Oh, I'd also like to add the bleeding obvious: anyone using artificial sweetener on the advice of your doctor should clearly not jump the gun in making any changes. Talk to the doc.

SUGAR RULES! Oh, and honey is yummy.

Oh and that "gearing up" thing you speak of is also why you shouldn't serve sweet drinks (Juice/Soda) with food (or foods with sugar in it, think ketchup or stupid spaghetti sauces with HFCS in it) as the body gets the "yummy" signal and you will eat more, have seconds etc. Drink water with dinner and the "I'm full now, thanks" signal will hit the brain in time for you to stop eating. Good thing to know when you have kids with huge appetites. Let them eat all they want just limit the sweet drinks so that it really only is all they need to eat. (Perle regularly eats 8 fishballs in one sitting, which is really impressive at her age!)

for visual reference this is eight fishballs and mashed potato, that's an adult sized meal!

Sorry I messed up and didn't close tag. Did not show in preview.

Not only is that an adult sized meal, I'm an adult and I really, really want it right now now.

I'm not sure about the don't-have-something-sweet with dinn-dinn thing, though - from this article, it seems like it tells the body, "METABOLIZE POWER - UP!" (in the case of natural sweeteners) ... which may actually maybe make sense of that feeling that people have for something sweet after dinner. (??!)

But this doesn't mean I think you are wrong. To me, it feels terribly wrong to have a sweet drink with a meal because the taste thing seems totally fucked up. Like, I don't want to take a bite of chocolate cake and fish at the same time, I don't want chicken and vanilla at the same time, and I don't want a sweet drink and my main food at the same time. Breakfast slightly excluded; I can have a sweet juice, or sweetened coffee with breakfast, and I seem to really crave some level of sweetness in the morning (- I've found if I have a spoonful of honey in the morning, I'm good to go, whatever).

So, I feel exactly as you do, but this report doesn't necessarily seem proof of this instinct in us.

I usually drink sparkling water, both at home and when I go out. On my first visit to NYC last June, not realising that it's called seltzer, I wasn't sure how to order sparkling water at the bar, and, not wanting to look like a n00b, I had Diet Coke instead.

I had two large-ish Diet Cokes during the evening and a couple of hours later I felt really, really nauseous. I remember in the Odessa diner I thought I might throw up over gaspode (omg!). I put it down to jetlag and rich food, but ...

... on my last visit to NY a few weeks ago, I got sick again, terribly nauseous, after drinking a couple of cans of Diet Coke. I stayed off it after that and was fine.

Aspartame is poison, I tell you, poison.

"No, no diet soda for me thanks; I'm on a diet."

Aspartame is poison, I tell you, poison.

I can't stand the stuff. So yes, taste poison!

I drink sparkling water with dinner (or plain ol' moo juice) for exactly that taste thing Taz talks about. Moo juice only goes well with some foods - like those fishballs! Mmmm.. Okay now I'm gonna make fishballs for lunch, Taz come on over.

Remember Cher's Equal commercials back in the early 90's? 'You care more about what you put in your car than what you put in your body...' Well, I never put silicone in my car, lady.

Hehe, yeah I keep thinking that when Britt Ekland speaks about recycling on Swedish telly. Where you gonna recycle your siliconed self, sugar? See what I did there? Sugar! Get it? Yes I know that was terrible

I'm not quite on the "Aspartame is poison!!!!" hysteria bandwagon (Marion Nestle handles this rather well in her recent book), but there are more than enough reasons to drop the diet soda from one's intake. I recently did so myself and wish I had done sooner.

I don't drink dieat soda either. I drink regular soda, usually Mountain Dew or Root Beer. Other than that it's usually beer, coffee, or Strawberry Quik.

I'm an everything in moderation kind of person. I probably have one can of diet soda every couple of days, and I'm comfortable with that.

(most of the time at home when I want something sweet I drink ginger/lemon tea sweetened with honey. YUM.)

I don't generally drink diet soda; I don't like the taste (Diet Coke is the only one I can drink and not taste in my mouth for hours afterward).

Fresca, TPS. Delish.

Fresca and vodka is a fantastic summer drink. MMMMmmm... summer.

I'm a HUGE sparkling water fan, and now when Ramlösa and Loka comes in a whole bunch of flavors I'm in heaven. (I only drink Ramlösa and Loka & Perrier when I canfind it because those are well known springs, not bottled bubbly tap water. Man that's such a rip-off.)

Youknow what else is a fantastic summer drunk? Vodka, (1 shot) crushed ice and a three finger thick layer of thinly sliced cucumber in a glass. I'm serious.

I'm Bunny, and I am a Diet Coke fiend.

I drink diet coke with my rum. Other than that, it's usually diet green tea. I just can't bring myself to "waste" calories on non-diet beverages and I, oddly enough, really hate drinking water.

I love the taste of Fresca, gaspode, but it has one of the worst aftertastes, IMO. Which is sad, because I like the taste of it so much.

I don't drink diet soda. But I don't drink a lot of soda anyway, and, when I do, I usually go for either the organic stuff or the Mexican stuff. Pure cane sugar. I don't even like HFCS, let alone artificial sweeteners.

TAB KILLS