[HN Gopher] Diet Coke probably isn't a cognitive performance enh...
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       Diet Coke probably isn't a cognitive performance enhancer
        
       Author : Gadiguibou
       Score  : 74 points
       Date   : 2022-06-13 16:24 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (dynomight.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (dynomight.net)
        
       | htk wrote:
       | So they just decided to ignore the Caffeine in it for the sake of
       | making a point?
        
         | kraquepype wrote:
         | It isn't mentioned, but maybe they used caffeine free diet
         | coke?
        
         | jacobmischka wrote:
         | Yeah, this article makes no sense. Caffeine is absolutely a
         | cognitive performance enhancer and is undisputably in Diet
         | Coke.
        
       | dougdonohoe wrote:
       | Back in the dot-com days, thanks to employer-subsidized soda
       | fridges, I was drinking easily 6+ cans of diet soda a day (in my
       | case, Diet Dr. Pepper). Along with other startup related
       | behaviors like eating fast food (Carl's Jr, what's up?) and not
       | exercising, my weight increased to around 220 lbs on a 6'1"
       | frame. I stopped drinking diet soda around the time I joined a
       | weight-loss startup in 2011, and started eating healthier and I
       | end up dropping down to around 175 lbs, which I more or less
       | maintain to this day. I personally think "diet soda", even though
       | "0 calories" doesn't do anything great for your metabolism or
       | weight and is a great oxymoron of a product.
        
         | treeman79 wrote:
         | Between personal experience and Having talked to a lot of
         | weight loss people. Diet sodas seem to increase overall hunger.
         | Making it harder to stick to a good diet.
         | 
         | People have one can lose weight on a Twinkie diet. Doesn't mean
         | it will work for the 99% of us.
        
         | jamal-kumar wrote:
         | The fact may be that artificial sweeteners may alter your
         | microbiome and cause you to crave more calories as a result [1]
         | 
         | Not to mention the most carcinogenic ingredient? It's the dark
         | caramel coloring, which is why you get in Denmark 'clear cola'
         | from their local brands (North Americans can enjoy some Zevia
         | in this way). I guess that's just burnt sugar off the bottom of
         | a vat or something. [2] Not to mention the phosphoric acid in
         | there for the 'taste', which is a pretty sweet ingredient for
         | stripping rust off of chrome! [3]
         | 
         | I don't know why I still drink this stuff on occasion hahaha.
         | They even take that acid out of stuff like hardware store rust
         | strippers these days.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-
         | can-...
         | 
         | [2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/289687
         | 
         | [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OdX42NjWQ
        
         | symlinkk wrote:
         | It sounds like you're confusing the effects of eating unhealthy
         | food with the effects of drinking soda
        
           | daniel_reetz wrote:
           | There's some clinical evidence that artificual sweeteners are
           | associated with weight gain. It's interesting stuff and worth
           | a look.
        
         | stordoff wrote:
         | > around the time I joined a weight-loss startup in 2011, and
         | started eating healthier
         | 
         | I'm not sure how you can distinguish between the effect of the
         | change to the drinks and the effect of the other changes.
         | 
         | Personally, I've gone from drinking 6+ cans of Diet Coke a day
         | to 1-2 plus water with no other changes and noticed no effect
         | from it.
        
         | themitigating wrote:
         | I think everyone knows that "diet" in a product name means it's
         | healthier than the non-diet product.
         | 
         | It also does help with your health if you were going to consume
         | the non-diet version of that product in similar quantities.
        
           | rr888 wrote:
           | > I think everyone knows that "diet" in a product name means
           | it's healthier than the non-diet product.
           | 
           | Disagree with this. Its marketing BS to focus on one diet
           | optimization usually at the expense of something else.
        
             | shadowofneptune wrote:
             | What would be the something else? There are occasional
             | studies that may indicate health risks associated with diet
             | soda, but as best as I can tell they are not really
             | conclusive. The health issues with consuming large amounts
             | of refined sugar on the other hand are concrete and very
             | well documented. Dental caries, increased likelihood of
             | developing diabetes mellitus, etc.
        
