Almost at end of Two weeks and have ??s.

[cathy_cox]

First, where to diet sodas fit into the plan? I used them this last week for some flavor variety but I believe they caused some water retention, just like sodium would. Does anyone have a thought or experience with this they'd like to share?

Secondly, I was put on some muscle relaxers and pain meds this week. Water retention again. Its a little frustrating but I know that it is only temporary. Is drinking water (I've managed to drink about 4 half liter bottles a day) the best way to drop water weight?

Now a confessional along with a question. With yesterday being Mother's Day, I was treated quite well. That included yummy Pizza Hut pizza and bread sticks. I ate the smallest two slices there and one of each type of bread sticks. The night before we had a large family gathering at a Chinese restaurant. There I ate Dragon and Phoenix where the chicken is fried. These are all things I wouldn't normally do, but did for social reasons. NOW its time to get back in the game and win! I didn't like the 3 lbs jump up in weight this morning, but it doesn't really have me down. It was worth it, I suppose, to show some appreciation for some folks around me.

Do any of you let yourselves go off for such "events"? Or do you think its a bad idea in the weight loss game-of-health?

Thanks for reading this far. This forum is terrific!

:thup: :help:

[Rsmry]

Hi Cathy,

I think the answers will vary. Some people seem able to plan cheats and jump right back on plan. That doesn't work for me; I know that one breadstick would lead to three, etc., and that for me and my particular health situation, I have to look at bread and potatoes and rice and pasta as poison, not goodies. But again, that is my situation. I can't answer specifically about diet soda and SB, as I am doing Atkins, but I have found that the longer I follow the plan and the more I drink water, the less desire I have for soda. I maybe have one or two a week now, used to drink two or three a day.

Rosemary

[Meg_S]

For me diet drinks tend to be addictive.. and I consume too much and feel irritable. Other people have NO problem.. just go with your gut feeling. I tend to avoid sweetners except stevia, but that is just me. If you're craving sweets and it's a choice between a diet coke and a piece of cake.. well the coke might be better.

I let mysef go for events. It is a bad idea if having a planned cheat sends you off cheating for the next week, or worse.. month. They can be great to give yourself a break and enjoy something ... as well as to remind you how crappy you feel eating that kind of junk :)

[AmandaMc]

I like treats every now and then but as of yet I havent had one.You have to follow your heart. Are you now beating yourself over it if so was it worth it? I would suggest not weighing yourself and being extra good for the week then see what you are at. You now know the effects of what you ate an no that you need to get yourself back on track.

At the end of the day I know that I may gain a little but you can also let yourself enjoy the nicer things in life if you have the willpower to go back.

Best of Luck

Amanda xx

[csoar2004]

Recent studies (http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2001/nichd-10.htm) point to osteoporosis in young adults because a) they drink too much soda which leads to b) they don't drink/eat enough dairy and are therefore deficient in dietary calcium.

Yet ANOTHER indication that you are what you eat and it's not possible to ingest all the vitamins/minerals you need for good healthy through diet alone - particularly if you drink soda pop.Soda Causing Nutritional Deficiencies in Children


Children and adolescents who drink soda may be depriving themselves of several important vitamins and minerals, results of a new survey suggest.

The researchers note that soda consumption among children and adolescents rose 41% between 1989-1991 and 1994-1995, mostly displacing milk and juice, the leading sources of many vitamins and minerals in the American diet.

The results are based on data from more than 4,000 children aged 2 to 17 years.

Among children aged 2 to 5:

* 75% drank milk

* 53% drank juice

* 34% drank soda

In those aged 12 to 17:

* 63% of boy and 49% of girls drank milk

* 34% drank juice

* 68% of boys and 63% of girls drank soda

Soda drinkers were less likely to get the recommended levels of:

* vitamin A

* calcium

* magnesium

Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine November, 2000; 154: 1148-1152 The Amazing Statistics and Dangers of Soda Pop
By Sally Squires

Americans drink more soda pop than ever before:

* These popular beverages account for more than a quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.
* More than 15 billion gallons were sold in 2000.
* That works out to at least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman and child.

Kids are heavy consumers of soft drinks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they are guzzling soda pop at unprecedented rates.

Carbonated soda pop provides more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old toddler's diet than cookies, candies and ice cream combined.

Fifty-six percent of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily, and a third of teenage boys drink at least three cans of soda pop per day.

Not only are soft drinks widely available everywhere, from fast food restaurants to video stores, they're now sold in 60 percent of all public and private middle schools and high schools nationwide, according to the National Soft Drink Association. A few schools are even giving away soft drinks to students who buy school lunches.

