Can You Drink Diet Soda While Fasting

Can You Drink Diet Soda While Fasting

Can You Drink Diet Soda While Fasting

Updated on 3/26/2024
Martin AlvarezBy Martin Alvarez
Nutritionist/Dietitian Professional Guide
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When most have 0 to 10 calories per serving, it might be challenging to can you drink diet soda while fasting. The following is the information that qualified dietitians want you to know.

Combining Diet Soda With Intermittent Fasting

Combining Diet Soda With Intermittent Fasting

Combining Diet Soda With Intermittent Fasting

When selecting beverages to consume during a fast, there is one golden guideline: steer clear of anything with calories. The purpose of intermittent fasting is to maintain a "fasted state" for a certain amount of time by abstaining from eating or drinking anything containing carbs, lipids, or protein.

Because of this, your body can cease making insulin, and instead of using the glucose stored in the liver for energy, it uses the ketones stored in the fat. This process is called ketogenesis, which you may have heard of about the keto diet. According to an article published in 2019 in The New England Journal of Medicine, some scientists believe this process may slow aging, reduce chronic inflammation, and lead to better control of blood sugar levels.

Because diet Coke is calorie-free, consuming while restricting your food intake is often acceptable. However, the scientific community is now disputing artificial sweeteners' influence on insulin and hunger levels, both essential pieces of the jigsaw that is intermittent fasting. (I'll elaborate on it in a bit.)

What Exactly Does It Mean To Fast Intermittently?

What Exactly Does It Mean To Fast Intermittently?

What Exactly Does It Mean To Fast Intermittently?

There is not just one diet associated with intermittent fasting; instead, there are dozens. This eating places more of an emphasis on the timing of meals rather than the kinds of foods consumed. Find out everything there is to know about the various approaches in this comprehensive guide to getting started with intermittent fasting.

The following are some of the most often selected alternatives:

  • The 16:8 Method or the 14:10 Method: With these time-restricted eating plans, you can only consume food within a specific window. You may restrict your eating to a single eight-hour window (for example, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and then go without food for the next 16 hours (6 p.m. to 10 a.m.). Eat only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., a 10-hour window, and then refrain from eating for the following 14 hours (7 p.m. to 9 a.m.).
  • Fasting on alternate days involves alternating between days you consume food as you usually would and days in which you do not (consuming about 500 calories).
  • The 5:2 Method requires that you eat as you usually would for five days of the week and then pick two days (say Monday and Thursday) to consume around 500 fewer calories than you typically would on those days.
  • The Eat-Stop-Eat Method involves abstaining from food for up to twenty-four hours once or twice weekly. On the other days, you should stick to your regular eating routine.
  • The Warrior Method is arguably the most challenging of them all since it demands you to consume all of your calories during a four-hour window (for example, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and then go without food for 20 hours (3 p.m. to 11 a.m.).

Is It Okay To Drink Diet Soda While On An Intermittent Fast?

Is It Okay To Drink Diet Soda While On An Intermittent Fast?

Is It Okay To Drink Diet Soda While On An Intermittent Fast?

According to Autumn Bates, a licensed clinical nutritionist in Manhattan Beach, California, who works at a clinic in Manhattan Beach, "Technically speaking, most diet drinks that have zero calories would not break a fast." “Hitherto, if you are trying to lose weight, drinking diet sodas can still work against your weight loss goals by boosting sugar cravings and hunger throughout the day.”However, if your goal is to lose weight, drinking diet sodas can still work against your weight loss goals."
According to Bates, certain persons may produce insulin, a hormone that regulates fat storage, in response to the sweet taste of diet beverages, even if they omit the sugar. This is the case even though most diet drinks do not contain any calories. She cites research published in April in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care that reveals a connection between insulin resistance and the consumption of artificial sweeteners.

 Drink Diet Soda

Drink Diet Soda

According to research published in 2016 in Cell Metabolism, Bates adds that after taking artificial sweeteners, some people could also have increased hunger levels and stronger desires for sugar, especially later in the day. According to the study, this is true. Bates points out that one of the tricky aspects is that not everyone produces insulin after eating or drinking something that contains artificial sweeteners, just as not everyone who drinks diet soda suffers a case of the hangries after finishing a can of diet soda.

