We need to work on addiction to too much diet soda/pop
Posted By RichC on May 1, 2024
Both my wife and I drink too many carbonated beverages. For me it is usually Diet Mountain Dew and for Brenda it has always been Diet Pepsi. I scaled bad several times in my life, but ended up right back in the habit of 3+ cans everyday. Brenda seems to be able to turn it off when needed (pregnancies and medical procedures), but hasn’t really considered it a bad or overly harmful habit — although it has most recently become a financial cost (inflation). FYI, she drinks more than 3 per day!
Over the years, we’ve read article after article on all the “bads” associated with carbonated soft drinks, but have started to send a few articles back and forth to each other in hoping to reduce the number of cans per day we consume. Here’s one Harvard Health article of interest:
Zero weight loss from zero calorie drinks? Say it ain’t so
… If you’re drinking two 12-ounce cans of regular Coke each day, you could eliminate 280 “empty” (non-nutritive) calories by switching to a zero-calorie alternative. Over a month, that’s 8,400 fewer calories, enough to lose almost two and a half pounds. So, what’s the catch?
One worry is that artificially sweetened diet sodas may create a craving for sweet, high-calorie foods. So, even as calorie counts drops from zero-calorie sodas, consumption of other foods and drinks might add back even more. In rodent studies, at least one artificial sweetener (aspartame) has been found to damage a part of the brain that tells the animal when to stop eating.
And a number of studies in humans (such as this one and this one) have actually found a tendency toward weight gain among people drinking artificially sweetened beverages. But research has been mixed: other studies have found that artificially sweetened low-calorie beverages can help with weight loss.
One factor complicating the study of zero-calorie beverages and weight loss is called “reverse causation.” People at risk for obesity tend to choose these beverages, making it appear that these drinks are to blame.
Of course, there are other health concerns associated with artificial sweeteners, including a possible increase in the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, and kidney problems. The evidence for this isn’t strong enough to be sure, though.
Surely carbonated water with no artificial sweeteners is fine?
Drinks that contain carbonated water and no artificial sweeteners have long been considered safe bets when it comes to breaking the regular soda habit. With none of the sugar, calories, or artificial sweeteners, how can you go wrong?
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