Pros and Cons of Diet Soda

Diet soda is a multi-billion dollar business around the world. The promise of diet soda is that it will provide all the taste of regular soda without the processed sugar which promotes weight gain. However, while many diet sodas have little to no calories and do not possess any processed sugar, they are associated with some health issues if too much is consumed on a daily basis.

The Advantages of Diet Soda

No Processed Sugar: Because processed sugar is one of the primary ways people gain weight and excess fat, the lack of it in diet sodas means fewer ways for people to add the pounds. This is certainly one of the biggest reasons why people choose diet soda and the artificial sweeteners help make the product taste good.

Few to No Calories: Because there are so few calories in diet soda, you are certainly not adding unnecessary calories to your diet. In fact, consuming 0 to 10 calories that most diet sodas have will have no direct impact on your weight and theoretically should help subtract from your current weight even if you make no other changes to your diet.

Positive Hydration: Diet sodas are an excellent source of hydration if you like your water to have taste. In fact, many people prefer them to plain water and while the taste may not quite be as good as standard sodas, they do not have the disadvantages of drinking processed sugar.

The Disadvantages of Diet Soda

No Nutritional Benefit: Put simply, you are not gaining any nutritional benefits from consuming diet sodas apart from the hydration. This means that low calorie fruit juices may arguably be a better source if you do not like consuming water.

Increased Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: While the research on heart attack and strokes have proven so far to be inconclusive. There are studies which show an increased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes from drinking large amounts of diet soda. Considering that diet sodas do not contain sugar this is a surprising result, but one that is being verified by other studies.

Increased Risk of Weight Gain: In one of the most surprising findings, diet soda is now actually being linked to weight gain. Long term studies have shown that people who consume diet sodas were actually more likely to be heavier and even gain weight. This is probably due to the artificial sweeteners which actually confuses the body’s ability to manage calories because people taste sweetness in the diet soda. The result is that people tend to eat more sweet foods and actually gain weight.

Overall, diet sodas should be consumed in moderation so that their effects on weight gain and developing diabetes can be minimized. Mixing your consumption of diet sodas with fruit drinks and regular water will help in keeping the negative effects to a minimum.

For many, diet sodas are a daily drink that many people consume too much which may be contributing to the very conditions that they had hoped to avoid when switching away from regular sodas. Be sure to moderate your consumption of diet soda so you can enjoy the taste while not suffering from the negative effects.