• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Soda consumption down slightly, still #1 source of calories in U.S. diet

Status
Not open for further replies.

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Juice is nowhere near as bad as soda, you guys are nuts.

Real juice is nutritious and good for you, and has natural sugars.

Soda contains caffeine, carbonic acid, refined sugars, and worst of all, phosphoric acid which actually deteriorates your bone density and destroy vitamins and minerals. The phosphoric acid destroys Vitamin D and can make your bones brittle and lead to osteoperosis.

Does juice do all that?

Naturalistic fallacy. "Natural sugars" vs "refined sugars" is irrelevant, look at the chemical composition.

The concern here is obesity. Relevant to that concern are two things:

-The empty liquid calories from the sugar water you're drinking that don't grant you any measure of satiety, so get added on top of your daily intake.

-The fructose content, which can mess with your appetite mechanisms and also gets metabolized directly into body fat.

They're both sugar water, with similar calories and similar amounts of fructose. Psychologically, fruit juice can be even worse, when you think you're drinking something healthy just because it has vitamins and it's derived from fruit, so you don't exercise any restraint.

No. Whole fruit generally is fine to consume because you're gaining satiety from it, it generally doesn't have much sugar per serving, and the sugar it does have is mitigated to some degree by the fiber. Try eating three whole oranges vs drinking a glass of orange juice. One you can do in ten seconds in the middle of a 1500 calorie meal, and the other is a meal.
 

morningbus

Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
I switched exclusively to tea and water years ago and it's probably been one of the best decisions I've made.
 

andycapps

Member
Juice = high sugar with greatly reduced nutrients from the whole fruit + next to none of the fiber from the whole fruit to slow the sugar down.

From a pure fat-gain/fat-loss perspective, juice can be just as bad as soda without question.

Juice also has been reported to have higher amounts of arsenic in it over drinking water and the industry says that juice and water shouldn't be held to the same standards so it's cool.

So is juice as bad as soda? It can be. I think what makes it worse is when people try and pretend that it's a healthy thing to consume when in reality it's hurting them just as bad.

Spot on. People are better off drinking water and then eating some fruit afterwards if they really want that taste. Or drinking water with their fruit, or something.
 

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
From a weight perspective, yes you can definitely gain weight by drinking juice all the time. I wasn't talking about juice from the store anyway, I juice my fruits. You barely lose any of the nutrients, if any, besides the fiber in skins of some of the fruit.

But it will not have the deteriorating effects on your body that sodas do.

Cool cool, sounds like we're on the same page for the most part.
 
From a weight perspective, yes you can definitely gain weight by drinking juice all the time. I wasn't talking about juice from the store anyway, I juice my fruits. You barely lose any of the nutrients, if any, besides the fiber in skins of some of the fruit.

But it will not have the deteriorating effects on your body that sodas do.

I guess Diet Soda is just as bad then?
 
Juice you buy from stores is just as bad as Soda.

Have none of you guys seen HBO's Weight of the Nation? That's the biggest trick these soda companies pulled. Bill Clinton required that no school should be selling Soda. They agreed. Instead they filled the schools with power drinks, juices and gatorade. They are equally as bad as Coca Cola and Pepsi.
 
Naturalistic fallacy. "Natural sugars" vs "refined sugars" is irrelevant, look at the chemical composition.

The concern here is obesity. Relevant to that concern are two things:

-The empty liquid calories from the sugar water you're drinking that don't grant you any measure of satiety, so get added on top of your daily intake.

-The fructose content, which can mess with your appetite mechanisms and also gets metabolized directly into body fat.

They're both sugar water, with similar calories and similar amounts of fructose. Psychologically, fruit juice can be even worse, when you think you're drinking something healthy just because it has vitamins and it's derived from fruit, so you don't exercise any restraint.

No. Whole fruit generally is fine to consume because you're gaining satiety from it, it generally doesn't have much sugar per serving, and the sugar it does have is mitigated to some degree by the fiber. Try eating three whole oranges vs drinking a glass of orange juice. One you can do in ten seconds in the middle of a 1500 calorie meal, and the other is a meal.

