Diet Coke and Ketosis:
Keeping a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. And starting a new diet is even harder. On the keto diet, staying in ketosis is key. A keto diet is stringent, and finding a keto-friendly drink that still quenches your thirst can be difficult. Looking at many zero-calorie options, it is hard to determine which low-calorie option is best for you.
Diet coke will not kick you out of ketosis. The key is making sure that the diet
beverage you are consuming is not only zero calories but low carb as well. Calories
are not necessarily the main thing you want to pay attention to when
maintaining a keto diet. Net carbs are
one of the most important things to key an eye on.
It is important to monitor your intake while on the keto diet. There are many factors to consider. Mainly, you want to make sure that your body stays in ketosis (fat-burning mode).
Keto is a lot less restrictive than you think, and it all comes down to keeping track of what you eat and making sure you do not consume too many carbohydrates.
Is Diet Coke Keto Friendly?
Diet Coke, and many other diet or low-calorie drinks, are keto-friendly. The key to staying in ketosis is limiting your carbohydrate intake to between 20-50 net grams a day. There is a huge difference between normal carbohydrate levels and net carbohydrate levels. Our bodies need carbs. They cannot run without them. Keeping in the above-mentioned range will optimize fat burning with little effort.
Calculate net carbs:
To calculate the net carbs for a certain food, you would take the total carbs listed on the nutrition label and subtract the total amount of fiber from the listed carbs. That number will be your total net carbs. For example: Carbs 6; fiber 3 = 3 total net carbs. Once you get this down. Determining what you can and cannot consume while on the keto diet will become much easier. It is all about the science!
The Glucose Relationship Between Diet Coke and Ketosis
When you consume anything, it is processed by your pancreas, which then produces insulin and ketones. After you eat, your pancreas produces more insulin, and in turn, it starts to hold your fat in storage.
When you are not eating, it does the opposite, and insulin is not being produced, and your body goes into fat-burning mode. So, the more insulin you create, the higher chance you have to gain weight. Some sweeteners used in diet sodas can cause your body to produce insulin.
Glucose:
Insulin monitors the release of glucose and ketones into your bloodstream as well. Glucose is used much like fuel. When you are not eating, the glucose in your blood reduces to a healthy and optimal level, and then begins to use your fat store as fuel and starts burning fat.
The artificial sweeteners in diet coke or any diet soda can inadvertently cause a spike in your insulin, disrupting the entire fat burning process. It is not common, and the occasional diet coke will not kick you out of ketosis, but this should be that—an occasional beverage.
Alternative Beverage for a Keto-Friendly Diet
There are SO many beverages that are keto-friendly. Once you know the science behind the keto diet, determining what you can and should not consume becomes much easier. Here is a quick list of beverages that are keto-friendly:
- Vitamin water zero
- Powerade zero
- Sparkling water
- Any diet or zero-calorie sodas (in moderation)
- Unsweetened tea
- Coffee – unsweetened or with calorie and carb friendly additives
- Low or zero carb energy drinks
- Flavored water (crystal light, etc.)
These are just a generalization of what you can and cannot consume while maintaining ketosis. The best and number one drink will always be water. But sometimes, we need a bit more, and water just does not cut it. That is where this list comes in. If you had a long day and need something a bit stronger, there are a few ‘keto-friendly’ alcoholic drinks as well!
Is Diet Coke Good or Bad for Your Health?
When switching from regular soda to diet, you are giving up about 150-ish calories per can. That is a lot of empty calories! A diet soda a day or two is not necessarily healthy or unhealthy. It is a better alternative than regular soda, that is for sure. At this point, no health studies are showing that it is bad for you.
Diet soda does correlate with slight weight gain over time, but again. Nothing linking it to any serious health issues. Diet sodas overall are not healthy beverages.
Fake Sugar:
Most sources would
consider diet soda unhealthy. Not only
are the ingredients in a diet soda not good for your body, but the 'fake sugar'
can also cause hunger. So, on top of
putting chemicals into your body, these chemicals will make you want to consume
more calories/carbs. So essentially, you
end up replacing the calories you would consume with a soda with a snack.
How Much Diet Coke Is Too Much on a keto?
Moderation is key. You can have too much of a good thing. The same goes for diet coke. Overall, any diet drink is ok in moderation, but are not good as a regular staple in your diet.
The point of a keto diet is not only to burn fat and become lean and healthy, but also a complete lifestyle change. It is a change to keep yourself healthy and well. Any kind of soft drink is not necessarily healthy.
Being on the keto diet, you need to maintain a lot of different levels. Drinking a large amount of diet soda can have negative health effects over time. A certain amount will not necessarily kick you out of ketosis, but it is not necessarily a good idea to drink it all day, or every day for that matter. Do not forget to keep in mind your end goal.
Some Interesting Facts About Diet Coke
Often, we do not know a ton about the food or beverages that we consume. Knowing what we put in our bodies is important and something we should be mindful of. Here are a few interesting facts and statistics you may have not known about diet coke:
- Because diet coke lacks real sugar, it causes your body to crave real sugar.
- Artificial sweeteners in coke can trigger insulin production and can cause your body to go into fat storage mode, creating the opposite effect most people want from drinking a diet soda
- Some diet sodas are made with 2% of your daily sodium and potassium intake.
- The recipe for diet coke is a completely different recipe from regular coke. They do not alter the recipe but use a different one altogether
- The artificial sweeteners in diet soda are known to cause headaches
While diet coke may taste good, there are a few things to keep in mind when consuming the beverage. As noted above, there are other alternatives that may be a better option.
Keto diet drinks:
Diet coke, coke zero, diet Pepsi - all these drinks are keto-friendly. Although they will not kick you out of ketosis, they are not healthy to consume all day or long term. At times they are good for a ‘guilty pleasure’.
Diet soda can be a good substitute for regular soda or to satisfy a
sweet craving. Although it should not
become a normal staple in your diet. Overall,
most healthcare providers will warn that diet soda, even with no calories, are
worse than regular sodas.
