A diet coke experiment

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anttismo
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Thu May 15, 2014 12:13 pm

RonK wrote:So you drank 8 cans of Coke per day, and in another thread you say you drank 3 cases of booze per week, presumably thats 10 cans of beer per day.

That is some seriously addictive behaviour. :frown:
Yep, sure is. I suck really bad. I've also been well over 200kg and ate like a machine, and now have been averaging over 20 hrs a week a pushbike for several years. My kingdom to be a regular person :lol:

Main difference with the beer and the coke is that coke you can drink all day long. Beer you have to compress into this 6-10pm window if you want to keep your job...

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Thu May 15, 2014 1:43 pm

The can of coke towards the end of your epic ride was a good choice, when your depleted that's when to have one
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby RonK » Thu May 15, 2014 1:54 pm

anttismo wrote:
RonK wrote:So you drank 8 cans of Coke per day, and in another thread you say you drank 3 cases of booze per week, presumably thats 10 cans of beer per day.

That is some seriously addictive behaviour. :frown:
Yep, sure is. I suck really bad. I've also been well over 200kg and ate like a machine, and now have been averaging over 20 hrs a week a pushbike for several years. My kingdom to be a regular person :lol:

Main difference with the beer and the coke is that coke you can drink all day long. Beer you have to compress into this 6-10pm window if you want to keep your job...
Hehe, and I suppose you smoked as well. :lol:

That is some turnaround. Were you able to achieve it by yourself, or did you get backup?

Interesting that around 25 years ago I had hypnosis to stop smoking - it was a success, I've never had the urge to smoke since. I wasn't a particularly heavy drinker, but at around the same time I lost interest in alcohol too. Only recently have I connected the two events and realised that the hypnosis for smoking may have influenced my other addictive behaviors. :D
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Fri May 16, 2014 9:23 am

RonK wrote:...
Hehe, and I suppose you smoked as well. :lol:

That is some turnaround. Were you able to achieve it by yourself, or did you get backup?

Interesting that around 25 years ago I had hypnosis to stop smoking - it was a success, I've never had the urge to smoke since. I wasn't a particularly heavy drinker, but at around the same time I lost interest in alcohol too. Only recently have I connected the two events and realised that the hypnosis for smoking may have influenced my other addictive behaviors. :D
Yeah, I had 2 main smoking phases - in high school, then again through my 30s. In my 30s it went from socially when I went to pub up to basically a pack a day and then back to socially when I went to the pub over a 10 year period. Never had any trouble stopping smoking and the main thing I miss is that is gives you something to do. If I was in gaol or in a war I would become a chain smoker :)

Not sure which turn around you mean above, but the drinking I just stopped. The first few months were pretty rough at times and I'm a bit surprised I finally did stop and it stuck. I had been planning it for years but could never get it done. I didn't really have any special support other than having a few outstanding boxes to tick in my life that required me to stop. So just remaining strong and focused on the long term plan... which was to race superbikes.

The weight loss thing just followed the booze. Stopping drinking also meant I started to care again about living, and remained strong and focused on a long term plan... which was to race superbikes :)

The problem with diet coke is that it seems to have no real tangible down sides. I'm giving it up to see if I can detect an improvement in my life. If not, then I'm happy to keep drinking it :)

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Fri May 16, 2014 10:46 am

There's a host of reasons why artificial sweeteners are bad for you, Google is your friend http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wel ... -diet-soda

Also and not so obvious many find that it doesn't help you release your dependency on sweet tasting food, so you continue to gravitate towards sugar laden food

Personally I see diet drink as a dependency stepping stone, for example;
Booze -> sugared soft drink -> diet soft drink -> sparkling water -> water
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Fri May 16, 2014 11:10 am

Yeah, I've read the web a lot, but I am a test engineer by profession these days, and am swayed by data. The jibberings of the folllowers of the religion called health-freakazoidsim don't appeal to me much. The proof will be in the pudding when my life in transformed into something new. Like if my FTP goes up 10%, or if I can ride at 90% intensity for 8 hrs without eating, then I'll certainly be convinced :)

I'm also unconvinced that processed foods have any negative effects for individuals as myself, but I am unwilling to do that experiment at this stage. Same with paleo, or anything with words like organic or wholefoods or jesus :lol: Although I have done a Jesus experiment in the past...

