That’s an interesting statement you make. Water does not satisfy your thirst. Water is the ONLY thing that will satisfy your thirst. So whatever your satisfying its not thirst. There have been studies that indicate that drinks like diet coke etc fool the brain into thinking that food is on its way. We associate sweetness with the concept of the arrival of food. When that calorie payload isn’t delivered our brain goes WTF happened. Hence your continual sipping of diet coke is actually you trying to satisfy your hunger and not your thirst.

Personally I think it will make the job of being compliant hard for you in the long run. But hey if its working for you keep doing it. Personally Id be drinking water with a squeeze of lemon juice. Or just plain cold water.

I find that chewing gum helps. Once again because the act of chewing is associated with the arrival of food. So your fooling your brain into thinking calories have arrived. Whatever trick works for you.

I find that drinking diet soda can be very helpful, although these days I’m actually more likely to just add some club soda to water, typically about a 1 to 5 ratio. As I have fasted I’ve actually found that I don’t enjoy the diet cola as much anymore. But this shift has been a slow and natural process.

There is a huge amount of hate towards diet soda. While it clearly isn’t a health food I’ve don’t think the amount of hate it receives is justified. When I was working at Microsoft there was a very vocal group bitching about Microsoft supplying free sodas (both diet and regular.) However many of these people were going out for smoking breaks or where drinking *A LOT OF* booze. Very hypocritical if you ask me as both tobacco and heavy drinking are not healthy. (We are talking about multiple drinks a day here, not a few sips a day of red wine.)

Basically most of the negatives assigned to artificial sweeteners haven’t been proven or at best different experiments show inconsistent results. There are dozens of different kind of artificial sweeteners in common use, so that makes things complex. However experiments have shown drinks with processed sugar clearly leads to metabolic issue, often within days or weeks.

I like Dr. Jason Fung’s attitude. He basically says you are better without it, but if it helps you stick to a fast then it is okay because it is better than not fasting.

Diet coke is great, there is no anything you should be worried about.
No any study that showsn that is bad for you.
And it can help you if you are bored of water.

Satisfying my sugar craving is fine if it works and keeps me from eating sugar. For me, the sugar craving is hardwired in. I don’t see that changing.