Soda. Coke. Pop.

Whatever you call your carbonated beverage (it’s SODA, by the way), you’re probably already aware of how terrible it is for you.  Other than rotting your teeth, it’s also a huge reason there are so many overweight people in this country.  Check out this crazy story posted yesterday: Caron Butler (pictured) of the Washington Wizards was so addicted Mountain Dew that when he gave it up this summer, losing 11 lbs in the process, he went through actual withdrawals:

To try and give this up was crazy for me! I was going through withdrawals. I was in the bed sweating. My wife would turn over in the bed and ask “Are you OK?” Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew [were] the roughest two weeks of my life. I’m talking headaches, sweats and everything. Before that I drank at least six 12-ounce Mountain Dews a day.

I know if you Google “soda weight loss,” you’ll find 2 million hits on how terrible these beverages are for you…so I won’t get into it.  Instead, I wanted to take a look at the effect of DIET soda on weight loss.  I know there are conflicting reports on whether or not this stuff can actually make you fat.

My Initial Thoughts Before Research

Diet soda has zero calories (generally) and zero actual sugar, which means it can’t directly make you gain weight, right?  A normal 20 oz. Coke, on the other hand, has 240 calories and 68 grams of sugar (holy ****), which definitely causes weight gain.  Now, if diet soda doesn’t have calories, it can’t contribute to the calorie equation (calories consumed vs. calories burned), which means diet soda alone can’t make you bigger.  However, is Diet Coke responsible for insulin spikes and increased appetite, which would indirectly cause weight gain?  Time to put on my nerd researcher cap and see what I can track down.

Sources I Don’t Trust

If you look up “diet coke weight gain,” you’ll find all kinds of articles that say Diet Coke is the devil.  Unfortunately, some of these articles site no sources and are written by people who are trying to sell their own supplements.  Other sites say that Diet Coke is perfectly fine for you, as it has no calories and therefore no ill effect (I would guess these articles are written by people who chug DC by the gallon).  As hopefully you’ve learned, not everything on the internet is true (shocking), and when it comes to fitness and diet our bodies are so complex that things are very rarely so black and white.

Sources I  Do Trust

After reading some of the crazy extremist websites, I tried to track down some actual studies (and not hearsay) that could prove or disprove the effects of diet drinks.  I came across this study from the San Antonio Heart Study, where the amount of diet soda consumed directly coincided with an increased chance of weight gain:

“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese,” said Sharon Fowler, M.P.H., faculty associate in the division of clinical epidemiology in the Health Science Center’s department of medicine.”

Now, because diet studies always take place with people of various levels of health, wealth, genetics, and social standing, along with thousands of other variables that take place, I’m hesitant to place the blame squarely on Diet Coke.  Maybe the people who drink Diet Coke generally don’t take into consideration what constitutes a healthy diet, while people who don’t drink it generally could be more knowledgeable about their diets and thus eat better?  Maybe the heavy DC drinkers work stressful jobs (and ‘need’ the caffeine to stay alert), and the stress along with poor diet choices (from working late) is causing their weight gain?  I don’t know the full reasons and more research must be done, but the strong correlation between the two has me definitely leaning towards the “Diet Coke can make you fat” camp.  My defense your honor? Better safe than sorry.

I then came across this fantastic video on YouTube, already cued up to the proper part of the conversation where it talks about the effects of diet soda on your waistline.  I’m no scientist, but the guy makes a lot of great points in an easy to understand fashion.  Once again, I don’t have a scientific background (I was an Econ major in college), but after reading a few books on the effects of acidity and alkalinity on our diet, I would tend to agree with the makers of this video.

My Problem With Diet Soda

My big problem with Diet Coke is that I don’t know what the hell is in it.   I mean, if it tastes like soda, but doesn’t have any calories at all…what the eff are they putting in there?  Vin Miller over at NaturalBias.com (who is not surprisingly biased towards eating natural foods) breaks down the new ingredients in Coke Zero and Pepsi Max.  I’m a big fan of Vin’s and I certainly respect his opinion, as he always tends to lean towards the healthier/safer side of things.  Some of these can’t be good for you, no matter what the FDA says.  Speaking of which, I’m growing less and less trusting of the FDA by the day.  Check out this article where FDA scientists accuse their own administration of running the organization like the Mob.  Yikes.

My Conclusion

In my personal opinion, I’d say Diet Coke is the lesser of two evils if you’re trying to lose weight.  However, it’s still created in a lab with unnatural elements, and there are studies that have shown people who drink the stuff are more likely to be overweight.  Whether it’s directly the cause or simply part of a larger problem still needs to be shown, but the numbers don’t lie.  I think people who switch from a case of Mountain Dew a day to a case of Diet Mountain Dew are still going to have all kinds of health problems anyway…just a hunch. Regardless of what the FDA says, I’m not convinced that the stuff in Diet Coke and Coke Zero isn’t harmful, and I’m not convinced that because it has littler or no calories it can’t make you gain weight. Better safe than sorry, right?

My Recommendation

I recommend that you cut back on soda/sugary drinks as much as possible, even if they’re diet, if you’re trying to lose weight.  Even if you’re not trying to lose weight, give it up!  It’s not good for you.  If you’re drinking soda, don’t do so at the expense of your water consumption.  If you need “fuel” for a marathon session of Aion (a new MMORPG my friends are hooked on), you better be double-fisting some high-quality H20 with that diet Dew.  If you think water is too boring, you have to decide what’s more important: your health or your sweet tooth.

Now It’s Your Turn

These are my thoughts and opinions, but what do I know? I’d love to hear some actual stories from you guys and how soda and diet soda has affected your weight loss and health.  If you’ve given up regular soda and switched to diet and lost a lot of weight I want to know.  If you’re struggling to lose weight but you can’t kick your Diet Coke habit, I want to hear about it.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

-Steve

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