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby marty_one » Fri May 16, 2014 1:42 pm

Personally I think that the processed foods have a lot to do with my current GORD condition, as well as over consumption of said carbonated beverages. I know that I need to get off the stuff too. From my perspective though I think that replacing the crap I am putting into my body with natural foods (IE: Fruit and Vegetables neither of which I get enough off) will help me with my cycling and exercise in general.

The are some many reports/studies that either prove or disprove the effects of processed foods have on our bodies. Over the last couple of years though through my own experience I am finding that processed foods regardless of whats in them have the same baseline taste to them on top of the other things that are in them. So I am actually trying to stay away from them.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Fri May 16, 2014 2:08 pm

Killing softies isn't going to make the earth shattering difference that killing booze did, it's one of many smaller refinements that one can make
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby jlh » Fri May 16, 2014 2:45 pm

I'm an engineering and I don't need data to understand that evolution means eating natural unprocessed food is better than processed food.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Fri May 16, 2014 4:23 pm

jlh wrote:I'm an engineering and I don't need data to understand that evolution means eating natural unprocessed food is better than processed food.

Cool. I assume you left a word out there, but cool anyway :)

The thing is, if you understood evolution more deeply you would see things differently. Primitive man ate unprocessed foods and evolved to live to 40. Man invents modern civilization, science, medicine, etc, man starts eating processed food, life expectancy increases to 80. Don't fight the data :lol:

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Dragster1 » Fri May 16, 2014 10:25 pm

anttismo wrote:
jlh wrote:I'm an engineering and I don't need data to understand that evolution means eating natural unprocessed food is better than processed food.

Cool. I assume you left a word out there, but cool anyway :)

The thing is, if you understood evolution more deeply you would see things differently. Primitive man ate unprocessed foods and evolved to live to 40. Man invents modern civilization, science, medicine, etc, man starts eating processed food, life expectancy increases to 80. Don't fight the data :lol:
I don't think processed food is the cause of longer life, Look at how may people live close to or over the age of a 100 years in isolated towns in Europe where they still have a basic diet.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby RonK » Fri May 16, 2014 10:29 pm

anttismo wrote:
jlh wrote:I'm an engineering and I don't need data to understand that evolution means eating natural unprocessed food is better than processed food.

Cool. I assume you left a word out there, but cool anyway :)

The thing is, if you understood evolution more deeply you would see things differently. Primitive man ate unprocessed foods and evolved to live to 40. Man invents modern civilization, science, medicine, etc, man starts eating processed food, life expectancy increases to 80. Don't fight the data :lol:
Haha - your logic is unassailable. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Mulger bill » Fri May 16, 2014 10:51 pm

Dragster1 wrote:
anttismo wrote:
jlh wrote:I'm an engineering and I don't need data to understand that evolution means eating natural unprocessed food is better than processed food.

Cool. I assume you left a word out there, but cool anyway :)

The thing is, if you understood evolution more deeply you would see things differently. Primitive man ate unprocessed foods and evolved to live to 40. Man invents modern civilization, science, medicine, etc, man starts eating processed food, life expectancy increases to 80. Don't fight the data :lol:
I don't think processed food is the cause of longer life, Look at how may people live close to or over the age of a 100 years in isolated towns in Europe where they still have a basic diet.
I don't think Ant is serious...
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Sun May 18, 2014 10:39 am

To be fair, I'm not really completely pro-processed food. I'm sure as natural as possible is probably better, but I do like winding up those who take it all a bit too seriously. It's important, but not very, IMO :)

On topic, diet coke experiment is going well. About 10 days in and feeling fine. Seem to be over any kind of dependence, getting through the days with no caffeine. OK, I have eaten a lot of museli bars - been a big week with 37 hrs cycling including last sunday - so I'm sure I'm probably getting tiny amounts of caffeine in the chocolate bits. But this would be very tiny bits. Feeling good though, and I think if anything noticeable is that I'm sleeping a bit better. And drinking a lot more water and going to the pisser less :lol:

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Sun May 18, 2014 12:57 pm

Where's the "like" button when you need it?

