The Diet Soda Myths

Anyone who tells you that diet soda is bad for you because it will keep you from your fitness and nutrition goals has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

Yes, it is true, diet sodas may increase your sweet cravings in the same way that chewing sugar free gum with artificial sweeteners does, but it has no chemicals or ingredients that make you gain weight in any way. The majority of them even have no calories, no carbohydrates, no sugar, no fat. Sorry, it’s just not possible to gain fat (weight) when all of those things are not present.

Diet sodas and artifical sweeteners can have a caloric value. They are just trace in value because they are a chemical that your brain registers as 100-1000x sweeter (depending on the chemical composition of the sweetener) than natural sugars. 

Thus, you can use much less of it and have your brain register the taste as sweet but be only consuming less than 3 calories from the artificial sweetener. 

The main reason why diet sodas are not as good as water is the acidity. But for fitness purposes its really negligible because diet soda’s can help combat cravings and help you maintain a good diet overall in terms of caloric intake and macronutrients.

Yes water is better for you. Water > diet sodas > sugary drinks in terms of losing weight, but diet sodas have negligible caloric value and are helpful for maintaining a good diet by satisfying your sugar needs. Drink diet drinks from time to time (but not as a substitute for water), there’s some sort of brain satisfaction, atleast for me.

Fact: Artificial sweeteners have no effect on insulin levels, at all.

Fact: Artificial sweeteners are most definitely metabolised in your body and some like sucralose have an absorption rate of under 30%

“The chemicals in diet soda are bad for you.”

Another lie. There are no proven studies that show that there is anything in diet soda that actually hurts your body with average use.

The main artificial sweetener being currently used is Aspartame.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828671

Aspartame: a safety evaluation based on current use levels, regulations, and toxicological and epidemiological studies.

Magnuson BA, Burdock GA, Doull J, Kroes RM, Marsh GM, Pariza MW, Spencer PS, Waddell WJ, Walker R, Williams GM.

Burdock Group, Washington, DC, USA. bmagnuso@umd.edu

Aspartame is a methyl ester of a dipeptide used as a synthetic nonnutritive sweetener in over 90 countries worldwide in over 6000 products. The purpose of this investigation was to review the scientific literature on the absorption and metabolism, the current consumption levels worldwide, the toxicology, and recent epidemiological studies on aspartame. Current use levels of aspartame, even by high users in special subgroups, remains well below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority established acceptable daily intake levels of 50 and 40 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. Consumption of large doses of aspartame in a single bolus dose will have an effect on some biochemical parameters, including plasma amino acid levels and brain neurotransmitter levels. The rise in plasma levels of phenylalanine and aspartic acid following administration of aspartame at doses less than or equal to 50 mg/kg bw do not exceed those observed postprandially. Acute, subacute and chronic toxicity studies with aspartame, and its decomposition products, conducted in mice, rats, hamsters and dogs have consistently found no adverse effect of aspartame with doses up to at least 4000 mg/kg bw/day. Critical review of all carcinogenicity studies conducted on aspartame found no credible evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic. The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior.Epidemiological studies on aspartame include several case-control studies and one well-conducted prospective epidemiological study with a large cohort, in which the consumption of aspartame was measured. The studies provide no evidence to support an association between aspartame and cancer in any tissue. The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.

More studies on Aspartame:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15510910

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2802896

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2644789

Please don’t argue with science, it just makes you look silly.

Also, stop spreading misinformation and stop fearmongering with diet soda. If you don’t want to drink it then don’t. If other people want to drink it then let them. Don’t try and tell anyone they’re wrong for enjoying something that doesn’t harm them in any way.