Diet Drinks Are Just As Bad For You As Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Diet drinks are sold as sugar-free, zero-calorie, low-calorie drinks, light drinks, artificially sweetened versions of carbonated beverages with virtually no calories. Many people think those drinks are better for them than sugar-sweetened beverages. However, diet drinks as just as bad. Some nutritionists say they are worse than sugary drinks even though sugary drinks have more calories than diet drinks. Both types of drinks provide basically the same health problems.

Recent research has discovered that consumers who completely skipped sweetened drinks and drank beverages with artificial sweeteners had a higher risk of heart disease which was the same as people who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages.

According to Eloi Chazelas, lead author and a member of the nutritional epidemiology research team at Sorbonne Paris Nord University in France, artificially-sweetened beverages may not be a healthy substitute for sugary drinks. Consumers of diet drinks and sugary drinks had a high risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who do not drink diet sodas or sugar-sweetened beverages.

Research has found that drinking diet beverages with added sugar, sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, and other sweeteners may raise the risk of stroke and dementia and other illnesses associated with weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, liver disease, tooth decay, and gout, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, artificial sweeteners might affect blood pressure and glucose status. Both of those are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

People think they will lose weight by drinking diet sodas. Some people eat a heavy meal and then drink a diet beverage hoping to lose weight. However, studies show that most people do not lose weight by drinking diet beverages. Surely, a diet drink won't help anyone lose weight after eating a big unhealthy meal.

Diet Coke Is the Number One Diet Beverage

Diet Coke is the most popular diet soda followed by diet Pepsi. Diet Mountain Dew comes in third. People who drink Mountain Dew say the diet version tastes much better than the regular version.

Ways to Cut Back on Diet and Sugary-Drinks

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, drinking sugary sodas can be a detriment to human health. While diet drinks are not good for you, they do have less sugar and fewer calories than regular sodas.

Sodas have no nutritional value. Just one can of cola contains over 9 teaspoons of sugar. That’s 1½ times more than the American Heart Association recommends for an entire day. All of that added sugar intake has damaging effects, according to a study in the journal Diabetologia. The article states that a person may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by as much as 25 percent if just one sugary drink a day is swapped for coffee, tea, or water.

Nutritionists encourage people to cut back on drinking diet drinks and sugary beverages. That can be done with will power and discipline . If you have a habit of consuming diet drinks, here are some tips to help you cut back without feeling miserable. Experts recommend that you are more likely to accomplish this if you start slow and make small changes instead of trying to stop all at once.

1. Drink water when you are thirsty instead of reaching for a soda.

2. Add a wedge of lime or lemon to improve the taste of water.

3. Add frozen berries or other fruits to plain water.

4. Drink plain coffee, tea, or flavored waters.

5. Drink sparkling water.

6. Drink unsweetened bubbly water.

7. Drink seltzer water.

8. Switch to green tea.

9. Drink skim or 1 percent milk.

10. Drink fruit juice occasionally.