Why I Haven’t Touched a Diet Soda Since 1993
October 16th, 2009 by Christine Kane
I used to drink Big Gulps of Tab when I was a ballerina. Then I moved on to Diet Coke. I snarfed it down with everything from my salads to my binges. I had a icy glass waiting for me at every waitress station in every restaurant where I worked. I had six packs in my fridge. I was a Diet Soda addict.
Oh yea. There are a few other things you should probably know, too…
I weighed about 10 pounds more than I do now, and I could not lose weight no matter how much went into (or came out of) my system. I battled severe (severe!) depression. I was also bulimic.
Without being consciously aware that I did it, I set my first huge intention just before I moved to Asheville, NC. I wrote two things in my journal. I wrote:
1 – that I absolutely had to take the risk to become a writer or songwriter.
2 – that I had to heal bulimia.
Anyone who works with me knows how much I believe in the power of intention. And these two intentions rocked my world. Within months I had moved to Asheville. And I instantly met a woman who had worked with a guy who she called a “homeopath.” (I think he would more accurately be called a “kineseologist,” as he didn’t stick with just homeopathic remedies.)
Anyway, I started seeing this guy. I drove two hours each way to visit him in this very odd location, and to sit in his waiting room with his odd clientele.
He rarely spoke to me. He never gave advice. That wasn’t his style. He was a great listener though. And he’d see me for about a half hour and then send me off with herbs and remedies. He was a man of few words.
Until one strange day.
I was sitting on the table after my appointment. I mentioned something about my depression. And he gave me the ONLY piece of advice he ever gave me or ever would give me.
“Diet Soda is contributing to your depression. It messes up your brain. You need to stop immediately.” He then took some time to explain the chemical effect diet products and artificial sweeteners have on the brain.
He sent me off with my bag of goodies. And I never touched a Diet Soda again. I’m not saying I instantly became a specimen of health at that point, or that angels appeared before me.
But I will say this:
While I didn’t “track” the results scientifically after giving up diet soda, I did notice that after several months, I didn’t experience depression as much. And it got better and better. I no longer experience it at all.
While I was still addicted to soda, I began drinking regular sugar-laden soda. Oddly enough, I lost 10 pounds that very year.
I’m not a doctor. I make no claims or add my double-blind studies.
But a man of very few words gave me that one piece of advice one day in 1993, and I’m so totally glad I listened.
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October 16th, 2009 3:41 am
Firstly, I’d like to say that this is a wonderful blog and I was really pleased to discover it recently!
I haven’t touched these fizzy drinks since the 70’s – being a migraine sufferer, I gave them up along with the coffee. But I wonder if it’s the aspartame that affected you? There is aspartame in so many things now and I only found out this year when I had a really bad spell of migraines and had started eating probiotic yogurts. Anything with ‘diet’ or ’sugar free’ is usually a culprit. The range of symtoms that aspartame is responsible for, and how easy it is to overlook is quite incredible. Reading labels and cutting things out resulted in me losing the 6lbs naturally that I couldn’t even shift on the Atkins diet – not to meantion a big improvement in mood! We put a lot of trust in the food industry but really we don’t know what additives go in even basic things like fresh meat.
October 16th, 2009 4:52 am
Diet soda was bad for me, too. I used to have a lot of very bad chronic pain and chronic fatigue issues (I still have a few, but I’m working through them and healing them, slowly). One of the things I decided to try was giving up all artificial sweeteners, and I was amazed at how much better I felt.
I know it wasn’t just psychological, because a couple years ago, I accidentally consumed some artificial sweetener (I hadn’t read the label on a product carefully enough) and immediately felt much worse, physically. Pain came on with a vengeance, fatigue hit like a freight train, all of it. When I wondered what the heck had happened, I thought back on that innocent pack of gum and checked the label and… yup. Sure enough.
I also believe that my habitual consumption of Diet Coke contributed to my current blood sugar problems. It seems that for some people, the body processes certain sweeteners in such a way that it contributes to the development of diabetes…
I’m not much of a “health food” crusader, though I do believe in eating healthy food as an aid to good health (mental, emotional, spiritual, all of it). I’m just sharing my personal experience with diet drinks, and my advice: avoid them. Drink water (it’s better for you), drink regular soft drinks, drink juice, drink anything else. And a teaspoon and a half of real sugar in your coffee won’t hurt you. It’s lower in calories than you think, and surprisingly low on the GI scale.
