Almost half of Americans drink diet soda regularly, and while you might assume that Diet Coke
is better than regular Coke, it can still do some damage. You just might rethink your
habits when you find out exactly what happens when you reach for a Diet Coke every day.
An ingredient that is always going to be found in Diet Coke is at least one type of artificial
sweetener. Traditionally, Diet Coke contains aspartame, though some versions contain Splenda,
according to Coca-Cola. After all, these artificial sweeteners are what make the diet drinks taste
sweet without adding any calories.
According to Healthline, aspartame and sucralose are two of the most commonly used artificial
sweeteners and while they and other artificial sweeteners have been deemed safe to consume,
the Mayo Clinic says that some people may experience adverse effects from the ingredients.
As some studies have shown, diet soda can potentially increase your risk of developing
metabolic syndrome, which in turn increases your risk of developing heart disease. You
may think the absence of sugar in soda to be a good thing, but that simply opens the
door for artificial sweetener to be used in its stead, and that might not be as good as
we've been told.
Many people give up their regular sodas and turn to Diet Coke as part of their efforts
to lose weight. While it may make a difference if you switch from consuming numerous regular
sodas a day to only diet ones, that isn't the only piece of the puzzle. In fact, there
is mounting evidence that proves drinking Diet Coke every day can actually have an unintended
result.
One study published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine found that regular consumption
of artificial sweeteners actually led to weight gain, not loss. Additionally, a report from
the University of Texas at San Antonio concluded that diet soda plays a definite role in weight
gain. By looking at the measurement of study participants' waists, it was found that participants
who only occasionally drank a diet soda, specifically, less than once a day, saw their waist size
go up by almost 2 inches. And, those who had one or more a day saw their waist size go
up by more than 3 inches. That's very telling, indeed!
Artificial sweeteners definitely get a bad rap, but a lot of people still turn to them
to help them stop consuming so much sugar. While artificial sweeteners, like the ones
found in Diet Coke, may not have any calories, they can make you crave more sugar. According
to the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine,
"Artificial sweeteners, precisely because they are sweet, encourage sugar craving and
sugar dependence."
So if you are trying to cut back on sugar, Diet Coke probably isn't the way to go about
it. Additionally, Frank Lipman, physician and expert in functional and integrative medicine,
wrote for Well+Good that in general,
"the taste of sweet, be it artificial or actual sugar, appears to play a significant role
in increasing appetite."
Artificial sweeteners increase your cravings, especially for sweets. And for anyone trying
to get healthy, that's pretty much the last thing they'd want to be craving.
"She's not sleep walking."
"Oh my god. I'm sleep eating!"
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 30 million Americans
have diabetes and there are even more citizens who are considered prediabetic. Although common,
diabetes can be a debilitating illness, and it turns out that your daily Diet Coke habit
might be putting you at an increased risk of developing the disease during your lifetime.
One study from the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in France
found that the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages, quote, "were associated
with increased [type 2 diabetes] risk." Diet Coke may be advertised as a healthy alternative
to regular soda, but given its link to the metabolic disease in those who drink it regularly,
you might not want to consider it healthy enough to drink on a daily basis.
The term "gut health" has become somewhat of a buzzword that people throw around. Everyone
you know is probably concerned about their gut health, but is it really that important?
Well, as it turns out, it is. According to WebMD, your gut health impacts your whole
body, including your mental and physical well-being. That said, if you drink Diet Coke every day,
you aren't doing your gut health any favors.
As Frank Lipman explained in an article for Well+Good, artificial sweeteners can change
the bacterial make-up of our gut biome, and kill off tons of good bacteria. A 2014 study
by researchers in Israel seemed to confirm that diet soda has a negative impact on your
gut health and, because of this, can ultimately lead to glucose intolerance, prediabetes,
and diabetes.
Though high blood pressure, or hypertension as it is also known, may be common, over 100
million Americans suffer from hypertension, according to the American Heart Association,
that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. As the Mayo Clinic explained,
"High blood pressure is a common condition in which the long-term force of the blood
against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems, such
as heart disease."
As if that weren't scary enough, drinking a Diet Coke every day may actually cause high
blood pressure.
A 2016 study from the Department of Food and Nutrition at Kyung Hee University in South
Korea is just one study that concluded that beverages sweetened with both sugar and artificial
sweeteners were associated with a high risk of developing hypertension.
Nearly 140,000 Americans die from strokes each year, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Strokes are a serious health matter and, naturally, most people
would do everything they could to help prevent them. However, when you drink Diet Coke every
day, you are actually increasing your risk for a stroke. As Healthline reported,
"Observational studies have linked diet soda to...an increased risk of stroke."
But it's also worth noting that they say more research needs to be done, and it's entirely
possible that the link could be due to preexisting risk factors, such as obesity.
