Containing 50 grams of sugar per bottle, soda has skyrocketed into the spot light as the most popular culprit of unnecessary calories and weight gain. The solution to the soda problem was to create diet soda. This zero-calorie problem solver allows a soda lover to have their soda and drink it too with no repercussions, right? Although it’s a step in the right direction, diet soda may not be as healthy for you as you think. Let’s take a look at the 3 things that you need to know about diet soda and your health.

Diet Soda & Your Teeth

Aside from weight gain, soda was also linked to tooth decay. While many people thought this was primarily due to the sugar content, the truth is the soda itself was the problem. Once ingested, soda mixes with your saliva to form an acid that is harmful to teeth. Believe it or not, diet soda is worse than regular soda for your teeth. Diet soda contains its own acids via the production process. Add this acid with the acids that form from sipping soda and you are creating a terrible environment for your teeth.

Diet Soda, Artificial Sweeteners, & Disease

It’s no secret that the incredibly sweet taste of diet soda is from the use of artificial sweeteners. What you may not realize is that several of the same artificial sweeteners used in diet soda are linked to a variety of side effects and ailments when used over a long period of time. Let’s review two of the most popular sweeteners:

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a sugar substitute that is popular because it’s incredibly cheap to produce, offers a long shelf life, and it’s insanely sweet. Studies suggest that the consumption High Fructose Corn Syrup may be linked to cardiovascular disease.

Sucralose is another popular sweetener that is created by chlorinating table sugar. In doing so, this process produces organochlorine compounds. Studies suggest that organochlorine compounds have been linked to causing certain types of cancers and neurotoxicity, among other things.

Diet Soda & Diabetes

This idea doesn’t seem to make sense, right? If sugar consumption is linked to diabetes and diet soda contains no sugar, then how can it cause diabetes?

While diet soda does not contain sugar, it has been linked to insulin resistance. It also weakens your gut flora. A weakened culture of gut bacteria and a body that is more susceptible to insulin resistance is a perfect recipe to put you at a high risk for Type II diabetes.

Simple Changes Make a Big Difference

While this may not be the news you wanted to hear, it doesn’t mean that you need to completely eliminate diet soda. Instead, look at it like a treat. It should be something you indulge in once in a while as opposed to every day. Try to cut back on diet soda, eventually reaching a point where it is savored on special occasions.

Tell Us What You Think!

Have you kicked diet soda?

What benefits did you notice?

Let us know in the comments below!

Flavin, Dana. Metabolic Danger of High-Fructose Corn Syrup. Life Extension Magazine. December 2008.

Gourounti, K. Mechanisms of Actions and Health Effects of Organochloric Substances: A Review. Health Science Journal. 2008. 2:2.

Jotham Suez, Tal Korem, David Zeevi, Gili Zilberman-Schapira, Christoph A. Thaiss, Ori Maza, David Israeli, Niv Zmora, Shlomit Gilad, Adina Weinberger, Yael Kuperman, Alon Harmelin, Ilana Kolodkin-Gal, Hagit Shapiro, Zamir Halpern, Eran Segal, Eran Elinav. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. October 2014. Volume 514.