October 16th, 2009 5:57 am
That it amazing, Christine!
I never would have connected the brain and diet soda. There is so much we do not know about the brain. I’m not much of a diet soda drinker, and you can bet I will be very careful when I think about having another one!
October 16th, 2009 7:59 am
My acupuncturist recommended ditching caffeine, which led me to abandon the Diet Coke bandwagon. Best thing I ever did. I sleep SO much better!
October 16th, 2009 9:05 am
I dropped my addiction to Diet Coke in 2006 when my sister-in-law told me that her grandfather and his colleagues had used coke to clean the engines of the city buses where he worked. I haven’t lost weight but my weight fluctuates a lot less than it used to.
October 16th, 2009 9:46 am
Before reading your blog (which I do every single day, thank you.) I said a little prayer that went something like this – Oh, God, I’m feeling really down and depressed and I think it’s because of the stress of from the family (one wedding after another), winter’s coming (hate it), so on and so forth…please send me an SOS message as I really need one badly. Thank you.
And I read this.
All I can say is: No way, Christine!!! :p I’ve recently become a Coke Zero fanatic, oh just to make sure I maintain the sugar levels from which I’m high normal already. Now it’s beginning to make sense to me, the blue-funk moods, the irritation, the feeling of dread – yes, we’ve had those feelings before, but not as intense as these days.
I’m gonna do an experiment and see where this goes…THANKS, CHRISTINE! For being that Voice from Where It Matters.
October 16th, 2009 10:05 am
Whieeee, those 2 intentions sounds familiar to me.. I think I’ve almost gained the second one.. the first one is still hidden in side – ah well, that’s what I wish for
.
I think my third intention should be something like ‘reduce my DietCoke-consumption’.
Well, I’ve gained the second one without losing my Dietcoke, so now I wonder if reducing my consumption will help me gain the first one, that would be a great joke
. ‘Become more creative, goodbye Dietcoke!’
October 16th, 2009 10:59 am
I am a diet Mountain Dew junkie. Seriously. I get the worst headaches if I DON’T drink it. I know that is bad.
Starting today, (because so much of what Christine has said in the past was EXACTLY what I needed to hear) I am going to begin my detox and break my diet Dew habit.
Send cyber support. I am going to need it!!!
xo
October 16th, 2009 12:34 pm
Diet soda and artificial sweetner in my coffee are two things I allow myself as a type 1 juvenile diabetic (autoimmune disorder, totally diff from type 2 diabetes) since regular soda and straight up sugar wreak havoc on my bloodsugar because of their high carbohydrate content. A little won’t kill me just like a little diet soda now and again doesn’t seem to make a difference one way or another. I quit all artificial sweetners for a year without noticeable results other than the fact that I then obsessed about wanting a diet drink–not so much because I was addicted, but because I was telling myself I “can’t” have that thing ever. I no longer do that to myself.
October 16th, 2009 12:38 pm
P.S. Thank you for writing your article thoughtfully and in such a way that you make it clear that you are relaying your experiences without tangential sidetracks into pseudo-scientific proof of the evils of diet soda. I, for one, do think the world could do without so much fake stuff and I don’t think artificial anything is the best choice when it comes to what we put into our bodies, BUT I do choose to drink artificially sweetened drinks like Coke Zero when I feel like it. I know people mean well, but I’m tired of others berating me for drinking diet soda–especially since the regular sugar options are off limits as a person with type one diabetes. THANK YOU for not doing that!
October 16th, 2009 2:22 pm
Wow — I am sipping on a diet coke as I am reading this. As someone who struggles with weight and sleep — the lightbulb went on! I gave up meat and chicken – no problem. I try to stay healthy, and now I wonder why I am drinking a can of cold chemicals with no redeeming medical value. Thanks — this will be my last diet coke. I am dumping out the rest of it. But please, let’s not talk about coffee yet.
October 16th, 2009 2:34 pm
I stopped drinking Diet Pepsi something like 15 years ago when I realized the combination of aspartame and caffeine was making me completely loopy — almost a drunk feeling. This was after having been drinking the stuff for a couple of years on a daily basis. I switched to regular Coke at the time, and within a year or two I weaned myself off caffeine as well. At this point, if we want soda, we buy juices and add our own soda water. We found an outfit online that sells equipment for fizzing your own water to make soda water (effectively a pressurized CO2 canister with a nice-looking cover), so we don’t have to worry about buying soda water and having it go flat within a day of opening it…
October 16th, 2009 2:52 pm
I wouldn’t say that I’m a diet soda addict, but I’ve been considering more and more to give it up. I’ve done it in the past for Lent (but that was when I lived in the south and the iced tea was always fresh and tasty – here in LA, that’s not always an option). I’ve been thinking though, that it’s about time I give it up again. I hear it can not only help with those sweet cravings, but it might also help to reduce my (seeming) migraines and sinus infections. That’s a good enough reason if you ask me. Thanks for the post.
