A Diet Soda a Day if the ADA has Their Way

You obviously are a diet soda drinker or else why be so rude?  She is spot on with her sarcasm and well warranted here.  Give me a break! Maybe you work for the ADA?  And why be anonymous???

I think we all have bigger issues with food and nutrition than sarcasm, plus I find a little humor a lot more fun than most of the ADA materials. 
Sheesh.

Well said Nour. I understand Lauren’s position, but to outright attack an organization that does so much good (I am proud to say that I am a past national media spokesperson for ADA) is not necesssary and missing the point.  We should all consume more real foods and fewer processed, packaged, nutrient poor foods. We should limit artificial sweeteners and certain food additives. We should exercise. We should limit tv and screen time. These are things we can do to optimize our health and our weight.  But as an RD, I will never tell someone don’t do this, and don’t do that. I take a positive approach to nutrition and wellness and try to meet people where they are to help them move in a more healthful direction. As an RD, I try to base all of my recommendations on evidence from the scientific literature. Incidentally, ADA’s evidence analysis library, in my opinion, is a wonderful resource, and one I refer to often.

On a personal I gave up diet coke more than 7 weeks ago and except for 2 diet snapple iced teas and unsweetened iced tea, have not had any caffeinated or artificially sweetened beverages in that time. I made the decision to go cold turkey with Diet Coke because I was guzzling it down all day and knew that for me it wasn’t healthy. I support the ADA’s position on artificial sweeteners based on the available evidence to date, but am certainly open minded that at some point we may find diet sodas to be outright harmful to your health. For now, I cannot say that one or two a day will kill you or harm you. I just don’t at this time believe that to be true in the context of an otherwise healthful lifestyle.

We dietitians who work with the media are certainly entitled to our own opinions, and while I personally may be too middle of the road for many, I don’t believe all or none works for anyone. All of must find a way of eating and living that works for us as individuals, and it is not in my opinion our job to tell consumers what they should and shouldn’t eat. What we should do–again, in my opinion–is present consumers with information and ultimately, let them decide–without imposing guilt or pressure–what to do with that information in their own life. ADA has science and many other things on their side, and to play the blame game will not, in my opinion, help consumers make more healthful food decisions. Sorry for MY rant, but thanks again for your comments, Nour!

Nour, I think when the ADA is “sponsored” by Mars, Hersheys, Coke and Pepsi RD’s should question it. And the chocolate analogy was not to say chocolate is without merit but to point out replacing fruit with chocolate isn’t a positive change and that healthful changes I would hope, is what RD’s encourage. Plus, the chocolate I promote is not in the form of a Mars bar. Pointing fingers at sarcasm and “humiliating” ourselves is your choice but, as Elie Wiesel said (I’m paraphrasing), at times it’s worse to observe and do nothing. 

yes, healthy.

I was thinking of having read those studies about diet soda consumption it possibly correlating with being overweight. The ADA seems to have totally discounted them….

“Dietetics isn’t about forcing your own beliefs and dietary habits on others but rather providing people with sensible and sustainable changes which may help them realistically achieve their goals”

Haven’t been around Fooducate long, have you? This place is proselytizing central.

Fleur, thanks for taking the time to visit our site. We have a small number of products for sale and take time to procure top quality selections. Many items are organic, produced by companies that take great pride in their ingredients. I’m of the belief that it’s worth paying and voting for food that’s free of pesticides and healthy. Maybe we can afford chia seed, green tea and hemp protein with all the money saved from soda. And it’s fine if you don’t take me seriously but I would take the ADA and corporate sponsorship seriously.

I just don’t get the methadone approach to food changes. Take something with no nutritional merit and replace with something else with no merit and that’s a “first step”? Doesn’t seem like a step at all if you ask me. And if a “whole group” tells the country to consume diet soda, I’m going to speak up. Is that bashing?

I second you KG. But can’t stop before responding to each comment … 

My initial frustrations are with those attacking Lauren as a practitioner: 

If you have yet to become an RD (are in training), while your enthusiasm is admirable, I might suggest holding back from your attempt at schooling another RD with years of working with patients. 

If you are or were a spokesperson for the ADA then I think that point and the fact that you have found useful information and support from the ADA is a great point – but it doesn’t undo Lauren’s who hasn’t found the same connection or value …and the ADA is meant to be an organization that represents all RDs – from the Diet Soda drinkers, to the GMO lovers, to the Organic or Die practitioners – and when one has a critique rather than attack her, hear her out and encourage the ADA to respond

And now to The Issues:
 Diet Soda is not a health food, it is not something that the body needs to function optimally and as such is not a recommendation that needs to be made by an RD…if one choose the gray area of better than or reduction, that is their choice but it should not be presented as an overarching recommendation”I don’t tell people what to do” Well, RDs are actually meant to make recommendations (yes sometimes in practice that means telling people what they should choose (think of your eye doctor “better #1, better #2″) versus what is a less good choice; If an organization – or perhaps an RD – takes money from a company they have two choices – they can say “this message was paid for by our sponsor” or they can say to the company “Thank you for your money but it will not change what we say” and in this instance, I took what Lauren was writing about as a concern that the ADA is doing neither – that in exchange for Pepsi dollars, it is saying “drink diet soda” in exchange for Mars money it’s saying “man-made candy treats are part of a healthy diet” but it isn’t saying “drink diet soda, a product made by one (or more) of our sponsors and this message may not reflect the belief of all of our members”; Yes, as RDs, we can and I believe we should role model better behaviors even if they appear aspirational – it’s okay to say you should be drinking water, green tea, organic milk  etc BUT we don’t get to stop there…our job isn’t just the advice, it’s the guidance to teach a client how they can implement changes or exchanges. We are meant to help someone figure out how they can do that – how they can afford it with more stealth shopping, how they can get food that tastes good enough that they don’t miss their diet soda; how eating right will give them the energy they need instead of relying on the caffeine daily, and how to not feel badly when they give in or give upChemicals: just because someone learned how to make them in a lab does not mean we need them in our bodies – it isn’t about whether they kill, mame, or even just irritate…we just plain don’t need them and anyone that wants to convince you that we do is…selling chemicals. MY close friend hay thyroid cancer after college and her oncologist told her “there is no way that cigarettes caused this” (She smoked a pack a day)…so after her two weeks of treatment she resumed her habit. Today she has lung cancer and the MD said to her “come on, didn’t you know that smoking causes cancer, you are a smart girl, you had to know that.” We have to be careful about what we do and don’t advise – perhaps the MD should have said “well there aren’t studies that show that thyroid cancer is caused by smoking but there are plenty of studies that show smoking causes cancer in other parts of the body and now that you have one cancer it would be a good idea to avoid smoking to lower your other risks.” The thing is if you suspect a chemical isn’t good – and since we don’t need them for any reason – then go with your gut and don’t consume it – if you are ok with taking the risk that something man made to trick your body (sweet sans calories) is ok …go with that too…but don’t shoot the messenger who says “it’s not ok for me or for my patients” and as an organization that represents all – don’t give the support of all your members unless they truly support the messageIn fact, the RDs that worry about those of us that challenge the ADA (or AND whatever our name currently is) as possibly ruining our influence nationally,  I could forward you any number of comments from nutrition professionals, chefs, healthcare practitioners and individuals whose concern for the ADA’s nepotism / pay-to-play and resulting messages cause them to at best, make fun of RDs, and at worst, publicly denounce us. Challenge makes anyone or any organization better – for it has to stand up for what it believes in – and I believe that Lauren posed a challenge to a dialogue, not a duel, that the ADA will hopefully step up and respond to

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