Ok, I admit it, I am an addict, absolute, complete addict of Diet Vanilla Coke. I have been drinking it the entire time with this WOE and have still lost weight. It has 0 carbs and 40mg of sodium. Other than that, everything else is 0. I believe it's sweetened with aspartame. Has anyone else had success with this WOE and still been able to drink diet soda? I can give up the carbs, the sugar, all of that. But I really, really don't think I can give up my Diet Coke.

It's great that you gave up some unhealthy foods and also hat you lost weight, but are you really comfortable with having an addiction? Woulnd't you prefer to be addiction-free, not slave of any foods or drinks "you simply must have"? Even if you could lose weight, get to your goal, even maintain (and there are studies that show that's harder to do with a regular intake of aspartame, also because it stimulates hunger), a daily dose of aspartame for a few years is quite a slam on your nervous system.

Aspartame harms the production of new cells in the nervous system, which means that consumed regularly it will damage it.

For pregnant women it's particularly dangerous as there is a higher change of fetal malformations when consuming aspartame. If you have ever heard of folic acid supplementation during pregnancy... well, aspartame does the exact opposite of folic acid.

There is a good, informative section on aspartame on the book "Prescription for a Nutritional Healing"; there are also lots of informative articles on the net. Here are some:
- Aspartame is dangerous for everyone
- Aspartame dangers in pregnancy
- Aspartame... the BAD news
- Aspartame: what you don't know

If after reading some of these and the many more you'll find on the net you wonder why something this dangerous would still be around, the answer is one: MONEY. Pharmaceutical companies make BIG bucks out of aspartame - it's cheap to produce and sweetens more that sugar so it's the "ideal" additive because it delivers the sweet taste without using large quantities nor using more expensive, good quality ingredients.

With all the proof there is that it's bad, trusting the FDA is not, IMO, enough to be convinced that it's not dangerous for our health. They have been wrong before, and with all the money that's involved, trust is a tricky issue IMO.

We've all read the horror stories, but I'm skeptical. Yes, it would be better to cut down ANY soda intake for many reasons, but as far as weight loss goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

When I firsted I drank SOOOOO much diet soda, granted at the time finding sugar thing anything was VERY hard. Then all of a sudden it was every were my BF and I joke about how when we started "back in the day" of august, 03 we had it much harder there were not all these LC products! Have you tried LC Fuze it is a SF juice they have at safe or if you live south (Vons) or Fred myers! I know drinking water all the time is no fun, when we started there was no LC milk ( though I dont really like it anyway) and can you believe they are making LC Patatoes???

I have also noticed this huge amount of LC products that seemed to have suddenly flooded the market. Seriously, it seemed like it was practically overnight. I am a bit skeptical about the aspartame thing, but hey, if I can change the way I have eaten, then I am sure that I can try to change the way I drink. I think I'll try to limit my diet coke consumption, but I just haven't found anything yet that I like to drink. I have been drinking my water too, but where I live, on the coast of South Carolina, it's almost a prerequisite to drink lots and lots of fluids. Honestly, I have never had a problem drinking enough water and fluids. The hardest part though has been the complete giving up of the caffeine, which I get from my diet coke. I don't drink coffee or the house wine of the south, sweet tea. I'll have to check out the other LC beverages out there and see if anything appeals to me.

Skepticism is good. There's been a lot of internet hoaxes about aspartame and in fact, about every sweetner out there, I think.

You might want to cut down simply because of the expense. Man, I have noticed soda prices climbing. I'm getting old and grumpy and I won't pay those outrageous prices for things.

So now I buy Crystal Light... but actually the price on that skyrocketed too! So now I buy generic brand Crystal Lite. Thank goodness for competition!

I didn't quote any Internet Hoaxes. I did quote articles on actual studies and a chapter from a well known alternative medicine book.

Aspartame is NOT safe. It may not hinder weight loss in most people, but there's more to health that weight.

Of course, everyone has the choice of eating and drinking as they please - like all the people who eat foods with hydrogenated fats... they don't care. But stuff like that catches up with you in the long run.

Me, I prefer to stick to natural foods, including the sweeteners, so I only use stevia. If my blood sugar was more stable I might occasionally use honey or maple syrup, too, but only stevia for now.

Sugar is not the only evil out there...

ElisaB- I'll take my chances. If you can PROVE to me that Stevia is totally safe any more than that aspartame is evil, I'm more than willing to listen. I get so tired of hearing how everything is going to kill me, frankly, it loses all meaning. If you pump a lab rat as full of Stevia as they did to "prove" saccharine is bad, I'd imagine you could produce some ill effects with that too.

I've cut the vast majority of transfats out of my diet by giving up margarine, crackers, Crisco and other "vegetable shortening" and the like. There are those who refuse to touch anything with any hydrogenated oils listed at all, even 16th or lower on teh list of ingredients... I've been told I'm being poisoned by my lc Doritos, where it's listed after onion powder in the ingredients...

So pardon my devil-may-care attitude, but I honestly feel I've made enough healthy choices by low-carbing and quitting smoking to cancel out the infinitessimal risk of an occasional serving of aspartame.

But you're right, we're all free to choose.

So glad to hear that you are going to try and limit your diet soda intake. One occasionally should be fine but everyday, that scares me and we all want you and all of us to be healthy. Good luck!

Personally I use the following Mantra with most of the border line junk foods like Dite Rite (what I drink... same basic idea as Diet Coke, cept with splenda...)

"Everything in moderation, esply Moderation".

I perfer natural foods/products to chemicaly proccessed stuff, but we must not forget not everything natural is great for you either, and that there are some chemically made things that are as good as some of the natural, maybe even better depending on what item we are talking about.

I drink one diet coke per day and water the rest (sometimes I may throw a glass of generic crystal light in there too). As long as you're getting 8-10 glasses of water in ADDITION to your diet coke, you should be good. I would try to cut it down to one can (maybe two on occasion) though because you don't want to end up stalling your weight loss and like someone said before, that stuff is expensive!! Another suggestion, if you like it, try mixing your diet coke w/ Diet Rite (not literally mixing together, just alternate). The strawberry kiwi and red raspberry are very good! They're made w/ Splenda, so you don't have to worry about aspartamine.

How many cans/bottles per day are you drinking anyway?? If it's 4+ you may want to start gradually decreasing the amount you drink until you get it down to one...

Anyway, just a suggestion - you're free to do whatever you need to.

Oh, I'm fully aware that I drink way too much Diet Coke, well over 6 a day. However, in the last couple of days, I have began a reduction. I never drink two Diet Cokes in a row. I have, at a minimum, a glass of water in between. Usually I end up drinking more water than that. My biggest problem is work. For some reason, they don't sell water in the vending machines there, just soda. Believe me, you don't want to drink Charleston water either. That's where most of my diet coke consumption occurs. At home, I drink mostly water. I work with programmers who live on drinks like Mountain Dew (yuck). My company really needs to get with the healthy program.

I too am addicted to diet coke. I was always concerned about all the aspartane. Recently I found a new brand which is made with Splenda......It's callled Shasta diet cola. I get it at all the groceries stores here in California.........may be worth looking into.

Maybe get one of those big 32 oz or even 64 oz mugs (yes they make them that big, hehe) and fill it before you leave for work. Then you will have it with you all day and it will probably encourage you to drink more water

Debbie