The problem with the majority of processed food is that they put way too much crap in it. Simple example, look at the nutritional info on crumbed fish, you are way better to buy fish and crumb it yourself
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Tim » Sun May 18, 2014 1:12 pm

mikesbytes wrote:Simple example, look at the nutritional info on crumbed fish, you are way better to buy fish and crumb it yourself
Hah, hah. I crumbed some lovely little chicken tenderloin fillets for dinner last night.
You should see all the crap listed on the breadcrumb box.
As for fish, think of all that mercury.
Chicken, hah, antibiotics and hormone, beautiful.
You just can't win. :lol:

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby matagi » Sun May 18, 2014 1:46 pm

Tim wrote:
mikesbytes wrote:Simple example, look at the nutritional info on crumbed fish, you are way better to buy fish and crumb it yourself
Hah, hah. I crumbed some lovely little chicken tenderloin fillets for dinner last night.
You should see all the crap listed on the breadcrumb box.
As for fish, think of all that mercury.
Chicken, hah, antibiotics and hormone, beautiful.
You just can't win. :lol:
You know you can make your own breadcrumbs - best done with proper home-made bread or a good quality artisan bread but not plastic bread. I save the crusts and any odd-shaped slices and when I have enough, I slowly dry them in the oven then grate them (I don't own a food processor).

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby singlespeedscott » Sun May 18, 2014 2:23 pm

matagi wrote: I save the crusts and any odd-shaped slices and when I have enough, I slowly dry them in the oven then grate them (I don't own a food processor).
Their best bits dont waste them on bread crumbs :D
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby jlh » Sun May 18, 2014 11:14 pm

Tim wrote:
mikesbytes wrote:Simple example, look at the nutritional info on crumbed fish, you are way better to buy fish and crumb it yourself
Hah, hah. I crumbed some lovely little chicken tenderloin fillets for dinner last night.
You should see all the crap listed on the breadcrumb box.
As for fish, think of all that mercury.
Chicken, hah, antibiotics and hormone, beautiful.
You just can't win. :lol:
How about organic fruit and veg?

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby eeksll » Sun May 18, 2014 11:14 pm

anttismo wrote:To be fair, I'm not really completely pro-processed food. I'm sure as natural as possible is probably better, but I do like winding up those who take it all a bit too seriously. It's important, but not very, IMO :)
I like that :D

Processed is such a generic word as well. Rolled oats is technically processed, I believe that is classified as a healthy food.

I tried caffeine free for a month, it was kinds semi-forced on me. I found it really hard to maintain concentration at work, maybe I never got over the dependency. I don't really get headaches without drinking coffee though. Most I have had on a consistent basis is 3 double shot espressos a day.

I don't drink coffee before or during rides, mainly cause it makes me pee.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby eeksll » Sun May 18, 2014 11:18 pm

jlh wrote:
Tim wrote:
mikesbytes wrote:Simple example, look at the nutritional info on crumbed fish, you are way better to buy fish and crumb it yourself
Hah, hah. I crumbed some lovely little chicken tenderloin fillets for dinner last night.
You should see all the crap listed on the breadcrumb box.
As for fish, think of all that mercury.
Chicken, hah, antibiotics and hormone, beautiful.
You just can't win. :lol:
How about organic fruit and veg?
Selectively breed so the ones you buy contain the most sugar to taste the nicest.

still can't win.

:D

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby matagi » Mon May 19, 2014 8:45 am

eeksll wrote:
jlh wrote:
How about organic fruit and veg?
Selectively breed so the ones you buy contain the most sugar to taste the nicest.

still can't win.

:D
Not if you go for heirloom varieties - although that can be challenging and often expensive. When I lived in Tamworth, my local greengrocer sold pears from a 100-year-old tree. They were quite gnarly looking and not overly sweet.

Where I currently live, I am lucky enough to be able to attend a local farmer's market every weekend, so I have access to heirloom varieties of fruit and veg and there is a noticeable difference in flavour (and sometimes texture) between these and the modern varieties.

FWIW, chickens are quite strictly controlled. They are never fed hormones, so all chooks, even the battery ones are hormone free. Antibiotics are a whole different matter though.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby eeksll » Mon May 19, 2014 11:43 am

matagi wrote:
eeksll wrote:
jlh wrote:
How about organic fruit and veg?
Selectively breed so the ones you buy contain the most sugar to taste the nicest.

still can't win.

