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Topics: News, US News, Health, Food and Drink
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, US News, Health, Food and Drink
For anyone watching their health this year, choosing to crack open a can of diet soda instead of its full-sugar counterpart might seem like a logical place to start - but is it really any healthier?
With the new year having just begun, many of us will be trying to make some better choices for our health. Dry January is obviously a popular one, with people giving up alcohol for the month, or Veganuary to try and go vegan until February.
Others might decide to make smaller tweaks, like switching out regular sodas for the diet version in a bid to cut down on sugar intake.
It makes sense, given regular soda often contains 10–15 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, which is roughly 13 to 19 sugar cubes.
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But is the switch from regular to diet really as beneficial as we might think?
Well, diet sodas might not have the same sugar levels as regular soda, but that doesn't mean they're good for you.
In fact, if you're trying to lose weight, then switching to diet soda might actually make things worse, according to one study.
The study suggested that drinking a lot of diet soda correlates with having a larger 'waist circumference'.
However, the way that weight loss happens in the body can be complex, and other studies have suggested that diet soda may still be better, to a degree.
Diet sodas may not have sugar, but they are still sweet because they use artificial sweeteners to recreate that taste.
These include things like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol, all additives which are known to make some symptoms around the gut worse in some patients.
In another potential risk, a study from 2015 suggested that diet soda might even be linked to higher blood pressure.
It's also worth remembering that while it may not contain the same sugar as regular soda, both diet and regular soda frequently contain caffeine.
And while we might not think of caffeine as a particularly strong drug like alcohol, when consumed excessively, it can have a very real impact.
Combine that with those sweeteners we mentioned earlier, and this might result in disturbed sleep patterns if you consume soda too much or too late in the day.
So what is the final verdict?
Well, it seems that the picture is not really clear, so maybe if you're trying to cut down on sugar, a better option may be to simply reduce the amount of soda you're drinking altogether.