New campaign warns Americans are ‘drinking themselves fat'

[pam]

SAN FRANSISCO -- This holiday season, are you pouring on the pounds? A new public health campaign on the Internet has the graphic proof.

The campaign, called Drinking Yourself Fat, shows a soda can pouring out globs of disgusting fat instead of a sugary beverage. The message: Drinking one can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter in a year.

ksl.com - New campaign warns Americans are ‘drinking themselves fat'

[prisonchaplain]

There are a lot of miracle drinks out there claiming to help us lose 30 lbs. There all a scam though. I found out in order for them to work you have to quit eating anything else. Otherwise, they have more calories than soda pop!

[Elphaba]

My mother loves the court TV shows, and I watched one with her where the plaintiff had purchased a garment, which was essentially a girdle, from the defendant. The garment's manufacturer promised that the wearer would lose weight if s/he wore it continously after a short period of time.

The manufacturer's representative actually stood there on national television and promised that its wearing garment would result in weight loss.

I really try to think the best of people, but in cases like this, I am stumped. How anyone could believe simply wearing a piece of clothing is going to make you lose weight is beyond me. I hope it is simply a matter of being young and gullible. I hope.

Soda is a different story. My son stocks our fridge with soda and I did gain weight about six weeks after I started drinking it. I stopped, and with that, and eating smaller portions, I lost some weight. I believe I would have lost weight anyway because of the smaller portions, but I also believe I at least lost the soda-weight I had gained by discontinuing it.

(Obviously discontinuing soda didn't enhance my ability to write coherent sentences. )

Elphaba

[pam]

I have to agree with you Elphaba. I'm a huge soda drinker. When I quit drinking it for 6 months and went strictly to water (not changing my eating habits) I lost about 15 pounds. I picked up the soda habit again and quickly put it back on.

[Dravin]

Diet Dr. Pepper Baby!

[Hemidakota]

In moderation it is ok but daily use, well, that is adding over 300-plus calories and agree. I have noticed my wife began to stop drinking sodas and she lost weight and pretty much kept it off.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Hemidakota

[hordak]

There are a lot of miracle drinks out there claiming to help us lose 30 lbs. There all a scam though. I found out in order for them to work you have to quit eating anything else. Otherwise, they have more calories than soda pop!

If only people could understand the fat comes on slowly and comes off slowly.

[skalenfehl]

I stay away from sugar, especially in drinks. I do drink the occasional sugar free soda, though. Anything with high fructose corn syrup is the devil. Stay away from it. You'd be surprised just how many foods and drinks are sweetened with it. Fat City.

[Hemidakota]

I guess I need to remove my 2lb bag of M&Ms sitting on my desk since it is of the devil.

[Dravin]

I guess I need to remove my 2lb bag of M&Ms sitting on my desk since it is of the devil.

Yep. Of course if you just throw them away some hapless innocent might stumble upon them. You'll have to eat them. Please Hemi, will you make that sacrifice for your fellow man? To shield them from evil?

[pam]

I guess I need to remove my 2lb bag of M&Ms sitting on my desk since it is of the devil.

I'll be happy to take them off your hands. I mean..anything to help someone out.

[Hemidakota]

I did eat most of the bag as been told by the GOD DRAVIN and now, I now fill heavier in the last couple of days.

[theoriginalavatar]

SAN FRANSISCO -- This holiday season, are you pouring on the pounds? A new public health campaign on the Internet has the graphic proof.

The campaign, called Drinking Yourself Fat, shows a soda can pouring out globs of disgusting fat instead of a sugary beverage. The message: Drinking one can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter in a year.

ksl.com - New campaign warns Americans are ‘drinking themselves fat'

Mmmmmmmmmmm fat. We all have our vices.

For myself, I prefer those deep-fried twinkies they sell on Fremont Street (the kind covered in chocolate syrup, raspberry or strawberry sauce, and whip cream).

[Carter]

And just think with the new promo the pepsi is coming out with, the 'throw back' sodas, with pure sugar..... The really crazy thing is that its less carbs by 1 gram LOL

[ozzy]

I tried to sub out soda in order to lose weight once. I have concluded that subbing it with chocolate is a bad idea.

[OmahaLDS]

Diet Dr. Pepper Baby!

I have no scientific evidence for this, but I too was a diet fiend, specifically Diet Dr. Pepper. I was trying to lose some weight and I was working out like a Rocky montage, but it was not going that quickly. I was also inhaling Diet soda. A friend mentioned to me that his cousin dropped diet soda from the fridge and lost a ton of weight, so I tried it.

