When my friend C. shared this link yesterday with me, “What Soft Drinks Are Doing to Your Body” she noted I was ahead of the curve in wanting to get rid of my addiction to Diet Coke, and with good reason.
Now, there’s more evidence just how dangerous soda–diet or regular–really is.
“…You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.
Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.
Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.”
This isn’t exactly startling news, but hearing it again — so soon after my annoncement about trying to ban it — really hit home.
For the record, I did go six straight days without any Diet Coke, but I admit I did have it a few times over the course of the weekend. Nothing remotely compared to the amounts I used to in the past … but I did enjoy the few glasses I had.
And since moderation is key … I’ll just keep this report in mind!
Let There Be Light 
I’m a bit suspicious. Just because an article from a college (peer-reviewed journal? school paper? editorial?) links aspartame to weight gain, doesn’t mean much. It may just mean that people who don’t drink soda have healthier overall diets. Also, something that breaks down a certain way under laboratory conditions may not behave that way in your stomach. I’m going to look into this methanol thing, which if true, would cause blindness, and I’ve never heard of that happening. A lot of this stuff feels a bit like fearmongering/hysteria, and I like to see the science, not just peoples interpretations of such, or even worse, interpretations of interpretations.
I was about half-way into a can of diet coke as I was reading this article. Needless to say, I just dumped it out in the sink and but the can in the recycling bin. I don’t even like soda, I’m just sleepy. Thank you for reminding me 🙂
-Marie
http://peaspassthebeans.wordpress.com/
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