According to the experts, diet soda is bad for your health and your weight, Peri Ormont Blumberg reports for Time Magazine. Notwithstanding, many Americans live on diet sodas. By so doing, they often mistakenly think they are keeping their weight down and promoting good health.
According to recent research, however, diet drinks lead to all kinds of diseases, including cancer, mood disorders, fatty liver development and diabetes. There’s only observational studies to support these findings, which means the researchers can’t link cause and effect for sure. But, there’s mountains of long-term studies showing a correlation between drinking diet soda and poor health outcomes.
- Type 2 diabetes strongly linked to consumption of diet soda: Many researchers find this connection. Here’s a recent study of 106,000 people.
- Diet soda strongly linked to obesity. This meta-analysis of 11 studies found a significant association between artificially sweetened soda consumption and obesity.
- Diet soda linked to heart conditions: People who drink more than two quarts of diet soda a week have a 20 percent higher likelihood of poor heart health, including heart attacks, heart disease and stroke. Here’s a recent study.
- Diet soda linked to cancer. Here’s a meta-analysis. Other research has found potential links from diet soda to cancers including colon, uterine, kidney, and pancreatic, though it’s not clear whether obesity or diet soda is causing the cancer.
No one can pinpoint why the link between diet soda and poor heart health. It could be most pronounced in people who don’t exercise, smoke, drink alcohol, and otherwise don’t take care of themselves.
Diet soda is linked to cancer: The World Health Organization believes that aspartame, a key ingredient in some diet sodas, could be carcinogenic. Some research has shown links between diet soda and colon, pancreatic, and kidney cancer. But, the World Health Organization somehow also found that it’s safe for people who weigh around 150 pounds to drink eight cans of diet soda with aspartame a day!!!! You wonder whether it is being sincere or is worried about a lawsuit from the diet soda manufacturers.
Diet soda is linked to weight gain: Some researchers suggest that, because diet soda tends to be sweeter than sugar, it could change the way people experience tastes. As a result, it could make people feel hungrier, causing them to consume more calories and to gain weight. People should not think that drinking diet soda helps with weight loss.
Should you drink diet soda? No. It is far better to drink water than diet soda. And, if you need your soda to be sweet, drink soda water with a bit of honey or juice in it. That said, some researchers believe that if you must drink prepackaged soda, diet soda could be preferable to sugary soda and alcohol for your health and your teeth. We know how harmful sugar can be; but, for some reason, we are not as clear about the harms of artificial sweeteners.
Tricks to limit your diet soda intake:
- Take a sip and pour the rest down the drain.
- Think of it like candy, not like an alternative to water when you sit down to a meal.
- Drink seltzer water with some fruit juice or honey added.
Here’s more from Just Care:
Leave a Reply