I love diet dew (Page 2)

  Diet Soda  = asparteme = worse than sugar = poison...LOL

I avoid all kind of sodas....never drink before/during/after work-out or races...I usually don't drink soda....

I did the cold turkey thing.  I know a lot of people say to scale back instead of doing cold turkey, but for me, and my personality...cold turkey works well.

I haven't drank any soda, diet or otherwise, since the middle of June this year.  I really don't crave it either.

A great substitute that I have found are those crystal light packs that you add to a normal bottle of water.  I personally add them to a 20oz bottle of watter instead of the normal 16.9 oz ones to dilute them a little more.

So, just to be clear, I'm not advocating caffeine for anyone and NOT trying tell anyone you should consume it (or aspartame, etc).  However, caffeine does occur naturally in teas, coffees, chocolates, etc, so it's not always added to our food or drink to addict us to it.

I know it's popular to decaffeinate yourself and claim a health victory, but moderate caffeine consumption isn't considered unhealthy, and there is plenty of research to suggest that caffeine may actually help your body burn fat, especially for performance athletes.  I only mention this because I'm trying to point out that the science is inconclusive, at best, about the detrimental effects of caffeine on the average person.

Random googling will produce any number of articles that both bemoan our addiction to caffeine and all its deleterious effects and those that tout its efficacy as a wonder drug.  Given that, and the fact that I actually like coffee, tea, and yes, even that evil diet soda stuff, I see no reason to give it up.  I'm more likely to die getting run over by an inattentive driver while doing some bike training than die of some exotic caffeine or saccharin induced cancer.  

Random googling:

http://www.handcycleracing.com/Caffeine.htm

http://www.get-six-pack-abs.com/caffeine-effects.html

http://www.everydiet.org/articles/caffeine.htm

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Story?id=4271246&page=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/nutrition/05symp.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Just some of those "mainstream" articles.

Read it if you want.  Believe their ideas or not.  Make your own judgement based on an informed decision.

It's your body.

The problem is that most people have no idea how to interpret the information given to them.  Are you comfortable reading a journal article and critically evaluating it?  I doubt most are.  Then you have a reporter simply report things as presented to them without an objective analysis of it being done first, and they present it as fact.  People read that, and it becomes reality.  If there aren't studies done, people simply say things that "sound scientific" and people take that at face value.

There's a reason objective research is done.  If you choose to listen to weak or nonexistent evidence, that's your decision as well.

Will read both of those articles as soon as I pour myself some Diet Mt. Dew....

I'm comfortable with the idea that artificial sweeteners aren't good for you; and not convinced they're necessarily bad for you in moderation.  But, everyone makes their own choices, and I'm certainly not going to tell anyone they are either right or wrong when so much conflicting information exists.

http://men.webmd.com/features/coffee-new-health-food

Go coffee! 

Which is why I said:

I've read/heard enough about artificial sweeteners over the years that I choose to not touch the stuff with a ten foot straw.  That's my choice.  Some of it is bunk, some of it isn't.  But there is enough information out there for those that look for it that shows the stuff simply is not good for you.

And for as much of the cancer drugs and other vaccines that are out there that basically only use lab animals for testing before being becoming FDA approved and mass distributed, don't you think it is a little bit precocious to judge a study based on its test subject's species?

There is a TON of stuff out there on the topic.  Just Google it and you can find out.  And burried in all the Rumsfeld and CIA cover up crap there is even legitimate research.  I simply offer to those that think artificial sweeteners are "healthy" to just do some of their own investigation.  Simple as that.

So you're not not worried about the validity of the evidence, just the quantity?  There is readily available "evidence" about all kinds of stuff that is utter BS.  Google "urine drinking" sometime.

Saying that there's credible evidence out there doesn't make it true.  Feel free to present some if you'd like.  I make that offer to anybody who makes these claims, and I've yet to see anything credible from them.  

As always, you're free to believe what you want regardless of whether or not it has anything backing it up.  I choose to believe I'm the most handsome man on the planet.