That's a good size, and I've considered it, but the added cost per ounce has been putting me off. I don't drink a lot of pop so I think I'm okay with the regular sized cans. On a related matter, I prefer pop in glass bottles, but very little is available in glass bottles anymore, and I hate drinking in plastic. I can cool a plastic bottle of pop so that parts of it is iced, and it still doesn't seem cool enough. Cans are my second choice.
When we are in the restaurant, the server would usually aks for our drinks after we give our orders. Whenever the server would ask my husband if he wants diet Coke, my husband would always retort - that does he look fat... and then he would look at me, huh. And in other occasions when the server would ask him if he wants Coke zero, my husband would retort - Coke zero is only for the seniors... and they he would look at my brother-in-law who drinks only Coke Zero. As I had mentioned, my husband is a Coke addict but he sometimes do not drink soda for some days. His reason is his bulging stomach. Whenever the scales would show him an excess of 1 pound, he would temporarily stop drinking soda, all water only. That's how disciplined my husband is, I hope I am the same.
I like going up to the counter with something fattening, like a cheesecake, and a six-pack of diet pop, telling the clerk that I am canceling out the calories in the cheesecake with the diet soda. Sometimes, they don't know that I'm joking.
I will admit that I am somewhat of a soft drink addict. The funny thing is I really don't have a preference between coke or pepsi when it comes to which cola to drink. The only thing I ask it that its diet, which I know also isn't healthy because of the chemicals used. But then soft drinks aren't healthy to drink period.
Your sister is right and so says Dr. Oz on his show about soda. I was a six pack a day girl soda drinker and weighed 200 pounds and I'm only 4'11" tall. My doctor said to me loose weight! I stopped drinking soda and off the weight came. It stayed off ever since I stopped drinking soda. Now at age 60 I drink diet 7up once in a while. I stick with my power drinks with vitamin infused stuff or just plain water. I'm healthier now and get more vitamins with the vitamin infused drinks I found. Your sister is right.
I have just been reading a book about the interaction of carbs and insulin on the body. I am one of those people who are carb intolerant, and when I eat something sweet, then I crave more. According to the book, whenever we put something sweet into our mouth, our body thinks we are eating carbs, so it produces insulin. Insulin is called "the hunger hormone" because one of its main jobs is to signal you to eat food. When you are insulin-resistant, then the body does not use the carbs for fuel, but stores them as fat from your blood sugar. Even if you drink a diet soda, it still tastes sweet, and although you are not putting any actual carbs into your body, the body still thinks you are. So, it release insulin, just like you were eating food, and then takes the sugar in your blood and stores it as fat, just like you had actually eaten some sweet treat or drink. Of course, then you have low blood sugar, so your body is signaling you to eat again. According to what I have been reading, then this would help explain why people can eat artificially sweetened foods, and they still can gain weight. I really love carbonated drinks; so this has been a hard thing for me. I am happy most of the time with just the carbonated water, and now and then, I will treat myself to a diet soda. I try to do it along with a meal, so at least the protein and veggies will offset the sweet taste of the soda.