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I'm currently trying to kick a Diet Coke habit (my equivalent of smoking), which I think is contributing to several health problems, not the least of which is carrying about 40 pounds more than I should around.

Part of it, which isn't covered by these studies, is how a reliance on diet soda affects your diet overall. It serves as a lubricant, for lack of a better word, for dense starchy carbs and salt. I can wolf down french fries with diet soda, but it's a lot harder with just water, which doesn't cut the salt or grease.

My real warning to cut back came from my mouth. I have an autoimmune problem that causes sores similar to cold sores. My salty, sour, spicy diet aggravates it, and the diet soda enables that diet (and is itself acidic). I'm tired of pain, so I'm cutting back.

Lost five pounds in an instant.

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Well done for cutting something out and losing weight to try and improve your health, this is an admirable goal.

However, from your tone I would hazard a guess that the problem is not your diet coke so much as your desire to consume so much that you are choosing diet coke as an optimal lubricant to enable that.

You can't compare a habit like this to smoking imo, which is chemically addictive with a reasonably well understood chemical pathway and requires considerable willpower to stop due to physiological withdrawal symptoms as well as the psychological aspects of addiction.

Maybe you have some underlying problem which is causing your behaviour, because most people do not require very much willpower to not eat when it is uncomfortable to do so without 'lubricating it' optimally with some specific drink. Or maybe I am just misunderstanding and overreacting based on how shocking I find your comment...

Nah, I don't think it's a sign of bad health. I'm in reasonably good health (and if anything underweight), and drinking soda definitely makes eating a lot of greasy food like fries easier/more pleasant than drinking something like water. If I were in the habit of drinking soda regularly, my diet would probably get worse just for that reason.

i have never noticed this and i consider myself to be /disgustingly/ decadent.

reading these kinds of comments makes me feel like a saint

I believe it's the carbonated water that cuts the salt and grease. I used to drink a lot of soda and switched to carbonated water so I understand what you mean by lubricant.

My wife has a similar autoimmune problem. She also drinks 4-5 diet cokes a day. I wonder if there is a connection. There are flora in your mouth too.

I lost 30lbs switching from coke to diet coke and it's stayed off for 22 years so far. I changed nothing else about my diet or behavior. Just cut out sugary drinks of which coke was the 90% of.

I also have a bad Diet Coke habit. Drink cans and cans a day. I hear Elon Musk and Bill Gates also drink copious amounts. I wonder what it is about Diet Coke that's so addictive.

Caffeine and phenylalanine, in addition to the sweetness-without-actual-energy that is likely backfiring to create further sweet-cravings.

(I wouldn't be surprised if research eventually concludes regular Coke is safer than Diet Coke, even given the problems with HFCS. So, if trying to quite Diet Coke, you might 1st want to try substituting regular Coke... which you might find more satiating and thus consume less of, by volume.)

I'm not sure you can describe an essential amino acid as an addictive substance... sure there is a strong desire to consume it, but its closer to things like oxygen, water or any vital thing that keeps you alive.

Caffeine on the other hand has a well understood and documented mechanism of physical dependence, but its considered extremely mild compared to substances traditionally considered addictive (nicotine, alcohol)...

Do people crave phenylalanine beyond the essential levels needed? There's strong hints some do, via both diet sodas and sugar-free gums. And there's a plausible mechanism, given phenylalanine's relation to key neurotransmitters, and its use in treating depression and other neurologic disorders.

(I suppose we could raise the same question about food in general. Obviously food is necessary, but can it ever make sense to talk about a 'food addiction'? Or perhaps more accurately, an 'overeating addiction'? I think it can, in some cases. For someone wondering why they feel 'addicted' to diet soda, the high levels of mood-altering phenylalanine from the aspartame is highly likely to be a factor.)

we are still comparing apples and oranges even with your argument...

Yep, there are a couple recent studies showing diet sodas have no weight loss benefit over regular soda.

Well it does, if all else is head steady. But the issue seems to be that nothing is held constant in reality and the missing sugars are made up for with snacks elsewhere.

I don't have much of a sweet craving. I turn down dessert much of the time, don't like candy generally.

What Diet Coke makes me crave is starches - "crunchy salt" in my wife's parlance. Potato chips, popcorn, crackers, stuff like that.

I'm assuming you're talking about canker sores. I don't know how much help this will be to you, but here it is anyway:

You may have tried these, but I've found the best ways to dull the pain are swishing 50/50 Maalox/Benadryl and using a styptic pencil.

Also, I've found in my case that what helps most to prevent them is keeping my mouth as clean as possible. The two main causes I've identified are illness and physical trauma to the tissue. The worst offender is the crap plaque excrete; it eats away at tissue, and I've found more than a few new sores under a stray piece of lunch. Oh, and I've had far fewer sores since I switched to an SLS-free flavour of Sensodyne.

It's diagnosed as lichen planus... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen_planus

It's possible that the core trigger is actually a beta blocker I'm on for high blood pressure. If so, I'll deal with the lichen planus - seriously, I'd rather have a sore mouth than a stroke.

Sorry to ask this personal question, do you know if there is a name for the autoimmune problem that causes scores?

probably psoriasis

Or lichen planus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen_planus#Oral_lichen_planu...

It's lichen planus. Diagnosed years ago.

Some such sores, if occasional, may just be canker sores:

http://www.healthline.com/health/canker-sores

I've noted a correlation with: stress or lack of sleep; candy binges; eating scratchy foods like say popcorn.

I've been suffering from these blasted things for 18 years, and have similarly noted the same sorts of correlations. My best efforts: cutting out gum; cutting out sharp foods; cutting out acidic foods; taking vitamins B-12 and C, L-lysine, and zinc; switching toothpastes and brushing techniques. I regret not recording my history of occurrences, but I perceive things are improving. At the very least, it's safe to say the cause of canker sores is multi-factorial.

Sorry, I'm rambling. No one in my life can relate, so I'll take any chance to talk about it.

I can relate. You're probably right about them being multi-factorial, but changing toothpaste has been the biggest help to me. I use baking soda most of the time and have avoided these sores for years.

You reminded me: I switched years ago to SLS-free toothpaste (Biotene), because that's supposed to help. And for many reasons, I now eat way less sugar and sugary drinks. Maybe because of those changes, or just age, I get canker sores much less frequently. When I was younger, it was maybe 2-3 times a year, and sometimes 2 at once. Now I go a year or two between single, smaller ulcers. Good luck!

I've noticed the same causes and correlation. Canker sores' formal name is aphthous stomatitis. But whether it is an autoimmune disease is debatable. As noted in [1]:

"Despite this preferred theory of immuno-dysregulation held by most researchers,[7] aphthous stomatitis behaves dissimilarly to autoimmune diseases in many regards. "

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphthous_stomatitis

Sjogren's syndrome?

Does the same apply to Coke Zero also?

I was interested myself, and a Google search for "is coke zero diet coke" showed me:

> Coca‑Cola Zero delivers the great taste of Coca‑Cola, with zero sugar. While it has the same sweeteners as Diet Coke (a blend of aspartame and acesulfame-K), it has a different flavour base, though both are low calorie and zero sugar.

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