Are all soft drinks bad?

mikemac

Currently sorting out my diet and bought a push bike in my efforts to lose 5kg over next 6 weeks. Working through the stickies at the moment.

Anyway, I've no problem giving up alcohol or junk food but my own personal weakness in soft drinks. Not unusual for me to drink 3-4 litres over a weekend.

So I'm cutting that out.
But I was checking a bottle of Diet Coke and it stated it had pretty minimal calories and no sugar. I know what asparteme is but is Diet Coke still poison for someone trying to get fit?

Here's a link
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item.php?item_id=14146&size=3

Hanley

Not at all... jsut don't go TOO mad on it. You'll be fine with like 500-1000ml a day I'd say. Make sure it doesn't become a substitute for water tho.

I used to ask the same question. Then I started drinking water for a few weeks, no soft drinks. After that, tried diet coke again and what I tasted was pure chemicals. Same for diet 7up, and I'd have thought that was fairly mild. You can tell by the taste how bad it is for you, if you've had a break from it.
I don't suppose it's too bad in terms of fitness, but in terms of general health - well, you might as well go the whole way and cut it out.

nesf

I found bottles of sparkling water were useful when getting off soft drinks. It kind of feeds the habit of drinking fizzy stuff from a bottle. After a while you can replace fizzy with still if you want. Then, I found it was more the habit of reaching down, grabbing a bottle and drinking from it that was the hard thing to break rather than the actual sweetness itself.

mikemac

Thanks for the replies.
Luckily for me, we get free bottles of sparking Ballygowen in work and I take full advantage. Drink at least 3litres of sparking water a day when I'm in work.

I suppose the diet drinks are better than others. I used to drink Lucozade during college exams and there are over 200 calories in a small bottle and an insane amount of sugar(glucose):eek:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/galleries/index.html?in_image_id=254059&in_gallery_id=7464&in_page_id=1055

Reckon I'll give it up till June 1st-that's my goal anyway.

LegacyUser

Soft drinks are ****. Just give them up and go to water...I need to follow my own advice, i have been partial to the odd bottle of Lucozade Citrus Clear...

p-nut

Soft drinks are pretty bad alright, ive had no problem ditching them over three years ago now, and this is comin from a 17 year old:D

Thats not to say i havnt had the odd one like, its far better to go to a nightclub and have one or two cokes/7ups than to guzzle down a few litres of beer, although i do also like the odd pint of guinness.

I mean, im guessin i wud like the odd pint of guinness if i was allowed into a club if i was 18:p ..........

brianthebard

Nightclubs? how's a 17 year old getting in to them? :eek: I assume you leave after 9 right??

daveirl

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King.Penguin

Cork Zero? What is it? Do you have your own cola down there?

copacetic

King.Penguin wrote:

Cork Zero? What is it? Do you have your own cola down there?

where u been, real coke taste, zero sugar.

basically diet coke for guys.

daveirl

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King.Penguin

Ok Coke zero.

Stark

I wouldn't go getting hooked on Diet Coke. You're better off just giving up the normal stuff bar having the odd can here and there as a treat. Aspartame is the evil.

Dirk Gently

whats the story with the isotonic drinks. finding it hard to keep to just water myself, and often find myself going mad on isotonic drinks and lucz still, especially after a long cycle.

Also O.J., I use to drink pints of milk like theres no tomorrow but again when I gave them up I subbed them with pints of o.j. Can't limit the fluid to just water.

any thoughts on whopper amounts of o.j. and the isotonic drinks, still or otherwise. Do I need to give them up completley?

Hanley

clown bag wrote:

whats the story with the isotonic drinks. finding it hard to keep to just water myself, and often find myself going mad on isotonic drinks and lucz still, especially after a long cycle.

Also O.J., I use to drink pints of milk like theres no tomorrow but again when I gave them up I subbed them with pints of o.j. Can't limit the fluid to just water.

any thoughts on whopper amounts of o.j. and the isotonic drinks, still or otherwise. Do I need to give them up completley?

Hmmm... you couuld just eat a bag of sugar instead...?

Dirk Gently

thanks for that hanley, would a bag of sugar quench my thirst?

I take your telling me to stick to just water so. (water doesn't quiet hit the spot as well as a bottle of lucz sport though after a couple of hours on the bike )

Hanley

clown bag wrote:

thanks for that hanley, would a bag of sugar quench my thirst?

I take your telling me to stick to just water so. (water doesn't quiet hit the spot as well as a bottle of lucz sport though after a couple of hours on the bike )

If you're coming off a long ride then you need some carbs to replenish glycogen stores etc..... Carbs really are king when it comes to endurance.

BUT if you're doing the above during the course of a normal day then I'd try to move away from it towards water. Basically the only time you should be drinking carbs is post-training!

Btw... when I'm re-hydrating I like a 50/50 mix of lucozade and water. Best of both worlds imo.

Dirk Gently

that's what I meant really, after training. When training water just isn't enough and I always down a couple of cans of lucz sport rather than water. At other times it's either water or orange juice. btw what's concidered too much o.j. at between 1 - 1.5 litres a day I assume I'm way over limit and should be drinking more water instead

tribulus

Around training time I don't see a problem with lucozade, take it easy on OJ as you ideally want glucose not fructose.

As for a liter a day of OJ, that's a bit ridiculous tbh.
A conservative estimate would put you on 100g of sugar from the juice alone every day.

I mean is it that hard to just drink water? I'm not trying to be cheeky but it has no taste, it's refreshing and is usually free!

Dirk Gently

yup, I know you're right. I'll give it a go starting from tomorrow.
I'll have to knock my o.j addiction on the head.

hunnymonster

If it's not too hot, diluted OJ (is pure OJ which you dilute with water not the stuff you buy in a can and dilute) works well on the bike. About 20% juice. Aim to drink 500 ml bottle per hour. I can't manage that much but it's the amount the experts tell me a body needs. Personally I stick to water and add calories in the form of food or gels.

rubadub

Diet coke is still full of caffeine which is a diuretic so you end up less hydrated than if you had drank water. Most soft drinks have acids too, which some might think is bad. I like diet club orange, which I think is 9% orange juice.

Stark

clown bag wrote:

thanks for that hanley, would a bag of sugar quench my thirst?

I take your telling me to stick to just water so. (water doesn't quiet hit the spot as well as a bottle of lucz sport though after a couple of hours on the bike )

It's salt that you're missing. Lucozade Sport contains sodium and some other electrolytes to help quench your thirst. If you add a pinch of salt to a glass of water, the water should be much more satisfying.

daveirl

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Stark

It's not proven, but I choose to avoid it anyway. It's not like I need to drink Diet Coke.

Drink whatever OJ you want as long as you've squeezed it yourself

OJ from a carton = sugar++;

daveirl

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rubadub

bluewolf wrote:

Drink whatever OJ you want as long as you've squeezed it yourself

OJ from a carton = sugar++;

Squeezed juice should have the same amount of sugar as stuff in cartons. about 10-11% sugar. Freshly squeezed is more nutritious, not to mention nicer. Some "juices" in cartons are really like kia-ora already diluted, basically soft drinks with a low% of real juice.

I would just eat the orange myself, why waste the fibre, even if you could get 100% of the juice out.

You often hear people saying stuff like a can of coke has 30 teaspoons of sugar in it. Well it has about the same % of sugar in it as apple or orange juice. Grape juice has up to 1.5 times the sugar as coke.