My Dad had to send me an e-mail and rub my face in this news cause he knows I drink diet soda. That and he always rubs my face in things like its his poo that I shat on his carpet and he's punishing me. He used to get on my case for drinking sugar soda. I eventually switched to diet soda a few years ago and here he is again harping on me drinking diet soda. He's probably trying to pick a fight with me and elicit a response. I won't give him the satisfaction as I promptly deleted his e-mail. The fact is I knew about this before he did cause I'm always up on current news. It's too bad they didn't find something wrong with coffee as he drinks that stuff religiously and I would love to rub it all in his face with a red hot poker if bad news came out about it. I currently try to drink at least 8 cups of water throughout the day before I even consider drinking diet soda now. Sometimes it doesn't always work out that way but that is my goal. I figure if you get your daily allotment of water...then you can have a diet soda or two or three as your body is hydrated at that point. I used to be terrible in that all I would drink is soda and never drink water. It's so easy to fall into a pattern of doing that but it's not healthy. Also, another thing, if their trying to blame drinking soda on esophogal cancer due to gastro reflux disease, then all you have to do is before going to sleep at night take an over-the-counter pill that combats this problem. I think there is one called Zantac that works in combating the acid and keeping these acidic juices from backtracking up the esophagus from the stomach which usually occurs when your asleep in a horizontal position. I noticed the article didn't mention that at all. I know this cause I once had a sore throat, was told it was a reflux issue, and the doctor told me to take Zantac. The doctor also told me I should try to avoid drinking soda right before going to bed and to prop my head up higher than the rest of my body when sleeping to prevent the acid from ascending back into the esophagus.
Personally, I think diet is worse because of the Nutrasweet that is in most diet sodas. That stuff is awful for you.
I would say not from a Type II diabetes standpoint. I'm not saying I am one but a pattern of drinking sugar soda over the course of one's life combined with a poor diet and being overweight would certainly increase your chances of becoming one. I know in very high doses that they have proven that artificial sweeteners can cause cancer. But, I think that was only proven in mice/rat experiments by injecting them with severe amounts that any normal human being would not be able to consume. But, who knows? They have a new sweetener that is derived from sugar called sucralose. They say it is like 10 or 100 times(forget which) sweeter than sugar. Their putting it in a lot of food now but only in certain categories of food. There's a big debate going on about that now as far as safety because there has been very, very limited testing and here they are rolling it out in food like it is safe.
the best natural sweetener you can get (besides sugar) is stevia... it's an herb that is mucho sweet. you only need a few granules to sweeten a cup of tea or coffee. Stevia Google Search
From what I could tell about that esophageal cancer study, all they did was compare the rise in the cancer rate to the rise in soda consumption. Absolutely no evidence of cause and effect. You can find correlations anywhere. There are a lot of things that society does/produces more of these days. At any rate, I drink several Diet Cokes a day. I offer myself to science as a human guinea pig. We'll see if anything happens to me. From the existing studies and our scientific knowledge of artificial sweeteners, they appear to be safe in the dosages in which we normally consume them. To keep people from complaining, I try to mix mine up (saccharin in my coffee, aspartame in my soda, sucralose in my tea). Darn it, I'm allowed one vice. I don't drink or smoke or anything... (by the way, Jeff, it's always cool to hear from a musician that doesn't drink. It gives the rest of us hope that we can hang around the music scene without looking hopelessly uncool... at least, not for that reason...)
