I have a confession to make: I love Diet Coke. I find it tastes great and is extremely refreshing. In fact, so much so that for a while I only drank Diet Coke and I drink a lot so I was consuming more than 12 cans per day.

Unfortunately, Diet Coke and regular Coke both have phosphoric acid which leeches calcium from your bones and prevents calcium absorption. As I am also largely lactose intolerant and have low calcium intake to begin with, my doctors detected early signs of osteoporosis. As a result, I decided to completely stop drinking Coke and add calcium supplements to my diet.

While I was at it, I also completely cut all sugar substitutes (such as aspartame) and caffeine from my diet. Given how long aspartame has been around, I doubt it has negative health implications even if one drinks 24 cans of diet soda per day. However, recent studies suggest that sugar intake helps regulate the feeling of satiety and people taking sugar substitutes have a tendency to overeat.

With regards to caffeine, I have extremely high energy to begin with and don’t really need it, besides I don’t like the taste of coffee.

It’s been a week and so far so good. We’ll see how it goes!