There’s soooo much confusion regarding diet drinks!

“Some people say that they are better for me than regularly fizzy drinks?!?! but then other people talk  about the artificial sweeteners they contain, like aspartame – which can apparently lead to dementia and weight gain?”

Like most health debates, the internet can leave you with a headache and non the wiser as to whether something is good or bad.

The truth is that having a diet coke every now and then probably wont do much damage and in actual fact they can be a good tool to use to curb cravings and cut back on calories.

Diet drinks are especially useful for people looking to consume less calories in order to lose weight. Most diet drinks are less then 10 calories compared to their high calorie counterparts…

Diet Drink Calories:

• Sprite Zero – 3 cals
• Diet Pepsi – 1 cal
• Diet 7up – 2 cals
• Diet Coke – 1 cal
• Fanta Zero – 10 cals
• Oasis Light – 10 cals

Prevent Snacking…

Diet drinks can also help to curb cravings. For example, when I fancy a sweet fix, instead of ordering a bunch of tasty American sweets like chewy lemonheads, cookie dough, and fudge…

I will either search for low carb cookies to buy (ones below 200 cals), or if I want to avoid calories altogether, I will instead pick up a diet coke, which will often be enough to satisfy my cravings.

Most days I will have a can of Diet Coke, but the rest of the time I will stick to water. As the saying goes…everything in moderation.

Negative Effects…

Nothing compares to drinking pure water, and this should be the main liquid consumed throughout the day. If you struggle with normal water, then try flavoured variations (just watch out for the ones with sneaky added calories!).

Like most things, where there is an over reliance or over consumption  of something that’s when you can get yourself into trouble. I’d recommend consuming no more than one can of diet pop per day.

You’ve also got to be careful of the caffeine content in some drinks. Too much caffeine can negatively affect sleep, mood, energy and performance.

In my overall opinion diet drinks are good to fall back on when needed. Much better to have a can of diet pop than it is to go and binge on a bag of chocolate and sweets. Remember to use diet drinks as a tool to satisfy cravings…but don’t abuse them.

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