:D
Not if you go for heirloom varieties - although that can be challenging and often expensive. When I lived in Tamworth, my local greengrocer sold pears from a 100-year-old tree. They were quite gnarly looking and not overly sweet.

Where I currently live, I am lucky enough to be able to attend a local farmer's market every weekend, so I have access to heirloom varieties of fruit and veg and there is a noticeable difference in flavour (and sometimes texture) between these and the modern varieties.

FWIW, chickens are quite strictly controlled. They are never fed hormones, so all chooks, even the battery ones are hormone free. Antibiotics are a whole different matter though.
I have not heard of heirloom before.

Good one matagi, you just started another health fad. :-P

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby PapaJohn » Thu May 22, 2014 7:20 pm

I don't know about fad. Many of us have been doing it for a lifetime. Fresh is best.

There is a world of difference between a carrot from a supermarket and one that' you've just pulled out of the ground, and between commercial poultry and those you know by name, who eat snails & grubs & garden scraps and whatever else along with normal rations, not to mention the eggs they produce. (no "cardboard taste" for a start)

Heirloom varieties are simply cultivars that the industry for whatever reason, do not use. They tend to vary heaps in their characteristics, which the industry shuns because of the emphasis on consistency, and the need to produce quantity. It's a bit of a wonderland to get among it. There can be a world of difference in tomatoes, and many other things too They are always worth a try from the genuine farmers markets, if you don't mind the risk that you might not prefer the taste of a particular variety. You will find some gems.

Home gardeners can control whether it is organic or not. You know what goes into, or on the plants. If you want pest and blemish free produce, you can have it and know that the withholding period for whatever pest control agent has been used is well past, or have it the other way and know there are no chemicals at all in the produce you produce yourself.

Two attractions to an earthy lifestyle.

Oh and I drink Coke too, not often and not usually the diet variety. The real thing just tastes better, and the diet variety is a hopeless mixer. It's a decent "shot in the arm" during or after a long ride.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby casual_cyclist » Fri May 23, 2014 4:39 pm

eeksll wrote:
matagi wrote:Not if you go for heirloom varieties - although that can be challenging and often expensive. When I lived in Tamworth, my local greengrocer sold pears from a 100-year-old tree. They were quite gnarly looking and not overly sweet.

Where I currently live, I am lucky enough to be able to attend a local farmer's market every weekend, so I have access to heirloom varieties of fruit and veg and there is a noticeable difference in flavour (and sometimes texture) between these and the modern varieties.
I have not heard of heirloom before.

Good one matagi, you just started another health fad. :-P
Those of us in the know have been onto heirloom for ages. It's because of the flavour. People make me laugh when they claim that modern fruit has been bred to be sweeter. Uh, no. Have you tasted a strawberry or banana lately? Now, I'm not talking about the good ones, which taste great. But go down to your local supermarket and have a look at the giant bananas and giant strawberries... you know, the ones that are the size of your fist? They taste disgusting. Sweet is the last word I would use to describe them. When scientists made them up in their labs, their priorities are size, transportability, shelf life, colour. Taste and sweetness are not on the agenda. Modern supermarket tomatoes are watery and flavourless. Whereas, homegrown tomatoes (of the right kind) taste amazing!!! To the point where scientists are trying to breed the flavour back into the fruit.
“Usually the old varieties haven't been exposed to intensive genetic selection, but commercially grown varieties have. Breeders have been selecting for characteristics like size, shape, growth rate, disease resistance and the amount of fruit the plant produces.”
“We miss out on flavour because it is controlled not just by one gene but by many,” says Dr Ahmad, who says the biggest change in flavour occurred with the discovery of the "(u/u)" gene – or uniform ripening gene – around 70 years ago, which has now been incorporated into most commercial varieties of tomato.
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/fo ... 30yeo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A blogger had a look at the claim:
Fruits have been selectively bread to contain massive amounts of sugar compared to how they used to be
and found the data doesn't support the claim. Rather, it found that:
Contrary to popular belief, wild fruit—including the stuff we would’ve had access to during our evolution—is not necessarily any of the above. In fact, it can be bigger, tastier, and sweeter than anything you’ll ever find in the aisles of your grocery store.
http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/05/31/wild-a ... ent-fruit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Food for thought.
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