Raising A Family

We live in a society where everything is “diet”. You can find anything and everything in a diet form. We are tricked into thinking that if it’s sugar free or calorie free that it therefore means it’s healthy. Just because something is lacking in calories doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to make you healthy. Many times other things are added to compensate for sugar or calories and those ingredients are just as bad for our bodies. I have a dear friend who drinks diet soda like no other. She probably consumes at least 2 liters a day. I’ve worried about her for years, but how do you tactfully say something? I can understand where one would think that diet soda is just fine. It has no calories, so how could it hurt? So, in my quest to help her out, I began a search about what exactly is in diet soda.

Diet soda may not have the sugar or calories of regular soda, but it’s chock-full of other health-draining chemicals, like caffeine, artificial sweeteners, sodium and phosphoric acid. All of theses ingredients have a slew of problems related to each one. Some experts are now exploring the possibility that artificial sweeteners confuse our taste buds and all those brain measures of satiety upon which we base what we eat. Certain data indicate that the body learns to predict caloric intake by the taste and texture of certain foods. When artificial sweeteners are introduced into the mix, our body sends the appropriate sweet signals to the brain but never delivers the sugar punch. They’ve gone as far as to say that people who drink diet soda versus those who drink regular soda are 41% more likely to be overweight.

With diet drinks, not only do you miss out on any nutrients provided by the real sugars your body might find useful if consumed in reasonable quantities, you also get a laundry list of suspicious ingredients that work against your body’s effort to maintain healthy a balance. The biggest ingredient is usually caffeine. Many of the diet drinks are cola-based or otherwise have caffeine added. It’s part of the mix created by manufacturers to make soft drinks — particularly diet soft drinks — seem more substantial. Yes, it gives you a sugar-like “boost,” or seems to, but that caffeine buzz really isn’t giving your body anything it needs. And the complications of caffeine consumption and addiction go hand in hand with fatigue, chronic anxiety and insomnia. Additionally, caffeine is a diuretic, so while you may be thinking that a diet soda quenches your thirst and helps keep you hydrated, the opposite is true. Diet soda often contains sodium, which exacerbates thirst, while the caffeine causes you to lose fluid.

I don’t mean to bag on anyone who drinks diet soda, I just think we need to take a second look at what we choose to consume. Oftentimes convenience and taste have a tendency to outweigh what’s healthy. We don’t always think of the long-run effects of what we are drinking. I found it interesting to learn about all of the side effects of consuming caffeine. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but had no idea how bad it truly was. So, grab a glass of water and do what’s best for your body!