According to Leigh Merotto, RD, a registered dietitian based in Toronto who specializes in metabolic health, digestion/gut health, and sports nutrition, artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame may still cause an increase in insulin response because of a chemical reaction in the brain similar to when sugar is consumed.

"The verdict is still out," she adds, "but we know now that diet sodas have not been helpful for weight loss objectives in general."

Both Positive And Negative Effects On One's Health May Result From Consuming Diet Soda.

sugars

sugars

  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States, the leading source of added sugars in the average American diet comes from sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, juice, and sports drinks (CDC).
  • These factors have been linked to various adverse health effects, such as obesity, coronary heart disease, dental decay, type 2 diabetes, and many more.
  • When it comes to beverages without calories, things may become more complicated when artificial sweeteners are involved. When you consider the maximum quantity regarded as safe, they are used in shallow doses.
  • Consider the ubiquitous artificial sweetener aspartame, sometimes known as Equal. It is used in diet soda. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has decided that an intake of 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight is considered safe for daily use.
  • If you weigh 150 pounds, the FDA advises that you can consume or drink up to about 3,400 mg per day without risk to your health. According to the Kendall Reagan Nutrition Center at Colorado State University, this amounts to approximately seventeen cans of diet soda that are twelve ounces each daily.

It's pretty unlikely that you'll consume that much liquid.

diet soda

diet soda

  • American Heart Association recommends that people "limit low-calorie drinks" and "stick to water" rather than drinking artificially sweetened beverages in reasonable proportions, even though the FDA considers such quantities of artificial sweeteners safe. Whether one is engaging in intermittent fasting or not, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, it is "better to avoid" artificial sweeteners.
  • According to a comprehensive analysis recently published in the journal BMJ, studies on non-sugar sweeteners have, to this point, been conducted over rather short periods, on relatively small scales, and with a reliance on self-reports that can be unreliable.
  • This research looked at 56 additional studies and concluded no connection between increasing body weight and consumption of artificial sweeteners.
  • According to the findings of a study that involved more than 100,000 participants and was published in 2019 in the journal Circulation, there may be later-in-life health effects that we are unaware of.
  • The participants in the study were asked to consume either a beverage that included sugar or one that had an artificial sweetener. People who used six or more servings of artificially sweetened beverages daily had a 20 percent increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease throughout their lifetime compared to those who did not consume any beverages containing artificial sweeteners.
  • The experts believe they can only claim a relationship, and other variables are likely also involved. However, it is hard to show that these beverages were the cause of the health problems that have been reported.

What Nutritionists Have To Say About Skipping Meals At Regular Intervals

Nutritionists Have

Nutritionists Have

"Fasting is not a new notion," explains Alyssa Pike, RD, a manager for nutrition communications at the International Food Information Council (IFIC) in Washington, D.C. 
While diet soda is a relatively modern discovery (approximately the 1950s), fasting has been around for a long time. Food and drink coffee have been abstained from since the beginning of recorded history, sometimes due to a lack of resources and more commonly due to religious or spiritual reasons.

Even though we've placed the word "intermittent" in front of the phrase "fasting," the actual practice of going without food is not new. One may make the case that the goal of intermittent fasting is what makes it different from other similar practices. According to Pike, when people used to fast, they did it mainly as part of a spiritual practice of discipline. These days, however, fasting is seen as a modern approach to reducing weight quickly in the short term.

What Nutritionists Have To Say About Skipping Meals

What Nutritionists Have To Say About Skipping Meals

People who engage in intermittent fasting, which is a kind of time-restricted eating, are more likely to have a variety of unfavorable eating outcomes than those who do not. According to the expert, "research suggests that limitation leads to a heightened feeling of accessible food, a more intense obsession with thoughts about food, and overeating when food is available." 

However, there are certain benefits associated with intermittent fasting, including an increase in the amount of weight loss; however, it is essential to set reasonable objectives and expectations. Also, remember that the success of your particular intermittent fasting regimen is contingent on your ability to follow the plan religiously. It is not safe to abstain from eating for twenty-four hours, and some people even fourteen hours. Avoid using it if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medicine to manage your blood sugar, have diabetes, or have a history of eating problems. after reading this article you should know if can you drink diet soda while fasting or not