Diet Soda on a Ketogenic Diet

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You’re doing all the hard work and sticking to prepared meals.

You’re in a social surrounding, and your friends, family or people around are consuming Pepsi, Colas, Dr. Pepper.

For one reason or another, you get the sudden urge to have some. What do you do?

Of course, we’re not talking about the soda high in carbs and calories which come from sugar but is diet soda.

These are plain useless and put you into glucose burning mode instantly.

Who thinks that diet soda on a ketogenic diet is allowed?

It can certainly aid your goal for losing fat, but the ingredients within are bound to have an impact on your body.

We are going to see how impactful diet soda is in ketosis.

But first, we must know exactly what is keto.

What is Ketosis and Keto?

The ketogenic diet is a diet used for years for treating epilepsy, managing a healthy weight, and naturally shifts your body into ketosis.

Ketosis itself is a process in your body when fat is used to produce energy, rather than carbs.

Ketosis isn’t harmful, unlike ketoacidosis, a medical condition that is life-threatening affecting uncontrolled type 1 diabetics.

Hence, the ketogenic diet is often associated with a low-carb diet, which in fact, is done to ‘force’ your body to use fat more maximally as an energy source.

For what to eat see our LCHF foods for a ketogenic diet.

LowCarbAlpha

Diet Soda and Insulin

If you’re diabetic then usually you have more attention to consuming excess sugars and what foods are best for you.

Some refuse to touch all soda or prefer to sweeten up with sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose.

Even though they have no calories, it is a man-made product and can have an impact on hormones and blood sugar.

Although a complex process within the body, studies show a difference in gut hormones secretion when drinking diet sodas.(1)

Studies also show sweeteners found in diet sodas could cause intolerance to glucose by changing the intestinal environment.

In animals, non-nutritive sweeteners activate gut sweet-taste pathways that control incretin release and upregulate glucose transporters.(2)

Bottom line is a tiny amount to sweeten your drink may not do much one time.

Repeated use, however, can indirectly affect insulin production, modify gut bacteria, and your body’s chemical response to sweet foods.

How Can Diet Soda Be So Supportive?

High-carb soft drinks, such as Coke, Pepsi, fruit juices, and other sugary carbonated drinks can all kick you out of ketosis.

However, diet sodas such as Diet Coke, Pepsi Max, and other sugar-free carbonated drinks can fit in with a ketogenic diet.

It can even be useful if you consume alcoholic beverages on keto.

Diet soda, unlike regular sodas, contains fewer carbs and even free of carbohydrates.

It is sweet, indeed, which makes it a perfect sweet tooth for whoever of you dreaming about fat loss.

It indicates that by drinking diet soda, you can still maintain your low carb intake, which must be between 20 and 50 grams per day.

This is why diet soda is different from regular sodas, as a can of regular soda would significantly add up your body’s net carb intake, even more than 50 grams per day.

It makes regular soda incompatible with a ketogenic diet and ketosis.

Where to get your Carbs?

So, then, where should your net carbs come from for fulfilling the 20g-50g range?

The best foods to eat on a ketogenic diet which contains carbohydrate is vegetables, Almonds, and seeds. These all have small quantities of carbs, and they soon add up to 50g, and more so you will need to work out a keto diet plan.

There are many bad sources of carbs and sweet foods such as candies, desserts, and sodas itself.

Also from starchy food sources, such as rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, and even pizzas.

As long as you can maintain your daily carb intake of around under 50g, you potentially reach for your fat loss goal on keto.

Have a look at our primal friendly ketogenic diet food pyramid for a general idea what to eat on keto.

Is Diet Soda Safe for Ketosis?

Chances are if you’re reading this, sneaking in a glass of the occasional diet beverage is in your mind.

When I was younger, I used to drink plenty of pop particularly Pepsi Max.

Just one day of carbs can ruin ketosis and set you back to step one, and when I drink soda or pop, I tend to get increased sugar cravings.

Is there anything like it? The difference between low carb dieting and keto dieting is you would consume much more fats and moderate protein on a ketogenic diet.

As opposed to a standard low carb diet where mainly protein intake would be of importance.

If just starting out on a ketogenic diet then I wouldn’t worry too much about drinking coffee, diet sodas, tea, and sugar-free beverages.

These are all safe for your ketosis state and fat loss program.

Some people who limit too much too quickly could easily go on a sugar binge — thus ruining all the hard work trying to get into ketosis and burn ketones for fuel.

Those drinks would keep you out of thirst, without adding up carb intake to your body.

In the long-term, it would be best to eliminate the fizzy beverages and replace with healthier alternatives.

For now, more research is needed into sweeteners beverages and the impact on one’s health.

Diabetics that intends to consume diet sodas daily or occasionally should discuss their option with their doctor to discover the likely impact on blood glucose.

In case your body cannot accept the reactions from cutting off an enormous amount of fat in your body.

Do you stay in ketosis drinking diet sugar-free drinks?

What drinks would you consider keto approved? We would love to hear from you below.