can diet coke make you fat?

Question

my mum says if you're on a diet you shouldn't drink diet coke. obviously theres no calories but she said the chemicals are bad for weight loss. is this true? i live on diet coke!

Answer 1

The answer to this is not as simple as it looks. DIet Coke has virtually no calories so you cannot gain weight from it alone. Your Mum is on the right track, but not exactly. No chemicals in Diet Coke prevent weight loss but the sweet taste, although not really a sugar may provoke a craving for other sweets or even for other unsweet foods.

The sweet taste fools the body into thinking it is about to have a "sugar" rush and the body gears up for sugar that never appears. Your pancreas can pour out insulin and you will feel hungry. So even though you saved the calories from a "real" Coke, you may actually take in more calories than you saved because of the craving created.

Of course you know "living on Diet Coke" isn't exactly healthy for you! It's fine in moderation, but instead try the simple trick of drinking more water. A glass of water before a snack or meal may give you a feeling of fullness and you won't want to eat as much. If plain water doesn't do it for you, try a squeeze of lemon or lime to perk it up. I carry little packets of wonderful products called TrueLemon and TrueLIme in my wallet all the time and add these to a bottle of water. They add no calories and have 25% of your daily Vitamin C need . These do not use preservatives and taste great. You may find you don;t miss "sweet" at all.

Try to live on healthier choices, but you don't need to give up Diet Coke altogether.

Answer 2

Diet coke is calorie free, always a bonus on a diet! Speaking from experience, I lived on the stuff while I was dieting a few yearse ago, and as far as I know it did me no harm, or none that has become apparent since. I stay off it now as I am feeding my little one and don't want to pump her full of caffeine. I do buy the caffeine free one sometimes though. I found that diet coke made me feel fuller which was helpful during the odd hunger pangs! I lost 4 1/2 stone in 8 months, so the diet coke didn't stop me loosing weight. There are plenty of other drinks that don't contain chemicals, but they're are no good if you don't like them or don't fancy them! I drink sugar free squash now, it's cheaper too!

Answer 3

The chemicals in Diet Coke (or any sugar-free drinks) are very bad for you in large quantities, particularly Aspartame, Ascesulfame K and Phenylanaline, which the fizzy drinks companies won't tell you because they're cheaper than sugar. It can cause dizziness, shortness of breath, and even neurological symptoms, or worse if you're sensitive to it. (Phenylketoneurics can't tolerate this type of sweetener at all).

Please, for your own health, rethink the concept of 'living on' any kind of diet drinks - pure water, or fruit juice are sooo much better for you! Get a soda stream machine and use pure fresh juice in the water if you're after fizz, or buy organic cola from Sainsburys - that's really tasty! Keep an eye on your gnashers as well... Fizzy drinks (sweetened or not) can damage the enamel on your teeth.

Good luck with the diet. :)

Answer 4

then it shouldnt have been diet coke if it makes u fat. the thing is, diet colas/drinks has no calories on them. ur mom is right, the chemicals on these drinks are bad, they contain ASPARTAME, a toxic substance that when it gets accumulated in the body, it causes neuromuscular defects. there has been a lot of study regarding this matter in the US and it has been proven by other diet cola drinkers... u may have not experinced the effects right now but in a few years time, when ur still living on diet coke, the effects may start to show. maybe you should find other ways for weight loss....

Answer 5

Years ago I heard that the chemicals in diet coke encouraged fluid retension, so you swell up with fluid. This could be rubbish.

It does contain 40mg of sodium and 46.5mg of caffeine. Other ingredients include caramel colouring, aspartame, phosphoric acid, and citric acid. While it doesn't show up in the list of ingredients, there is a warning on the can to people with phenylketonuria that Diet Coke contains phenylalanine. Not surprisingly, the leading ingredient in Diet Coke is good old water.

Answer 6

Ok diet coke doesn't contain sugar or calories but this is not the actual problem. The problem with diet coke and sodas in general(diet or not) is that they contain a human made sweetener called HFCS(High fructose corn syrup). Since this thing is human made your body has a very hard time to process it. HFCS doesn't let your body to tell you when you had enough drink or food making you loose control of your appetite.

Answer 7

Your mum is absolutely correct. The main chemical that they put in as a replacement for sugar is Aspartame. This stuff has totally the opposite effect of what it says it should do. Not only that, but it has been known to cause cancer, unexplained visual loss, obesity, severe headaches, convulsions, diabetes, hyperactivity, depression and lots more. Do some research away from the crap that the mainstream media is pedalling and you'll find that this stuff is worse than rat poison. This isn't just scaremongering, this unfortunately is fact. Stay away from the stuff unless you want to die when you're 35! As soon as I realised the truth I dropped it like a dead fish and haven't looked back since.

Answer 8

The problem with so called "diet" drinks is that the artificial sweetener with Zero (0) calories acts upon receptors in women's brains and makes them crave sugar or complex carbohydrates to convert to sugar. That is why the Fat woman orders the supersize meal and the diet coke. It is a vicious cycle. If you are truly trying to lose weight you are using the food pyramid and controlling meal size and portions according to that and Drinking WATER. You have also increased your activity and are doing exercise at least three times a week. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourself.

Answer 9

Mustard is a secret bulge-buster. The item boosts your metabolism and will increase natural ephadrine, the hormone of which burns fat. According to Jeya Holly, professor of human nutrition in Oxford Brookes University, just a tablespoon in your food can reduce a flabby waist by 20 %!

Answer 10

no diet coke will not make you fat. but you should drink some water too.