               | culi wrote:
               | It's true that refined sugar has been very clearly proven
               | to be associated with terrible consequences to your
               | health. But most of the sugar substitutes used in "diet"
               | products simply don't have those warnings because they're
               | just newer and less studied. But there's been a lot of
               | recent research showing just how bad these artificial
               | sweeteners can be even in small amounts. Some studies
               | have even shown long-lasting and intergenerational
               | effects on the gut microbiome[0] and increased cancer
               | risks.[1] The impacts on the gut microbiome[2] are
               | particularly worrying to me. Many of these sweeteners
               | love to sit in your gut for a while and can lead to
               | really weird microbiome makeups and possibly even be a
               | risk factor for diabetes and/or metabolic syndromes
               | 
               | [0] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.202
               | 1.79584...
               | 
               | [1] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.
               | 1371/jo...
               | 
               | [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/
               | 
               | More reading:
               | 
               | - https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-
               | sweeteners-su...
               | 
               | - https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.13
               | 71/jo...
        
           | saiya-jin wrote:
           | Aspartame which is often used for 'diet' drinks is rather
           | crappy chemical stuff you really shouldn't be putting in your
           | body in the first place.
           | 
           | People feel they are doing _something_ for their health when
           | its really not the case since they still remain well within
           | the junkfood category (something akin to using denser filter
           | in cigarettes - less big particles may well mean finer stuff
           | is kept in lungs for longer, and travels deeper)
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | IHMO you are confusing product marketing with good health
           | advice.
           | 
           | Marketing is just a legal way to tell only the good side of a
           | story.
           | 
           | "low-fat" usually means sugar. "sugar free" usually means
           | artificial sweeteners (or something made without sugar
           | anyway). Even "no added sugar" is suspect.
           | 
           | What I've found hilarious is the new "KETO!" marketing craze.
           | I really suspect that most of these products will not induce
           | or maintain ketosis.
           | 
           | (the actual health impact of ketosis is not clear to me
           | anyway)
        
             | gigaflop wrote:
             | A ketogenic diet is ultra-low-carb, to the point where your
             | body enters ketosis, and becomes much more amenable to
             | burning your fat reserves for energy.
             | 
             | Essentially, keto-friendly means very low carb/sugar.
        
         | x3iv130f wrote:
         | The trick is to do an 4:1 dilution of sparkling water and diet
         | soda.
         | 
         | You will end up with 1-2 cans of diet soda heavily diluted by
         | water.
         | 
         | After you get used to it, ordinary canned soda will start
         | tasting like the carbonated syrup it actually is.
        
           | Raphael wrote:
           | Sparkling water on its own is fine.
        
           | jansan wrote:
           | Oh no, the trick is to buy the sirup from a discount
           | supermarket (for example Aldi's Diet Orange soda sirup) and
           | dillute it with water from your sodastream (or sodastream
           | knock-off, also from Aldi). This way you will always know
           | that there are three components in your soda: sirup, tap
           | water and CO2.
        
             | kreeben wrote:
             | Ok so there's an even better trick, hear me out. Don't
             | drink soda. It's sugar, water, and purple. Two of those are
             | not good for you.
        
               | culi wrote:
               | It's wild how far we go to keep doing our bad habits.
               | It's like with veganism. That major EAT-Lancet study
               | found that, although vegetarianism and veganism had many
               | positive impacts on measures of environmental impacts,
               | vegetarianism was actually more beneficial than veganism
               | on impact of biodiversity. This is basically because
               | vegans consume more "fake meat" and other such products
               | that require a lot of processing and packaging and end up
               | having a terrible impact on the environment
               | 
               | Curry is great! I do veganism occasionally for periods of
               | time and I personally believe that if you can't do it
               | without craving meat you are just not creative enough.
               | There's plenty of amazing food and flavors out there that
               | don't need meat. Not to mention, you'd probably have a
               | smaller environmental impact by buying some really
               | expensive meat/eggs from some free-range farmer from your
               | local farmer's market than if you buy that fake meat
               | stuff that's probably made of the soybeans grown on the
               | soy farms that are rapidly replacing the Amazon
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | What would have happened if you continued to drink Diet Dr.
         | Pepper while also joining the weight-loss startup, eating
         | healthier and exercising?
        
