Diet Soda Dangers

If it will clean the limescale off your toilet...  maybe that is the best use for it.

I'm guilty.  I drank an average of two diet sodas per day for the last 20 or more years.  Even when reports came out that diet soda can cause weight gain I ignored them.  I don't need to lose weight.  Why should I care if diet soda can actually cause weight gain?  Finally, after reading numerous articles in nutrition and fitness publications, I was convinced that diet soda has no place in a healthful diet.  I eliminated diet soda from my daily diet and now rarely drink it...  perhaps two times per month.  Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to cut it out and I rarely miss it.

So what is so bad about a drink that has zero calories and zero fat?  First, diet soda has been linked to weight gain in numerous studies.  The artificial sweeteners used in diet soda are many times sweeter than sugar.  Aspartame, the sweetener used in many diet sodas, is 180 times sweeter than sugar.  When you consume these artificial sweeteners, your body is actually being tricked into thinking it is consuming sugar and it craves even more.  "Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but unlike regular sugars they don't deliver something that will squelch the appetite," says Sharon Fowler, obesity researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego.  A study conducted by researchers at  the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio followed 474 diet soda drinkers, 65 to 74 years of age, for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers' waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers.

In addition to causing weight gain, diet soda consumption has been linked to numerous other health problems.  In a study presented at the American Society for Nephrology’s annual meeting researchers found that women who drank two or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda doubled their odds of kidney function decline.  Another study conducted at the University of Minnesota looked at diet soda consumption in almost 10,000 adults, and found that just one diet soda a day is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms including belly fat and high cholesterol that puts you at risk for heart disease.

The list of possible health problems linked to diet soda continues to grow.  Studies have shown a connection between diet soda intake and cell damage, poor dental health, reproductive problems, and bone loss.  Other studies have shown a possible increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and depression in those who consume diet soda.  Researchers in some of these studies point out that additional research needs to be conducted to confirm that these health problems are a direct result of diet soda consumption and not other possible lifestyle factors.