As soda pop becomes the beverage of choice among the nation's young -- and as soda marketers focus on brand-building among younger and younger consumers -- public health officials, school boards, parents, consumer groups and even the soft drink industry are faced with nagging questions:

* How healthful are these beverages, which provide a lot calories, sugars and caffeine but no significant nutritional value?
* And what happens if you drink a lot of them at a very young age?

Last week, representatives of the soft drink industry, concerned that public opinion and public policy may turn against them, will staged a three-day "fly-in" to lobby Congress to maintain soft drinks sales in schools; and to educate lawmakers on the "proper perspective" on soft drink use.

The industry plans to counter a US Department of Agriculture proposal, announced in January, that would require all foods sold in schools to meet federal nutrition standards. That would mean that snack foods and soft drinks would have to meet the same standards as school lunches.

Nearly everyone by now has heard the litany on the presumed health effects of soft drinks:

* Obesity
* Tooth decay
* Caffeine dependence
* Weakened bones

But does drinking soda pop really cause those things?

To help separate fact from fiction, the Health section reviewed the latest scientific findings and asked an array of experts on both sides of the debate to weigh in on the topic. Be forewarned, however: Compared with the data available on tobacco and even dietary fat, the scientific evidence on soft drinks is less developed. The results can be a lot like soft drinks themselves, both sweet and sticky.

Obesity

One very recent, independent, peer-reviewed study demonstrates a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity.

One previous industry-supported, unpublished study showed no link. Explanations of the mechanism by which soda may lead to obesity have not yet been proved, though the evidence for them is strong.

Many people have long assumed that soda -- high in calories and sugar, low in nutrients -- can make kids fat. But until this month there was no solid, scientific evidence demonstrating this.

Reporting in The Lancet, a British medical journal, a team of Harvard researchers presented the first evidence linking soft drink consumption to childhood obesity. They found that 12-year-olds who drank soft drinks regularly were more likely to be overweight than those who didn't.

For each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the nearly two-year study, the risk of obesity increased 1.6 times.

Obesity experts called the Harvard findings important and praised the study for being prospective. In other words, the Harvard researchers spent 19 months following the children, rather than capturing a snapshot of data from just one day. It's considered statistically more valuable to conduct a study over a long period of time.

Researchers found that schoolchildren who drank soft drinks consumed almost 200 more calories per day than their counterparts who didn't down soft drinks. That finding helps support the notion that we don't compensate well for calories in liquid form.

Tooth Decay

Here's one health effect that even the soft drink industry admits, grudgingly, has merit. In a carefully worded statement, the NSDA says that "there's no scientific evidence that consumption of sugars per se has any negative effect other than dental caries." But the association also correctly notes that soft drinks aren't the sole cause of tooth decay.

In fact, a lot of sugary foods, from fruit juices to candy and even raisins and other dried fruit, have what dentists refer to as "cariogenic properties," which is to say they can cause tooth decay.

Okay, so how many more cavities are soft drink consumers likely to get compared with people who don't drink soda? This is where it gets complicated.

A federally funded study of nearly 3,200 Americans 9 to 29 years old conducted between 1971 and 1974 showed a direct link between tooth decay and soft drinks. Numerous other studies have shown the same link throughout the world, from Sweden to Iraq.

But sugar isn't the only ingredient in soft drinks that causes tooth problems. The acids in soda pop are also notorious for etching tooth enamel in ways that can lead to cavities. "Acid begins to dissolve tooth enamel in only 20 minutes," notes the Ohio Dental Association in a release issued earlier this month.

Caffeine Dependence

The stimulant properties and dependence potential of caffeine in soda are well documented, as are their effects on children.

Ever tried going without your usual cup of java on the weekend? If so, you may have experienced a splitting headache, a slight rise in blood pressure, irritability and maybe even some stomach problems.

These well-documented symptoms describe the typical withdrawal process suffered by about half of regular caffeine consumers who go without their usual dose.

The soft drink industry agrees that caffeine causes the same effects in children as adults, but officials also note that there is wide variation in how people respond to caffeine. The simple solution, the industry says, is to choose a soda pop that is caffeine-free. All big soda makers offer products with either low or no caffeine.

That may be a good idea, though it raises the question of whether soda machines in schools should be permitted to offer caffeinated beverages or at least be obligated to offer a significant proportion of caffeine-free products.

It also raises the question of how one determines a product's caffeine content. Nutrition labels are not required to divulge that information. If a beverage contains caffeine, it must be included in the ingredient list, but there's no way to tell how much a beverage has, and there's little logic or predictability to the way caffeine is deployed throughout a product line.

Okay, so most enlightened consumers already know that colas contain a fair amount of caffeine. It turns out to be 35 to 38 milligrams per 12-ounce can, or roughly 28 percent of the amount found in an 8-ounce cup of coffee. But few know that diet colas -- usually chosen by those who are trying to dodge calories and/or sugar -- often pack a lot more caffeine.

