Word On Diet Soda ?

I actually don’t know where the issue of sodium comes from considering that there is only some 16 mg of sodium per 8 ounces of diet soda (Coke/Pepsi).

And when you compare this to the 590 mg of sodium in half a cup of low-fat cottage cheese…that pretty much negligable.

As for hydration, the only concern would be for the brown drinks that contain caffeine. However, there is no evidence that consumming caffeinated beverages has a negative effect on water balance.

Caffeine does not have a sufficient diuretic effect to offset the amount of fluid that is taken in, therefore water balacne is influenced by other more powerful factors, such as ADH, Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone pathway and other more subtle and less known factors.

So while there is a significant amount of controversy surrounding diet colas/sodas, there is not a shread of evidence that show negative impact at this point, after a couple of decades and too much wasted money on toxicology studies that keep showing nothing of significance (unless you have Phenylketonuria and if you can type on your keybord, that means you already know you should avoid aspartame, some 1/10 000 suffer from this inborn metabolic disorder).

So yeah, you can drink as much as you like.

Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2004 Aug;14(4):419-29. Related Articles, Links

Rehydration with a caffeinated beverage during the nonexercise periods of 3 consecutive days of 2-a-day practices.

Fiala KA, Casa DJ, Roti MW.

Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of rehydration with a caffeinated beverage during nonexercise periods on hydration status throughout consecutive practices in the heat. Ten (7 women, 3 men) partially heat- acclimated athletes (age 24 +/-1y, body fat 19.2 +/- 2 %, weight 68.4 +/- 4.0 kg, height 170 +/- 3 cm) completed 3 successive days of 2-a-day practices (2 h/practice, 4 h/d) in mild heat (WBGT = 23 C). The 2 trials (double-blind, random, cross-over design) included; 1) caffeine (CAF) rehydrated with Coca-Cola and 2) caffeine-free (CF) rehydrated with Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola. Urine and psychological measures were determined before and after each 2-h practice. A significant difference was found for urine color for the post-AM time point, F = 5.526, P = 0.031. No differences were found among other variables (P > 0.05).

In summary, there is little evidence to suggest that the use of beverages containing caffeine during nonexercise might hinder hydration status.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Sep;74(3):343-7. Related Articles, Links

Carbonated beverages and urinary calcium excretion.

Heaney RP, Rafferty K.

Creighton University Osteoporosis Research Center, Omaha, NE 68131, USA. rheaney@creighton.edu

BACKGROUND: Intake of carbonated beverages has been associated with increased fracture risk in observational studies. The usual explanation given is that one or more of the beverage constituents increase urinary calcium. OBJECTIVE: We assessed the short-term effects on urinary calcium excretion of carbonated beverages of various compositions. DESIGN: An incomplete random block design was used to study 20-40-y-old women who customarily consumed > or =680 mL carbonated beverages daily. Four carbonated beverages were tested: 2 with caffeine and 2 without. Two contained phosphoric acid as the acidulant and 2 contained citric acid. The study included one neutral control (water) and one positive control (skim or chocolate milk). Serving size was 567 mL for the carbonated beverages and water and 340 mL for the milks. Beverages were consumed with a light breakfast after an overnight fast; no other foods were ingested until urine collection was complete. pH, titratable and total acidity, sodium, creatinine, and calcium were measured in 2-h (morning) fasting and 5-h postbeverage urine specimens. RESULTS: Relative to water, urinary calcium rose significantly only with the milks and the 2 caffeine-containing beverages. The excess calciuria was approximately 0.25 mmol, about the same as previously reported for caffeine alone. Phosphoric acid without caffeine produced no excess calciuria; nor did it augment the calciuria of caffeine. CONCLUSIONS: The excess calciuria associated with consumption of carbonated beverages is confined to caffeinated beverages. Acidulant type has no acute effect.

Because the caffeine effect is known to be compensated for by reduced calciuria later in the day, we conclude that the net effect of carbonated beverage constituents on calcium economy is negligible. The skeletal effects of carbonated beverage consumption are likely due primarily to milk displacement.

AlexH

Another one…

J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Oct;19(5):591-600. Related Articles, Links

The effect of caffeinated, non-caffeinated, caloric and non-caloric beverages on hydration.

Grandjean AC, Reimers KJ, Bannick KE, Haven MC.

The Center for Human Nutrition, Omaha 68105, USA. agrandjean@unmc.edu

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of various combinations of beverages on hydration status in healthy free-living adult males. METHODS: In a counterbalanced, crossover manner, 18 healthy adult males ages 24 to 39, on four separate occasions, consumed water or water plus varying combinations of beverages. Clinical guidelines were used to determine the fluid allowance for each subject. The beverages were carbonated, caffeinated caloric and non-caloric colas and coffee. Ten of the 18 subjects consumed water and carbonated, non-caffeinated, citrus soft drink during a fifth trial. Body weight, urine and blood assays were measured before and after each treatment. RESULTS: Slight body weight loss was observed on all treatments, with an average of 0.30% for all treatments. No differences (p>0.05) among treatments were found for body weight changes or any of the biochemical assays. Biochemical assays conducted on first voids and 24-hour urines included electrolytes, creatine, osmolality and specific gravity. Blood samples were analyzed for hemoglobin, hematocrit. electrolytes, osmolality, urea nitrogen, creatinine and protein.

CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary study found no significant differences in the effect of various combinations of beverages on hydration status of healthy adult males. Advising people to disregard caffeinated beverages as part of the daily fluid intake is not substantiated by the results of this study. The across-treatment weight loss observed, when combined with data on fluid-disease relationships, suggests that optimal fluid intake may be higher than common recommendations. Further research is needed to confirm these results and to explore optimal fluid intake for healthy individuals.

AlexH

I don’t like diet soda, but I love those diet energy drinks that taste like soda. My fave right now is Monster No Carb…to me it tastes like carbonated red licorice candy (twizzlers/red vines).