I would be far more worried of the other effects of soda than gaining some pounds, which is what I was getting at.
 

dralla

Member
I was in the supermarket the other day and I was behind a mom and her son in line, kid was about 10-12ish. He wanted to get an energy drink but the mom said "no way, go get a soda instead!", It was kind of crazy.

Anyway, I picked up 3 cases of diet soda yesterday, the stuff is just so damn cheap. I usually drink a can with my lunch. I haven't had a regular soda in a couple years now, I don't think I could finish a can, the stuff is just too damn sugary. Even certain diet sodas are too sweet for me. I wish Zevia wasn't so friggin expensive, I'd love to buy that instead, oh well :( Sobe LifeWater 0 is also good, naturally sweetened too, but also a little pricey.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
what about this stuff?
0007146420060_500X500.jpg

good or bad?

The carrot one isn't too bad. Considerably less sugar than coke. Quite a bit of salt in there though if you care about that.

Tastes like crap to me though.
 

Lizard with a ladder

learnin' with the blacks!
I chalk this up to the growth of energy drinks and juices (Red Bull, Monster, Naked Juice, etc.). They're still full of sugar anyways.

That's a small part of the problem. Fast food chains offering a soda with their combo meals is more of an issue I think. People get trained this way to have soda with their meals instead of water.

Since people are too lazy/busy to pack their lunch. Eating the bullshit combo meals fast food chains serve becomes too convenient.
 
Juice you buy from stores is just as bad as Soda.

Have none of you guys seen HBO's Weight of the Nation? That's the biggest trick these soda companies pulled. Bill Clinton required that no school should be selling Soda. They agreed. Instead they filled the schools with power drinks, juices and gatorade. They are equally as bad as Coca Cola and Pepsi.

The juices they use are that carbonated shit too.
 

Futureman

Member
All you Anti-Juice people... is V8 Fusion OK? I get that every time I grocery shop. It says 2-3 servings of fruits/veggies on the label.

Whenever I smoke cheeb I like to get a 32oz Wild Cherry Pepsi from the convience store and draw. SUE ME. I run 2 miles every few days and if anything I could probably gain a few pounds... so I'll keep drinking my candy water.
 
I guess Diet Soda is just as bad then?

From a weight perspective, you definitely won't gain weight like with regular soda. But that aspartame fake sugar is not good at all for your body. It was linked to cancers in some studies, though I'm not sure on their accuracy.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Two problems:

1. This was previously mentioned, the 8 ounce size choice was probably chosen because the "Beverage Digest" can show that Americans drink lots of soda. It's a double edged sword because then people can get outraged more easily.

2. The statistics aren't controlled for diet soft drinks.
 

Evlar

Banned
Nothing impacts my hunger cravings, and my weight, as drastically as changing my soda habits. I lost 15 pounds when I completely cut out sugary drinks, and I'm not a big guy... (went from 165 lbs. to 150).

EDIT: To be clear, I did not replace the soda with diet soda. I never consume diet products. I replaced soda with unsweetened tea or water when consuming fast food and such. I still drink alcohol, usually about one beer/glass of wine a day.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I wonder how much the decline in non-diet soda consumption is accelerated by, ironically, the increased visibility of alternatives? Stuff like iced tea is advertised a lot more today as far as I can tell, than 20 years ago. Especially to young people and active 20-somethings.

People accept the world they're presented with. Just like fast food is on every corner and in every commercial, soda is/was pretty much "the world's beverage" next to coffee, with branding and product placement plastered over every square inch of turf in the western world.

Edit: possible concerns over artificial sweeteners aside I know more and more people who are switching to the 'zero' version of diet sodas like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max. Those formulations remain more appealing without the tang of most other diet sodas.

Personally, if I drink soda, I usually drink something like coke zero. I only drink non-diet soda when it's NOT a HFCS soda. And don't drink those often.
 

clav

Member
Juice really isn't that much better... Just as many carbs with significantly lost nutrients from the whole fruit in the first place and no fiber to balance the sugar.

Stick to water or tea or coffee

ding ding ding

If you want fruit, eat one.

