Diet Beverages, etc.

I drink diet because I really can't tell the difference between regular and diet, so I figure why consume 200 extra calories for nothing? You might be interested to know that my son did a study for the science fair and we found that most people could correctly identify a cola as diet or regular less thand half the time.
 
madanthonywayne said:
I drink diet because I really can't tell the difference between regular and diet, so I figure why consume 200 extra calories for nothing? You might be interested to know that my son did a study for the science fair and we found that most people could correctly identify a cola as diet or regular less thand half the time.
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Really, I can both taste and smell the difference. My boyfriend tries to do that to me at fast food places all of the time. I always know when he didn't bring me what I asked for because I can smell it. Now if we were talking wine, I can't taste the difference or smell the difference all types and flavors all taste and smell exactly the same to me.
 
CutsieMarie89 said:
Really, I can both taste and smell the difference. My boyfriend tries to do that to me at fast food places all of the time. I always know when he didn't bring me what I asked for because I can smell it. Now if we were talking wine, I can't taste the difference or smell the difference all types and flavors all taste and smell exactly the same to me.
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Me too, I can taste aspertame in just about everything that contains it. This additive has been the subject of controversy for many years.

Meh, wiki and the government says it's ok. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

I still think it may have addictive properties, though. I don't even like the taste but I crave it like a drug. I've since cut way down on the diet soda and go with decaffinated tea sweetened with stevia extract.
 
That's true.
If I had a penny for every time a person said:
"I'll have a Big Mac with fries and a diet coke", I'd be a very rich man.
It's as though people believed that diet coke absorbs calories.
Or perhaps they think that people watching will think:

"How is that person so overweight?" "He/She's as abstemious as a monk"

Reinforcing self delusion is a big profit maker.
 
superstring01 said:
I hate to say this, but I like Diet Pepsi. Oddly enough, the ONLY people I see slurping down diet beverages are fatties. All the thin people drink the sugar infused stuff. What gives? Am I seeing causality the wrong way, or is this just coincidence.

And no, I'm not terribly overweight (maybe about 15lbs @ my current 2 Benjamins).

~String
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I drink diet everything. I consume 18 cans of Caf Free Diet Pepsi each week(love that stuff). I'm not lean-n-mean cuz I suck down sugar filled everything. Sugar is pure crap, and I probably use (raw) about a tablespoon full, if any, each week.
 
The only soda I drink is diet root beer added to water and lots of ice for flavor. Otherwise it's Penta, Absopure, or Fiji-type water.
 
Pinwheel said:
Becasue it doesnt work if at the same time you stuff your face with fries and burgers.
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Well technically it does work right? I mean you are consuming less calories than you would be consuming if you had a regular soda. Diet sodas are not weight loss programs.
 
CutsieMarie89 said:
Really, I can both taste and smell the difference. My boyfriend tries to do that to me at fast food places all of the time. I always know when he didn't bring me what I asked for because I can smell it. Now if we were talking wine, I can't taste the difference or smell the difference all types and flavors all taste and smell exactly the same to me.
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My son's science project involved 10 subjects. They were given cups labeled a thru f and asked to identify whether each cup contained:
  • diet
  • regular
  • pepsi
  • coke
  • generic
Only one person correctly identified each beverage. People correctly identified a beverage as diet 40% of the time. When it came to telling Pepsi versus Coke or Name brand versus Generic, they did even worse.

Clearly, it was too small of a study to draw any broad conclusions, but it was striking how poorly everyone did. It was really funny how many people claimed to have a strong preference for a particular beverage, yet couldn't identify even that particular drink.
 
superstring01 said:
I hate to say this, but I like Diet Pepsi. Oddly enough, the ONLY people I see slurping down diet beverages are fatties. All the thin people drink the sugar infused stuff. What gives? Am I seeing causality the wrong way, or is this just coincidence.

And no, I'm not terribly overweight (maybe about 15lbs @ my current 2 Benjamins).