October 16th, 2009 4:36 pm
Hi Christine,
I’m very glad you stepped up to inform others about your experiences with Dt Soda and it seems as if many of your readers have similar struggles. Having been in the alternative/whole body health field for a while, though I’m no longer in it, I know the damage and destruction artificial sweeteners can cause. I also know first hand that no amount of information is going to make someone quit until it clicks with them however, for those who are considering cutting back, there are good replacements. Sparkling mineral water and natural sodas like Izzy are good replacements to help people break the habit slowly.
Thanks again for a wonderful post!
October 16th, 2009 9:02 pm
After reading all of these comments, I remember when I had my 4 year old daughter at the pediatrician’s office I asked him if diet soda was better than regular soda, as I did not want her to have sugar. His response was,”She shouldn’t have any kind of soda, Give her juice, milk or water. Period.” While we didn’t follow this advice all the time, she had very little soda growing up, and to this day, at 32, rarely drinks it. Let’s face it, natural is best!
October 16th, 2009 10:18 pm
Hi Christine,
This is my first foray into the blogging arena. At 50, I have just recently joined the 21st Century. Your articles and website have been a Godsend and I am enjoying them thoroughly. I do admit to having a “reasonable” addiction to diet soda. I am much better than I used to be, but I find that a moderate amount of caffeine helps me ( I have ADD and don’t mind if I do….). Thanks for your insight. I am going to experiment a bit and see how I feel. I can always take the road less traveled and stick with tea. ( Oh, but I’ll miss my one foufou coffee of the day…you know, a little coffee with the French Vanilla Cappuccino, mixed with chocolate,etc.!)
Thanks again,
Janet
October 17th, 2009 9:05 am
I gave up sugar free sodas because they made my pain so bad I could not get out of bed. I found out they turn to formaldehyde in your system. Gave it up and pain subsided significantly. Won’t let my kids drink the garbage either.
October 17th, 2009 2:34 pm
Diet sodas make people fat!
Aspartame is a nuerotoxin. I would highly recommend checking out SweetRemedy.tv for more information about this. The woman who runs that site was diagnosed with MS and brain tumors, and was partially paralyzed after heavily ingesting diet soda for many years. When she gave up aspartame products she got better in six months. Her story is told in “Sweet Misery” and the follow-up film, “Sweet Remedy.”
October 17th, 2009 4:32 pm
I also started out with Tab in my early teens – while I worked at a fast food restaurant during high school, I would always have a big cupful standing by. Then in my late teens I moved onto Diet Coke, which I was, for all intents-and-purposes, addicted to for the next 18 years or so, and had to have at least 2 cans every day (minimum) or I felt bad, disgruntled, unhappy – I would crave it.
Six years ago I had depression and I was seeking any and all reasons for it, and ways to alleviate it. I have always been sensitive to MSG and have been a migraine sufferer, and when I was looking up food additives on the internet, I came across several sources that claim that aspartame/Nutrasweet is a “neurotoxin”. I know that some of these sources have a kind of “wacky non-mainstream scientist” and/or “conspiracy theory” flavor to them, but also, a lot of what I read about the potential dangers of aspartame made SENSE. I also noted that scientists I knew of and respected, like Dr. Andrew Weil, gave warnings on aspartame.
So I went cold turkey on the Diet Coke. It had been one of my few pleasures, so it was very hard. I STILL crave it, 6 years later. But I haven’t touched a drop.
I didn’t switch to normal colas either, because (at least in the country where I lived – I don’t know about the US) they ALSO have aspartame in them! So I would recommend you all take a look at the labels if you think you are avoiding aspartame/Nutrasweet/saccharin in your non-diet soft drinks. Every brand that I looked at had one of these artificial sweeteners in the NON-diet version too! Alongside sugar. And that went for normal coke, pepsi, ginger ale, sprite, whatever I looked at. I think it is a big ploy by the soft drink companies, and by the aspartame industry (Nutrasweet is a billion-dollar co that used to be run by Rumsfeld before he became Bush’s defense guy) to keep people addicted to these soft drinks, even when they are the non-diet variety. It’s cheap and it causes chemical changes in the body. I think it causes people to eat more junk food, to crave quick highs and lows through food, to crave salt and msg and caffeine and the crazy things that artificial colorings do to us.
