Effects Of Drinking Diet Soda

For years we weight watchers have been drinking diet soda, hoping to eliminate calories and keep our weight under control.  The sad fact is, we've been doing the exact opposite.  On the surface it makes sense to drink diet soda, as the single highest source of calories in the American diet is from regular soda.

First, diet soda might be bad for your kidneys. In an 11-year long Harvard study with 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline.  Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day.  Researchers feel that artificial sweeteners are responsible.

Diet soda can also mess with your metabolism.  A Minnesota stud of 10,000 adults, found that just one diet soda a day is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome, which include belly fat and high cholesterol.

Probably the biggest shocker is that diet soda may make you GAIN weight.  A University of Texas study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight.  Artificial sweeteners can disrupt the body's natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of foods.

Drinking diet soda can also damage cells.  Diet drinks contain mold inhibitors, that have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it.  (look for sodium benzoate in your soda.  It is not your friend.)  Finally, with at pH of 3.2, diet soda is very acidic.  (pH of battery acid is 1, water is 7).  The acid dissolves enamel.  Diet soda drinkers have far more tooth decay than non drinkers.

So, the take away from all this is that diet drinks are bad for you in so many ways, and the negatives outweigh the positives.  I have tried to move from Diet Coke, something I've been drinking all my adult life, to flavored carbonated water, or sugar sodas on occasion.  There are some great carbonated sodas available today, and I think I've tried most of them.  Bottom line is this:  Stick to water, plain or sparkling, as much as you can.  Your body will thank you.