I’ve decided I’m going to take a slow approach to this diet. Therefore, Step #1–Give up drinking soda–all soda–Regular and Sugar-Free.
My thinking is if I ease myself into a diet, there’s a good chance when I get to Step #10 I won’t even notice I’m on a diet because I’ve been giving up a little at a time.
In case you think I picked something easy to give up, be advised that right now, if you looked in my refrigerator you would find: 2 cans of Bargs Root Beer, 1 Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and 1 Shasta Orange Soda. Obviously, I’m a soda fiend. But that stops today.
And as for sugar-free soda, read what David Thorpe had to say about it all the way back in 2010.
In the case of diet soda there are no calories, but the chemicals you are drinking trick the body into believing it’s eating something sweet.
One of the most commonly used artificial sweeteners is Aspartame (just check your ingredients). This little bad boy will actually prevent your body from producing serotonin (responsible for controlling appetite amongst other things).
And what does your body do when it is suffering from low serotonin levels? It tells your body to go and get some of the foods that it knows will stimulate the release of the chemical.
And guess what, this just happens to be the waistline expanding, high-calorie, carbohydrate-rich, processed “junk” foods that every dieter fears!
So there you have it; sugar free soda is encouraging your cravings for junk food. Bad news.
