Coke or Diet coke which is healthier???

wopper10

Hi I'm juts wondering if anyone there know which is healthier for you coke or diet coke and what the pros and cons are for them?

I used to drink coke a lot and gave it one lent and have never gone back I drink diet coke now or coke zero but I drink a lot more of it up to 3/4 cans some days is this really bad?

Dinkie

I always thought that ordinary coke was healthier than diet coke.

I'm a diet coke drinker... I find ordinary coke too sweet and sickly.

abouttobebanned

Drinking 3-4 cans of coke a day, whichever kind, is very very bad.

wopper10

But there's no sugar, fat or calories in diet coke so I presumed it was okay? Its not often really that I would have 3/4 cans of coke a day like I had none today for instance its just some days.

AARRRGH

The label is misleading.

Diet coke is mostly carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are worse for you than fat.

You are better off drinking water, or limiting your Diet Coke intake to one or two cans per week.

You sound fairly clueless about nutrition (no offence). Have a read of this blog: www.marksdailyapple.com

Mellor

AARRRGH wrote: »

The label is misleading.

Diet coke is mostly carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are worse for you than fat.

You are better off drinking water, or limiting your Diet Coke intake to one or two cans per week.

You sound fairly clueless about nutrition (no offence). Have a read of this blog: www.marksdailyapple.com

I'm sorry, but you are fairly clueless yourself.
Diet coke isn't mostly carbs. There are almost zero calories in a bottle of diet coke, so there has to be almost zero carbs. It's probably a fraction of a gram.

I'm not saying Diet coke is healthy, but regular coke is certainly far far worse.

huskerdu

Its a bit ridiculous to use the term healthy for either Coke or Diet Coke.

Coke has lots of sugar - bad for the teeth and calories in liquid form are particularly prone to weight gain, as they dont fulfill your appetite, so you will eat the same amount of food.

Diet Coke has no calories, no fat, no sugar and no carbs but does have the
sweetener asparthame which while approved for use as a sweetener, is not universally believed to be safe, especially in high doses. You should google aspartame to get some of the differeing views on it.


You might ask your dentist, I think the acidy nature of diet coke is bad for your teeth, even if it is sugar free.

AARRRGH

Mellor wrote: »

I'm sorry, but you are fairly clueless yourself.
Diet coke isn't mostly carbs. There are almost zero calories in a bottle of diet coke, so there has to be almost zero carbs. It's probably a fraction of a gram.

I'm not saying Diet coke is healthy, but regular coke is certainly far far worse.

No, you are fairly clueless yourself.

It's what happens inside your body when you consume diet Coke which is the problem. The label is misleading.

Towelie_6971

both are bad enuf but i think diet is worse.
but i would drink coke over diet coke anyday. besides diet coke just tastes terrible

Darkginger

AARRRGH wrote: »

No, you are fairly clueless yourself.

It's what happens inside your body when you consume diet Coke which is the problem. The label is misleading.

Whatever it is you're saying happens inside your body after Diet Coke isn't the point. You said Diet Coke is full of carbs. It isn't. Aspartame doesn't provoke the same insulin response in most people's bodies that sugar does. Being on a ketogenic diet, I can drink Diet Coke and remain in ketosis. Not that I drink it very often.

Perhaps you could expand on what you mean by 'what happens inside your body'?

TitoPuente

AARRRGH wrote: »

No, you are fairly clueless yourself.

It's what happens inside your body when you consume diet Coke which is the problem. The label is misleading.

Good God. :rolleyes:

AARRRGH

Darkginger wrote: »

Whatever it is you're saying happens inside your body after Diet Coke isn't the point. You said Diet Coke is full of carbs. It isn't. Aspartame doesn't provoke the same insulin response in most people's bodies that sugar does. Being on a ketogenic diet, I can drink Diet Coke and remain in ketosis. Not that I drink it very often.

Perhaps you could expand on what you mean by 'what happens inside your body'?

As you're on a protein diet, I'll explain this with a protein example.

If you consume too much protein, the excess protein gets converted to glucose (which in effect makes it very similar to consuming carbs.)

If protein had a label it would not say this. As I stated earlier, you have to think about what your body does when you consume an item, not just what the label says.

