Fact or Fiction: Is Diet Soda a Healthy Choice?

Is diet soda a healthy choice? While soda has been known to be bad for your health and one of the first things to eliminate if you are trying to lose weight, most people still choose to indulge in a glass or two every once in a while. Paired with pizza or popcorn at the movies, soda is a tempting beverage choice. Whether it’s for taste or for health reasons, everyone seems to have a different opinion on whether or not diet soda or regular soda is really “best” for you.

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Diet Coke contains zero calories while a regular can of Coca Cola contains 139 calories. So, if you are looking to eliminate calories from your diet like many of us are, it seems it would be wise to choose the diet Coke, right? While diet soda has less calories, however, it might not be worth drinking due to the number of extra chemicals that are added to it. So, is it true that just because diet soda is “diet”, it’s a healthier choice?

According to a celebrity news and fitness website, POP Sugar, “Diet Coke and Coke Zero contain aspartame, also called NutraSweet or Equal, while Coke is made with sugar, aspartame is 180 to 200 times sweeter than regular sugar,” which means it could lead your body to crave more sweet foods. can you believe that?

Live Strong, a health and fitness website, summarizes a Time Magazine article which explains “ironically, consuming a lot of artificial sweeteners can actually make you gain weight, because it increases your desire for sweet foods and leads you to consume more calories overall.” A study done at the University of Texas “found that people who drank diet soda were 41 percent more likely to be overweight,” as recounted by Live Strong. MSN Healthy Living says that diet soda’s high acidic level “dissolves enamel, and just because a soda is diet doesn’t make it acid-light.” In addition:

“Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health, says a University of Michigan analysis of dental checkup data. Soda drinkers had far greater decay, more missing teeth, and more filling.”

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While both diet soda and regular soda have pros and cons, Susie Swithers, a professor of psychological sciences and a behavioral neuroscientist at Purdue University, points out that the important thing to keep in mind is “’the overall sweetening of our diets,” in the New York Daily News. Just because diet soda contains no calories, the sweetener in the drink is still unhealthy. Swithers explains that “tracking sugar intake means limiting real and artificial sugars.” If you want to stay healthy it is important to monitor your sugar intake and be sure to minimize sugary drinks.
Verdict: False. Diet soda is not a healthier option over regular soda. Both diet and regular soda have been proven to have no nutritional value for our bodies; therefore, neither choice is a healthy option. Drinking soda daily or multiple times per day should be avoided. Instead, stick to water or 100% fruit juice as your everyday beverage!

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How do you feel about sodas?

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