10 Mar Is Diet Coke a Healthy Alternative?

While diet coke may be calorie free, it is not a healthy choice. Instead of sugar, diet sodas are sweetened with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, cyclamate, saccharin, acesulfame-k or sucralose. Dark cola beverages (Coke, Pepsi, Dr, Pepper) add caffeine and phosphoric acid, both can reduce calcium absorption. Both regular and diet sodas are a potential source of advanced glycation products, complexes of proteins and sugar that trigger inflammation and free radical damage. In a study conducted by Harvard Medical School, researchers studied more than 3,000 women over 11 years and 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. A key finding here was that kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers found that that the diet sweeteners were responsible.

If you are watching your weight diet soft drinks can hamper your weight loss efforts. When our body senses something sweet it usually expects calories to come along with it, and when it doesn’t mixed signals are sent to our brain which can cause us to crave more sugar. Studies have shown that people who drink more than 2 sodas a day can experience weight gain. While diet sodas do not have any calories it may increase your desire for sweet and unhealthy foods – typically diet soda is not consumed with fruit or vegetables!

Limit diet sodas as much as you can and replace them a healthier beverage such as sparkling water, a variety of teas – I love David’s Teas. You can give this flavored seltzer a try