The Reality of Diet Soda
The hiss of the aluminum cap popping off, the fizzy bubbles rising to the top, followed by the signature “ahh” in delight, all without the guilt of consuming sugar -- this is what makes diet soda what it is. In 2018, Diet Coke was ranked top 3 of the best-selling soft drinks in the US, trailing only behind regular Coke and Pepsi. In recent years, diet soda is becoming more popular, most likely due to the trend of people becoming more aware of the amount of sugar in their diets. As a matter of fact, about one in five Americans drink diet soda everyday. However, is that really a good thing? Is diet soda really healthier than regular soda as marketed or may it be linked with other concerning health issues?
First off, what exactly is diet soda? How does it give off its distinct bubbly sweetness without sugar? Diet soda mimics the taste of traditional soda by using artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin or aspartame. Interestingly enough, saccharin and aspartame are respectively 300 and 180 times sweeter than normal sugar. Hence, you only need a small amount of each to achieve that sweet flavor. For saccharin, the secret to its low calorie intake is due to the fact that our bodies don't metabolize saccharin. This means that during digestion, saccharin passes through our bodies unchanged. On the other hand, normal sugar is metabolized by our bodies and it is broken down through digestion, which contributes calories to the body. Unlike saccharin and much like sugar, aspartame is metabolized by the body. However, as mentioned earlier, aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar; so only a tiny quantity is needed. Since only a small amount of aspartame is needed in a drink, only a small amount of calories are consumed as well. Saccharin and aspartame give diet soda lovers the taste they want without all the additional calories and sugar.
So what are the risks of diet soda? According to MedicalNewsToday, there is a growing evidence that suggests that diet soda consumption correlates to an increased risk in heart conditions (heart attack and high blood pressure), metabolic issues (diabetes and obesity), brain conditions (dementia and stroke), and liver problems (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). In the case of dementia and stroke, Matthew Pase, a Boston University researcher, examined 10 years of health information from 3,000 American adults over the age of 45 and counted the number of people who had a stroke. They did the same for 1,500 American adults over the age of 60 to determine how many developed dementia. Taking into consideration the variety of things that could influence the participants’ health such as age and physical activity, the researchers found that diet soda drinkers nearly tripled their odds of stroke and dementia in comparison to those who didn’t drink diet soda. While this finding is frightening, the sample size and numbers of people are rather small and Pases states that “people should not be alarmed.” More specifically, only 81 or 5% of the people in the study were diagnosed with dementia and only 97 or 3% of the participants had a stroke in their two respective studies. Thus, we cannot really say with confirmation that diet soda causes dementia or stroke.
Additionally, while there are extensive studies on people who drink soda, there are still few studies that have fully controlled for other risk factors, which may lead to chronic health issues. For example, a person who regularly drinks diet soda may be more likely to eat certain types of food, which may pose health risks independent of the soda. In 2014, a study reported that obese and overweight people who consume diet sodas ate on average 90 and 200 more calories of food per day than those who drank regular sodas. According to the British Journal of Nutrition, people who drink diet sodas raise their risk of Type II diabetes by 13% for every can they drink each day. However, while all of these studies tied health concerns to diet soda, they did not prove whether or not diet soda was to blame. Still, although diet soda may not necessarily cause all these health issues, there are many correlations associated with it.
So how can diet soda influence our diet and why is it correlated with so many health risks? One possible explanation for the link between diet sodas and the increased risk in diabetes is how the sweeteners in the diet soda can trick us into overcompensating. This psychological phenomenon causes us to eat greater calories than we normally would consume. Thus, while many people choose diet soda so that they can enjoy a bubbly drink without consuming the hefty calories or sugar tagged along regular soda, it is important to drink in moderation as too much of a good thing may not be good after all.
References:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/do-you-really-need-that-diet-soda
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325919
https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20170505/diet-soda-health-risks
https://www.caffeineinformer.com/top-10-soft-drinks
