Fact: I love Diet Coke. I crave it. I'm addicted to it (seriously, if you drink it, you understand! it's like crack in a can)
Another Fact: It ain't so great for ya.
While there isn't definitive proof - there are enough people out there saying some not so nice things about my favorite beverage - namely, the possible cancer risk from aspartame (what doesn't cause cancer these days??) and other ill-effects, fake sweeteners causing your body to crave more real sweets, and the fact that by drinking soda, you aren't drinking water. And I drink Diet Coke for the taste (and caffeine, yum!), not the dietness.
Tony gave up Diet Coke cold turkey a few months ago. He was having almost daily headaches, which also happens to be one of aspartame's little tricks. After cutting all fake sweeteners from his diet (that stuff is in everything once you start looking - gum, drinks, candy, diet foods, etc) he hasn't had any trouble - minus the occasional I-sit-in-a-cube-for-eight-hours-every-day ache.
While I don't have the same problem, I've noticed how I seem to always want sweets, and how if I have more than my usual one diet coke in a day, my stomach feels not too pleasant - I even feel a little woozy. That can't be good....
So I have decided to shift Diet Coke from an everyday guaranteed part of meals to rare treat status. I'm still going to drink my morning coffee to make sure I don't fall asleep at the wheel during my 1.5 hour drive into work (blah), but I'm going to swap DC for water during lunch. I don't usually have one after lunch, unless I go to a restaurant, where, before I know it, I've drank a 2 liter-worth of soda. Also, not good...
Diet Coke is going to be a treat that I have occasionally... wish me luck. I'm expecting real withdrawl symptoms - headaches, cravings, etc. But I know it must be better in the long run...
Do they make a DC patch?