A few years ago, I went on a first date with a nice guy, a food research scientist and an assistant professor in a university Chemistry department. I mentioned to him over dinner that I avoided MSG (it makes me throw up and then gives me a migraine) and aspartame. He said that he didn’t have a problem with MSG for people who were not sensitive to it because the original MSG was from seaweed (although I disagree with him, as it’s now chemically manipulated in the lab and isn’t natural at all, so I’d probably avoid it even if it didn’t give me migraines), but he said that aspartame/Nutrasweet “is a human time bomb”. Those are pretty stark words from a very mainstream, intelligent, non-hysterical scientist guy.
It’s called a neurotoxin by some because it causes chemical changes in the brain. I think that it depletes some of the important neurotransmitters, which govern our mental health and our brain functioning.
To avoid aspartame, I have to read labels like a hawk. There are actually few foods that don’t have some kind of nefarious, artificial chemical in them, esp. in the US.
I had a long road out of depression, and I’m not sure if avoiding aspartame had anything to do with that problem, but I did lose 18 pounds very gradually over the following 2 years, and these days I’m slimmer and more youthful-seeming than most of the women my age in the US. I do feel that my brain works better than it did at that time.
I get my caffeine from Earl Grey or Twinings Chai tea a couple of times a day. I love carbonation, however – the bubbles on the throat! I didn’t want to give that up. So I drink naturally-sparkling water from Italy that comes in the green glass bottles. Warehouse stores often have them, 12 large bottles for $12.
October 18th, 2009 8:18 pm
Hi Christine,
Another diet no-no for many people is gluten. My daughter went on a GF diet as suggested by her rheumalologist. Big results, PLUS she noticed a healthier GI system. But in order to confirm a Celiac diagnosis, she would have had to go back to gluten foods for 6 weeks, which she chose not to do. If you feel good, you do not need to get sick again just to have a diagnosis!! So I went on a GF diet, as a solidarity move with my daughter (she was relly bummed) and as kind of an experiment because I had read that it can relieve sinusitis. Not only did it take care of the sinuses, my blood pressure normalized, and the swelling in my corneas is much reduced. AND I feel better. I have more energy.
Suffice to say, we need to pay attention to what is helping our body and what is
hurting it!
October 20th, 2009 11:43 am
Love this honesty.
Value deeply what you pour out here.
It’s interesting that what you may well have begun at that moment is letting go that which wasn’t feeding your yearnings…
Your choices are an invaluable example of how intentions yield lasting fruition.
So grateful always for all you write, sing about and contribute for women and all.
Hugs…
October 20th, 2009 3:43 pm
I’ve lost 21lb in the past 5 months or so. My “secret” is that I stopped drinking diet soda. It makes you crave real sugar, I firmly believe that.
October 21st, 2009 6:05 pm
Hi Christine,
Awesome post. You are so right on! The damaging effects of diet soda are believe it or not worse than regular soda.
Here’s the real kicker….Not only does it cause you to gain weight, (some recent research conducted at Purdue University shows that a group of test subjects fed artificial sweeteners subsequently consumed THREE TIMES THE CALORIES of those given ordinary sugar), aspartame is one of the most dangerous substances ever added to food. It’s been proven to cause serious diseases, not the least of which are cancer and neurological diseases. Aspartame has brought more complaints to the FDA than any other additive – ever. It’s responsible for a full 75 percent of the complaints the agency gets. Now there’s even more proof that these toxins are MAKING US FAT! And it’s in more than 5,000 products. Yikes!
Among the adverse side effects is the creation of symptoms which mock diseases, including multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s Disease, Lyme Disease, Fibromyalgia, Graves Disease, Lupus, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and ADD.
For all of us sugar-addicts (I was the worst), thank goodness for Stevia to help transition away from diet soda and even regular soda!! One that you can use is SweetLeaf.
By the way, I listened to your CD (A Friday Night in One Lifetime) today, it was fabulous!! Thank you for sharing your story and for the inspiration!!! Wishing you many blessings, Joyce OBrien