Kicking Your Coke Habit

There's a quiet little study out there with some really surprising results. The American Heart Association's publication Circulation published a study in 2007 that isn't getting the press it deserves and my guess is Pepsi and Coke are pretty happy about it.

The impact on the study for those who are trying to lose weight (and the most surprising part of the study) is that dark carbonated drinks cause weight GAIN – even the DIET DRINKS! (Go ahead, go clear you pantries of all those Diet Cokes, Diet Dr. Peppers, and what-have-you... I'll wait....)

Now don't go throwing away all your diet drinks. While there is still controversy over whether they help or hinder weight loss, the jury is still out on them. What is clear is that DARK carbonated drinks (whether regular or diet) have a negative effect on weight loss. The real culprit in all of this seems to be caramel coloring.

Various studies link caramel coloring with insulin resistance which leads to metabolic syndrome, both of which are related to weight gain – worse than that – they are specifically linked to weight gain around the midsection (boo to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome). On top of that, insulin resistance also contributes to inability to focus, fatigue, sleepiness and depression. All of which can have negative effects on keeping that old metabolism running. Now there are a lot of really interesting science geek explanations for these that are related to blood and glucose, but how about you just trust me on this one? (That way we don't help induce sleepiness in any of the insulin resistant among us).

My personal experience is this. Early last year as I was trying to loose weight and was having some mild success. I had switched from Coke to Coke Zero as my primary beverage of choice. Reading the article from Circulation and another piece of research that I think came out of Canada, I switched to Sprite Zero. As I remember, that was about the time my weight loss gained new momentum. Was it because of the elimination of caramel coloring from my diet? I have no idea, but the research combined with the timing of cutting it out of my diet makes me think it was.

I now drink store brand diet lemon-lime or diet ginger ale (remember ginger helps seed up metabolism). If you want to go extreme, buy only the clearer Diet Rite products - there sweeteners are different than the ones used by the other companies and (as of yet) have not been link to weight gain in any major study.

As I've mentioned before, my personal weight loss plan is about the cumulative effect of lots of techniques that have small (sometimes questionable) effects on overall metabolism. This is just one of them – but in my mind it is one of the more important ones.

Keep at it – you can do this!