Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Intervention


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?

3 comments:

  1. It's interesting that you should post this today, as I was just writing up the merits of cutting out DC in response to a blogger's post about migraines.

    My Mom can't have sugar, so I grew up with artificial sweetners and honey. As a result, I was drinking DC at 10 or 11. People were a little weirded out as they thought I was already conscious of calories, but same as you, I just love the taste! I've always disliked Coke.

    Anywho, I started getting terrible migraines at 17. I was never able to figure out my triggers and would suffer through 1-2 a month on a regular basis.

    Until about 2 years ago, when I decided to stop drinking the DC due to the cost. After a while whenever I went to pop one open it never quite gave the same fulfillment and before I knew it . . . I basically hated the taste {blasphemous I know!}.

    It's been at least 1 1/2 years since I've had regular migraines and honestly, I can't remember the last one that I did have.

    I know headaches are not a problem for you {and am so glad to hear that!}, but I just wanted to share my story to strengthen your resolve. It honestly is for the best girl.

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  2. I am so happy for you...good things WILL come from this! :)

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  3. I hear ya on the Diet Coke addiction! I love the stuff but recently started drinking more water to avoid those terrible caffeine headaches. It was really hard at first but I now feel a lot better about what I'm putting into my body. Good luck!

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