So what is worse? Regular or diet soda?

remken · Apr 17, 2007

I've been reading the posts about hfc and how it is bad for you. I also get flak from my brother for letting my kids occasionally drink diet soda less than 1 time a month. Since according to him diet soda was only invented for diabetics.

southpawboston · Apr 17, 2007

remken said:
I've been reading the posts about hfc and how it is bad for you. I also get flak from my brother for letting my kids occasionally drink diet soda less than 1 time a month. Since according to him diet soda was only invented for diabetics.

HFCS is probably not as bad as the zero-calorie sweeteners, but who really knows. if i had to pick my poison, i'd go for the regular soda with HFCS. most diet sodas use aspartame (generic name for nutrasweet/equal), but many are switching to splenda. aspartame is evil, plain and simple. there was quite a bit of political wrangling behind getting aspartame approved by the FDA. basically, monsanto, the food giant, held the patent for aspartame, and the monsanto family was close friends with ronald reagan. year after year before reagan went into office, the FDA refused to approve aspartame as safe. then as soon as reagan got inaugerated into office, he fired the head of the FDA... guess what got approved within months???

. i also know enough of the chemistry behind aspartame to be scared to ever ingest it again (i used to consume it daily).

i know very little about splenda, however, so i can't really comment; it may well be better than aspartame, but then again it could be worse. who knows...

Victorious4 · Apr 17, 2007

I don't know much about HFCS, but I avoid aspartame -- I tend to simplify it as sugar only hurting my teeth so I'll brush afterwards ... although I don't have diabetes, etc. My niece is diabetic & even her mom (my sister, a dietician/nutritionist) avoids aspartame & Splenda when possible. I also believe moderation is key & honestly, I just do not enjoy sodas much, so my thinking is to just not drink any soda if there's an alternative. Only on occasion or if I have a coffee withdrawl headache

scatterbunny · Apr 17, 2007

Every time I drink soda or gatorade or powerade or anything with HFCS or lots of artificial sweeteners or colors I get an awful migraine.

We've pretty much sworn off soda; the only time we buy it is once in awhile when we get take-out. I had a Sprite earlier and I am fighting a headache right now. Probably need to get offline, I doubt the computer screen is helping.

AdventureMom · Apr 17, 2007

southpawboston said:
HFCS is probably not as bad as the zero-calorie sweeteners, but who really knows. if i had to pick my poison, i'd go for the regular soda with HFCS. most diet sodas use aspartame (generic name for nutrasweet/equal), but many are switching to splenda. aspartame is evil, plain and simple. there was quite a bit of political wrangling behind getting aspartame approved by the FDA. basically, monsanto, the food giant, held the patent for aspartame, and the monsanto family was close friends with ronald reagan. year after year before reagan went into office, the FDA refused to approve aspartame as safe. then as soon as reagan got inaugerated into office, he fired the head of the FDA... guess what got approved within months??? . i also know enough of the chemistry behind aspartame to be scared to ever ingest it again (i used to consume it daily).

i know very little about splenda, however, so i can't really comment; it may well be better than aspartame, but then again it could be worse. who knows...

That is so true. I did a paper on Aspartame and MSG for a Nutrition class a couple of years ago. Awful stuff happened to get it approved - just like Southpaw mentioned. In the end, the FDA panel voted AGAINST it, yet the director appointed by Reagan overrode the scientists and approved it. He then left to go work for Monsanto (or whatever company it is that makes it). Same kind of stuff happens with drug approval as well.

Splenda is basically bleached sugar. So you're eating bleach. That's what our Nutrition professor told us. She agreed that taking a moderate approach to sugar is better than taking a chance with anything invented to take sugar's place.

One exception is stevia. It is derived from a sweet-leaved plant, not chemically engineered. I've tried it and think it tastes bitter like Sweet-n-Low.

So we go for regular sodas, regular sugar, etc. We just try not to have too much of it. I can send you a copy of my paper if you want - I have tons of research quoted on the ill-effects of Aspartame.

AdventureMom · Apr 17, 2007

scatterbunny said:
Every time I drink soda or gatorade or powerade or anything with HFCS or lots of artificial sweeteners or colors I get an awful migraine. We've pretty much sworn off soda; the only time we buy it is once in awhile when we get take-out. I had a Sprite earlier and I am fighting a headache right now. Probably need to get offline, I doubt the computer screen is helping.

Same here. I used to drinks lots of Coke and I had migraines all the time. Then I stopped for awhile - migraines disappeared. Started back recently (it's addicting

), more migraines again.