       | runjake wrote:
       | Trivia: Diet Pepsi has 177mg Aspartame, so a rounding error's
       | difference of phenylalanine.
       | 
       | Perhaps this started as a Diet Coke marketing viral campaign?
        
       | bena wrote:
       | I wasn't even aware this was a question.
       | 
       | I'd also consider the possibility that high-achievers realize
       | that drinking calories is hardly ever worth it. And if you want
       | something that tastes like soda but has all the nutritional value
       | of water, Diet Coke is your best option.
        
         | the_lonely_road wrote:
         | This is me so long as you consider me a high-achiever. I got
         | addicted to coke when I was young and as an adult I drink lots
         | of Coke Zero (previously Diet Coke) because I can't or don't
         | want to break the habit and I want to preserve every spare
         | calorie I can for desserts. Not gaining weight as I
         | transitioned into an old man required me to severely cut back
         | on my consumption and liquid calories have always been at the
         | top of the list.
        
           | bombcar wrote:
           | The absolute best pipeline is to go Coke -> Diet Coke -> Coke
           | Zero -> Caffeine Free Coke Zero -> colored water -> water,
           | but there is no pipeline at all. It was cancelled, and people
           | should be aware of what they drink and drink mindfully and
           | responsibly.
        
             | corrral wrote:
             | For me it was Various Kinds of Sugary Soda -> Club Soda or
             | sparkling mineral water _sometimes_ with a squeeze of
             | citrus.
             | 
             | I craved the carbonation more than I craved the sugar, it
             | turns out. Club soda instead of seltzer water because
             | seltzer often has ~0 salt in it, which tastes pretty damn
             | gross when combined with carbonation (to me, anyway)
             | 
             | I find artificial sweeteners intolerable, so skipped that
             | phase, I guess.
        
             | kibwen wrote:
             | Sprite Zero has zero caffeine, if you must have a sugar and
             | caffeine-free Coke product.
        
               | thoughtpalette wrote:
               | Sprite doesn't include any caffeine [0] in the regular
               | version, but there's a massive amount of sugar as per
               | usual with soda.
               | 
               | [0]: https://www.sprite.com/products/sprite
        
               | kibwen wrote:
               | Indeed, which is why I specified Sprite Zero, which
               | doesn't seem to be too hard to find in stores when I
               | bother to look.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | Yeah, Sprite Zero is the sugar-free diet version.
        
             | gardenhedge wrote:
             | I dislike comments like this because it is stated as a
             | fact. There is no pipeline at all.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | I'll update it for you!
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | arnejenssen wrote:
         | I agree. I'd think it would inhibit the cognition. Just by the
         | fact that it is ultraprocessed "food". And we don't see smart
         | people drink sodas.
        
         | sph wrote:
         | One thing is certain: after years of Coke Zero, I've come to
         | dislike regular sugary Coke. It's undrinkable, makes me even
         | thirstier, and the American version with HFCS might be even
         | worse. Also, Coke Zero >> Diet Coke, it's the perfect version
         | of the Coca-Cola formula in my opinion.
         | 
         | The other day I had a sip of some no sugar soda, and I had to
         | double check if I had by mistake bought the full sugar one, it
         | tasted so sweet. Nope, it was sugar free. They're real good
         | these days, though I don't know how healthy.
        
           | pigtailgirl wrote:
           | -- can't drink coke zero or regular coke, regular coke is so
           | disgusting - coke zero is meh - however - easy to knock off 3
           | or 4 diets cokes in a work day - tastes so good --
        
           | jaywalk wrote:
           | I find Coke Zero disgusting. But I feel the same way about
           | regular Coke, and Coke Zero is supposed mimic the way it
           | tastes. So that makes sense.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | rpmisms wrote:
         | Protein shakes are great!
        