The exact same applies to Diet Coke. If you are drinking 3/4 cans of Diet Coke per day, it is going to get converted to glucose (which is not a good thing.)

Georgina012

ordinary coke is defo healthier,

wopper10

Any excess protein that is produced in the body isn't stored, it is converted to ammonia by the enzyme pepsin in your Small Intestine and excreted out NEVER stored! And as diet coke has no carbohydrates how can you convert nothing into something, that will effect you??

AARRRGH wrote: »

As you're on a protein diet, I'll explain this with a protein example.

If you consume too much protein, the excess protein gets converted to glucose (which in effect makes it very similar to consuming carbs.)

If protein had a label it would not say this. As I stated earlier, you have to think about what your body does when you consume an item, not just what the label says.

The exact same applies to Diet Coke. If you are drinking 3/4 cans of Diet Coke per day, it is going to get converted to glucose (which is not a good thing.)

AARRRGH

wopper10 wrote: »

Any excess protein that is produced in the body isn't stored, it is converted to ammonia by the enzyme pepsin in your Small Intestine and excreted out NEVER stored! And as diet coke has no carbohydrates how can you convert nothing into something, that will effect you??

Modern research has shown excess protein is converted to glucose (there are loads of articles on the topic, here's one: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/3/E833)

Diet Coke is not water. It gets broken down into glucose. When you consume too much, or already have a poor diet, it is bad for you. I'm sure you know you want to minimise the amount of glucose in your blood stream (even if you are doing a lot of weight lifting).

Bottom line, drink water or at least drink diet Coke in moderation. It is junk food.

Faith

AARRRGH wrote: »

Modern research has shown excess protein is converted to glucose (there are loads of articles on the topic, here's one: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/3/E833)

Diet Coke is not water. It gets broken down into glucose. When you consume too much, or already have a poor diet, it is bad for you. I'm sure you know you want to minimise the amount of glucose in your blood stream (even if you are doing a lot of weight lifting).

Bottom line, drink water or at least drink diet Coke in moderation. It is junk food.

Firstly, I haven't studied nutrition, but I do have a degree in biology so I can find my way around a scientific article. From the one you linked, it says

Plasma glucose Ra and Rd were substantially greater in PRO + HCHO vs. both PRO and PRO + LCHO (P < 0.01)

Pro = protein
HCHO = high carbohydrates
LCHO = Low Carbohydrates

So what that article is saying is that a high dose of carbs will raise blood glucose levels substantially, regardless of whether or not it's consumed with protein. There's no indication in the abstract of protein being converted to glucose. Maybe you linked to the wrong article?

AARRRGH

Faith wrote: »

Firstly, I haven't studied nutrition, but I do have a degree in biology so I can find my way around a scientific article. From the one you linked, it says

Pro = protein
HCHO = high carbohydrates
LCHO = Low Carbohydrates

So what that article is saying is that a high dose of carbs will raise blood glucose levels substantially, regardless of whether or not it's consumed with protein. There's no indication in the abstract of protein being converted to glucose. Maybe you linked to the wrong article?

Also, glucose is really important for brain function, especially, so while you wouldn't want to over do it, I'm not sure it's wise to actively minimise glucose intake.

The article was given to me by a friend (nutrition expert sort of person) who says it goes into detail about protein being converted into glucose without the help of any carbs.

Faith

Something is coming back to me actually... There's a process called gluconeogenesis, where glucose can be created out of something other than carbs. When protein breaks down into amino acids, they can then be broken down into their constituent parts. Nitrogen is removed, ammonia is excreted in urine, and the remaining carbon, hydrogen and oxygen could be converted to glucose.

I'm not sure that often happens though. Must explore further.

/edit: yeah, it only occurs when the body really needs glucose, such as after intense exercise or resulting from a low-carb diet or fasting.

Darkginger

Diet Coke has no carbs, nor protein, nor fat. What exactly do you think is being converted into carbohydrates? I'm at a loss!

Faith

Darkginger wrote: »

Diet Coke has no carbs, nor protein, nor fat. What exactly do you think is being converted into carbohydrates? I'm at a loss!