We do not have soda in our house but will drink it sometimes when we go out. Neither Brian nor myself have much willpower when it comes to food, so we just can't keep things in our house that we don't want to eat too much of.

stayinhomewithmy6 · Apr 17, 2007

AdventureMom said:
That is so true. I did a paper on Aspartame and MSG for a Nutrition class a couple of years ago. Awful stuff happened to get it approved - just like Southpaw mentioned. In the end, the FDA panel voted AGAINST it, yet the director appointed by Reagan overrode the scientists and approved it. He then left to go work for Monsanto (or whatever company it is that makes it). Same kind of stuff happens with drug approval as well.

Splenda is basically bleached sugar. So you're eating bleach. That's what our Nutrition professor told us. She agreed that taking a moderate approach to sugar is better than taking a chance with anything invented to take sugar's place.

One exception is stevia. It is derived from a sweet-leaved plant, not chemically engineered. I've tried it and think it tastes bitter like Sweet-n-Low.

So we go for regular sodas, regular sugar, etc. We just try not to have too much of it. I can send you a copy of my paper if you want - I have tons of research quoted on the ill-effects of Aspartame.

I use Stevia in all kinds of stuff... coffee, plain oatmeal and plain yogurt for the kids, etc. I like that they have flavored stevia available now too. It's not as sweet as sugar, I don't think, but I avoid all artificial sweeteners, so I think it's wonderful anyway!

R&J'sMom · Apr 17, 2007

They're both bad, in my opinion. I haven't had soda in over 20 years (and even prior to then I didn't really care for it)and I've never given it to my kids. I'm not a coffee or tea drinker either, it's strictly water for me 100% of the time. There is ZERO nutritional value in soda, so why even let the kids get a taste for it? I'm not a big fan of juice either. My boys either drink milk or water.

AdventureMom · Apr 17, 2007

Ryland&Jacob'sMom said:
They're both bad, in my opinion. I haven't had soda in over 20 years (and even prior to then I didn't really care for it)and I've never given it to my kids. I'm not a coffee or tea drinker either, it's strictly water for me 100% of the time. There is ZERO nutritional value in soda, so why even let the kids get a taste for it? I'm not a big fan of juice either. My boys either drink milk or water.

I agree - I have a friend who has never had a soda in her life. We drink mainly water and Nolan has water and milk.

However... I must add that as a child, my family had little sugar. No soda, no candy, no sugar cereals, etc. When I went away to college, I went totally off the other end of the spectrum. Until I left my parents' home, I was not allowed to choose any junk food (unless I was out with friends). As a result, I never learned to moderate it myself, or to be taught to have just a little of the "junky" stuff. So I ate McD's, etc, 2-3 times a day for 15 years before my husband was diagnosed with cancer. Stopped us cold turkey from McDs and the like.

I have a son who already notices that we eat waaaayyy different that his friends - no juice, no sodas at home, hardly any candy unless at a party, raw milk from a farm, etc. He's already starting to feel "odd" about our food choices. So starting last summer, we let him have Sprite when we spent a few days with my brother and his family: they drink soda all day long. We let Nolan have one Sprite a day for the 3-4 days we spent with them and we watered it down before giving it to him (unknown to him, of course). We will still let him have Sprite (watered down) if we're with other children having soda.

I don't want him to totally rebel against our lifestyle when he gets old enough to make that choice. Not all children resent it like I did growing up. But I can only raise my child based on my own experiences, so this is one area that we're trying desperately to educate him on but let him have a little say-so in it himself. It works for our family.

JaRylan · Apr 17, 2007

My Grandma Ruth used to take a bottle of coke and put a nail in it at the beginning of summer holidays. I can't remember anymore how long it took to corrode but her point was that the same thing was happening to our stomachs if we drank it. Then we would all get in the grain truck with Grandpa Jack and head across to Sherwood, ND (the farm is only 5 miles north of the border) to go get water for the cistern and bottles of coke for the grandkids and a promise not to tell Grandma.

I went a whole year without drinking coke and Grandma paid me $100 for doing it. Now I go in spurts of drinking pop, I avoid diet pop because I think it tastes horrible. Diet Pepsi = soap taste.

I know a lot of people used Stevia on the Ketogenic Diet as a sweetener. Aspartame and splenda were approved for use but some families found they increased seizures....hmmmm??? I never used any sweetener while Rylan was on the diet.

I would be interested in a copy of your paper Maria.

scatterbunny · Apr 18, 2007

I would also love a copy of your paper, Maria.

