drinking regular pop

[kelvin]

Does everyone drink diet pop? Is it really bad to drink the regular stuff?
Also what do you all use to sweeten your coffee and tea?
Unfortunately I have an extremely sweet tooth and crave sugary things all the time. The other question I have is about desserts - is it best to stay away from them, or just go ahead and eat them and correct for them with Insulin.
Just curious

[lelggren]

Does everyone drink diet pop? Is it really bad to drink the regular stuff?
Also what do you all use to sweeten your coffee and tea?
Unfortunately I have an extremely sweet tooth and crave sugary things all the time. The other question I have is about desserts - is it best to stay away from them, or just go ahead and eat them and correct for them with Insulin.
Just curious
Stay away from regular pop. In all reality, you could bolus for it, but there is so much sugary nastiness in it, that there is really no point in drinking it when there is a sugar-free alternative that won't screw with your bg's.

I don't drink coffee or tea, but I believe that some just use nutrasweet, or splenda, or things like that.

For desserts, we deserve to be able to have desserts too! But, if there is no low sugar alternative, make sure you have the desserts in moderation. But, there are many sugar free yum-yum's out there. Cookies, Ice cream, etc....

Basically, it is important to remember that it is your decision of you want to eat and drink these things. But, keep in mind that they WILL mess with your bg's. So, be careful :)

[Shocked]

I've been drinking diet sodas for since last May when I started down the path of getting my bg under control. The other day I took a swig of my wifes regular cola and about gagged. It was thick and syruppy. I couldn't stand it.

don't drink coffee and have very little tea. When I do drink tea, it's usually an herbal tea and I don't sweeten them.

I find it easier to have a little and adjust for it than to obstain.

[scara]

Technically you can eat anything you want as long as you know how to address it with insulin. BUT anything processed such as refined sugars in pop and desserts will cause your blood glucose levels to spike quickly, in time this will be addressed by the insulin you inject but the spikes will, in time be hard on your body.

In an ideal world the food we eat would have a glycemic index that exactly matches how our bodies release the insulin we inject (or the insulin would match the food, that would be even better).... as this is unlikely for now I believe it is best to try and eat food with as low a Glycemic Index as possible.

Sweets and desserts are probably fine in moderation and ideally after your meal and of course you need to carb count.... and more ideally work with your docs to ensure you are all good health wise....

Hope that helps!

[poodlebone]

Does everyone drink diet pop? Is it really bad to drink the regular stuff?
Also what do you all use to sweeten your coffee and tea?
Unfortunately I have an extremely sweet tooth and crave sugary things all the time. The other question I have is about desserts - is it best to stay away from them, or just go ahead and eat them and correct for them with Insulin.
Just curious
I switched to diet soda as soon as I was diagnosed. I didn't mind the taste at all (nutrasweet/aspartame). The couple of times I've had a sip of regular soda since then (to correct a low) I almost spit it out. It tasted so thick, sweet and had a nasty aftertaste.

I use Equal/aspartame to sweeten my tea.

I do have desserts often but I plan for them, I make sure I know the carb count & bolus the correct amount of insulin for them. It's not like I'm eating a pint of ice cream of a box of donuts each time, though. I generally have a modest serving of whatever it is I want at the time.

[dws]

I drink both diet cokes and regular dr Pepper, just depends on what I'm doing . Dr Pepper I bolus (40 carbs) = 1.2 units after I drink it .
Tea unsweeten coffee just black & hot unless I'm running a little low , then sugar 2 teaspoons per cup (8 carbs) Course Without my pump I couldn't inject 1.2 units etc.
don

[liz32]

ditto on the pop. As far as a sweet tooth goes try this...yougurt with splenda and frozen fruit on top. I do this all the time and it's as good as having ice cream and it's sweet as all get out! You still need to adjust your insulin but it's not so hard on you and it's mostly all natural (except for the splenda). It always cures my sweet tooth.
Liz

[ToddyC]

Only diet soda for me. Lucky for me, my entire family likes diet soda. And like others have said, when I have a taste of a regular soda, it tastes nasty to me -- I got one at dinner the other night when the waiter brought me a regular instead of a diet....I sent that thing back immediately.

