The only thing that I have heard is the Aspartame is bad for you, causes cancer in rats. That's about all I know. I have significantly cut down on my intake of diet pop, because of the Aspartame.

Mark

Diet coke/pepsi is bad for you becuase of the caffeine which is a stimualnt and a diuretic which will leave you dehydrated... it also increases the phosphate in your blood. Definately should not be your primary intake of fluid... The cancer thing is not true under physiological doses... if it was it never would have been on the market the biggest concern is if you had the metabolic disorded known as PKU this would casue brain damage... but if that was true you would have known about it already... as long as you drink it moderation you should be fine just be sure to drink enough water during the day

I remember reading a couple of things about diep soda: 1) the phosphates can cause calcium loss which can impact bone density in the long-term, and 2) you can actually use diet soda to clean grease off your driveway. The second point made me stop drinking the stuff immediately.

carbonated drinks in general aren't too good for you, and diet ones may be worse. the carbonation makes them really caustic. some problems they can cause are "increased stomach acid levels requiring acid inhibitors and moderate to severe gastric inflammation with possible stomach lining erosion."

"We know that many soda brands contain caffeine and that caffeine does increase stomach acid levels. What we may not be aware of is that sodas also contain an array of chemical acids as additives, such as acetic, fumaric, gluconic and phosphoric acids, all of them synthetically produced. That is why certain sodas work so well when used to clean car engines. For human consumption, however, the effects are much less satisfying and quite precarious."

"Drinking sodas, especially on an empty stomach, can upset the fragile acid-alkaline balance of the stomach and other gastric lining, creating a continuous acid environment. This prolonged acid environment can lead to inflammation of the stomach and duodenal lining which becomes quite painful. Over the long term, it can lead to gastric lining erosion. "

obviously, most people don't die from drinking a bit of diet pop once in a while, but it's hard to justify drinking it. if you go for 6 months without drinking any carbonation and then drink a dr pepper or whatever it'll hurt a lot. i decided to stop drinking carbonation when i was in high school when my swim coach recommended it. a few years later i was in a social situation where a nice old woman in spain would have been offended if i didn't drink what she offered. it felt like my throat was being torn apart.

anyway, they're not going to kill you if you drink one a month, but it shouldn't be a habit.

(quotes from "Soft Drinks - America's Other Drinking Problem"
~ By Dr. George J. Georgiou, Ph.D. )[/b]

The most significant problem with diet colas is the phosphoric acid content. It can cause calcium to be released from the bone (the body thinks it has enough minerals and causes calcium to be excreted in the urine). This is, of course, theoretical, but it makes sense. If you want to be part of an experiment, keep drinking soda.

Incidentally, this suggests that seltzer or other
carbonated drinks that do not contain phosphoric acid should be ok.
(the pK for phosphoric acid is around 2 making it one of the stronger acids)

see: Neville H. Golden, MD. Osteoporosis prevention: A pediatric challenge. Arch Ped Adolesc Med; Vol:154; June 2000. p. 542.
or: FDA Consumer; 34(5); Sept/Oct 2000; p. 5.

k

eat or drink what you will, but do not base your decision on quotes like that. your stomach is already a highly acidic environment and always is. the piddly amounts of those soda components do not alter this significantly, and the stomach is more than capable of altering acid/base balance of its own accord, such as when you consume citrus fruits. the caffeine issue is unrelated to soda - as you can get soda with or without it. that foolish car engine story is so tired i am surprised anybody trots it out anymore - spray a little of the contents from a healthy stomach on an engine or penny and see the same thing....sheesh. that bit about long term damage and all is complete rubbish and never proved - if it bothers you don't drink it. note how the author says it "can" cause these dire things and then quickly moves into saying it "becomes" most painful - typical doubletalk for sensationalistic psuedoscience.

drink some. if it bothers you drink less. it is mostly water, with tiny bits of flavoring and dye.

Hmmm, I drink way too much of it. I doubt it is GOOD for you, but we all have to die of something.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I read a couple studies that showed that aspartame DOES NOT actually cause cancer in humans!

So drink away...i like the taste of diet coke better than anything else anyway.



-kevin

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"Anyone can work hard when they want to; Champions do it when they don't."

Are cigarettes really bad for you? For years we thought not. Now we know better, yet people still smoke. Many have died. I smoked for five years and have been smoke free for 18 years. I'm 37 and I am healthier now than I was then.

Aspertame (NutraSweet) is said to be toxic by some. It has a definite chemical makeup and should be avoided by people with PKU (Phenylketonuria). Believe what you want about Aspertame (NutraSweet), but just remember that Big Tobacco executives still deny, to this very day, that cigarettes and nicotine are not addictive or harmful. I personally drink diet sodas and wonder if I too will end up with some unexplainable disease. That is why I suppliment with a total vitamin/mineral suppliment that provides my body with anti-oxidants to fight free-radical cellular damage.

