Diet Soda Info for Diabetics

I’ll admit to having a weakness for diet soda. Whenever anyone gives me crap about it I’m filled with a bit of rage and I usually reply with, “Okay, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, LET ME HAVE MY VICE!” And I will still verbally destroy someone who says diabetics “can’t” have something. We all make our choices, choices may have consequences, but the choice is ours to make.
Anyhoodle, I do tend to read a lot of studies and I recently went down a Google-hole trying to learn about what specifically is it in say, diet coke, that can cause issues. I learned things.
The biggest “problem” with a any sweet-tasting beverage is that it prepares your body to get ready to DIGEST! You’re mouth hits sweet and your body’s all, that’s right bitch-we EATIN! and our pancreas gets all excited and sends out some insulin (well, it tries!) Our tummy gets all extra acid-ready! Then…..no food? So our bodies react by saying, “we set up the party, no one showed–invite EVERYONE!” and then our livers release a little extra glucagon to counteract that wee bit of insulin and then our blood sugars start to rise and then, then we have some serious HUNGRIES!
So, that’s the scoop on sweetened beverages.
But my precious diet coke? My beautiful fizzy caramel-colored love? Why do I crave that but not other sweetened stuff? Found a study that compared different types of diet sodas (colas vs lemon lime or mountain dew types) and brain chemistry and holy crap, no one is quite sure why exactly, but the colas become addictive whereas the non-colas do not. Wacky huh?
So, I’ve cut out about 80% of my diet cola use (gasp! I know, right?!) And have become a huge drinker of plain fizzy water (and yes, I researched it–plain fizzy water = water. No adverse effects). I don’t plan on giving diet coke up entirely, but I have cut down a LOT.