For iced tea, I use the artificial sweetners....equal or sweet n low.

[vrocco1]

If you really want to push it, try an RC Cola, and a Moon Pie. Instant DKA!!! :stickyman

You're much better off staying away from regular pop. If you don't, then bolus plenty for it.

[BriOnH]

There is nothing I would like more then being able to drink regular mt dew all day long :), and not have to worry about blood sugar.

[shoop99]

coke zero taste just like regular stuff. You will get used to diet soda..trust me.

[am1977]

I have pretty much always had diet soda...well, except for some of my childhood days( on special occasions) and occasionally as a young teen. But when I turned around 17 or so, I drank almost exclusively diet.

I'm not going to lie... I think Regular soda tastes better, but I still only drink diet. For one, I don't like the idea of bolusing for something I drink and, also, b/c it has no carbs or calories... it's a bit better on the waist line :wink:. However, I think I drink WAY too much of it. I admit, I'm a diet soda ADDICT :eek:!

[gettingby]

I can't stand regular soda. I've also heard that Mt.Dew has the most sugar.

[Diana]

Generally, I use diet soft drinks. I'm on a pump and I can drink a regular one, but I really dont want all the extra kj anyway. Occasionally I will have the urge to drink a regular soft drink, so then I do it, but I really dont feel deprived using the diet ones. For tea and coffee I use normal sugar.

If you think about the quite large amount of kj found in a regular soft drink, that is enough to put me off using them. You will be taking in all that energy and getting exactly zero nutritional benefit from it. I guess its ok for people who can easily keep their weight down, but I have to watch myself all the time to make sure I'm not gaining weight. When I first got my pump I went crazy with drinking solo like I would normally drink diet coke, and gained about three kg in a week. That taught me the dangers of soft drink pretty quickly!

And, anyway, diet coke has more caffeine than regular coke. As a student, I need to take these things into acount.;)

[gettingby]

coke zero taste just like regular stuff. You will get used to diet soda..trust me.
Definitely. I love the stuff !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coke Zero :rock:

[psilocybin]

coke zero taste just like regular stuff. You will get used to diet soda..trust me.

thats exactly what i drink....i love coke zero

i also drink coffee everyday, with sweetner. i have no problems

[BriOnH]

Man, all you coke people! :) Diet pepsi rules!!! :D I drink waaaaay to much oh it at work. I never have mt. dew, but on rare occassions. Maybe it's best that way so i can savor it.

[poodlebone]

ditto on the pop. As far as a sweet tooth goes try this...yougurt with splenda and frozen fruit on top. I do this all the time and it's as good as having ice cream and it's sweet as all get out! You still need to adjust your insulin but it's not so hard on you and it's mostly all natural (except for the splenda). It always cures my sweet tooth.
Liz
I love plain yogurt (I use Equal on mine, though) and fruit. I usually add some vanilla extract as well. I could just buy vanilla yogurt, but they tend to really overload those with artificial sweeteners and that's all I taste, so I'd rather mix it up myself. I do the same thing with cottage cheese - Equal + vanilla + fruit and I like that even more than the yogurt.

[Horsman]

I hated all Diet Pop before I was diabetic, and then once I becamse diabetic I didnt want to have any.

I found that Diet Root Beer (A&W) is spectacularly similar to normal stuff. Once I got used to drinking that (easy) other Aspertamy things didn't bother me at all, even though I knew they were supposed to taste gross they still taste sweet to me.

The other Day I had Vector cereal (not considered a candy cereal by any means and it tasted SOOO sweet). Once you get used to not eating lots of sugar, the few times you eat a good sugary thing youll flip out with awesomeness.

[corwin]

I'm sure part of the minority here, I hope I won't make too many people mad at me. You can eat whatever you want and nothing should be out of you diet because of diabetes. You should be smart about it and watch for 2 things, your bg when you are eating these "risky" food\drinks and you a1c. If you can keep your bg under 130 when you do it and a1c under 7 I don't see why you should avoid anything.