Nevertheless, a study from the Keele Cardiovascular Research Group at Keele University in South
Korea found there was,
"...an association between consumption of sugar-sweetened and ASBs [artificially-sweetened
beverages] and cardiovascular risk."
And that's food for thought, something to remember the next time you reach for that
diet soda.
"That was 16 liters of cherry soda."
"Really? Oh, wow, I'm starting to feel it now!"
Even though headaches are a common condition, no one would want to get a headache if they
could help it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can trigger headaches,
like certain foods and drinks. While everyone is different when it comes to their dietary
triggers, you do risk getting a headache when you drink Diet Coke frequently. Minnesota-based
dietitian Cassie Bjork told Health:
"I have several clients who used to suffer from migraines and pinpointed their cause
to diet soda."
On top of that, esteemed neurologist Orly Avitzur told Business Insider that diet sodas,
quote, "offer little nutritional benefit, and in some cases, diet sodas can cause headaches
or make you overeat." That's enough to encourage some people to switch to a different beverage.
There are seemingly a million restrictions when it comes to what pregnant women should
eat and drink, as well as what they shouldn't eat and drink. While a soda or coffee here
or there is not likely to be harmful, drinking diet soda while you're pregnant could actually
cause you to go into early labor.
Preterm labor is associated with a number of risks. According to Stanford Children's
Health, premature babies may have trouble breathing, kidney problems, and seizures.
While it may seem almost unbelievable that a beverage could cause preterm labor, more
than one study has uncovered a link between diet soda consumption and early labor.
One, from the Centre for Fetal Programming at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark concluded
there was,
"An association between intake of artificially sweetened carbonated and noncarbonated soft
drinks and an increased risk of preterm delivery."
Another, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Institute of Clinical
Sciences in Sweden found that,
"A high intake of both [artificially-sweetened] and [sugar-sweetened] beverages is associated
with an increased risk of preterm delivery."
Childhood obesity, and obesity in general, has the potential to wreak havoc on a person's
overall health. According to Stanford Health Care,
"Obesity puts you at greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure,
arthritis, sleep apnea, some types of cancer, and stroke."
Sadly, drinking Diet Coke throughout pregnancy equals a strong chance the baby will develop
obesity during infancy and childhood. According to a study from the Department of Pediatrics
and Child Health at the University of Manitoba in Canada,
"Maternal consumption of artificial sweeteners during pregnancy may influence infant [body
mass index]."
Another study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 2017 revealed that
there were definite links between fetal exposure to artificially-sweetened beverages and obesity
by the age of seven.
Though a diet soda might sound tempting when you're pregnant, research shows that it's
probably not worth it.
One of the most common gripes people have with Diet Coke is that it has the potential
to cause cancer. And those concerns aren't unfounded. As Ermy Levy, a research dietitian
in behavioral science at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center explained,
there is some evidence that artificial sweeteners may increase your risk for certain types of
cancers, such as bladder and urinary cancers. Levy added:
"That's not to say regular soda is better for you. They might be affecting our health
or cancer risks in ways we don't yet know about."
Additionally, more than one study has found a connection between regular consumption of
diet soda and cancer. A study conducted by the Department of Clinical & Experimental
Medicine at the Hospital School of Medicine in Italy found there was a correlation, albeit
a slight one, between consumption of carbonated soft drinks and the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Another study by the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, uncovered, quote, "a detrimental effect of a constituent of diet soda, such
as aspartame, on select cancers."
Clearly, diet soda increases your risk factors, and the research on that link is just getting
started.
Depression is a major issue not just for Americans, but people the world over. Some 322 million
people around the world suffer from depression, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association
of America. Unfortunately for those who drink Diet Coke every day, the beverage has been
associated with the mood disorder.
As Lisa Young, an internationally-recognized nutritionist, wrote in an article for HuffPost,
"[Studies have] found an association between the two, soda drinkers were more likely to
be diagnosed with depression."
That isn't to say that diet soda causes depression, she explained, but there is a correlation.
According to a study published in 2014,
"Frequent consumption of sweetened beverages, especially diet drinks, may increase depression
risk among older adults, whereas coffee consumption may lower the risk."
That said, you may want to consider switching out your daily Diet Coke for a cup of coffee.
One of the most alarming and surprising possible side effects of drinking Diet Coke every day
is that it actually has the ability to damage your cells. According to Today, most diet
beverages contain one certain ingredient that regular sodas typically don't have: "mold
inhibitors."
According to Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and several other products contain
such preservatives. However, they aren't great for you. According to Peter Piper, a professor
of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the United
Kingdom:
"These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to
the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether."
Although some companies took the initiative to stop using sodium benzoate, they merely
transitioned to using other mold inhibitors, which still have the ability to damage DNA.
At the end of the day, it's just one more reason to consider swapping your daily Diet
Coke for something a little healthier.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
drinks are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.