…or not, as recently revealed by A Doctor:
A Harvard and Stanford trained gastroenterologist has revealed four scary facts about diet soda — and why you may not want to drink them anymore.
I’ll spare you the need to click on the link. Diet pops (Diet Coke, -Pepsi, whatever) mess with the following:
- Heart
- Kidneys
- Gut biome
- and make you crave chocolate (or something like that)
Of course, they all taste like shit, without exception, so there’s also that. In my experience, people who claim the opposite have generally been drinking them for an extended period — i.e. their taste buds have become accustomed to that battery acid tang. I tried a couple of them, many years ago, and found that they made me thirstier than I was before drinking them.
For those who read John Sandford’s Prey novels, this will come as Bad News to ace detective Lucas Davenport, who seemingly chugs a Diet Coke with every meal. Then again, he also drinks that foul Leinenkugel beer, so his taste in drinks is questionable at best.
Kicked the diet soda several years ago, replacing it with iced tea. Black tea aggravated my gout, so I went with those Celestial Seasonings fruit-flavored teas, YMMV. Caffeine-free, and a quart of iced tea runs me about 18 cents, vs nearly $3 for a 2-liter bottle of soda. Sometimes I splurge on non-diet soda, but only to use as a cocktail mixer.