Jump to content

Diet Coke


Recommended Posts

I'm wondering what everyone's take is on reintroducing diet coke after my whole30. What are the negatives to drinking it? I know several, but maybe just need to be reminded. I crave it more than anything right now and I am rationalizing my consumption of it following the end of my whole30 already. Help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

diet coke is addictive for sure, but there is nothing about it that is good for you. Stay away for long enough and it will start tasting toxic. After that it isn't so hard to resist. 

 

Reasons not to drink it: diet coke consumption increases your risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome and depression (this is actually published science). Consuming artificial sweeteners, like those found in diet coke, will change your taste perception. You will need sweeter and sweeter tastes to be satisfied, and veggies and fruits will taste dull in comparison. It also messes up your perception of hunger and satiety, because you are getting the sweet taste without any calories or nutrition, so you may have a hard time gauging what is enough food for your context. You might overeat or undereat. Neither of these is good for your body.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have up a serious diet coke habit during my first whole30 last year and that 1st week was horrific. I accidentally took a sip of my sister's tin a couple of months later and almost gagged...it tasted revolting.

It is the one thing I have never consumed since...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

diet coke is addictive for sure, but there is nothing about it that is good for you. Stay away for long enough and it will start tasting toxic. After that it isn't so hard to resist. 

 

Reasons not to drink it: diet coke consumption increases your risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome and depression (this is actually published science). Consuming artificial sweeteners, like those found in diet coke, will change your taste perception. You will need sweeter and sweeter tastes to be satisfied, and veggies and fruits will taste dull in comparison. It also messes up your perception of hunger and satiety, because you are getting the sweet taste without any calories or nutrition, so you may have a hard time gauging what is enough food for your context. You might overeat or undereat. Neither of these is good for your body.

I wonder how long I need to stay away from it for it to start tasting toxic to me. That would be very helpful! I have done one other whole30 before and started drinking diet coke again after that one, 2-3 a week, and I was becoming dependent on them for energy already. I just really don't want to have the addiction again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Whole30 Certified Coach

What about seltzer?  Are you on the East coast by any change?  Polar has a ton of flavors - just "natural" flavor - no artificial sweeteners or anything.  I also make my own a lot - Soda Stream + a splash of OJ.  Love it.  

 

PS - I was a 2-4 LITER (<-- not kidding) a day Coke Zero drinker.  I've been clean for 3 years now :)  Cold turkey.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I wonder how long I need to stay away from it for it to start tasting toxic to me. That would be very helpful! I have done one other whole30 before and started drinking diet coke again after that one, 2-3 a week, and I was becoming dependent on them for energy already. I just really don't want to have the addiction again!

My advice would be that if you have a clearly unhealthy relationship with something that is terrible for you, unfortunately, you may never be able to have it again. If you developed a dependancy in a few weeks and you're already thinking about it now, it truly may never taste toxic to you because your addiction will be stronger than that... Do you think its necessary to have a casual relationship with Diet Coke? Does it enhance your life? It sounds like maybe it does the opposite.

There are many people who have completed one or more whole30's and realized that there is a food or food group (nuts, ice cream, coffee, soda) that they'll never have a healthy relationship with and it's got to go... consider this... would you be able to have a healthy once in a while relationship with Heroin? Tell your brain that Diet Coke is heroin in different packaging and then stay away!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was a diet Coke addict for 20+ years and successfully gave it up during my first Whole30 in September.  I have had a few since, and I will be honest, it tasted good and I missed it.  But I also felt funny after drinking it...like I had given my GI tract a chemical bath (which I guess is essentially what I did...).  There is honestly no reason to ever consume soda again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was a diet Coke addict for 20+ years and successfully gave it up during my first Whole30 in September.  I have had a few since, and I will be honest, it tasted good and I missed it.  But I also felt funny after drinking it...like I had given my GI tract a chemical bath (which I guess is essentially what I did...).  There is honestly no reason to ever consume soda again.

Hey there, Aunt Jane.   Good to see you, again.   Hope you're feeling much better these days. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was an "occasional" diet Coke and Coke Zero drinker before my first Whole30.  It took starting it to realize that "occasional" had somehow become "every day."  It was probably the thing that was hardest to give up that first week.  But I managed.  After my Whole30 ended, I had a sip of one somewhere and, like Britishgal, was revolted.  It was TERRIBLE.  

 

I sincerely hope that this is your experience, and like everyone else here, I recommend seltzer as a nice change of pace.  Or mineral water if you want to be fancy.  I like it plain.  You can also put a bit of lemon or lime juice in it, or fancy it up with mint.

 

ThyPeace, ever had dietRite and tasted that horrible metallic taste?  Now all cola tastes like that to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a 2 liter a day habit. More on weekends if I was drinking! I missed it - a lot - the first week. Traded it in for seltzer water which literally made me gag the first time I drank it.  :rolleyes: I thought I'd never make it, but I have successfully made the switch. The unsweetened seltzer water actually tastes good to me now and I haven't had a Coke (mine was Diet) in a couple of months. It's in my fridge, for my husband, but I am no longer casting lustful glances in it's direction. What Sugarcube said is right on target! I have realized that my relationship with Diet Coke is never going to be a good one (much like smoking) so I just can't have a relationship with it at all. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am only on day 2, but my diet coke dependency was one of many reasons I am doing this!

 

That said, a few years ago I gave it up for over 6mos.  It was still very easy to fall back in to old habits! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was addicted to Dr. Pepper when I started my first whole 30 last year. As soon as I was finished I thought I could start adding it back in as a "treat". Pretty soon I was back to 2 or 3 a day. I have found that it is one of those things I just can't have anymore....ever!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I stopped drinking Diet Coke 2 months before my first whole30. All of the bad things I had read about aspartame finally sunk in so I stopped pop/soda in general but I was drinking diet then as I was calorie counting. It was the best thing I have ever done but the withdrawal was ridiculous. I had a headache for two weeks straight and at one point, woke up in the middle of the night with lower leg cramps in BOTH legs that were so bad they lasted over half an hour and left me in tears.

 

Now I drink water, lemon water, carbonated water (plain or variety of flavours), black tea or coffee and occasionally kombucha.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What does everyone think of La Croix brand sparkling water? The coconut flavor is so good!

 

The coconut flavor took me a little getting used to (when I first tried it, I thought it tasted like suntan lotion).  It's since grown on me and now I like it.

Of the other flavors I've tried, I like the Piña Fraise (Pineapple Strawberry) the best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

I'd love to try la croix...but Amazon are charging £93 to ship it and that doesn't include the exorbitant cost price!

I'll be sticking with Aldi fizzy water infused with fruit by me ;)

Honestly, in my experience, what you're doing is the same or better. I wasn't overly impressed with the La Croix. Fancy packaging, marketing to all the "health nuts" who don't want sugar, but no real difference than seltzer water infused with fruit. Just my two cents. Also, that shipping cost is absurd! (On an un-Whone30 related note, I once tried to order a $3 LED red night light from American Home Depot. They wanted to charge $97 USD to mail it to me. I nearly died!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I wonder how long I need to stay away from it for it to start tasting toxic to me. That would be very helpful! I have done one other whole30 before and started drinking diet coke again after that one, 2-3 a week, and I was becoming dependent on them for energy already. I just really don't want to have the addiction again!

My Dad was the same way. 

 

The only way he was able to beat that addiction was to stop drinking it all together.

 

He switched to the La Croix sparkling water and hasn't touched Diet Pepsi since. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...