           | reidjs wrote:
           | Those have a massive amount of calories
        
             | jacobmischka wrote:
             | They really don't at all given their nutritional value. 25g
             | of protein (which should suppress appetite a bit) for 120
             | calories is by no means massive.
        
             | prvit wrote:
             | Check out isopure protein drinks for a lower calorie
             | alternative.
             | 
             | 0 carbs, lactose free. http://www.theisopurecompany.com/en-
             | au/product/isopurezeroca...
             | 
             | They aftertaste is a little weird, but still much easier to
             | drink than protein shakes.
        
               | thoughtpalette wrote:
               | YMMV. I LOVED the taste of those (used to get the green
               | tea flavor). I have now switched to an "infusions"
               | variety [0]. Has a better taste (I mix with water) than
               | chocolate in water, and is very refreshing after you let
               | it sit for about a min after shaking.
               | 
               | [0]:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FHPGS4V?pd_rd_i=B07FHPGS
               | 4V&pf_r...
        
               | nkozyra wrote:
               | Honestly one of the worst things I've ever tasted - I
               | haven't seen them around for years.
               | 
               | Plain protein powder (Optimum Nutrition / whatever you
               | like) is generally _mostly_ protein so if you 're good
               | with just chucking it in water you have a nearly
               | equivalent macro breakdown.
        
             | mlyle wrote:
             | They really do, but if you power a couple down in
             | substitute for lunch and aren't tempted to snack, then it
             | can be an OK thing to do.
        
               | gardenhedge wrote:
               | They should be used as a supplement and not a substitute.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | Eh. If you want to slightly lower your caloric intake,
               | and you normally eat a 700 calorie lunch... replacing
               | that with 350 calories of protein shake a few times per
               | week and still eating a healthy dinner, etc, is
               | reasonable.
        
             | SoftTalker wrote:
             | If you just want the protein you can buy unsweetened
             | protein powder and mix it with water. If that's too bland
             | you can add a little juice, still way less calories than
             | the typical bottled protein drink.
        
             | gigaflop wrote:
             | I use them as a convenient way to guarantee protein and
             | calories, and use them as a way to help hammer out my
             | hunger after the gym. 2-ish scoops, whole milk, mmm. Drink
             | it fast, because it is not meant to be savored.
             | 
             | 600 calories, tops.
        
             | nkozyra wrote:
             | They can, or they can't, depends on what's in them.
             | 
             | A scoop of protein powder in water or almond milk might hit
             | 130 calories and will satiate, unlike diet coke.
        
             | friedman23 wrote:
             | For the amount of protein they contain this is just false
        
           | wollsmoth wrote:
           | They are but I like a constant stream of cool drink around.
           | Usually this is just water or seltzer but sometimes it's a
           | coke zero :-)
        
       | sydthrowaway wrote:
       | Calories in vs calories out is a myth. How do diet sodas affect
       | insulin response? Not well I suspect.
        
         | IE6 wrote:
         | Perhaps from a purely academic sense but in practice it's
         | pretty reliable.
        
         | astrange wrote:
         | "Calories in vs calories out" is a restatement of the second
         | law of thermodynamics and must be true.
        
       | taylorius wrote:
       | Then how the hell did Trump do it, dammit??? ;-)
        
       | rendall wrote:
       | Well that blows my summer plans!
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | It took me many years but a great thing you can do for yourself
       | is quit all soda.
        
         | rbarragan wrote:
         | Even these "cognitive enhancer" sodas?
        
