Good News for Diet Coke Junkies

We can all breathe a sigh of relief… Ahhhhh

I learned something very exciting today on My Apex website (where I log in to my Bodybugg program). It’s funny because I was actually having a conversation with my friend Shannon about this very subject on Monday night. Her trainer had taken her off Diet Cokes completely because she said that the artificial sweeteners are not able to be broken down by our bodies and therefore can lead to puffiness around our midsections. Nobody wants that… I myself do love my Diet Cokes but try to keep my intake to a minimum as I know I should be drinking water or other beverages not made of chemicals. I’m not saying that I am now going to subsist solely on DCs but will feel a little less guilty when I do drink them. See the article from MyApex.com below!

I’ve heard that drinking diet soda may contribute to water retention and keep a person from losing weight. Is this true? “The Apex team believes this myth started during the Tab/saccharin diet drink era of the early 70s (probably initiated or perpetuated by the sugar industry) and although this myth continues to survive it’s not nearly as widespread as it once was.In any case, the short answer is NO. At the end of the day, zero calories will contribute zero to increasing fat or weight, and diet drinks will not hinder weight loss attempts. In fact a recent well-done study comparing the use of diet drinks as opposed to caloric soft drinks showed significantly greater weight loss in the diet drink group. Just because you asked (meaning the myth must still exist), Apex’s Research & Development team actually performed an exhaustive scientific  search (not via Internet sites but using appropriately referenced studies) on water retention and diet drinks that turned up nothing. There is no validated scientific link between non-nutritive sweeteners (found in diet sodas) and water retention. There have been numerous Internet rumors that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame cause cancer. However, a report from the National Institute of Health (NIH) in April of 2006 states, The study confirms the findings of a recent 2005 report, Review of Lymphatic and Hematopoietic Cancer Incidence Trends & Consumption of Aspartame, in which researchers concluded, upon examining cancer trends from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program there is no consistent pattern (of leukemias or lymphomas) that parallels the rise in aspartame consumption. Additionally, saccharin has been found by the NIH to be safe for human consumption as well.”