All you Anti-Juice people... is V8 Fusion OK? I get that every time I grocery shop. It says 2-3 servings of fruits/veggies on the label.

Don't know about for Fusion.

For regular V8, the sodium content is a bit worrisome for a drink, especially if you have a family history of high blood pressure and kidney stones.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I would be far more worried of the other effects of soda than gaining some pounds, which is what I was getting at.

We're in the middle of an obesity epidemic. Metabolic syndrome and the terrible shit that goes along with it is by far the most significant thing to worry about as you suck down sugar water.
 

Acid08

Banned
Haven't had soda in a long while, was super easy to give up. Now I drink water, tea, or V8.
Can't wait for some poster to tell me V8 is actually bad for me.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
Two problems:

1. This was previously mentioned, the 8 ounce size choice was probably chosen because the "Beverage Digest" can show that Americans drink lots of soda. It's a double edged sword because then people can get outraged more easily.

2. The statistics aren't controlled for diet soft drinks.

The 8 ounce size was probably chosen because that is the standard amount measured when looking at fluids in the context of nutritional labelling. This is probably because 8 fl oz = 1 cup.
 

Guevara

Member
Somebody tell me if 8oz of coffee (unsweetened) per day is ok? Would I be better off with caffeinated tea or is caffeine the problem?
 

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
Somebody tell me if 8oz of coffee (unsweetened) per day is ok? Would I be better off with caffeinated tea or is caffeine the problem?

Coffee is absolutely fine as long as you don't have some kind of caffeine addiction. Nutritionally there's nothing wrong at all with coffee (considering it has no macro-nutrients to speak of) and caffeine has positive impacts of fat loss.

I'd be worried if someone was sucking down like 5-8 cups a day or something...but 1-3? No problem.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
All you Anti-Juice people... is V8 Fusion OK? I get that every time I grocery shop. It says 2-3 servings of fruits/veggies on the label.

probably almost definitely not without looking at it, never heard of the drink though. A common scam in shitty drinks is to tell you 'no added sugar' which means tons of fruit sugars. Or it has aspartame which means you have cancer now. Or it's just going to explode your kidney or something.

it sounds like Brawndo. 'it's got electrolytes, it's what plants crave!'

It's so ridiculously easy to replace bad shit with tea. Try it, the actual process of making tea and telling yourself it's going to make you less hungry/thirsty is in itself calming. Also, there's no negative to drinking tea, you can just drink shit loads of it. and they have all kinds of fruity/tasty teas.
 

dralla

Member
From a weight perspective, you definitely won't gain weight like with regular soda. But that aspartame fake sugar is not good at all for your body. It was linked to cancers in some studies, though I'm not sure on their accuracy.

The good thing about aspartame is that it's been tested so many times through the years, it gets a bad wrap because some studies "link" it to cancer and what not, but if you actually look at those studies you realize how much aspartame is being consumed and you realize they're pointless in real world situations. The amount of diet soda you would need to consume to reach dangerous levels of aspartame is ridiculously high. I'm not saying diet soda is healthy by any stretch, but people tend to over react or assume if a person drinks it, they down it by the gallon.

Here's one of the better studies (IMO) on it
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9734727
 

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
probably almost definitely not without looking at it, never heard of the drink though. A common scam in shitty drinks is to tell you 'no added sugar' which means tons of fruit sugars. Or it has aspartame which means you have cancer now. Or it's just going to explode your kidney or something.

it sounds like Brawndo. 'it's got electrolytes, it's what plants crave!'

It's so ridiculously easy to replace bad shit with tea. Try it, the actual process of making tea and telling yourself it's going to make you less hungry/thirsty is in itself calming. Also, there's no negative to drinking tea, you can just drink shit loads of it. and they have all kinds of fruity/tasty teas.

Reading the nutrition information for V8 online, it's exactly that. For an 8oz serving it had 28g of carbs with 25g of them coming from sugar. The ingredients look unoffensive in that there wasn't anything obviously jammed in there to artificially enhance it, but that doesn't change the fact that just about every single calorie in the drink comes from sugar.
 

frequency

Member
I never really got into soda. It burns when I try to drink it.