Personally I'm not a fan of regular soda, I'm a water drinker, however I like fruit juices which are pretty similar I think, I also take regular sugar in my coffee and eat deserts often. I completly avoid any artificial sweeteners, I can't stand it and I don't think it's good for me anyway. The trick is to test often to see how it effects you and plan your bolus and timing accordingly. For example: lets say I want to have pure sugar (drink, candy, whatever). I'll test my bg, assuming I'm 110 I'll bolus for it and wait 20-30 minutes, at this time I'm around 75-80, now I can eat my sugar. I'll eat enough to get me to around 130 (sometimes a bit higher when I'm a bad boy) then take a break from eating, let the bg drop down again and try to space the rest of the food for the duration of the insulin. I doubt many people here will think I'm causing major damage doing this. This is ideal of course, if I sometimes go a bit higher for a short time, so be it. I don't think it's such a terrible thing to be 140-150 for 15 minutes if my 3 hours average is below 120.

As far as deserts go it's usually much simpler, they are usually high in fat (a whole dif. health issue but I'll stick to the bg talk) so it's digested slower and match the insulin duration much better anyway. I found that chocolate (my own addiction) is digested in my system very close to the way insulin works which makes it one of the easiest things for me to bolus for and have as often as I like.

Sorry for the long post, I figured if I'm going to post such a controversial thing I should explain myself.

[archimeech]

Corwin,
you're still in the honeymoon period. You need to be very mindful of what you're doing and whatch your sugars. They won't be so easy to control in the near future. My first year of T1 was just like what you're describing, only it was 23 years ago.
Kelvin,
I had the same problem when I was first diagnosed. I craved sugar and sweets all the time because I couldn't have them anymore. I decided to make a lifestyle change and do what I could to take care of myself. After 23 years of diabetes, I don't really like many regular sweets and cakes anymore. I don't drink Pop, Soda, Coke, Pepsi, Fizzie; whatever your flavor or vernacular is, at all. I don't even drink the diet anymore. I gave up caffeine last Christmas, so now I don't even drink coffee, but I feel much better. It's really your choice. you don't have to give up anything, but you may not live as long or as healthy as you'd like. As long as you enjoy yourself and take full responsibility for your actions and not whine or complain later in life about your complications, you can pretty much do whatever you want.

[DeusXM]

It's very tricky to bolus for regular soft drinks. The refined nature of the sugar means that it gets into your system very quickly but will drop off in a somewhat confusing manner when you take your insulin. You'd get a very high inital spike within a couple of minutes (going over 20mmol/l) but once the insulin got into your system to clear it, you'd go back down to your normal level and still have another hour and a half of insulin action left, which would almost certainly cause a severe hypo.

Soft drinks are slightly different from fruit juices because of the different sugar types. Soft drinks are sweetened with sucrose, whereas fruit juices contain frutose, which whilst still being a sugar generally has a 'milder' effect on your BG.

Personally I would stay well away from regular soft drinks, especially when diet alternatives are so easily available. Most of the differences people 'experience' between regular and diet are psychosomatic. If you want colas that taste really sweet, I'd recommend Pepsi Max - I don't know how they do it but it tastes so sugary and yet doesn't have any sugar at all.

You can drink regular soft drinks if you want to, but then be aware that you'll have to make 'the choice'. As with all things in this condition, you have to choose whether the risks associated with a lifestyle option are worth it. Is it really worth potentially losing your sight because you prefer the taste of regular Coke to Diet Coke? Only you can answer that question.

[mark-TN]

I agree wholeheartedly with DeusXM, meech, and a few others. It is very refreshing to hear such straight forward, responsible and sensibly talk. No pun intended put this is not an issue that one should sugarcoat. Thanks guys.

Mark

[corwin]

Archimeech and Deus, I completly agree with the "Do what you want, deal with the concequences" comments, same goes for many different aspects in life (smoking, extreem sports, high cholesterol, etc). However what I want to try to get to is that I still don't see how what I described will cause any concequences. I'll stick to the regular coke example because it seems to be the best one regardless of the fact I'm not drinking it. Lets also take the honeymoon out of the equation, I'm thinking long term care not just the next few months.