Also, it's been noted that former President Bill Clinton's favorite beverage is Diet Coke. Now is it any wonder why he did what he did with Monica Lewinsky? The Phenylalanine in the Diet Coke made him do it!

To get a certain perspective, surf over to the Sweet Poison website at http://www.sweetpoison.com/.

Below is a very interesting exerpt from this site.

Phenylalanine - Aspartame Poisoning

Nutrition fact about Phenylalanine in aspartame:

The 1976 Groliers encyclopedia states cancer cannot live without phenylalanine. Aspartame is 50% phenylalanine.

Phenylalanine is one of the essential amino acids found in proteins, but I am one of the believers that amino acids should be eaten in combination, not in isolated form. Nature provides amino acids in combination; only man isolates them for processing purposes.

Phenylalanine is found naturally in foods such as eggs, milk, bananas, and meat. If you are PKU (Phenylketonuric) or sensitive to phenylalanine, you will react to the phenylalanine in aspartame. You many want to get a blood test to check for this condition. Over the past 20 years, humans have become more aware of PKU reactions because human beings began using isolated phenylalanine to the degree it is harmful to some individuals, many as aspartame side effects. My suggestion would be to research PKU and phenylalanine extensively. Phenylalanine can be very harmful to diabetics.



The structure of aspartame seems simple, but what a complicated structure aspartame really is. Two isolated amino acids in aspartame are fused together by its third component, deadly methanol. In this structure, methanol bonds the two amino acids together, but when released at a mere 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the methanol becomes a poisonous free radical.

Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde, embalming fluid. Methanol is a dangerous neurotoxin, a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage in the eye, interferes with DNA replication, and causes birth defects.


Aspartic acid makes up forty percent of the structure of aspartame. Under excess conditions, the structure of aspartic acid can cause endocrine (hormone) disorders and vision problems. Aspartic acid is a neuroexicter, which means its structure affects the central nervous system. Hyperactivity is stimulated by aspartic acid, so this structure is not good for ADD/ADHD conditions and should be avoided during pregnancy.


Adverse reactions to aspartic acid are: headaches/migraines, nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, sleep disorders, vision problems, anxiety attacks, depression, and asthma/chest tightness. The second isolated amino acid in aspartame's chemical structure is phenylalanine, fifty percent of aspartame's 3-D structure. Too much phenylalanine causes seizures, elevated blood plasma, is dangerous for pregnancy causing retardation, PMS caused by phenylalanine's blockage of serotonin, insomnia, and severe mood swings.

An ex-girlfriend of mine works at a prestigious local cancer-research center. The staff commonly refers to Diet Soda as "Tumor in a Can."

Interestingly, she also did grad work on the original Aspartame clinical trials years ago, and according to her, Aspartame (nutrasweet) flunked the standards for approval that were established by the FDA before the testing began. At some point, those standards were "revised," and the product was brought to market. I remember reading something years back that confirmed her version of these events, but darned if remember where I read it.

This has never been an issue for me - I can't stand how Aspartame tastes, and isn't the whole point of drinking a can of Soda the sugar-bomb effect?

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

wedo not need cigarette executives to tell us whether or not smoking is hazardous, just as we do not need the owners of underground coal mines to tell us working there is dangerous - we can readily observe it for ourselves. guys go into the mine and do not come out, and when they do come out they don't live past 48 y/o. there is no such observable trend in the bazillions of people consuming diet coke. i will not even respond to the ridiculous "formaldehyde", or " it is a chemical structure" angles. the tumor in a can line is funny and i suspect is MEANT to be funny - a little insider joke around the old testing lab.

look, i am not sayingit is the nectar of the Gods. water is better. but the man asked if having a couple diet cokes would hurt him and the answer is no ( assuming he doesn't have bone density issues). also, just not drinking it on general principle is likely a good idea - but that is different from saying it is "made from chemicals" or your GF's cousin's friend saw it clean a car engine, or so she was told.

why do i care ? dunno, but stuff like this bugs me - i work in public health and have to deal with wacko's who won't get their kids immunized because of some stupid a$$ thing they read on the internet all the time. there are numerous baseless sites out there telling people all manner of completely bogus crap based on heresay and foolishness, even when the cause of rumour is long proven to be in err. most of the junk about diet pop sounds pretty much like that.

I don't know if diet soda is bad for you, if it causes cancer, a third testicle, etc. However, I'm pretty sure that it is not GOOD for you, good meaning nutritious.

We train so hard, make so many sacrifices to live this lifestyle, why are you taking in foods that don't help you to live it to the fullest?

One of Joe Friel's points he harps on is don't do a workout if you don't know why you are doing it. The TI swim coach says don't swim another lap with bad form. Why would you put something into your body that is not helping your nutrition? It is like doing a workout without knowing what you are going to acheive. It's like swimming lap after lap with bad form.

well, is tea "good for you" ? all that tannin and all, ya know. diet pop is essentially water, with some stuff added to make is flavorful and fun to drink. if our man have a couple diet pepsi's in the day it will do nothing to hinder his perfaoramnce as a triathlete this weekend, is what i am saying. out.

