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  #1   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 20:01
Sterlina's Avatar
Sterlina Sterlina is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 471
 
Plan: Atkins-ish :D
Stats: 210/205/150 Female 5' 4"
BF:
Progress: 8%
Location: Ft Lauderdale, FL
Default Question: Does Diet Coke and Iced Tea Count for SOMETHING?!

Im terrible at drinking my water.. when we go out, Ive been trying to order water more often, mainly for budget reasons..and secondly for health (sad isnt it?) instead of my usual Diet Coke.. (which I am incredibly addicted to and am not going to quit drinking, btw)

My question is, does Diet Coke and unsweetened Iced Tea count for anything?? I mean.. iced tea and Diet Coke are just flavors mixed with water or soda water... I mean, water IS the main ingredient in these drinks.. so if I drink iced tea all day long, and no water, will I be okay?? I need my caffeine!!

Thanks in advance..
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  #2   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 21:14
FrecklFluf's Avatar
FrecklFluf FrecklFluf is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,125
 
Plan: SB (formerly Atkins)
Stats: 196.5/167/140 Female 5' 4
BF:
Progress: 52%
Location: Kansas City, MO USA
Default

Well, Diet Coke has sweetener in it, quite a bit, I imagine. I'm pretty sure that one can of Diet Coke probably has the allowed amount (3 servings) of sweetener for one day. That being said, I occasionally will have more than one pop in a day. Not very often, though. Oh, and the sweetener is aspartame (NutraSweet), which stalls some people, though no one really knows why.

Tea is less of an issue but still has some carbs, I believe. Fitday would have the amounts, probably.

Now I'm going to give you my little lecture on WHY WATER IS CRUCIAL TO WEIGHT LOSS. See, when I started Atkins, I'd heard my whole life how water is important, but no one ever really said WHY. "Just because" is not enough for me; it never has been. So I did a quick bit of research, and this is what I found out.

The kidneys act as the body's filter, and they cannot do their job efficiently without enough water. (Enough being at least two quarts a day.) Yes, you're saying, but what does that have to do with burning fat? Well, it's the job of the liver to metabolize fat for energy. Here's the kicker: if your kidneys do not have enough water to filter your blood, part of their job is shifted to the liver. Since your liver is busy doing other things, it cannot also metabolize fat.

Essentially, don't drink enough water, and you most likely will not lose, or you'll lose at a slow rate. My third week of induction I drank only pop and did not lose a pound. If you're going to choose between tea and Diet Coke, though, choose tea. It's by far the lesser of the two evils.
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 21:21
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,934
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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I realize there's a lot of almost religious zeal about drinking massive quantities of liquids, but there really isn't any evidence that it does anything except make you pee a lot.

In fact, recently some researchers have been trying to figure out how much water people need, and it is far, far less than the 64 ounces of water we've had ingrained into our brain since birth. In fact, you probably get most of what you need from your food. And further more, your body is quite adept at separating out the water bits from the soda or coffee bits, so it doesn't matter where you get your liquid from, your body will use it just exactly the same.

And then there's that old... coffee makes you pee so it doesn't count. Well, it makes you pee out maybe a tablespoon more of what you just drank.

I realize though that this is practically heresy on a diet message forum, so do whatever you wish.

Last edited by Nancy LC : Thu, Feb-05-04 at 21:23.
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  #4   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 21:33
FrecklFluf's Avatar
FrecklFluf FrecklFluf is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,125
 
Plan: SB (formerly Atkins)
Stats: 196.5/167/140 Female 5' 4
BF:
Progress: 52%
Location: Kansas City, MO USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy LC
... recently some researchers have been trying to figure out how much water people need, and it is far, far less than the 64 ounces of water we've had ingrained into our brain since birth.
Those researchers are just concerned with maintaining general health, though; not with losing weight.

And the thing with too much caffeine is that it actually encourages your body to retain fluid, whereas drinking quite a bit of water will help your body NOT to retain. I'm not a big fan of the "sexy but swollen" look myself, which is one reason I try to drink plenty of water.

However, while pop is harmful on many levels, I bet a lot of people could drink iced tea all day (as long as it wasn't too strong) and do fine.
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  #5   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 21:39
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,934
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
Default

Here's a Snopes article about the water myth. They're the site that busts urban legends.

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/water.htm

Eating a low carb diet you do carry around a lot less water load, and I was always thirsty while on Induction. So I drank a fair amount of liquid. But generally, I trust my body to tell me when it needs more water. But I'm usually sipping on something all day long simply from habit.

Quote:
Kidney specialists do agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8 rule is a gross overestimate of any required minimum. To replace daily losses of water, an average-sized adult with healthy kidneys sitting in a temperate climate needs no more than one liter of fluid, according to Jurgen Schnermann, a kidney physiologist at the National Institutes of Health.


...

Quote:
Doctors from a wide range of specialties agree: By all evidence, we are a well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they say, the current infatuation with water as an all-purpose health potion — tonic for the skin, key to weight loss — is a blend of fashion and fiction and very little science.

