Diet soda is a multi-billion dollar business all over the world. The promise of diet soda is that it will provide all the taste of regular soda without the processed sugar which promotes your weight gain. However, many of the diet sodas have little to no calories and do not have any processed sugar; they are associated with some health issues if it is consumed too much on a daily basis.
Diet soda consumption has been increased substantially over the last 50 years and it has been established that people have large amounts of diet soda regularly.
Diet drinks remain a popular choice for many of the people because they appear healthier than drinks made with sugar. While diet drinks do hold health benefits, you can also associate some negatives with these products. Here you can know about the both pros and cons of diet drinks so that you can make an educated decision the next time someone offers you one on a hot summer’s day.
Pros 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 particularly one of the essential 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, everyone knows that by consuming 0 to 10 calories of diet sodas 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 a taste. In fact, you know that many of the 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.
It’s Everywhere
Even if you wanted to drink diet soda, you would be easily found it as prominently displayed in vending machines, at fast-food chains, and supermarket checkouts.
Cons of Diet Soda
No Nutritional Benefit
All know that 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 things to find, diet soda is now actually being linked to weight gain. Few long-term studies have been proven that people who are consuming diet sodas were actually more likely to be heavier and even gain weight. This is probably due to the artificial sweeteners which actually confuse the body’s ability to manage calories because people taste the sweetness in the diet soda. The result is that people tend to eat more sweet foods and actually gain weight.
The main disadvantage is that diet soda is expensive. It may not be bank-breaking, but there is no real advantage to drinking diet soda over tap water, which is cheap and easily available.
Overall, diet sodas should be consumed in a limited quantity, so that their effects on weight gain and developing diabetes can be minimized. Mixing your consumption of diet sodas with few 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 of the people consume too much which will contribute to the conditions which they had hoped to avoid when switching away from regular sodas. Be sure to moderate your consumption of the diet soda, so you can enjoy the taste of it, while you are not suffering from few negative effects.
