If you take diet drinks every other day, this article will show you the reasons why diet drinks are bad for you.
Diet drinks are sugar-free, artificially sweetened fizzy beverages that are low in calories.
Companies introduced these drinks into the market to serve people who wanted to enjoy sodas without excess calories.
But are diet drinks healthier alternatives or could it be a marketing gimmick set to target unsuspecting people who want to stay healthy?
Well, many experts agree that diet drinks do more harm than good.
Here are a few reasons why diet drinks may not be good for you.
Why Diet Drinks are bad for you
1. Diet Drinks are loaded with Artificial Sweeteners
Diet drinks are loaded with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than the regular sugar.
Artificial sweeteners are preferred to sugar because they pass through the body system without been digested.
The FDA may accept them as safe but it’s still not been extensively researched to know the role they play in maintaining good health.
2. Diet Drinks have No Nutritional Value
Whatever essential nutrients you would get from water, matcha tea or milk, you cannot get from diet drinks.
They have no carbs, sugar, protein, or nutrients that can be metabolized to meet the demands of your body.
The other things they contain are caffeine, additives, carbon dioxide, acids, flavors and preservatives which do more harm than good.
3. Diet Drinks Cause Skin Breakouts
Artificial sweeteners are very sweet as compared to sugar. They are also very dehydrating to your body.
This results to dry skin and skin breakouts.
Experts explain that sugar molecules attach themselves to molecules like proteins and fats through a process called glycation.
In fact, that process can lead to reactions that are destructive in our skin by creating free radicals, oxidative stress, and inflammation, which accelerate aging.
High-sugar diets, in the long run, are detrimental to the skin.
4. Diet Drinks Increase the Risk of Heart Disease
The added sugar in diet drinks leads to fat deposition in blood vessels and the heart.
Those fat deposits block your arteries, which could lead to stroke, panic attacks, and heart attacks.
This study shows that increased added sugar intake leads to cardiovascular diseases.
Diet drinks also increase the risk of heart disease by making you gain weight due to the excess calories.
5. Diet Drinks May Cause Headaches
Could you possibly get a headache from diet drinks? Yes.
Studies show it’s possible to get tension and rebound headaches from diet drinks.
The effect may be worse if you take diet drinks with prescription medicines that contain caffeine.
6. Diet Drinks May Cause Depression
Diet drinks, just like processed foods, have been linked to depression.
A study evaluating the link between depression and sweetened beverages, diet drinks and the like, found that people who take these drinks are more depressed compared to those who consume beverages like coffee and tea.
One explanation is that sweeteners hinder the production of dopamine and serotonin, which are essential for easing anxiety and depression.
7. Diet Drinks May Lead to Obesity
If you thought diet drinks would help you lose weight, think again.
One study shows a correlation between diet soda and weight gain. The participants who took a diet soda were likely to gain weight in the next 6-7 years.
Researchers could prove correlation with weight gain but could not explain the reasons behind it.
8. Diet Drinks May Increase the Risk of Osteoporosis
Sodas and some diet drinks use a preservative called phosphoric acid.
Phosphoric acid interferes with the absorption of calcium in the bones.
The caffeine present in these drinks also leads to high amounts of excreted calcium from the body.
A study on older women showed that colas and caffeinated drinks could lead to low bone density.
Taking these drinks for years may eventually lead to fractures, bone degradation, and osteoporosis.
9. Diet Drinks Can Lead to Liver Conditions
Diet drinks can harm your liver because they make you gain fat.
With a surplus of fat, the liver becomes fatty because of fat deposits leading to fatty liver disease.
A Framingham study linked diet sodas and sugar-sweetened beverages in obese and overweight people to lead to increased risk of fatty liver disease.
10. Diet Soda Increases the Risk of Diabetes
When sugar is introduced into the system, it’s converted into glucose or glycogen. The hormone insulin is responsible for this conversion.
When you consume too much sugar and added sugar, your cells become resistant to insulin. This consequently raises your blood sugar levels.
The high blood sugar levels increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
A study from Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism linked aspartame intake to greater glucose intolerance in obese people.
11. Diet Drinks May Lead to Cancer
Your liver is responsible for metabolizing diet drinks.
Some of the substances found in diet soda like aspartame are broken down to produce methanol.
Methanol is then converted into formaldehyde which is one of the metabolites that could cause cancer.
Consuming large amounts of diet sodas could potentially increase your risk of developing cancer in a few years’ time.
In fact, cancerous cells feed on sugar that helps them increase in overwhelming numbers.
Although studies carried out by the American Cancer Society state that aspartame is safe, researchers agree more research is needed.
12. Diet Drinks May Lead to Kidney Complications
Whatever affects your liver affects your kidneys. They work closely to ensure substances ingested are metabolized and toxins and waste are excreted.
Diet diets increase the risk of developing kidney diseases.
One study found that those who consumed more than 6-8 glasses of diet drinks especially sodas increased their risk by two-fold.
This is partly because of phosphoric acid found in these drinks which can form kidney stones, which could lead to acute kidney failure and chronic kidney failure.
As you can see, diet drinks are bad for you, especially if you’re trying to lose weight.
Simply cutting diet drinks out of your diet won’t transform your body magically. If you want to lose belly fat in the fastest way humanly possible, follow this customized fat loss plan.
In it, you will discover the 5 veggies that can help you get a flat belly.
Do you know other reasons why diet drinks are bad for you?
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