When trying to lose weight, many are of the opinion that every calorie counts. Eating food stops you from being hungry, so the more food you can eat with the lowest calorific content, the better.
To this end, low calorie “diet” drinks are used, as dieters would prefer to be able to eat more than drink. A large glass of cola can contain 200 calories, and that can be quite a lot if you are limiting your calorie intake.
Diet drinks get around the calorie problem by replacing natural sweeteners (like sugar) with chemical sweeteners (like aspartame). While this will allow you to drink as much cola as is humanly possible, it also means that each mouthful contains a cocktail of chemicals that your body will have to deal with.
For example, while no conclusive studies link consumption of aspartame to particular illnesses, studies have shown that excessive consumption correlates to an increase in incidents of cancer in rats. Now, obviously, you’re not a rat – but humans survived for thousands of years without chemical sweeteners.
In the past 50 years, the “obesity epidemic” has been sweeping across Western countries, and incidents of illnesses such as cancer have increased. This has coincided with an increase in the use of artificial sweeteners, and an increase in the amount of carbs people eat. Correlation is not causation, but it is interesting to note.
So does this mean regular cola is better for you than diet cola? Well, there are less chemicals in it – but it is definitely not chemical free. Sugar, however, can be easily processed by your body – chemicals, not so easily. Essentially, the less chemically enhanced food and drink you consume, the better.
Which leads us to water! The basis of all soft drinks, diet or otherwise, is water – so why not just drink water? Well, that is an excellent idea. Tap water may not be the best for you though. Tap water may contain fluoride, and may be contaminated by leaks in the pipes, or possibly by very old pipes themselves. Purified water is the best water, free of all badness – boiling water does not work. By boiling water, anything that is not water will remain in the kettle or pan, and some water will disappear as steam – this means you end up with a lower amount of water to an unchanged amount of badness, which is worse than what you started with!
The ideal “diet” drink is water, preferably purified or filtered. You can drink as much as you want, and won’t suffer any side effects from artificial sweeteners. If you are serious about losing weight, this is what you will do. If you are looking for something magical to happen, you will carry on drinking the chemical laden fizz fests – just for the taste of it.
Going on a 3 day diet on Monday, the food on it is horrible