       | mattwest wrote:
       | Fun fact: Diet Coke has 34% more caffeine than regular Coke
       | 
       | https://www.coca-colacompany.com/faqs/what-is-caffeine#:~:te....
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | What a domain name. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite
         | like that.
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | Let me check my spam folder - yeah, there are tons of
           | phishing attempts with unusual combinations of hyphens, no
           | hyphens, and company/inc/group that have similar amounts of
           | legitimacy. A domain of coca-colacompany.com doesn't seem
           | that unusual.
           | 
           | Oh, you mean the                   #:~:text=
           | 
           | URI fragment - yeah, that is weird! I wonder what the
           | function of the :~ emoji is in their CMS. I know from painful
           | experience that XML names can begin with a colon [1]; I fear
           | that an identifier which is only a colon features prominently
           | in their schema...
           | 
           | I also enjoyed the line at the bottom, in corporatese
           | nonanswer to the question "Is caffeine addictive?"
           | 
           | > We know that not everyone drinks caffeine and not everyone
           | wants to drink it all the time, so we also offer a range of
           | caffeine-free beverages, including [insert local caffeine-
           | free example] so people can make the choice for them and
           | their families.
           | 
           | Someone in some committee vetoed 'including water', much to
           | the chagrin of the Dasani and Smartwater reps in the
           | meeting... or maybe they were duking it out with the new Aha
           | guy and there was no clear winner yet.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#NT-NameStartChar
        
             | atombender wrote:
             | It's called a text fragment, and it's a draft standard:
             | https://wicg.github.io/scroll-to-text-fragment/.
        
             | maleno wrote:
             | It's not a CMS thing, it's a Chrome thing.[1] It highlights
             | the text in the URI fragment when you click through to the
             | page, and also auto-scrolls to that text.
             | 
             | [1] https://web.dev/text-fragments/
        
               | acka wrote:
               | It appears that Google Search has started to add those
               | text fragments onto URLs in search results. Is there a
               | setting or a browser extension that allows me to get rid
               | of them?
        
               | Sylamore wrote:
               | Bing does it too
        
               | LeifCarrotson wrote:
               | TIL! I'm a Firefox user, so didn't see anything.
        
           | jaywalk wrote:
           | Not a lot of companies have a dash in their name like that.
        
             | MrPoush wrote:
             | It can be very helpful when providing clarity about where a
             | word break should be. There's a reason that Experts
             | Exchange uses http://www.experts-exchange.com rather than
             | the hyphen-free version.
        
             | gowld wrote:
             | www.hy-vee.com
             | 
             | www.winndixie.com
             | 
             | www.coca-cola.com !!
        
         | dwaite wrote:
         | I suspect this is to try to quantitatively match the stimulant
         | effect of caffiene plus sugar/HFCS in the sweetened
         | alternatives.
        
           | scoopertrooper wrote:
           | Alternately, the artificial sweetener might end up being too
           | sweet, so they balance it out with some more bitter caffine.
        
             | jjice wrote:
             | My guess would've been the appetite suppressant qualities
             | of caffeine.
        
             | gowld wrote:
             | Why would they do that instead of putting in less
             | sweetener?
        
               | yababa_y wrote:
               | balancing out the acid maybe?
        
               | function_seven wrote:
               | This is like the Three Body Problem, but with recipe
               | ingredients!
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | I drink a lot of caffeine free diet coke now that I've
             | developed a caffeine intolerance, and I think you're right.
             | It doesn't have the bite without the caffeine and tastes
             | kind of flat.
        
           | tppiotrowski wrote:
           | Am I the only one that experiences sugar as a depressant?
           | Eating high glycemic index foods makes me lethargic and
           | sleepy. I've never experienced a "sugar high". I also don't
           | have diabetes as my blood sugar level is within norm during
           | routine physicals.
        
             | javierga wrote:
             | Yes, this happens to me too. I can get maybe a maximum
             | 15-20 minutes of increased cognitive performance after
             | ingestion. Once that is over I become lethargic and
             | afterwards a bit irate since my concentration dips.
             | 
             | It bothers me that people like Warren Buffet can go along
             | their day ingesting copious amounts of coke normal and
             | sweets and still be a functional productive human being.
        
               | tppiotrowski wrote:
               | When I used to work at big tech, we had a candy buffet in
               | the kitchen and unlimited ice cream. This definitely
               | lowered my work performance.
        
               | teekert wrote:
               | Did they sell diabetes solutions? "Eat your own dog
               | food"...
        
               | javierga wrote:
               | I would probably not leave the buffet in order to
               | maintain my high... thankfully in small tech I've only
               | been offered access to water and coffee.
        
             | treeman79 wrote:
             | Had that for years. Then got diagnosed with an autoimmune
             | condition. Eliminating sugar is the number one thing that
             | helps prevent flares for me.
        
