Happy Birthday, Last Hussar!

Last Hussar, that thing about caffeine in tea is probably true but a US study found that teabags give twice the amount of caffeine as loose tea leaves(http://www.amazing-green-tea.com). So that seems to be a factor as well. So it isn’t that straightforward. So I still don’t suggest going in and buying tea blindfold if the aim is to cut on your caffeine intake.

Thanks DoF!

Tesco’s over here do flavoured ‘spring’ waters- I think that means they are treated/filtered.  They are carbonated and then juice added- my prefernce is lime- I find lemon and/or lime flavoured water the most refreshing/thirst quenching

I’m a heavy mountain dew drinker and i find that if i’m out of it and having cravings really bad that drinking orange juice puts an immediate end to it… the downside? acid reflux, blech

Happy B-Day Last Hussar!

Les, I recommend going at least 2 weeks with no soda. And drink only water and tea. After that you won’t care about soda anymore and it will prolly taste like shit to you. Most people find this to be true. And your health will start to improve rather quickly too.

And whatever you do don’t get hooked on diet sodas. This is a big mistake many people make. Most diet sodas are worse for your body than regular. The sweeteners block your body’s ability to burn fat. I recommend talking to a nutritionist if you need more info or want to know more of the science behind it.

Oh, one last thing. It’s a little expensive but you could try Izze. Very healthy (just pure fruit juice not from concentrate with carbonated water) and taste amazing!!

Best of luck to ya!

I’ve been drinking diet sodas for a couple of years now. It was a nutritionist who told me to make the switch as my high soda consumption was making me borderline diabetic at the time.

Once the current batch of diet is gone, though, I won’t be buying anymore. I’ll just have the occasional drink when eating out. I’m not planning on eliminating it completely, just cutting way back.

high soda consumption was making me borderline diabetic

Woman I sit nest to at work was feeling thirsty all the time, so she kept drinking coke.  The more she drank the worse the problem came.  Then she was diagnosed diabetic- thirst being a symptom.

The sweeteners block your body’s ability to burn fat. I recommend talking to a nutritionist if you need more info or want to know more of the science behind it.

Is this true? I’m diabetic so I have been drinking diet soda for years, but I also have been trying to lose weight to varying degrees without much measurable success. I’d be interested in reading the research on this, especially since if it’s a matter of the sweeteners in diet sodas causing it I’m pretty screwed unless manufacturers start putting a lot more Splenda and stevia in their products (I’ve never seen anything with stevia, but Splenda is showing up more).

I haven’t been able to drink NutraSweet since the late ‘80s (it gives me a blazing headache until I throw it back up, which is really weird, considering I’m not allergy-prone in any other way).  The calories in regular soda I can’t afford in a 1400-calorie diet.  (The wages of being female and forty--and a sedentary programmer.)

So it’s either coffee (mixed about half-and-half with skim mil) or tea.  In the summer I like water with a splash of lime juice.  Otherwise, I’m pretty picky about the tea--the plain black stuff has to be doctored with honey and milk; otherwise, it’s Earl Grey or something flavored with lemon, mint or orange spice if I’m looking for a pick-me-up; chamomile if not.

Actually, substituting chamomile for dandelion in the dandelion wine recipe makes a kickass wine, too, but I doubt you’ll get away with drinking ~that~ at work… If only this were a civilized nation and we could have a beer if we felt like it.  Alas, the Puritans got the drop on just about everybody else… Sigh.

Diet soda raises your insulin levels just as fast as sugar does. As a nutritionist said once, “Why do you think only fat people drink diet soda?” She was being a little jocular, but it got the point across.

@Bog Brother:

I don’t know specifically whether sweeteners block your fat-burning ability, but my personal opinion is that artificial sweeteners mess up your entire system.  My husband works in a retirement home where they have products especially for diabetics - like ice cream, and we were just talking about that.  I think it would be healthier to just not eat something than to eat the diabetic version of it.  The entire menu, including the diabetic products, is put together by a nutritionist.  When taking a nutrition class in college, we had a guest speaker from the state who was a nutritionist.  She remarked that there was no difference between the sugar in an orange and a piece of candy, and said that her kids did not behave any differently on Halloween than any other night of the year.  I thought that was just plain dumb, but I was not the expert - only the contrarienne that I still am I’d considered being a nutritionist myself, but abandoned the idea when presented with what is taught as valid information.

Diet soda raises your insulin levels just as fast as sugar does.

I don’t necessarily disbelieve you, but do you have a source for this info Webs?  I have to admit that I do feel differently when I drink diet soda, but I haven’t seen my blood sugar levels drastically altered after drinking diet soda on a consistent basis (increased insulin would generally drop blood glucose levels).  I have seen a drop in BG levels after having a diet soda, but this could have been due to me missing a meal/snack. Diabetes requires not only a constant level of insulin but also a measured amount of glucose intake and missing a scheduled intake can really mess you up.

Admittedly, I could give up diet soda altogether, but it is an easier source of caffeine for me in the morning than trying to tackle coffee in the car.

She remarked that there was no difference between the sugar in an orange and a piece of candy, and said that her kids did not behave any differently on Halloween than any other night of the year.

Well it is almost completely true.  Glucose is glucose. There are two issues that make an orange or apple different from candy though:

1. The fruit may contain more complex sugars which will take the digestive tract longer to break down into glucose.  Fruit also tends to have fiber, which can also increase the digestion time.

2. The orange is healthier because of the nutrients such as vitamin c. Fruit does not always get it’s calories from just the sugar (though it is a large part of it), as almost all fruit has dietary fiber in addition to the sugars. Candy will generally just be all sugar.