I do this (tri) because I enjoy it and I have fun training and racing, I have no goals of winning or placing in my AG. I do not want to become some health nut and never had that in my mind. I do eat well but because I feel better doing it, not because it will make me faster. I also on occasion drink diet cole, beer, wine, etc because I enjoy it, just like tri.

Now about the diet soda, I'm all with TTN, and as you said 'it isn't good for you' but is it bad? A coke or two during the week isn't going to kill you before the toxic air, ozone hole, radiation from your laptop and cell phone will.

If you want to be the best athlete and healthiest you can be, stay away from the diet coke, otherwise enjoy in moderation.

A

OK,
I usually tend to stay away from nutritional posts, but "Dr." Hull's claims are downright ridiculous, and I feel obliged to say something about aspartame ... (a few technical points first, which you're welcome to skip, but please read my "however" paragraph).

Go look at http://chemcases.com/nutra/nutra1a.htm figure B. Right underneath the "ring" on the right hand side of the molecule, you'll find a -OCH3 group. It's called methoxy. This is the "methanol radical" (methanol is NOT a radical, it never is) that "Dr." Hull mentions in her little article. As you can see, it holds nothing at all: it's just an accessory side chain. The two amino acids are held together by an "amide" bond: the CONH part in the middle of the molecule (this is how amino acids are hooked together in your body to form proteins and stuff like that).

There's no way 86 F will pull the methoxy group off the carbonyl (C=O, the thing with the double bond in it). This is completely ridiculous: you need somethinig to "activate" the removal. Phosphoric acid is a good choice (read the "however" paragraph), but it's a *weak* acid (despite what's written in another post) and the reaction will be *slow*. And even when it's removed, it CANNOT form a free radical. Removal of methanol from the carbonyl group is acid catalysed which leads to an acid/base pair, not a pair of radicals.

Methanol CANNOT break down into formic acid and/or formaldehyde. Nobody can do that, but enzymes or fairly involved (let's say "harsh") synthetic schemes. Dehydrating methanol is hard and doesn't happen readily, and certainly not in your body.

HOWEVER ... if you look closely at your can of favorite diet beverage, you'll find an expiration date. Please, do respect it. What happens in your little can, over time, is that phosphoric acid *does* pull the methoxy group off the molecule and forms methanol. It is a *very* slow reaction. Very little methanol will be released, but it is highly toxic, and turns you blind. The one positive side is that methanol is pretty bitter. You can "taste" old diet soda. If your soda tastes bitter, don't drink it! If it tastes good, drink up and stop worrying about cancer.

OK, my techno babble is over now, I understand that most of you can't care less about all this chemistry stuff. It just that it pisses me off to no end to see people propagating false information in the name of science.

Dre'

Before someone asks ...
Andre' Conjusteau, BSc, MSc, MA, PhD (first two Sherbrooke Chemistry, last two, Princeton Chemistry).

It's on the internet, therefore it must be true.

Ah, my job is done here. Believe what you want about diet soda. Now you have many different opinions to make an informed decision whether to drink diet soda or not drink it. Some are based on science and some are based on someone else's science.

jlf, drink away, if you dare. Some say it won't hurt you, others say it will. Who has the best marketing? Who do you believe?

t-n-n, I agree with you, to a point. I like to be informed and sometimes believe one thing until someone else educates me differently. Education is better than persuasion. And some people will die believing. Sad, but true.

Dr. Dre', thanks for giving us more information to base our choices on. It' seems that you have a grasp of chemisty that the general public, myself included, does not. Dr. Hull may or may not know the iinformation you provided. If she does, shame on her for not giving all the facts just to sell her book. If she doesn't, shame on her again for piss-poor research.

Let me be clear on this. If it's on the internet, it means someone thinks differently than others. The internet is just a delivery medium.

Truth is based on many factors. My truth is different than your truth, but I can be educated. One thing is certain, we all will die. How we choose to live our lives is up to us as individuals and nobody else. As I have stated, I like diet sodas, I'm just not 100% certain that it's not "bad" for me and I choose to take that risk.

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Sean

Whether Diet Pop does bad stuff overall for your health I don't know. i sure hope not. Until 2 weeks ago I have had an approximate 12 can a day habbit with Diet Pepsi. I phased it down to 5 cans a day for a week, and I've been completely off for almost one whole week.

The fact is, before I quit, my fasted 400M time was 59 seconds, which I did 5 weeks ago. Today I ran 400M in 52 seconds. Although my head has been killing me lately in this switch off, I think It'll be worth it in the long run.

PC's have been anecdotally proven to provide a 10% improvement in 400 meter times. Giving up Diet Coke provides an 11% improvement...

I'm torn. If it weren't for the fact that chicks dig well developed hip flexors, this would be a 'no brainer'.