             | culi wrote:
             | Yeah same here. I feel like crap almost right away when I
             | eat most anything with a decent amount of added sugars
        
             | kilroy123 wrote:
             | That sounds like insulin resistance, not diabetes.
        
             | Melatonic wrote:
             | It is probably just overload for you - I get the same thing
             | after a big big meal or a lot of sugar. But a small amount
             | is another story. If you drank the original size of coke
             | (which I think was 8 ounces?) you might have another
             | reaction!
        
               | tppiotrowski wrote:
               | The amount definitely has an effect, but its a linear
               | function where lethargy increases proportional to sugar
               | intake.
        
             | cdaven wrote:
             | Yep, me too! There is actually a link between high GI and
             | sleepyness; orexin. It's a chemical messenger in the brain,
             | and if you have very little of it, you have narcolepsy. If
             | you have been injected or sprayed with a lot of it, you
             | stay alert without sleep. Oh, and glucose inhibits orexin
             | production!
             | 
             | My personal theory is that I have inherited a low base
             | level of orexin, which makes me react with sleepyness to
             | carbohydrates. I have no idea if this is accurate, though.
        
               | tppiotrowski wrote:
               | Maybe you could eliminate orexin as the cause if you ate
               | a big meal and inhaled orexin, then noted if it lowered
               | drowsiness (placebo affect aside)
        
             | tonguez wrote:
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | There's a theory out there that since your intestines have
             | 'taste buds' for sugar, that eating artificial sweetener
             | ends up increasing your body's ability to scavenge sugars
             | from your digestive tract.
             | 
             | It's one of the working theories for a causative link
             | between obesity and consumption of diet soda. Which is
             | usually swamped by the correlative link between the two.
        
             | cryptoanon wrote:
             | Do you have ADHD? That's the typical reaction to
             | stimulants.
        
             | ksaj wrote:
             | There is the well-known "sugar crash" but it sounds like
             | you basically start the crash without any of the energy
             | boost.
        
             | seer wrote:
             | Maybe you just get the insulin spike that deals with excess
             | sugar in the blood much sooner which I think is what is
             | supposed to make you sleepy. Probably should consider
             | yourself lucky :)
        
             | oldgradstudent wrote:
             | Could potentially be reactive hypoglycemia:
             | 
             | https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-
             | conditions/diabetes/expe...
             | 
             | It could occur even if fasting blood glucose is still at
             | normal levels.
        
           | dhosek wrote:
           | Sugar, despite popular belief, is _not_ a stimulant (I'd have
           | to pull up my Intro Psych textbook to find the citations on
           | this, but it's been deeply studied).
        
             | frosted-flakes wrote:
             | Similarly, it doesn't make kids hyper. That's probably just
             | a side effect of the environment in which kids typically
             | get candy. There was a study, but I don't know what it was
             | called.
        
           | oldgradstudent wrote:
           | Coke Zero, on the other hand, has the same amount of caffeine
           | as regular Coke, which makes me doubt this hypothesis.
        
       | jp57 wrote:
       | "Placebo enthusiasts" is a great term.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | I found out that when I stop drinking Diet Coke, I get depression
       | symptoms. (Reproduced three times now).
       | 
       | It must have something to do with the aspartame in it. When I
       | take DLPA pills (a breakdown product of aspartame), the
       | depression goes away quite fast. Drinking a can or two of Diet
       | Coke also does the trick.
        
         | johndoughy wrote:
         | You sure it's not just the caffeine? Caffeine withdrawal
         | symptoms includes depression and a host of related symptoms.
        
         | bradlys wrote:
         | Try caffeine free and see if it persists. I drink caffeine
         | free.
         | 
         | I'll be going on a multi month purge from it though. Water only
         | for a few months. It'll be brutal especially because I have
         | high standards for water. (And most water tastes terrible)
        
         | jamal-kumar wrote:
         | I'd talk to your doctor about this:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_dependence
        
       | sandworm101 wrote:
       | Biggest advantage over regular coke: does not get sticky when you
       | spill it.
        
