restricted diet do lose weight, other studies have suggested that diet soft drinks could even lead to weight gain. For now, there’s no conclusive evidence either way.
Mary Nash Stoddard says, "It's well documented that excitotoxins like aspartame have the reverse affect on weight. People drinking diet drinks and eating diet food will get more hungry.
The FDA no longer allows manufacturers of diet supplement drinks and foods containing aspartame to label them as weight reduction products, but requires that they be labeled as diet drink or diet food. A study of 80,000 women who use sweeteners were evaluated through the Centers for Disease Control. It was found that they gained rather than lost weight using artificial sweeteners."
I reckon if it seems like drinking diet soda makes you hungry.... try switching to water. I agree with Kris that maybe you were hungry to begin with, when you drank the soda. And filling up your stomach with a zero-calorie beverage didn't do anything for the hunger in the first place. It makes you feel full, but doesn't give your body any fuel.
IDK that I'd necessarily say diet soda makes a person crave sweets. Or that artificial sweeteners are "evil" or cause obesity. I think sometimes people fall into the kind of thinking where... "the calories in the Snickers bar are cancelled out by the Diet Coke I washed it down with". And IMO eating sugar sets up cravings for more sugar. Certainly for some people, it may be true that drinking artificially sweetened beverages sets them up for cravings for other sweet tasting things. And some people have digestive issues, with certain artificial sweeteners. IMO it's something we each have to think about and decide for ourselves. I use artificial sweeteners in my coffee every morning; I don't think that's what made me fat. What made me fat was eating waaaaay too many calories, and not exercising. Ever. I've lost the weight, I still use artificial sweeteners, and I stay away from sugar.
I've noticed that diet soda can make me a little hungrier, especially in large amounts. But if I drink one diet soda with my lunch or dinner, it doesn't have that effect. It seems it makes me most hungry when I was kind of hungry anyway, like at 10:00 in the morning.
One or two diet sodas or teas a day really helps me feel like I've gotten a sweet treat; it prevents me from falling prey to the cakes and cookies and pies they serve in the cafeteria where I work.
I think diet soda is very sweet and can really mess up your palate.
Think about it, I haven't drank a pop diet or regular in years. I have slowly weaned myself down off sugar and am at the point where if I make muffins I sweeten them with bananas. I eat 85% dark chocolate and anything less tastes like milk chocolate and is too sweet. When I make custard for a treat I add no sugar to it and just enjoy the sliced banana I put I it for sweetness. When I make salmon patties they taste sweet to me (salmon, almond flour, egg, onions and celery). My taste buds are used to eating foods low in sugar and if I eat foods that have a lot of sweetness it ruins the food for me because the sweetness takes over all the other flavours.
Eating foods that are really sweet on a daily basis is settting yourself up to eat sweet things all the time. You get used to the flavour of sweet and therefore consume more sugar or artificial sweeteners on a consistent basis both of which I believe to be harmful to the human body.
If you can drink something else do it! Water, herbal tea, hot lemon water or even coffee. Just remember to hold the sugar and sweeteners.
Fitness Minutes: (4,131)
536 10/9/13 6:28 A
I drink diet coke every morning and it doesn't make me hungary. I eat a healthy diet and get the nutrients and minerals my body needs so I don't have a need for extra food. Every body is different when it comes to soda and food.
Fitness Minutes: (33,757)
22,225 10/9/13 5:12 A
I'm not offering an answer one way or another but here is another angle no-one seems to have stumbled on.
It is possible that you were hungry in the first place, and drank the soda, perhaps mistaking that hunger for thirst. If it can happen that people eat when in fact they are thirsty, I would imagine that the reverse can be true, too. Anyway, IF that is the case, then those who drink the diet soda, and then get ravenous may have just realized that they were hungry when it got bad after the soda, not recognizing it prior to the soda, therefore the diet soda gets the rap!
