Diet coke?

I gave up diet soda when I started going low-carb nearly three years ago. I find unsweetened iced tea or seltzer with a squeeze of lemon or lime (or unsweetened flavored seltzers like LaCroix or Calistoga) to be much more satisfying without getting that sugar-anticipating insulin hit and subsequent hypoglycemic crash. I’ve since backslid on my diet, but not when it comes to soda pop, diet or regular. Both taste unpleasantly sweet to me.

I was a complete diet coke addict (40 oz. per day was not unusual) even through LX and radiation but gave it up 9 months ago when I started reading about the adverse effects of aspartame and artificial color and flavorings. I find I was more addicted to the carbonation than the caffeine, but didn't like the saltiness of seltzer water or tonic water. What satisfies my need for carbonation is plain sparkling water. The only ingredient is carbonated water--none of the artificial flavors, salt, or additives. Not always easy to find in the winter, but Aldi's had it this past summer, WalMart sometimes has it--like Voss sparkling water, and my current source is a Midwest grocery store chain called Meijer. Just look for one ingredient--carbonated water period. And make sure it's cold--warmer carbonated water leaves something to be desired!!

Hello, My name is MargaretEleanor, and I'm a diet soda (Coke and Dr. Pepper) addict and I admit it. I drink it daily, and more than one,every day. I've heard that confession is the first step to recovery

I'm especially fond of fountain diet sodas. Yes, the ones at convenience stores (QT is where you'll find me) where you bring in your gently used great big cup and get your own refill (hmm, wonder if I've washed that cup lately) right along side of everybody else getting their own refill sodas in their rarely washed cups. Those soda fountains are the same germ farms, uh, I mean fountain drinks we're told to avoid during chemo. Next confession, I don't think I'm even going to try to quit any time soon

When I was first diagnosed, I gave up diet sodas; cold turkey. But, when I was going through chemo, one of the nurses (not fond of her and a story for another day) infused the tasteless, odorless Herceptin before the putrid-smelling, gag-inducing Taxol. Ever since then, and we're talking five years and two months (but who's counting) since my last Taxol infusion, to me, water tastes like Taxol. After a day of not being able to drink water without throwing up, and being invited back to the infusion center for a big, fat, juicy bag of fluids, my oncologist told me I could drink whatever tasted good, the most important thing to him was that I stay well hydrated. I took my permission to drink diet soda, ran with it, didn't look back, and have never asked for permission again.

I am very disciplined about eating, however. I eat mostly vegan, have lost over 100 pounds and exercise faithfully. I rarely drink, and have never smoked, despite being from the great bourbon and tobacco state of Kentucky. My research shows a much closer link between obesity and cancer, than diet soda and cancer.

I don't recommend that you do as I do, but, if I run in to you at QT, your soda is on me!

the funny thing about this for me is that normally i am super sensitive to aspartame but with all the chemo poisoning it doesn't matter - so i can drink diet coke for the first time ever. so i have been. and i like it.

Hey Nancy! I dropped DC after dx too. But wow there is just something about a crispy can of DC to get the morning started, (I'm bad I know). I don't really worry about it much. I drink too many. Oh well. I made it this far.

Yep, Diet Coke over ice is one of the few things that actually tastes good to me after chemo. Well, that and ginger ale. I've always been an avid Diet Pepsi drinker, but for some reason it doesn't taste right to me now. Oh well. I don't sit around and worry about Diet Coke killing me. I'm 59. I'm pretty sure something else will kill me faster.

I drank a Diet Coke a day prior to diagnosis, but since then I have stopped completely. The link between between aspartame and cancer in general is scary and it's not new research, it's been know about for over 20 years. It's manufactured processed rubbish, when you think about it. I was addicted to it, but once I realised how bad it is for you, not to mention all the bloating, I haven't looked back... And I have a flatter tummy hooray!

Actually, seltzer these days is just carbonated water, aka sparkling water--no chemicals or minerals other than what the water itself may have (which is why you might find Apollinaris, Perrier, Badoit or Pellegrino salty). In fact, "club soda" by definition has some sodium (maybe phosphate) in it. Back in the day when seltzer came in those heavy glass sealed syphon bottles (like in baggy-pants burlesque comedy skits), you could injure yourself on the bubbles and it did taste perceptibly salty. But I think the FDA now mandates that “seltzer" can contain only water and carbon dioxide. I got a Sodastream a few years ago and I make my own seltzer. I also like to squeeze in some lemon or lime.

Diet Pepsi is my failing, but I think diet sodas are just one of many things that are bad for us. I don't have a perfect diet, but overall I try to reduce the things that are bad for me (diet soda, sugar, salt, alcohol, red meat, fatty foods, processed food) and increase the things that are good for me (30 minutes of exercise daily, fresh veggies, non-processed food) to try to get a better life balance. I have cut back on DP in the 8 years since my dx - I've gone from averaging couple of bottles a day to a few bottles a week. Yes, there are times of stress I might have a bottle every morning several days straight, but then there are those other times when I'll go a week or more without it.

I think there's something to be said about missing the bubbles, as I've become a seltzer person as well.