Regular coffee and tea drinkers become accustomed to caffeine and lose little, if any, fluid. In a study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha measured how different combinations of water, coffee and caffeinated sodas affected the hydration status of 18 healthy adults who drink caffeinated beverages routinely.
"We found no significant differences at all," says nutritionist Ann Grandjean, the study's lead author. "The purpose of the study was to find out if caffeine is dehydrating in healthy people who are drinking normal amounts of it. It is not."

The same goes for tea, juice, milk and caffeinated sodas: One glass provides about the same amount of hydrating fluid as a glass of water. The only common drinks that produce a net loss of fluids are those containing alcohol — and usually it takes more than one of those to cause noticeable dehydration, doctors say.

The best general advice (keeping in mind that there are always exceptions) is to rely upon your normal senses. If you feel thirsty, drink — if you don't feel thirsty, don't drink unless you want to. The exhortation that we all need to satisfy an arbitrarily rigid rule about how much water we must drink every day was aptly skewered in a letter by a Los Angeles Times reader:


Although not trained in medicine or nutrition, I intuitively knew that the advice to drink eight glasses of water per day was nonsense. The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."


Another article with a reference:

Quote:
New research from Dr. H. Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School indicates there is little scientific evidence to support the theory that a human should consume at least eight cups of water a day under normal circumstances.

In fact, drinking too much water can cause a serious condition characterized by a lack of salt in the blood, leading to water imbalance and water build-up in the brain. Hyponatraemia actually means low (hypo) sodium (natr) levels in the body.

Last edited by Nancy LC : Thu, Feb-05-04 at 21:50.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Feb-05-04, 21:45
Sterlina's Avatar
Sterlina Sterlina is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 471
 
Plan: Atkins-ish :D
Stats: 210/205/150 Female 5' 4"
BF:
Progress: 8%
Location: Ft Lauderdale, FL
Default

Ahh.. Ive been trying successfully the past couple days to drink more water, like I said before.. but I think Im also going to start drinking more tea than Diet Coke.. thanks for all the replies!!
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  #7   ^
Old Fri, Feb-06-04, 09:12
adkpam's Avatar
adkpam adkpam is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,320
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 185/151/145 Female 67 inches
BF:
Progress: 85%
Location: Adirondack Mountains, NY
Default

Why are these scientists right about drinking water....and wrong about low carb?
Consider the source.
Myself, I noticed better mood, clearer skin, and other benefits when I started drinking more water. Many times thirst is mistaken for hunger in some people. And water consumption studies presuppose that people start out with proper hydration...which is maybe not accurate.
The pillows in your joints and vertebra float on water. Your brain chemicals require water to perform their little chemistry miracles. And of course your kidneys need something to work with.
As my water consumption increased, I noticed more people seemed to have symptoms that I no longer had...dry and irritated eyes, or vague backaches, or stomach upsets that do vanish with proper water consumption.
What's proper for each person may vary.
Here's a website, (though anyone can take it with a grain of salt

http://www.watercure.com/

Last edited by adkpam : Fri, Feb-06-04 at 09:18.
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  #8   ^
Old Fri, Feb-06-04, 12:18
LadyBelle's Avatar
LadyBelle LadyBelle is offline
Resident Loud Mouth
Posts: 8,495
 
Plan: Retrying
Stats: 239.2/150.6/120 Female 5'2"
BF:
Progress: 74%
Location: Wyoming
Default

Diet coke and tea can't take the place of water. Both can dehydrate you while the purpose of water is to rehydrate you. If you are drinking alot of tea and coke, youshould probably be drinking even more water. the asperteme in diet coke can also cause problems for some people, while others have no probs.

What you can do is pick up some carbinated water (seltzer?) and some DaVincci syrup that's cola falvored.

What works best for me is to make sure the water is ice cold from the fridge. Then I fill a water bottle and just sip from it all day. I can't sit down and chug an entire glass of water all at once. Many find upping thier water intake helps not only with weight loss, but over all feeling good like adkpam mentioned. I know if I get short on water I get headaches. As for it makes you pee alot, well that's a good ay to get toxins out of your body, and after a while your bladder adjusts so you aren't always living in the bathroom.
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Feb-07-04, 08:10
KoKo's Avatar
KoKo KoKo is offline
Stepford Malfunction
Posts: 25,926
 
Plan: FatFlush inspired
Stats: 143.5/132/130 Female 62.5 inches
BF:37%/25.%/19%
Progress: 85%
Location: Ontario Canada
Default

What I've heard about water versus - tea, diet drinks etc. is that water is the only substance that can be ingested and pass through the system without being digested and carry out toxins at the same time. So I guess that means that anything with something added to it will not do the same job as cleansing the body as straight water - I hate water but found I can drink club soda - the kind with no added sodium, just bubbles - word of warning though do NOT swallow your supplements with club soda it makes them start to dissolve before they get down your throat - ucckkk.
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  #10   ^
Old Sun, Feb-08-04, 01:16
sydnarella's Avatar
sydnarella sydnarella is offline
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Posts: 764
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 190/145/125 Female 5' 5"
BF:
Progress: 69%
Location: North Alabama
Default

ok, i cant stand water either and I too am addicted to diet coke, so i get the carbonated seltzer water from walmart and put it over ice with a little tiny squirt of lemon. It helps me to get it down, and actually it does seem to help me lose better than when I just drink diet coke. Unfortunately
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