Is it just me? Because why would anyone choose to drink something that burns?
 
100% juice is fine if you are drinking the equivalent amount that you would be eating.

You should not be eating 5 oranges a day and you shouldn't drink that much either.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
probably almost definitely not without looking at it, never heard of the drink though. A common scam in shitty drinks is to tell you 'no added sugar' which means tons of fruit sugars. Or it has aspartame which means you have cancer now. Or it's just going to explode your kidney or something.

Oh come on, don't say this as if were anywhere close to being commonly accepted in the scientific community.
 

jakncoke

Banned
I wish Mio tasted better. It comes close to being the methadone to help me quit soda, but not close enough.

I dunno, I like the taste, maybe because I'm squeezing hard as fuck to get it in there. I have a 32 oz gatorade bottle that i put 4 hard squirts in(lol).
 
I never really got into soda. It burns when I try to drink it.

Is it just me? Because why would anyone choose to drink something that burns?

Addictions. I was badly addicted to soda when I drank it a few years back. Whenever I had it, my arms were always in pain. I made the decision to quit it the beginning of this year, and I'm not looking back!
 

OnPoint

Member
I stopped drinking pop for good on Monday morning. Poured out a bottle on my street Sunday night and came out for work in the morning to see it stained the asphalt. Yeah, that's right. It's still there. I even took a picture. I know the rain will wash it away, but the thought of that going in me and running through my body... never again. I'm out.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Oh come on, don't say this as if were anywhere close to being commonly accepted in the scientific community.

I also don't think he has cancer right now....

however, there is a catch to that shit. you don't get almost as good drinks with 0 consequence. I'd err on the side of caution with diet drinks.
 

Somnid

Member
I never really got into soda. It burns when I try to drink it.

Is it just me? Because why would anyone choose to drink something that burns?

Why eat hellaciously spicy food? Feels good man. I actually find a good way to stave off my want of soda is soda water. I think I like the sensation more than the sugar.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I drink it pretty irregularly, and I can't even finish a can. Usually about half.

My problem is milk (especially chocolate milk). I should probably see about dropping to 1% since I drink a ton of 2%, but I think it's more expensive? Had it before but I didn't really notice or mind the difference. Don't think I can do skim.
 
We're in the middle of an obesity epidemic. Metabolic syndrome and the terrible shit that goes along with it is by far the most significant thing to worry about as you suck down sugar water.

Sure for the general American population. I was speaking personally.
 

Mashing

Member
I'm trying to cut back on soda (two is a day is about what I drink), but man it's hard. I'm trying to switch to water (with those flavor packs you can add).
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I also don't think he has cancer right now....

however, there is a catch to that shit. you don't get almost as good drinks with 0 consequence. I'd err on the side of caution with diet drinks.

Yeah it's not a free ride or anything, for one thing it tastes bad. It's still far better for you than sugar. I just hate it when people say "don't drink diet stuff because it has aspartame in it" as if regular sugar is healthier. Not that that was what the poster was saying at all.

I knew a guy in college who was over 300 pounds and would drink 2-3 of those 2 litre coke bottles a day. One time he tried to lose weight and with that he switched from regular coke to diet coke. That lasted about a week until he found out "aspartame is bad for you and stuff" and switched back to regular coke. Suffice to say, he did not succeed in losing weight.


I'm trying to cut back on soda (two is a day is about what I drink), but man it's hard. I'm trying to switch to water (with those flavor packs you can add).
Try tea, it's pretty great.
 

frequency

Member
Addictions. I was badly addicted to soda when I drank it a few years back. Whenever I had it, my arms were always in pain. I made the decision to quit it the beginning of this year, and I'm not looking back!

Congratulations on overcoming an addiction!

Which gave you a burning sensation?

I don't know what brand. Every time I've tried any soda, it hurts my mouth. I don't know if "burn" is the right way to say it. It's not hot. "Stings" may be a better word?

Why eat hellaciously spicy food? Feels good man. I actually find a good way to stave off my want of soda is soda water. I think I like the sensation more than the sugar.

I don't eat really spicy food. But I think I understand what you're saying.
I don't really like pain though, so I try to avoid it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom