Monday, March 16, 2015

I am convinced there is a connection...

It has been 16 days since I have had a Diet Dr. Pepper.  You have no idea how huge this is to me. When I say I was raised on Diet Coke, I mean that in every sense of the word.  As early as I can remember, we had a supply of Tab in the house.  I also remember going to the grocery store and picking out our flavors of Diet Shasta for the week.  There was nothing much more exciting than loading up an empty box with various flavors of Shasta. ...or maybe our life was just boring.  LOL.  So my Diet Coke addiction is legit and I come by it honestly. The addiction has been with me for 40ish years at this point.  Just so we are clear, I live in the south where all diet "sodas" are referred to as Diet Coke.  Diet Dr. Pepper, Tab, Diet Shasta, Diet Coke - it is all Diet Coke.  Except Coke Zero.  That is gross and is called Coke Zero.

The funny thing is I never really thought of it as a bad thing until the past few years.  Mostly when I tried to start eating more cleanly. It didn't make much sense to eat clean only to throw 4+ cans of Diet Dr. Pepper into my system every day.  I tried a few times to give it up but never made it past the first week.  I am not naive enough to think I have kicked the habit but am quite proud to have made it this far.  In all honesty, I haven't even wanted one all that much.  

Over the past year or so I have read articles linking a craving for sweets with drinking diet coke. Something about the taste of the diet soda triggering your body to prepare to digest sugar.  When the body doesn't get the sugar, it starts craving it.  You are kind of faking out your system.  This article explains it pretty well.


I always wondered if that were true because I do love me some sweets. Or should I say I did. Ever since I stopped drinking Diet Coke, I haven't really wanted anything sweet. Weird, right? Sweets for me were pretty much a daily occurrence, cookie, cupcake, ice cream, whatever it was I usually had something along those lines every day. I walked down the ice cream aisle the other day at the store and had ZERO desire to check anything out.  Very strange.  Not complaining, trust me I needed the help...  at this point I find it kind of fascinating.  I am pretty sure all those studies are real.

7 comments:

Jim Adcock said...

I found the same thing when I cut sodas almost two years ago - but not just sweet stuff, but cravings for carbs in general. There isn't anything wrong with carbs (IMO) other than the fact that we (as a society) eat too much of them, and that is mostly because the food industry finds them cheap to produce, and they don't spoil as quickly as fresh foods. Good luck to you on keeping off the soda!

Carolina John said...

I used to drink close to a 2 litre of coke a day in high school. Then stopped soda consumption entirely in college 20 years ago and never looked back! It makes a better car cleaner than refreshing beverage. Stick with it, and I promise you'll feel better the longer you go without it.

Michael said...

I just gave up soda this week too. I'm challenging myself to 7 days but hope to go longer. I'm on day 2. I don't drink diet. I convinced myself a few years ago that regular was better than the diet, and that is probably still true of it is ocassional. But, slowly overtime my ocassional coke became almost a daily habit. I rarely have it with more than one meal but still I drink way more than I need and talk about excess calories! And lol in the "coke" thing. I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in Florida and remember everything was always I'm getting a Coke no matter what the brand. I moved to Ky though (also considered part of the South) and it was pop. I still can't stand that term for some reason...I just hate the work "pop". Anyway...

Michael said...

I just gave up soda this week too. I'm challenging myself to 7 days but hope to go longer. I'm on day 2. I don't drink diet. I convinced myself a few years ago that regular was better than the diet, and that is probably still true of it is ocassional. But, slowly overtime my ocassional coke became almost a daily habit. I rarely have it with more than one meal but still I drink way more than I need and talk about excess calories! And lol in the "coke" thing. I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in Florida and remember everything was always I'm getting a Coke no matter what the brand. I moved to Ky though (also considered part of the South) and it was pop. I still can't stand that term for some reason...I just hate the work "pop". Anyway...

Black Knight said...

Great post. I eat clean too but I keep on being addicted to Coke, normal Coke.

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Valerie said...

Very insightful post. Even though I'm a huge fan of Coke Zero :), I really do think sodas trigger your cravings for sweets. I don't understand how people can focus on clean/healthy eating while drinking sodas.