The Evils of Diet Coke

Every now and then, I hear something disparaging about artificial sweeteners. I never really paid it much heed because I practically live on the stuff and haven't really felt any ill effects, or so I thought. On average, I drink about 5 to 6 decaf Diet Cokes a day. Now that I'm making a real effort to try to get healthy, I thought that maybe I should read up on my addiction.

I found more than one article that links artifical sweetners to overeating, and not from small sources—WebMD and ABC News. Per WebMD (2004):

Researchers say artificial sweeteners may interfere with the body's natural ability to count calories based on a food's sweetness and make people prone to overindulging in other sweet foods and beverages.

So has this really effected me?

Maybe.

I'm hungry all the time. Typically, an hour after I've eaten a big meal, I feel like I could eat again. I find it hard to resist the urge to snack in the afternoons, especially. And having a snack doesn't really make the urge go away.

Time for an experiment: I'm going to wean myself off of Diet Coke as a staple in my diet. First, I'm going to limit myself to two: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Then I'm going to cut back to one a day, and, after that, to two a week. This is going to be a tough one for me: I've been drinking Diet Coke about 7 years ago, and then with gusto for about 6 years now. Strangely enough, I started drinking it about the time I started really gaining weight. I thought I was making a positive change in my diet that would help me stop the unwanted gain. Instead, I gained about 80 pounds over the past seven years. I'm not saying it was all due to Diet Coke—I had to do a lot of things wrong to get where I'm at, but I'm wondering if maybe it just made things a little harder on me. So, as I said a few lines before, I'm going to start weaning myself off of the stuff. It'll be interesting to see if it will make a difference in my appetite. I've already had one today. It's going to be hard to not raid the free drink fridge at work. I've decided that I'm going to wait until after my workout tonight to have my second one. It'll give me something to look forward to.

In the mean time, I will have to learn to make water—plain, ol' ice water— my friend.