Lets say I let myself go to down to bg level of 70, then drink EXACTLY enough to get to 100, wait and go back down to 70, drink up to 100, rinse and repeat. Are you saying this will lead to diabetes complications or is the argument is just that it can't be done?

[scara]

I would say that there would be no complications from the example you give.... but is that really a real world example? If you only goal is to be able to drink coke, then yeah it's possible...but if your goal is to have a coke when you want it as a refreshing beverage out of the blue, unplanned, but bolusing for the carbs... then you are probably courting long term trouble brought on by the more extreme spikes from the refined sugars.

[corwin]

You are right, this isn't a real world example, I gave it to make a point. A real world example can be up to 120 before going down, special occations where you can live with getting up to 160 for a very short time, not to often of course. Obviously gulping down a full coke can in 2 minutes is bad and not an option for a responsible diabetic. However there is a HUGE difference between telling someone who is addicted to coke "You can NEVER touch it again" and saying it's possible if done responsibly, it needs to be spread out over a long period of time and it needs a lot of testing to know how to do it responsibly. If you take the "Do this and you'll die" route for educating people you'll cause unnecessary depression, deniel and people who just gonna be very irresponsible and end up with a1c hitting the ceiling. On the other hand if you help educate people on how to do things that are important to them, you are giving them tools to make smart choices. Maybe it's too annoying to do all the calculations and handling the restrictions of pure sugar so I might give it up, but if I really want to I can. That knowledge alone is very important to many people.

Sorry for flooding this thread, just something I feel strongly about, even before diabetes was an issue in my life.

[DeusXM]

That's the point though - it is simply too difficult to accurately and adequately prepare for drinking regular soft drinks. If you really like the taste of them that much, I can't see you restricting yourself to a set amount. Most likely you'll drink slightly too much, and then that will raise your BG. And what happens then?

That's right, you'll get thirsty, and unless you're totally switched on, you'll just drink some more to make it go away. Thus adding to your problems.

The thing is that there's simply no reason to drink diet soft drinks. It's not like chocolate or ice-cream where it's particularly hard to find an alternative. Bottom line is, if you can use something to treat a hypo, then it's probably not a safe bet for regular, daily consumption. Soft drinks are the second fastest way of treating a hypo, after drinking an energy drink. That alone should say 'hmm, it's not a great idea'.

I disagree with the whole 'break it gently' thing. Diabetes is a serious condition and breaking it gently doesn't do anyone any favours. I'm not saying 'you can't drink regular soft drinks anymore', I'm saying 'you still can drink regular soft drinks, and here's why it's a **** of a lot of hard work, and here's why it's a really bad idea. Now go make your own choice.'

Seriously, it's a **** soft drink. It's perfectly easy to give up something if you've got a good reason to. That's why lots of women manage to stop smoking or drinking when they're pregnant.

[archimeech]

Corwin,
The reason I bring up the honeymoon period is the simple fact that right now, it's very easy for you to control your sugar. Your body is still making some insulin so your needs aren't that high yet, and the drastic swings and uncontrolable sugars haven't hit you yet. I just want to be sure you're aware of it, and aren't blind-sided when all of a sudden you can't get your sugar below 200-300. Personally, I have such brittle control that I love it when my sugar stays below 160, and you make 160 sound like it's oh so high. Better to prepare for the storm while it's still just drizzling, my friend.

[BriOnH]

If you could drink any drink that would require no thought because of diabetes, what would it be?
For me, mt. dew, obviously, and orange & fruit punch Gatorade. It gets so hot here in Sacramento and gatorade really hits the spot after playing in the sun.

Being a diabetic, I dont know if any of you have tried the lipton herbal teas, but they taste GREAT iced. I mix the orange and mango teas and drink it every night. Tastes wonderful, no carbs, no caffienne.

[scara]

BEER!!

:beer:

but if we're sticking to "soft" drinks then Coke or Dr. Pepper...