I doubled my weight loss. It was amazing. I do not know if maybe I had hit a nice stride, but it coincided with dropping Diet sodas, so I pulled them from my life altogether.

I drink lightly flavored water now. Still 0 calories.

[Dravin]

My understanding about the diet soda weight gain connection (which is inconclusive) rests on screwing up your bodies ability to judge the calories (it starts disconnecting sweet with calories) it is eating resulting in over eating. I count calories, so it's my brain not my body (excluding this past holiday season) that decides how much I eat. Actually I find the stomach full of liquid to trick your body into being satisfied ('full') useful. Water works just as well if not better but the water, at least round these parts, tastes nowhere near what Diet DP does, so drinking an equivalent amount is harder.

Tis funny, I had given up all sodas when I was on my Mission but picked up the diet habit when I got home. My Mom kept on asking me if I wanted one when I'd go into town with her. I migrated from Diet Coke with a shot of cherry, to Diet Pepsi (glorious stuff) to Diet DP (Ambrosia). :)

I drink lightly flavored water now. Still 0 calories.

WinCo carries some stuff, I think the brand is Northwest or some such that I like. The Dasani is utter crap, way to sweet. The Northwest may not be the mildest flavor but IMHO it is a lot less sweet tasting. I remember when I first picked up a Dasani thinking it was just straight up lemon water, I almost spit it out. :)

Edited January 10, 2010 by Dravin

[Melissa569]

People think that its just the sugar in soda that makes them fat, so they switch to diet soda, thinking they are making a wolrd of difference. But did you know that when a rusty chunk of metal was submerged in diet cola, the rust came off??? And that's what ur putting in ur intestines!

Plus, its really more the SODIUM that causes you to retain water, and thus gain lots of weight. So even if you drink diet soda, you're still causing yourself to bloat like crazy. If you must drink soda, get "Diet Rite", because it has no caffiene, no sugar, no calories, no carbs, no fat--- and NO SODIUM.

Of course, that doesn't mean that you can jsut drink Diet Rite all day... The chemicals in any flavored drink (crystal lite, diet rite, etc.) that give it the color, the flavor, etc.-- your body just doesn't process it as easily as it does plain water. Even those can slow your metabolism and make you bloat.

I would say shoot for plain water as much as possible.

[Dravin]

But did you know that when a rusty chunk of metal was submerged in diet cola, the rust came off???

You are aware that you stomach is full of acid right?

Orange juice and vinegar can also remove rust, and ketchup and milk can remove tarnish from pennies. Color me unimpressed with that particular factoid. It boils down to there being acids in the substances, soda isn't anywhere near alone in that regard. Diet Coke has a PH of 3.39 compared to Orange Juice's 3-4 range or Distilled White (table) Vinegar's ~2.5 , not really all that impressive.

It's funny. Every so often you get somebody decrying the innard eating properties of soda but you never get people warning you that the orange vinaigrette is liquid death.

Plus, its really more the SODIUM that causes you to retain water, and thus gain lots of weight. So even if you drink diet soda, you're still causing yourself to bloat like crazy.

A lot of diet sodas are "Very Low Sodium", a serving of Diet Pepsi (and Diet Dr. Pepper. Diet Coke and Sprite actually has a little less) is only 35mg. To put that into perspective that is 35mg compared to the RDA of 2400mg (maximum), or ~ 1.5%. To further put that into perspective the 1% milk in my fridge has 130mg of sodium per serving. So even if I'm sucking down 24oz of Diet Pepsi that is less sodium then a single 8 ounce serving of milk (32oz is only 10mg more). I'm thinking the sodium in diet drinks is actually pretty negligible unless you are drinking massive amounts.

Note, I'm not saying milk is evil, while it does contain more sodium it also has such goodies as protein, Vitamin D, Calcium, Vitamin A, Potassium and even a smidgen of Vitamin C. Where as, baring the small amount of sodium, the Diet Pepsi is a nutritional wasteland.

There are reasons to stay away from diet sodas, but they aren't loaded with sodium and they aren't going to eat through your intestines. They will eventually eat through your teeth, but then so will Orange Juice, and Orange Juice will do it better because it'll leave your mouth a high sugar environment.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Dravin

[nbblood]

Would ya'll get out of the way. You're blocking me from getting to the Pepsi machine.

[Bini]

I pretty much only consume water now.

BUT. I used to be a major soda-pop and coffee addict! And I used to love daiquiri and watermelon vodka night with the girls :[ I haven't really noticed a weight difference since then but I'm sure I'm much healthier now with primarily drinking water.

[ADoyle90815]

I know I've lost weight since I cut way back on my soda consumption, and replaced that soda with water and unsweetened tea, as I'm not LDS.