AdventureMom · Apr 18, 2007

I just posted the paper on our website. I cannot locate the final version so I put the latest one I could find (we don't have the computer that I used then anymore - this was written exactly two years ago this month...): http://www.svbelisana.com/paper.htm

InTheWoods · Apr 18, 2007

I didn't know that about Splenda, that it's bleached sugar. I've been drinking Pepsi One, sweetened w/ Splenda. Might have to rethink that.

Some micro-brewed sodas and Mexican-brewed Coke have regular table sugar in them rather than HFCS. Options.

Kristin

AdventureMom · Apr 18, 2007

InTheWoods said:
I didn't know that about Splenda, that it's bleached sugar. I've been drinking Pepsi One, sweetened w/ Splenda. Might have to rethink that.

Some micro-brewed sodas and Mexican-brewed Coke have regular table sugar in them rather than HFCS. Options.

Kristin

I'm don't think she literally meant "bleached sugar" - I think something fancy is done in the lab, like adding a molecule or something that makes it the chemical/molecular equivalent of "bleached sugar"... Just wanted to clarify that!

ETA: I found this site that has alot of info about sweeteners in general: http://www.splendaexposed.com/articles/2005/03/your_healthy_sw.html I haven't read anything specifically about Splenda on their site - don't have time right now - but wanted to get the link up...

ETA - again!: Here's some info on Splenda - there's a lawsuit agianst them pending right now: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1176195848723&pos=ataglance

the key ingredient in Splenda, called sucralose, is made through a process that begins with pure sugar, or sucrose, and then replaces three of eight hydroxyl groupings on the sucrose molecule with three chlorine atoms......... First, he showed the jury a sugar molecule. Next to it, he projected a sucralose molecule, explaining that the only differences were three places on the molecule where a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom had been replaced with a chlorine atom. .......... Splenda is made from pure cane sugar that is burned off in the manufacturing process and is not found in the final product, he said.

"Let me be clear: Sucralose starts out as pure cane sugar," Zalesin said, and is then "modified at the atomic level in a way that preserves the taste of sugar but eliminates the calories."

But LoCascio told the jury that the process used to make Splenda could also begin with onions or beans. But McNeil, he said, knew that consumers would not be attracted to a product that had a slogan proclaiming it is "made from onions so it tastes like sugar.

southpawboston · Apr 18, 2007

InTheWoods said:
Some micro-brewed sodas and Mexican-brewed Coke have regular table sugar in them rather than HFCS. Options.

Kristin

not only do mexican sodas contain regular sugar, most sodas from anywhere outside of the US contain regular sugar... the last time i was in europe i checked on this... they all hade sucrose (plain table sugar). same for most sweets and chocolates.

AdventureMom said:
I'm don't think she literally meant "bleached sugar" - I think something fancy is done in the lab, like adding a molecule or something that makes it the chemical/molecular equivalent of "bleached sugar"... Just wanted to clarify that!

right, don't buy into the "bleached" sugar routine. you're not eating "bleach". we would all die without the ELEMENT chlorine, as it is part of the good old fashioned molecule that our bodies require: sodium chloride. on the other hand, we WOULD all die by eating bleach the CLEANER, which is sodium hypochlorite. both table salt and bleach contain the element chlorine. so the element chlorine does not by itself = bleach. the fact that the hydroxyl groups on the sugar molecule were replaced with chlorines does not make it bleached... but it still makes it a man-made chemical whose effects on our bodies we really don't know... but if it doesn't exist in nature (which splenda doesn't), there's bound to be some negative long term effect.

Suzibeck · Apr 18, 2007

I've been researching Splenda since dd's migraine yesterday. We will stay away from it completely now! Just type in "dangers of Splenda" (or Aspartame if you want to look at that other poison) on any search engine. I react badly to Aspartame, makes me hyper. I was acused of being drunk once after drinking a diet cola. My oldest was having behavior issues on Sundays after we moved here and then I saw a note in the church bulletin requesting donations of sugar-free Kool-aide for the Sunday school classes. That was the problem. Ever since then, I try to keep us away from all artificial sweeteners, but others forget and give them to my kids. Which is how my dd got Splenda the other day.

HFCS is bad too, but I allow small amounts of that. My kids do occasionally get lemonaid or root beer if we are eating out. Mostly, we drink water however, much cheaper to eat out if everyone drinks water! I think there are other chemicals used in pop that are harmful as well so best to avoid them altogether. Like someone else said, why let them develop a taste for it? I wish we had never let our kids taste the stuff.

I've just started using Stevia some. I found some that I don't find bitter: http://www.nunaturals.com/cgi-bin/shop.cgi?page=nustevia_trial.html&cart_id=4672844_21308&affiliate= You can send for a sample for $1.