         | BeefWellington wrote:
         | Also, does not attract ants.
        
         | Dragonai wrote:
         | Stains from diet soda are also way easier to completely clean
         | up due to the lack of sugar! I've seen Diet Coke/Coke Zero
         | stains vanish from light-colored clothing within minutes.
        
       | cwillu wrote:
       | It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the cola of
       | coca that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire pits, the
       | pits become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in
       | motion.
        
       | anonymouse008 wrote:
       | > More concretely, phenylalanine is in all sorts of foods like
       | eggs, chicken, milk, soybeans, and breast milk. Remember how
       | phenylalanine is an essential amino acid? And remember how you're
       | reading this right now and not dead? From these facts, we may
       | conclude that you consume phenylalanine all the time.
       | 
       | Oh man, this had me chuckling and is a great TLDR for many
       | supplements.
        
         | whoomp12342 wrote:
         | i so confused. is phenylalanine good or bad?
        
           | FredPret wrote:
           | Causing one to be not dead weighs heavily in its favour by my
           | reckoning
        
           | sharedfrog wrote:
           | > essential amino acid
           | 
           | Essential means you both need it to live and your body can't
           | make it on its own - you must get it from diet.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | tetraca wrote:
           | It generally isn't. Some people don't have the ability to
           | metabolize phenylalanine, and it will slowly poison them.
           | However, if this is you, you would definitely know.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | amelius wrote:
             | So if your PA level is constantly high because of drinking
             | Diet Coke, then you will poison yourself too?
        
               | tetraca wrote:
               | > PA level is constantly high because of drinking Diet
               | Coke
               | 
               | I'd probably question if this is even possible in a
               | healthy individual. You probably eat a lot of
               | phenylalanine regularly. My intuition is that you'd
               | really have to go out of your way and actively want to
               | give yourself brain damage to even achieve this.
               | 
               | Given this: https://www.myfooddata.com/articles/high-
               | phenylalanine-foods... which shows chicken breast has
               | 2190mg and your average can of diet coke has around 104
               | mg https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1617863/, I think that
               | probably holds.
               | 
               | EDIT: That link probably underscores that the warning
               | label on your coke can is purely for the benefit of
               | Phenylketoneurics, not you. A steak & 2 egg breakfast
               | with a latte would land you with far more phenylalanine
               | than you could sanely consume purely through coke. You'd
               | likely be sick from the caffeine sooner than the
               | phenylalanine.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | No.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | If you have phenylketonuria, then you can't metabolize it
           | very fast and so anything in excess of what your body needs
           | becomes a liability.
        
       | dankai wrote:
       | Contrary to most opinions here, I lost weight through Diet Coke
       | and diet drinks and kept it down thanks to it. These sodas (or
       | rather the artificial sweeteners) allowed me to cut out sugar
       | totally out of my diet at age 16 where I weighed 250 lbs at my
       | highest, to 140 lbs at my lowest at age 21. Now I'm 30 years old
       | at a healthy 160 lbs. I never worked out (still hate it) and only
       | achieved this thanks to the dietary changes I was able to make
       | through 0-calorie sweeteners. Perhaps my experience differs from
       | other peoples, but I personally know 2-3 other people like me.
       | Today, like most days, I drank at least 80 fl oz of diet soda and
       | it never had a negative effect on me.
        
         | gigaflop wrote:
         | Back when I was losing weight, I was fueled by caffeine,
         | anxiety, and aspartame, so this checks out with my own
         | experience. 270 to 180, sitting now around 205.
         | 
         | I did mostly cardio back then, but now lift weights. Switching
         | to 0-calorie drinks has allowed me to better balance my diet
         | for my personal wants/needs.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | Do you drink water at all? Have you ever had a kidney stone?
        
           | dankai wrote:
           | I do drink water sometimes. But during the day, when I'm
           | working or out at a restaurant it's 99% diet soda. I haven't
           | tasted sugar based Coke in over 15 years because of my
           | aversion against sugar.
           | 
           | Never had a kidney stone or anything like it.
        
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