Edited by: SLIMMERKIWI at: 10/9/2013 (05:12)
Fitness Minutes: (3,449)
310 10/9/13 3:26 A
Actually, its true that they make you hungry. I posted about it earlier but was shot down by Betty... I've recently followed up with the doctor who lectured on the subject and he expalined why her argument that they were safe for DIABETICS is true... but that they do, in fact, induce a feeling of hunger in healthy people. I can't find the original post but here's a summary of what he said... paraphrased and somewhat simplified; your body, while telling you that "hey, this drink is sweet" is also telling other parts "sugar is coming", so it releases substances that prepare you for absorption of said sugar, which includes lowering the amount of sugar floating around in your bloodstream. When you drink diet soda, no actual sugars come over... but your body has already started preparing for them, so its blood sugar dips *slightly* below its happy level. This makes it tell you that "hey, I'd like some extra sugar" aka, making you feel slightly hungry. In diabetics, the system that controls the above is totally out of whack... that's why they have diabetes. They are either unable to make or insensitive to Insulin... so the above doesn't happen (or doesn't induce anything, anyway). Again, this is a *tiny* change, not the kind of surge you get after a meal to prevent hyperglycemia (which is what diabetics take drugs to prevent, since they can't regulate it themselves). In summary; No, there's no study. Yes, like people here have said, diet sodas can make you feel hungry... there is biochemical basis for it. No, it probably isn't the difference between over-eating and eating right... but it might be an extra (tiny) urge you need to ignore.
In my personal opinion, we won't know how "safe" all the chem in diet sodas is for years to come, and the calories are preferable to all the extra headache of worrying if something in them will be retroactively linked to some weird cancer, etc 50yrs down the road.
Just to correct some misinformation on this thread... Research evidence has "not" shown artifical sweeteners to cause weight gain.
There are a couple of studies that indicate in " a few" people the sweet flavor of artificial sweeteners brings about the desire for more sweet foods. For most people this is not the case. Therefore using zero calorie beverages (ie diet drinks), is a way to cut calories from one's diet when used in place of sugar-filled drinks.
I have found that soda and breads make me hungry. I stopped drinking soda years ago and got off whole grains, refined flour, refined sugar and dairy within the last two years. Now a salad fills me up (i use lots of other veggies and some nuts on it.)
Dr Mark Hyman Says "Stop confusing your body. If you have a desire for something sweet, have a little sugar, but stay away from “fake” foods. Researchers found that the total food eaten over 14 days dramatically increased in the artificial sweetener group — meaning that the artificial sweetener stimulated their appetite and made them eat more!"
"THERE’S NO DOUBT about it. Artificial sweeteners cause obesity"
Eliminate sugar and artificial sweeteners and your cravings will go away: Go cold turkey. If you are addicted to narcotics or alcohol you can’t simply just cut down. You have to stop for you brain to reset. Eliminate refined sugars, sodas, fruit juices, and artificial sweeteners from your diet. These are all drugs that will fuel cravings.
Its the artificial sugar in them. They fool your body into thinking you are drinking sugar and cause cravings. I have to limit my artificial sugars too or I just get caught in a cycle of cravings..... I try to do black coffee or unsweetened tea if I am sick of water.
Fitness Minutes: (35,097)
2,167 11/27/12 5:56 A
The weak acid in the sodas (and in most processed foods) can provoke a feeling of hunger even though there isn't any hunger. It does happen to me too, but it happens more frequently when I am under stress. I drink diet soda only occasionally, and sometimes it does nothing, other times it provokes hunger.
Fitness Minutes: (120)
2,171 11/26/12 9:51 P
I don't, but I've heard of a lot of people who do.
Since you're not drinking it for the caffeine, I'd say cut them out. Do water with lemon or something instead. If you like the fizz, get carbonated/tonic water.
Fitness Minutes: (35,078)
5,088 11/26/12 9:03 P
I don't drink soda, but it might be a good idea to stop drinking it if it could potentially make you overeat.
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