BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Diet soda..and other questions

Is diet pepsi okay for a low carb diet? Anyone ever slowly weaned themselves from carbs instead of quitting all at once? I have had a hard time quitting. I started drinking diet soda, stopped eating potatoes, and switched to all wheat breads, bagels, tortillas.

I'm sure Lisa will have something to say to you, but, yes, diet Pepsi is OK, if you must have something sweet. Some advise to stay away from sweet tasting foods & drinks in the beginning, to break the 'sweet habit'.

I have to ask, where are you getting your advice from? Wheat bread, bagels & tortillas are not low carb, just because they say 'wheat'. They are a big no-no in a low carb diet. Why don't you buy yourself a papaeback book of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (about $7.99) and find out what you CAN eat and why. It has a complete list and everything you need to know. Do yourself a favor, you'll never have success if you just guess at it. The more knowledgable you are, the greater chance of being successful.

I think it would be much more difficult to slowly wean yourself off the carbs. A low carb diet starts you off with a very small amount of carbs (ex. 20g per day) for 2 weeks. It's not all that hard to eat lots of salads and some cottage cheese and yummy chicken stir fry for 2 weeks and then you gradually increase your carb intake but you start to not want all the carbs you used to want sooooooo bad. I've only been doing low carb for 6 weeks and I haven't followed my diet to a tee but the bad carbs don't do it for me anymore. I happen to be the keeper of the snacks at work - I have to buy choc. bars, chips etc and then they sit in my office begging me to eat them. Before low carbing i would give in - I'd have probably around 3 choc. bars a week and a couple of hallowe'en sized bags of chips - haven't had either in 6 weeks and I don't really want to have them either. I think if you can be good for just 2 little weeks it will make a big diff. If you find you just have to have something then have it but eat it slowly and drink water with it - after a couple of bites you might change your mind. There are so many menu choices even when low carbing and there are lots of low carb versions of breads and pastas that are easy to switch to. I can admit I'm not the perfect example of a low carb dieter but I take it one day at a time.

Diet soda is fine if you are addicted to soda, to wean yourself towards waters and more healthy drinks. In the end you really don't want to be addicted to any kind of soda both because of the chemicals in them and because if you can't find a diet version at a restaurant, you're more likely to just get the sugar version.

On carbing, the point of low carb is to break your sugar addiction. You can't break an addiction by only having some of it. If you're addicted to heroin, you have to cut it out. Sugar addiction is just as powerful - ask anyone who has tried to give it up. Also part of what you're doing here is showing your body how to burn fat again - it has gotten "lazy" in burning only easy-to-burn sugars.

So really and truly, go to my site and start at the basics part. Do the 2 week plan where you go cold turkey. You will find you feel miserable for the first 2 days as your body complains about not having sugars. Then you will feel great, energetic, and you'll lose a lot of weight.

Not only is it sugars you are breaking an addiction to - but you're also discovering what allergies you had and never knew it. Many people develop wheat allergies as they age and never realize it. When they give up wheat for 2 weeks they feel way better. Then when they add some back in and feel awful - they suddenly know that wheat is the culprit. The only way you can know that is to cut it out completely, see how you feel without it, and then watch what happens when you try some again.

At a period of time , I was so addicted to drinking Coke Light & Pepsi Light to the extent that I thought something was wrong with me.

I decided to go cold turkey & cut them out even though I see myself having them in moderation in the future but NOT every single day

& also , Dr Atkins state in his book to try & avoid food/drinks that're sweetened with Aspartame

Just a bit unfortunate that diet drinks that're sweetened with Splenda are not available on sale here though . Bummer

That's odd about no Splenda drinks being on sale around you, there are a ton of them here. Still like I said it's best to just get yourself off of soda in general. Heck on price alone, you could save a ton of money <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I drink a ton of water, and then wine with dinner.

I really like Perrier or other seltzers with a squeeze of lemon or lime. I have never liked soda - too sweet.

I know it's weird cos the number of health products carried in here are really limited but I really like Swiss Miss Diet cocoa mixes that's sweetened with Splenda & has only 3g of net carbs per packet

Now the only stuff I drink are water , japanese green tea & tea sweetened with Splenda.I'm not a big fan of coffee though.

Iced green tea with splenda is very nice. I drink that all the time.

Have you tried making your own soda? A little lime juice, some lemon juice, splenda and selzter? That's very pleasant/refreshing.

Oooo that's a great idea, you could make all sorts of soda like drinks with just a few basic ingredients. How about ginger ale for example?