~String
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I warmly suggest you watch the documentary Sweet Misery about aspartame the sweetener in diet pepsi. I would lay heavy odds you will stop drinking diet pepsi after watching the program. One of the most horrifying interviews is with a chemist who drank rather large amounts - and has all sorts of health problems now - who found out much later what aspartame breaks down and travels around the body as.

There is an odd political facet to the story since Rumsfeld - our dear ex Bush admin fella - ran the company that made the stuff and he fought tooth and nail against good science and won - how familiar - with the FDA.
 
madanthonywayne said:
My son's science project involved 10 subjects. They were given cups labeled a thru f and asked to identify whether each cup contained:
  • diet
  • regular
  • pepsi
  • coke
  • generic
Only one person correctly identified each beverage. People correctly identified a beverage as diet 40% of the time. When it came to telling Pepsi versus Coke or Name brand versus Generic, they did even worse.

Clearly, it was too small of a study to draw any broad conclusions, but it was striking how poorly everyone did. It was really funny how many people claimed to have a strong preference for a particular beverage, yet couldn't identify even that particular drink.
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Generic would trip me up, I could tell you whether they are imitating Coke or Pepsi but I don't think I could tell if the difference between generic and name brand. I'm always astounded by how people can't simply smell the difference. Even coca cola and pepsi smell totally different (not to mention that drinking coke is like drinking hard liquor and Pepsi is quite weak). I guess this is one my useless talents :D.
 
I have been drinking diet soda for at least 30 years and I'm not overweight. (6'0"/183cm 190lb/86kg) It's just that I discovered that drinks containing sugar don't satisfy my thirst. If it's a really hot day (I used to live in hilly Los Angeles and ride a bicycle 10mi/16km back and forth to work), drinking a soft drink with sugar would almost make me faint.

I don't even put sugar in my tea, I use aspartame (or Splenda if Mrs. Fraggle makes it).

But I'm not that way with my food. I eat lots of candy and pastry. In my family dessert is four of the most important meals of the day.

Oh, and my favorite soda is Diet-Rite. If I want the caffeine I'll drink Diet Dr. Pepper. I'd prefer Diet RC (the caffeinated version of Diet-Rite, formerly "Royal Crown") but they don't seem to make it any more. I don't dislike Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, with or without caffeine, and if it's all there is I won't complain, but I like the taste of Diet Rite/RC and Dr. Pepper a little better.

But the generic store brand colas, they don't do anything for me. If that's all there is I'd probably take the time to brew some iced tea.
 
I can drink up to about 100ml of coke (a couple of spoons of sugar) on an empty stomach before it gives me a migraine. If I've just eaten, I can tolerate about 300ml ( about a girl's handful of sugar).

I used to like it, but once I cut out most sugar in the rest of my diet I can't handle it any more. It actually feels like it's burning my mouth, though maybe that's psychosomatic.
 
A couple of years ago I ran into a study which seemed to suggest - it wasn't solid enough - that people who drank sweet stuff with no calories might be having an effect on their body's handling of calories in general - that the body stored fat when it expected starvation was looming, and teaching it that fewer calories were coming in the presence of a given level of sweet meant that it would adjust to store a higher percentage of actual calories ingested as fat rather than burning them.

That is, that the body apparently partly calibrated its fat storage vs metabolism boost handling of calories from the taste in the mouth compared with the energy extracted soon afterwards. So diet sweets could be calibrating the body to lower metabolism of a given tasted intake and store a higher percentage of ingested sugars as fat.

Again, a vague memory - can't find the link.

Personally, I like cane sugar best and miss it from childhood in soda ( a real treat when I was a kid, once a month or so) - one of the benefits of Mexican influx is the occasional availability of Mexican Coke, which is sugar rather than corn syrup and tastes more like my memory. I can taste aspartame, and don't like it much - that other stuff (sevia?) is a little better, but why bother? Honey depends on use and source - the last couple of years all the buckwheat honey around here has been weird smelling, but normally it's my favorite.
 
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