An Unhealthy Habit: My Love Affair with Diet Coke

The Confession 

I consider myself to be a fairly healthy person.  I eat my five fruit and vegetables a day, love lean protein and will devour any complex carbohydrate put onto my plate.  I know that eating close to nature is important and I understand that, in general, the more refined a product is, the worse it is for you.  I don’t smoke, I don’t drink.  I take regular exercise and enjoy treats (read: sweets!) in moderation.  But I am far from perfect.  I have a secret love, which does not do my body any favours.  So, here is my confession: My name is Stacey and I love Diet Coke! 

 

I know that drinking soft drinks is unhealthy.  I have read about the purported dangers of aspartame and sodium benzoate, which are prevalent in diet soft drinks.  I have felt the ill effects of drinking too much of them: headaches, mouth ulcers, painful nose, blurred vision, gas(!).  And yet I continue to drink them.  The question is, why?

I have never been able to understand why people continue to smoke when they have breathing difficulties, why people continue to feast on junk food when they are obese, or why they continue to drink alcohol when they know it makes them feel bad.  It has always seemed so simple.  Stop doing what you are doing and you will feel better.  Yet here I am, doing the exact same thing.  I drink diet Coke knowing full well that it is bad for me and knowing that if I drink too much I will start to feel ill.

An addiction?

It would be easy for me to say that I am addicted to diet Coke, but I don’t believe this is true. I have gone for weeks before now without having a single drop.  I don’t think about it all the time, it doesn’t consume my thoughts.  I never feel like I *have* to have it.  I just feel like sometimes I want it.  The fizz of the bottle being unopened, the slow glug as it pours into the glass, the sweet smell of caramel before it hits your lips.  You can’t beat it!

Childhood memories?

Part of me thinks that perhaps the reason I like it so much is because it reminds me of my childhood.  It has been my drink of choice since I was about 10 years old and first introduced to the world of fizzy drinks.  I never liked regular Coke because it is far too sweet; ironically, for someone with such a sweet tooth I cannot stand overly sweet drinks!  Does drinking it remind me of a time when I felt safe, secure and loved?  Does it remind me of a simpler time, a time when I was happy and carefree, with no responsibilities?

Boredom?

Perhaps I drink it simply because I don’t really drink much else apart from water and green/herbal tea.  Maybe I just get bored of drinking the same thing over and over and occasionally I feel like a change?  It’s a good theory, but then why do I always reach for diet Coke?  Why don’t other tasty soft drinks hold the same allure?  It could be argued that other soft drinks actually taste better than diet Coke, which my sister reckons tastes like a can of chemicals, and with which I would kind of agree.  It also has to be Coca-Cola.  Don’t even think of giving me diet Pepsi. And I will laugh in the face of anyone who tries to feed me store brand cola!  It’s diet Coke all the way; no substitutions!

Rebellion?

Or maybe I just like being a rebel.  I feel I do most things right regarding diet and exercise, so perhaps occasionally I like to rebel a little and have something that I know is bad for me, but without having to deal with any of the guilt of eating unhealthy food; there are only negligible calories in diet Coke after all!

I’m not sure I will ever know the real reason why I love diet Coke so much.  What I do know is that it isn’t healthy and knowing this makes me feel a little guilty every time I drink it.  I am comfortable with occasionally eating ‘unhealthy’ food, such as cake and chocolate because when it comes down to it the ingredients are mostly still real food.  It’s just that it has been processed into something that doesn’t necessarily do your body any good if consumed in excess.  But what about diet Coke?  There’s nothing natural about it.  It really is just a bunch of chemicals in a can.  I like the act of drinking it, but not the thought of drinking it.

So there it is; my very unhealthy habit revealed.  Perhaps moderation is always the best philosophy, even when it comes to diet Coke.  I don’t know, but I really can’t imagine never drinking it again.