Diet Soda is seen as an innocuous, harmless beverage that can’t possibly cause any harm to their waistline since it doesn’t have any calories. Think again.
Research published this summer in the medical journal Circulation shows that people who drink more than one soda a day — whether it’s regular or diet — have an almost 50 percent increased risk for metabolic syndrome, which doubles their risk for heart disease and diabetes.
Diet Soda consumed daily in research conducted in Texas. Two years ago, a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that there was a 41 percent increase in the risk for being overweight for every single can of diet soda a person consumed daily.
But how can something with no calories increase the risk for obesity and heart disease?
There are several possible ways.
First, my own theory is that the sweet taste works in the brain to create a conditioned response. The body responds as it usually does to normal sugar — with insulin, the fat-storing hormone. Those circuits in the brain are pretty primitive and ancient, and they can’t immediately distinguish chemical fakery. As far as your brain is concerned, sweet means sugar. It’s entirely possible that physiologically, you would respond to aspartame in the same way as you would to table sugar. It’s only a theory, but it makes sense to me.
Second, sugar creates its own cravings. Just as a taste of rum creates an unstoppable craving in an alcoholic, it’s entirely possible that the taste of sweet, even if it’s fake, creates the same cascade of cravings in a carb addict that regular sugar does, leading to overeating and binging and all the rest of the reasons
people put on weight.
Third, many people think that by drinking diet beverages they’re “saving” calories. They subconsciously allow themselves to eat more, figuring it’s not doing as much harm since they’re drinking a diet drink. The diet drink gives them subconscious “permission” to eat more.
What’s worse than making you fat, aspartame may be toxic. Aspartame is made primarily from three ingredients: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Methanol, an alcohol, breaks down in the body to formaldehyde, a poison if there ever was one. Apologists for aspartame say that it doesn’t create enough formaldehyde in the body to cause any damage, but I’m not so sure.
Exposing children to formaldehyde levels as low as .75 mg daily for several months has been shown to cause gradual toxicity. Plus, diet soda is frequently stored in hot warehouses, causing chemical breakdowns that went undetected in the original safety studies that looked at “ideal” conditions.
Soda is bad news, whether regular or diet. Period!
Note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He’s a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master’s degree in psychology. Dr. Bowden is also a life coach, motivational speaker, former personal trainer and author of the award-winning book, Living the Low Carb Life.
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September 18th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I can’t imagine that diet soda could make you fat.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
WoW! Thank you very much for that enlightening article
September 29th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Hmm… I read blogs on a similar topic, but i never visited your blog. I added it to favorites and i’ll be your constant reader.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:04 am
I’ve known about this for a few years, but it’s nice to see the info in a blog post. It’s also true that sodas - diet or regular - contribute to calcium loss due to the mineral salts and acids in the beverages.
What I wonder, though, is if plain soda water is just as bad? Did the study you quoted include people who only drank soda water? Because I do.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:07 am
BTW Irwan, we’re in contact through MyBlogLog, but are you also on Twitter? I’m on as @Seabuckthorn, if you want to connect.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Hi Natalie, I believed we are already in contact on Twitter, mine is @irwanlee, I checked somehow we are no longer following each other????? Anyway, I just followed you back :o)
In this article, they are referring to a diet soda or soda zero, not a plain soda water. Check the ingredients of the soda water you drank, if it contain aspartame or some other artificial sweetener then better stop drinking your soda…. Most of the soda in the market is very acidic and has a pH of 2.3 to 3.0, while our body are mainly alkaline, except for our skin is acidic to protect bacteria and viruses entering our body.
FYI, it took 30 glass of plain water (with normal pH of 7.0) to cleanse all the acidity in our body from a glass of soda. When our body is too acidic, all kind of diseases start developing… e.g: cancer cell loves acidic environments. your blood became acidic and hence you felt more tired and lost lots of energy…
Try to consume alkaline drink and food. Better if you can get a water treatment machine that can separate acid and alkaline water directly from your tap water, this way you can always have a fresh water (not oxidated water which you find in bottled water if you store them incorrectly). Actually there is a machine called A’Oceanic that do this, other than producing alkaline water, the pH can reach up to 10 (means it has antioxidant) with an oRP of - 350 to -400. By consuming this alkaline water you will feel your body lighter, more energy and feeling fresh. As the water produced by this machine has a very small cluster compare to bottled or tap water, it can also make you loose some unnecessary fat in your body.
I am preparing some article on this alkaline water and when it’s published I will let you know…
Have a fabulous day! Keep yourself Healthy and Fit! :o)
Cheers,
~Irwan
December 11th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Natalie,
Btw, Check out video posting on my blog “The Benefits of alkaline water”…..
December 11th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Very cool info, thanks Irwan!