A 12-ounce can of Diet Coke, for example, has about 42 milligrams of caffeine -- seven more than the same amount of Coke Classic. A can of Pepsi One has about 56 milligrams of caffeine -- 18 milligrams more than both regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.

Even harder to figure out is the caffeine distribution in other flavors of soda pop. Many brands of root beer contain no caffeine. An exception is Barq's, made by the Coca-Cola Co., which has has 23 milligrams per 12-ounce can. Sprite, 7-Up and ginger ale are caffeine-free. But Mountain Dew, the curiously named Mello Yellow, Sun Drop Regular, Jolt and diet as well as regular Sunkist orange soda all pack caffeine.

Caffeine occurs naturally in kola nuts, an ingredient of cola soft drinks. But why is this drug, which is known to create physical dependence, added to other soft drinks?

The industry line is that small amounts are added for taste, not for the drug's power to sustain demand for the products that contain it. Caffeine's bitter taste, they say, enhances other flavors. "It has been a part of almost every cola -- and pepper-type beverage -- since they were first formulated more than 100 years ago," according to the National Soft Drink Association.

But recent blind taste tests conducted by Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore found that only 8 percent of regular soft drink consumers could identify the difference between regular and caffeine-free soft drinks.

The study included only subjects who reported that they drank soft drinks mainly for their caffeine content. In other words, more than 90 percent of the self-diagnosed caffeine cravers in this small sample could not detect the presence of caffeine.

That's why the great popularity of caffeinated soft drinks is driven not so much by subtle taste effects as by the mood-altering and physical dependence of caffeine that drives the daily self-administration.

And the unknown could be especially troublesome for the developing brains of children and adolescents. Logic dictates that when you are dependent on a drug, you are really upsetting the normal balances of neurochemistry in the brain. The fact that kids have withdrawal signs and symptoms when the caffeine is stopped is a good indication that something has been profoundly disturbed in the brain.

Exactly where that leads is anybody's guess -- which is to say there is little good research on the effects of caffeine on kids' developing brains.

Bone Weakening

Animal studies demonstrate that phosphorus, a common ingredient in soda, can deplete bones of calcium.

And two recent human studies suggest that girls who drink more soda are more prone to broken bones. The industry denies that soda plays a role in bone weakening.

Animal studies -- mostly involving rats -- point to clear and consistent bone loss with the use of cola beverages. But as scientists like to point out, humans and rats are not exactly the same.

Even so, there's been concern among the research community, public health officials and government agencies over the high phosphorus content in the US diet. Phosphorus -- which occurs naturally in some foods and is used as an additive in many others -- appears to weaken bones by promoting the loss of calcium. With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture.

The soft drink industry argues that the phosphoric acid in soda pop contributes only about 2 percent of the phosphorus in the typical US diet, with a 12-ounce can of soda pop averaging about 30 milligrams.

There's growing concern that even a few cans of soda today can be damaging when they are consumed during the peak bone-building years of childhood and adolescence. A 1996 study published in the Journal of Nutrition by the FDA's Office of Special Nutritionals noted that a pattern of high phosphorus/low calcium consumption, common in the American diet, is not conducive to optimizing peak bone mass in young women.

A 1994 Harvard study of bone fractures in teenage athletes found a strong association between cola beverage consumption and bone fractures in 14-year-old girls. The girls who drank cola were about five times more likely to suffer bone fractures than girls who didn't consume soda pop.

Besides, to many researchers, the combination of rising obesity and bone weakening has the potential to synergistically undermine future health. Adolescents and kids don't think long-term. But what happens when these soft-drinking people become young or middle-aged adults and they have osteoporosis, sedentary living and obesity?

By that time, switching to water, milk or fruit juice may be too little, too late.

Washington Post February 27, 2001; Page HE10we now return this thread to it's regular discussion. (you can't cheat a diet - you can only cheat yourself)

[zephyrs]

Diet pop I believe will make you retain water. I didn't cheat yesterday even with it being mothers day..I was so proud of myself..but when I stepped on the scale this morning I was up a half lb...the only culprit that is possible would be diet coke. I drank it pretty much all day yesterday instead of water since my it was readily available and my husband kept handing it to me.

So while I still plan on drinking it...I will moderate it and have it with my RM and maybe one other time durring the day.

[WNABTHN]

I have been drinking the carbonated flavored waters that I find at safeway or wal-mart. They are sugar free and give me that soda fix that I like. They are not like the other falvored waters I have had, more like soda. I notice I tend to lose a little faster when I cut back on the diet coke/ pepsi also.
As for the cheats. I did the same thing during the first month I was back on low carb. I don't know why recently I really cut back on the carbs. (well, I do love to watch that scale keep moving toward the 1's. ). But I think the mistake I made before in doing low carb and only sticking to it for 2 months then and gaining everything back, is after a while I really felt deprived. Even though I was eating good foods, there was so much I couldn't have. This time I really feel like for me it's a conscious choice of whether to eat something or not. Ususally I choose to stick to the plan and choose the lowest carb option availlable, but if my family decides to have chinese or pizza, I will have a little of the "bad" while concentrating mostly on the "good". For myself, that is how I make this way of eating something I can do for good.