As for her kid’s behavior, did she happen to mention if her kids are always hyper to begin with? It would also be important to know if her kids ate an uncontrolled amount of candy (I suspect not) or if they were restricted to how much they had.

I was able to conjure up a few…
WomentoWomen

Fowler and her team studied more than 1500 people between the ages of 25 and 64, looking at whether each consumed regular or diet soft drinks. It was no surprise to find a correlation between the daily consumption of multiple cans of all soft drinks and obesity — which they did. But, as Fowler noted, “What was surprising was when we
looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks; their risk of obesity was even higher” [than that of those drinking regular soft drinks]. In fact, Fowler found that for each can of diet soft drink consumed per day, the risk of obesity went up by 41%.

eMax Health

Diet Coke, regardless of how many calories it has, wreaks havoc on your fat loss efforts and will ultimately cause you to gain weight. There are two main reasons for the Diet Coke fallacy. First, the sweet taste from Diet Coke elicits an insulin spike, which blocks your ability to burn fat. Second, artificial sweeteners found in Diet Coke disrupt satiety, the feeling of being full. Combined, the actions of Diet Coke go against a healthy lifestyle. Understanding why ensures that we think twice before consuming it.

ABC Article on Fowler study mentioned above:

She remembers being struck by the scene in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in which Alice is offended because she is offered tea but is given none — even though she hadn’t asked for tea in the first place. So she helps herself to tea and bread and butter.

That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.

“If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn’t there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered,” Fowler says.

WebMD on Sweetners and Weight Gain:

Rats in the Purdue University study that were fed regular feed and yogurt sweetened with no-calorie saccharin took in more total calories and gained more weight than rats fed regular feed and yogurt sweetened with sugar.

Researchers speculate that over time, reduced-calorie sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose condition the body to no longer associate sweetness with calories, thereby disrupting its ability to accurately assess caloric intake.

This disruption may, in turn, lead to overeating, they note.

“If this is the case in rats, there is little reason to think that humans don’t have this same response,” researcher Susan Swithers, PhD tells WebMD. “It is possible that consuming these products interferes with one of the mechanisms that helps to regulate weight.”

Others:
Lancet

Sugar-Added Beverages and Adolescent Weight Change: I will note the “n” is a little high on this study, so their findings don’t surprise me much.

Sucrose compared with artificial sweeteners: different effects on ad libitum food intake and body weight after 10 wk of supplementation in overweight subjects: the “n” in this study is ridiculously small. And the findings in this one don’t surprise me much.

This one looks interesting, but I can’t find full text for free…

Another interesting one with no full text…

And wiki…

...did she happen to mention if her kids are always hyper to begin with?

She didn’t say, but it would make a difference if everyday were like Halloween for them.  She seemed to be emphasizing that glucose is glucose, but as though that makes it identical to the body regardless of the source.

I think BogBrother is on the right track. Essentially sugar is sugar. What changes is that processed sugars react differently in the body than sugars from an Apple or Orange. Same with fats. All fats are bad and all fats will make you gain weight, all things being equal. And fats should be taken in moderation.

Now if you workout a lot, get close to 10,000 steps a day, and live an active lifestyle, you can prolly take in more fats and sugars than an average US person since you will burn it all off. And will likely burn more fat for energy than glucose.

All fats are bad

Dude, fantastically oversimplified.

Webs - the articles you cite have prompted me to research this more in order to find some solid evidence between the taste/insulin response. 

I’ve already found suggestions that general food intake increases the insulin output, but the link between taste/food intake and insulin response is apparently not very solid as of yet. What is known is the primary mechanism for insulin release by the Islets of Langerhans lies in the beta cells of the Islets, which regulate insulin production by the amount of glucose they detect in the blood.

In any event, I am now prompted to do further research into this subject, and might be motivated to renew my interest in nutrition enough to return to school to become a nutritionist (ok, maybe not too).  Either way, I think I’m going to do the same a Les and just quit drinking soda.

Yea, I was told about this kind of stuff in high school, now that I think about it by a Gym teacher that believed aliens built the pyramids. The guy, while he might be a nut ball, got me interested into doing some more research, as well as an A&P;class I took in college about 4 years ago. I read a few books by medical professionals and the most complete one I came across was “You: The Owners Manual” a few years back. It prompted me to read a little more. I find the subject to be quite interesting too, but I don’t know about getting into professionally. I’m too busy with other things.

Yea, I was told about this kind of stuff in high school, now that I think about it by a Gym teacher that believed aliens built the pyramids.

Interesting… In a similar vein, the author of that eMax Health article you quoted from is selling miracle cures if you follow the link to his website. 

One of the reasons I’m gonna look into the whole thing further (aside from being diabetic myself and more drastically affected by this stuff than a non-diabetic person) is that a lot of people that are nutritionists or experts in chemistry/medicine/general health also have some “interesting” ideas that they quite liberally weave into their evidence supported advice. 

For example, the cited eMax article states in the 2nd paragraph that diet soda causes an insulin spike, but gives no reference to a research source, doesn’t even attempt to.  The 3rd paragraph changes gears and refers to a Purdue study of something completely different (I believe the penchant of those intaking artificial sweeteners to eat more?).  It seemed suspicious in my mind that the author would do this.  If you’re not careful while reading those two paragraphs you might think the first assertion was a finding of the research in the third paragraph.

In any event, just as with anything else, you gotta be careful to sort out the woo from the true. I don’t think everyone that does it does it intentionally, but there are definitely some out there that use certain tactics to perpetrate things they believe without any shred of evidence to support their claims (an example of this is the anti-fluoridation in the drinking water crowd, or a more well known example would be the Catholic Church’s “warnings” about condoms in third world nations).

I drink lots of water. ... and tea. I like all tea’s but I am a green tea hound! I love that shit.