You must have heard about Diet Soda soft drinks, which come with many different names, such as “Zero”, “Max” and “Light Light”, and people often buy these drinks because they believe that they are the healthiest option instead of soft drinks that are full of calories and sugar.
In fact, these drinks are not a recent invention or discovery, but rather had an ancient existence dating back to the fifties of the last century, when they were first marketed to diabetics instead of sugary drinks, but later they became available to everyone, especially to individuals aspiring to lose weight or stay away.
About sugars, but the problem is that these drinks aren’t healthy despite being devoid of calories and sugar, and usually contain carbonated water, some acids, colours, flavors, preservatives, and maybe some caffeine, as well as artificial sweeteners that – by the way – It has a sweet taste that is about 200-13 thousand times more than regular sugar
Disadvantages of diet soda Although diet soda is devoid of calories, it has many harms that you must know, here are the most important ones:
Increase your weight: Your brain deals with artificial sweeteners in the same way it deals with regular sugar, and this leads to an increase in your desire to eat Foods rich in calories and sweets, which eventually cause you to gain weight, and this has been proven by many scientific studies, some of which have found that diet soda consumers have more weight than those who consume regular soda
You manipulate your insulin levels: Your brain thinks that everything sweet must carry calories, and this causes your body to secrete insulin when you drink sweet diet soda, and researchers have linked frequent insulin spikes with type 2 diabetes.
Harm your kidneys: Your chances of developing chronic kidney disease increase as a result of drinking diet soda, and this is due to the fact that these drinks contain high levels of phosphorous, which increases acid levels within the kidneys, but there is no conclusive evidence to say that diet soda leads to kidney stones
Harm your teeth: At first glance, you might think that diet soda is free of sugar, which means that it does not cause tooth decay, but the truth is that it has bad effects on the teeth, and may actually lead to tooth decay due to its high acidity level as a result of containing many acids; As citric acid and malic acid
Increase your chances of developing heart, brain and liver disease: Some researchers point to the increasing scientific evidence that there is a relationship between eating diet soda and heart disease; such as heart attack and high blood pressure; brain disease; Such as stroke, dementia, and liver disease as well .
Additional damage: Some are talking about the negative effects of diet soda on the bacterial structure inside your gut, and there is some scientific evidence linking diet soda consumption with osteoporosis and possibly depression as well. As for the relationship between diet soda and cancer, researchers have not found Strong evidence to confirm this relationship so far
Does diet soda help in losing weight?
Many seek to buy diet soda to help lose weight; This is, of course, because it is devoid of calories, but the problem is that the available scientific evidence has not actually proven that diet soda can help with weight loss, and on the contrary, many survey studies have shown a relationship between the use of artificial sweeteners and drinking a lot of soda The diet and the chances of getting overweight, and researchers attributed this to the ability of diet soda to increase the levels of hormones responsible for feeling hungry that push you to eat a lot of food, but other studies said that the weight gain that occurs is due to people’s adoption of bad eating habits and not because of their eating Diet soda, and there are some experimental studies that confirmed that the use of diet soda instead of regular soda is beneficial for weight loss, and this ultimately means that there is a conflict in the results of scientific studies that researched the topic of diet soda and weight loss, and this inconsistency may be due to a conflict Interests between the supporters of studies who belong to the field of artificial sweeteners industry and the supporters of scientific studies who have no hand in this industry.
It may interest you that there is absolutely no need to use diet soda to help you lose weight; Because there are many types of healthy drinks that you can try for the purpose of losing weight without much harm, including :
Green tea: Green tea is almost devoid of calories, and there are many studies that have confirmed that this tea is really useful for weight loss. However, researchers are not yet aware of how this happens.
Vegetable juices: Vegetable juices are not as high in calories as fruit juices. One cup of tomatoes contains only 41 calories, while a cup of oranges contains 122 calories, but it is still best for you to choose vegetables that are high in dietary fiber and without a lot of sodium as well.
Black coffee: There are very few calories in black coffee, but there is no doubt that black coffee is a major source of caffeine, and scientific studies have shown that coffee has many benefits related to reducing your chances of developing cancer and diabetes.
Soy milk: Your body can get a lot of useful nutrients when you eat soy milk without getting a lot of calories, and this may be useful for losing more weight and strengthening your body functions as well.