[cathy_cox]

Thank you all for your thought provoking posts. All of the gave me a lot of information to think about. I am still up in weight today, so I know the consequences, weight wise, for making my goals. Temptation was much harder to deal with yesterday too, though I didn't cave. I will continue the course and know that eventually the weight will start going down again.

Thanks to all of you! May each of you drop 2 lbs by Friday.

[bkloots]

If confronted with the pizza challenge, you can always consider eating the top off. Cheese and pepperoni and a few green peppers won't kill you, although the sodium will be astronomical.

As for going off-plan...eventually, you'll be close to goal. At that point, you will have adapted low-carb eating to your personal tastes, and you'll be making more liberal choices. But if you've educated yourself conscientiously, you'll know that you aren't eating "normally" by previous standards, and you never will. Occasional variations will occur, but your pattern will continue to be low-carb. From time to time, you'll return to basic strategies (induction, or very low carb) to maintain your baseline weight. Bread and potatoes every day? Probably not.

[LilaCotton]

Welcome! You raise some really great questions.

As for pop, unless I'm out and about where the only cola I can get is Coke or Pepsi I stick with Diet Rite (Splenda-sweetened, no caffeine, no sodium), and at home usually only have 1 can per day. I don't know about pop causing water weight gain because I don't think I've experienced that.

I'm lucky to be one of those people who can have a planned off-plan meal and get right back on with my next meal. However, I wouldn't even attempted doing that during the first six months I was LCing because I was afraid I would cave. The longer you LC the easier it gets to stick with it and get back to it. I think, though, if a person has too many off-times, planned or not, it's going to be deterimental.

As for social occasions I don't feel I need to eat what everyone else does just because it's a party of whatever. Just a few weeks after we originally started LC we were invited to a party. There were plenty of non-LC treats there but I made sure to take a platter of allowable foods. Everyone else enjoyed their goodies and everyone enjoyed ours. :) If my family had been taking me to dinner on Mother's Day we would've gone someplace where LC eating is doable, because after all, it's Mother's Day and I would've chosen the place--and Pizza Hut would've definitely not been it. LOL

Since we didn't go out my daughter made a sugar-free cheesecake and whipped cream. One thing we've found about eating LC is that there are many, many options and between good recipe sections like on this site and some imagination no one here ever feels like they're missing out. :)

[liddie01]

i tried the flavored waters at my wallmart, unfortunately they are sweetened with aspertame, and that stops my weight loss, so i have to stay away from them.

[mrs j]

Hi

Jut to say I've found this thread really useful as I just weighed myself and was really upset to find I'd gained about 4lb since yesterday! However, I did drink sugar free pepsi max almost all day yesterday so I now know that this could be the reason. Two nights ago my husband and I were celebrating some news and 'accidently' drunk two bottles of Rose wine together, do people think that these two things combined could've pushed my weight back up? I have been low-carbing - food wise religiously so this must be behind it, what do you think?
Do you think that if I stick to water and sugar free cordial/squash for a couple of days this might help to shift the weight again?

Thanks!

[Elizellen]

Yes and yes!!

Alcohol will be used as a preferred fuel before any fats/protein/carbs you are eating so usually drinking even a little booze will delay any potential weightloss. some people have posted that if they drink a couple of servings of wine or other alcohol at the weekend it takes most of the next week to get back to where they were before drinking!!

I imagine a half share of 2 bottles of Rose wine might take a while to recover from!!

[cathy_cox]

I've dropped about 1.5 lbs this week, so maybe I've finally made it to the otherside of that plateau. I'm still needing prescrips for muscle spasms/pain which cause some water retention. Hopefully I can get fully off of those soon....like today!! I've taken a total of 4 advil so far at it's 2:15 in the afternoon. Looking promising.

I really like this list and the feedback that is given to posts. They have been very helpful as I find my body's carb line that dictates whether I'm going to gain, lose, or stay put on the scales. After finishing my first two weeks, I'm continuing the induction or Phase 1 for a while longer, looking at the weekend following Memorial Day. It won't be easy but it will sure be worth it!!!! Then I can work the carbs up a little to find my body's carb line (or fence, however you want to view it).

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to these posts.

[JandLsMom]

a rarely drink soda..but when i do i drink Diet Rite because it is no carb, no sugar, no cals, no sodium, no caffeine!!