If that's aimed at me, then nothing. My posts are just in relation to AARRRGH's last two posts.

drunkmonkey

Is miwadi a healthy enough drink. I've tried to cut out fizzy drinks and stick to miwadi, is it the next best thing to water? I like a little flavour in what I drink.

Darkginger

Faith wrote: »

If that's aimed at me, then nothing. My posts are just in relation to AARRRGH's last two posts.

No, I was aiming at AARRRGH too

Mellor

AARRRGH wrote: »

As you're on a protein diet, I'll explain this with a protein example.

If you consume too much protein, the excess protein gets converted to glucose (which in effect makes it very similar to consuming carbs.)

If protein had a label it would not say this. As I stated earlier, you have to think about what your body does when you consume an item, not just what the label says.

The exact same applies to Diet Coke. If you are drinking 3/4 cans of Diet Coke per day, it is going to get converted to glucose (which is not a good thing.)

I'm sorry, but you are posting nonsense.
I'm not going to bother getting into the protein side as its not relevant to the OP. (I will say that a number of sources maintain that the body can only process a certain amount of protein, however I agree there may be situation where it can happen)

But suggesting that this happens with Diet Coke is nonsense. There is nothing there to convert to glucose. you can't simply create glucose of of nothing.
The is the issue if an insulin spike based on the body reacting to the sweet taste and expecting sugar. But it isn't proven, and there is also the contra which suggests that the lack of sugar with the presence of sweet flavour could actual numb the bodies natural reaction and reduce insulin responses to sugar, again not proven.

Töpher

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Is miwadi a healthy enough drink. I've tried to cut out fizzy drinks and stick to miwadi, is it the next best thing to water? I like a little flavour in what I drink.

Water with a squeeze of a fresh lemon and/or lime would be healthier, and really really tasty.

Chicken Run

to add in my 2p worth, I used to run bone-density assessment clinics for people with frequent long-bone fractures, and cola drinks were a main culprit in poor bone density.

According to a specialist who spoke to us, the balance of caffeine and phosphoric acid in cola disrupts the balance of bone breakdown and reformation (bones are constantly being degraded and replaced, hence broken bones mending)
Caffeine increases the rate at which "worn out" bone is broken down and phosphoric acid plays a part in inhibiting its regrowth as it displaces some of the calcium uptake.

Drink semi-skimmed milk instead ;-)

ETA. found the source paper http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/4/936

rubadub

AARRRGH wrote: »

Diet Coke is not water. It gets broken down into glucose.

what do you think is actually in it? i.e. if you got 2L of diet coke in an oven and dried it out what is left? If you dry out 2L of ordinary coke you will have ~220g of sugar and flavourings etc.

Darkginger

That's interesting, Chicken Run - and it's the reason I limit my Diet Coke consumption (am down to a 2 litre bottle once every 2 weeks or so, which lasts days), although I've been lazy and never looked up the exact science of why it's bad for your bones, I just heard it was. Does anyone happen to know whether it's just cola drinks that have this effect? If I switched to something like Diet Sprite would that be better? Water gets a bit tedious after a while! What about 'fizzy' water? Anyone know if there's anything bad about that? Am thinking that fizzy water with lemon or lime juice and perhaps a drop of sweetener might be the way to go.

I can't do milk (carbs and a bit of lactose sensitivity), otherwise I would!

Elevator

what do people think of the red bull cola??

personally i prefer it to coca cola

ectoraige

Darkginger wrote: »

What about 'fizzy' water? Anyone know if there's anything bad about that? Am thinking that fizzy water with lemon or lime juice and perhaps a drop of sweetener might be the way to go.

Buy a mint plant and crush a couple of leaves into sparkling water with a squeeze of lime or lemon juice. Tasty and the mint plants grow very easily.

Darkginger

Thanks for the mint idea - I already have mint plants going nuts in what I laughingly call our 'garden' so I'll give it a go!

ectoraige

Darkginger wrote: »

Thanks for the mint idea - I already have mint plants going nuts in what I laughingly call our 'garden' so I'll give it a go!

When you need an extra kick, add a drop of rum and sugar, and voilà, you're drinking mojitos.