Comments on: A Short History of Beverages and How our Body Treats Them – Research Review

By: ania

ania — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:13:17 +0000

Hi Lyle,

In regards to sweeteners, are you able to post a separate topic?

For 8 years I maintained a low calorie diet and turned to artificially sweetened foods containing the sugar substitute phenylalanine (an amino acid). I read a lot of articles on this and refused to believe it was bad for me until I stumbled upon an article that made complete sense.

This effected my diet and energy levels severely and after quitting diet coke etc for just a few weeks, my body started going back to normal – which seemed miraculous at the time. In this short period after stopping the sweeteners, I also got off a whole bunch of drugs that were given to me by doctors to counteract all these severe problems I was having and felt fantastic. Previously, I was not able to do this for more than a couple of days.

The sweetener was breaking down into poisons in my system, including methanol. This explained many of my poisoning symptoms such as excessive alcohol consumption (ethanol is an antidote to methanol); struggling to digest food because of a depletion of enzymes; physical depression and many others.

Since I do not have links to scientific papers, it would be great to see something concrete from you.

By: Bradley Owen

Bradley Owen — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:51:46 +0000

So in theory then , even a bodybuilder on his/her conest diet could do fine with drinking diet soda every day? It doesn’t do anything bad for you worse than drinking a glass of water if i keep it under 4-5 cans a day? I ask because I used to practically inhaled the stuff for years..then all this talk about carbonated sodas effecting gastric emptying, causing bloating, abdominal distention, rotting your teeth out, aspartame, etc . scared me off the stuff. I miss it cause it really made my dieting easier.

By: lylemcd

lylemcd — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:38:07 +0000

Maybe if she were drinking regular (e.g. full calorie soda).

By: Bradley Owen

Bradley Owen — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:27:46 +0000

Some lady at work told me about how she quit drinking carbonated sodas after she read that carbonated soft drinks work on your stomach the same way they do in the bottle/can if its shaken,..the gas pressure blowing up the stomach a little bit like a balloon. But it sounds like hogwash to me so I figured I’d ask you before I believed it. She said she lost 2 inches on her waist after she quit drinking diet soda for 2 weeks. It might be an urban legend but there sure are lots of articles about it. So – I assume it’s just muscle comic quackery?

By: lylemcd

lylemcd — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:53:30 +0000

How in the world could it possibly do something like that? It’s bubbles.

By: Bradley Owen

Bradley Owen — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:11:02 +0000

What about the carbonation in sodas,…can it add to your waist size?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:33:35 +0000

How do you think this would apply to protein shakes? Anecdotally, people suggest weight gain shakes to “hard gainers.” Maybe they act half-way between milk sugary drinks–appetite compensates for the whey but not for all the maltodextrine and dextrose.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:35:03 +0000

Are you a rat? If the answer is ‘yes’, I’m impressed with your typing and your ability to answer my spam-trap question.

Assuming the answer is no, why do you care what happens in rats?

Because what happens in rats often doesn’t have a damn thing to do with what happens in humans.

See also: CLA, BAT and 99% of supplements that cause fat loss in rats but do jack shit in humans.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:31:02 +0000

Regarding your recommendation to consume beverages with non-caloric sweeteners, I’m curious as to your take on this study:

“A Role for Sweet Taste: Calorie Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats”
Swithers, Susan E.; Davidson, Terry L.
Behavioral Neuroscience. Vol 122(1), Feb 2008, 161-173.
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2008-01943-017

Thanks for another informative and interesting article.

By: Rambodoc

Rambodoc — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:42:40 +0000

I never really understood why the people who advocate the Paleo lifestyle (and possibly the EF, too) discourage milk consumption. I see a lot of vegetarians in India who can’t get enough protein without dairy sources. I myself use it a lot to give me around 45 grams of protein a day, even though I am not a vegetarian. On top of that, a lot of bodybuilders and sportsmen in India are avid milk drinkers (full-fat only!).