AdventureMom · Apr 18, 2007

southpawboston said:
not only do mexican sodas contain regular sugar, most sodas from anywhere outside of the US contain regular sugar... the last time i was in europe i checked on this... they all hade sucrose (plain table sugar). same for most sweets and chocolates.

When we lived in Egypt, I noticed that Coke tasted differently there. I guess now it was maybe the regular sugar....?

southpawboston said:
both table salt and bleach contain the element chlorine.

Yes! We are such "sea salt" people here. No "table salt". :thumbsup:

Suzibeck · Apr 18, 2007

Oh! I forgot. Something I do from time to time that my kids love is make our own soda pop. I take 100% juice concentrate, my kiddos like white grape, and I reconstitute it using soda water. It is much healthier than normal soda and it tastes great.

southpawboston · Apr 18, 2007

AdventureMom said:
When we lived in Egypt, I noticed that Coke tasted differently there. I guess now it was maybe the regular sugar....?

that's what i think... also, did you notice the sodas abroad are not *as* sweet as here? i think they use less sugar.

AdventureMom said:
Yes! We are such "sea salt" people here. No "table salt". :thumbsup:

sorry to burst your bubble, but sea salt is primarily sodium chloride with small quantities of other beneficial ions... table salt is just refined sodium chloride. that said, we use sea salt too, if only for the flavor and the unrefined aspect of it!

from wikipedia (just do a wikipedia search for "sea salt"):

AdventureMom · Apr 18, 2007

southpawboston said:
sorry to burst your bubble, but sea salt is primarily sodium chloride with small quantities of other beneficial ions... table salt is just refined sodium chloride. that said, we use sea salt too, if only for the flavor and the unrefined aspect of it!
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Ha! You can't burst my bubble... Studying food has been a passion for the past several years for me.

For every theory (and even for scientific findings), there are others who disagree and will present something different. I'm fine if someone doesn't believe that same research that I do - but I have to present it in case someone else chooses to...

But check this out:

http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/kitchen.html
COMMERCIAL SALT
The salt that you find in table salt and most processed foods is sodium chloride. Salt in this form has been processed at high temperatures, which changes the molecular structure and removes vital minerals from the salt. Table salt also contains additives, anticaking agents, and even sugar. Excess salt consumption is associated with high blood pressure, fluid retention, heart and kidney disease.

Trash It: Dump out your salt shaker and toss out all other packaged or processed foods with a high sodium content. This should be pretty easy for most people.

Stash it: We have been told for years to avoid salt, but following this advice can lead to even more problems. We are all salty on the inside--our blood, sweat, tears, and even our urine--it's all salty. It's important to replenish the salt in our body, using the right salt is what makes all the difference in the world. The best way to put salt back into your body is to use Celtic sea salt. This high quality salt contains over 80 balanced minerals from the sea. Celtic sea salt is essential for maintaining proper fluid balance and utilization in the body. It also normalizes blood pressure, enhances digestion, and nourishes the adrenal glands.

And:

http://www.curezone.com/foods/saltcure.asp

Salt is an essence of Life.

Natural Salt is an essential element in the diet of not only humans but of animals, and even of many plants.

Use of natural salt is as old as human history. Natural Salt is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food seasonings and natural preservatives.

Natural salt is a source of 21 essential and 30 accessory minerals that are essential to our health.
According to some sources, other elements are up to 5% of dry ocean salt.
Refined salt contain only 0.1 - 0.5% other elements.

Unrefined sea salt contain 98.0 % NaCl (sodium-chloride) and up to 2.0% other minerals (salts) : Epsom salts and other Magnesium salts, Calcium salts, Potassium (Kalium) salts, Manganese salts, Phosphorus salts, Iodine salts, .. all together over 100 minerals composed of 80 chemical elements... Composition of crystal of ocean salt is so complicated that no laboratory in the world can produce it from its basic 80 chemical elements.

Nature is still better chemist than people.

This salt has been used since begining of life, by ocean plants, by animals and by people
(Percentage is referring to the percentage of dry matter. Salt can contain high percentage of water.)

Refined salt (Table Salt) is 99.9% NaCl (sodium-chloride), (chemical as clean as Heroin or White Sugar) . It almost always contain additives, like 0.01% of Potassium-Iodide (added to the salt to avoid Iodine deficiency disease of thyroid gland), Sugar (added to stabilize Iodine and as anti-caking chemical), Aluminum silicate.

Thanks to Potassium-Iodide, we now have an epidemic of Hyperthyroidism.

Oh, and here's a good link about modern food and additives:
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/index.html

So what is worse? Regular or diet soda?

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