[lelggren]

I would drink fruit juice. And, not the ishy processed stuff, but real, freshly extracted juice. I love that stuff so much, but it shoots my bg up to the skies and beyond......

[rzrbks]

Caffeine FRee Diet Coke, only for me please.

I use Sugar Twin with my Iced Tea ( year round drink of choice)

I use Splenda with hot drinks or with Kool-Aid, but only with those since Splenda is much more expensive than Sugar Twin.

[corwin]

Thanks archimeech, I appreciate your advice. It's great to find people who really care and give good advice from their experience. I don't really think 160 is that bad, it's just not a number someone would want to knowingly get to.

Deus I guess in a way we are saying the same thing only you put it much more harshly then me. It's an issue of how much and how often you are willing to take small risks for enjoyment and how smart you are when you do it.

My drink of choice would be fresh orange juice. It's one of the hardest things for me to avoid. I just limit the amount, add it to meals and of course use it when I'm lower then I like to be. I used to drink about 2L in 1 week before I was dx'ed, now it took me 3 months to have this much.

[Shotokan]

I just discovered Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Yummy!

[KickStart101]

I mentioned before that I was never much of a pop drinker
and still am not, especially Coke, Pepsi, etc. I did try Diet pop
twice yrs. ago. :puke: I prefer juice. I'm not afraid to have a
regular pop once in a while during the summer(orange, mt. dew,
ginger ale). Gingerale helps to settle an upset stomach. I would
not have more than one a day, usually once a month. I will have
a small glass of juice every other day, unless I need another for
a low-sugar. I do not like instant coffee, so I rarely drink it...that
I put a teaspoon of sugar in. I like perked coffee and different teas
with no sweeteners. Crystal light are not bad.
I don't usually eat desserts. If I do, it is half a piece of piece or
cake, a small bowl of regular berryblue jello, etc. I still get full
enjoyment even if it is half a piece. I do eat one or two cookies
usually twice a week.
If I do eat an occasional whole piece of dessert, say at a restaurant,
I know ahead and bolus extra along with the rest of the meal bolus.
I drink my water, do my exercises, take my required amount of Insulin
so things usually run okay. I also chew on a piece of sugarless spearmint
gum everyday. Tastes sweet so I don't need real sweets or unnecessary
food.

Brian: If I could I would drink a couple red Fruitopia(sp) everyday. Those
are Good but Bad on my bloodsugar. :) Would if I could but I can't so I won't.

[DeusXM]

My drink of choice would be fresh orange juice. It's one of the hardest things for me to avoid. I just limit the amount, add it to meals and of course use it when I'm lower then I like to be. I used to drink about 2L in 1 week before I was dx'ed, now it took me 3 months to have this much.

I drink 200ml of the stuff every morning. I'm quite fortunate in that fructose doesn't seem to affect my BG anywhere near as much as sucrose, and I always bolus a little extra for it anyway. Plus, my body's got used to the idea I get a slight sugar hit every morning so my liver simply doesn't bother pumping any out first thing.

[Cyborg]

Man, all you coke people! :) Diet pepsi rules!!! :D I drink waaaaay to much oh it at work. I never have mt. dew, but on rare occassions. Maybe it's best that way so i can savor it.

Diet Mt. Dew is my drink of choice.

[HelenM]

I can understand the wish to drink fruit juice but sugary pop?
My 'poor';) children were never allowed it.. not because of any thoughts of diabetes or blood sugar but because of their teeth. Neither can stand the real stuff now (and neither has fillings)

[amccrazgrl]

I love me Diet Soda but try to limit to 1-2 a day.
Diet Coke w/ Lime and Diet Dr Pepper Cherry/Vanila along with Orange are my favs
Now for tea Hot tea I use Equal and Cold tea I use Sweet n Low
The Equal evaportes best in hot as Sweet n Low for cold.
Oh and I love me the Miniute Maid Limeade (light) 4carbs and 3 sugars that I dont bolus for a cup.
Been trying to get 64oz of water a day if not at leas 32oz.