Diet soda, marketed as a guilt-free alternative to sugary soft drinks, has become a popular choice for health-conscious individuals, athletes, and those looking to manage their weight or diabetes. While it boasts fewer calories and less sugar, the potential health risks associated with its consumption are a growing concern. This article delves into the possible side effects of diet soda, exploring the latest research and offering guidance on reducing intake.
The Sweet Deception: What's Really in Diet Soda?
Soft drinks are known by different names in different parts of the country: soda, cola, pop, and the generic “coke,” are the most common. Diet soda has been marketed as an alternative free of sugar and calories - and the guilt and health risks that come with them. It’s often targeted at people who are health-conscious, athletes, and for those who have diabetes, or want to lose weight. Although low in calories and sugar, diet soda has no nutritional value. It also contains artificial sweeteners that have been linked to adverse health effects, but research is mixed.
Potential Side Effects of Diet Soda
1. Gut Microbiome Disruption
The artificial sweeteners in diet soda, such as aspartame, may negatively affect the gut microbiome, the community of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. The gut microbiome plays a key role in many aspects of health, including immune function, nutrient absorption, and heart health.
One in vitro study of 13 individuals found that aspartame decreased production of Isobutyric acid, a type of short-chain fatty acid. Short-chain fatty acids play a role in preventing inflammatory diseases and regulating body weight. However, more studies are needed to understand how artificial sweeteners and diet soda may affect gut health in humans.
2. Dental Health Concerns
Although diet soda doesn’t contain sugar like regular soda, it’s still highly acidic. Acidity in diet soda can erode tooth enamel, potentially leading to tooth sensitivity, pitting of the tooth’s surface, and changes to the color of the teeth, giving them a chalky appearance.
Read also: Unwind with spa treatments and bar access
However, damage to dental enamel from acidity is not the same thing as an increased risk of cavities due to sugar content. A 2020 study found that diet soda did not promote dental cavities among children.
3. Headaches
For some people, drinking multiple servings of diet soda per day could cause headaches. This may be due to certain artificial sweeteners found in diet soda, such as aspartame. One review noted that aspartame caused symptoms like headaches and migraines in those who took aspartame pills, particularly in those with neurological or psychiatric conditions.
However, the review notes that some of the studies used aspartame pills, which release more aspartame into the body than you would get from drinking it in liquid form. Some studies have also found that caffeine, which is present in some diet sodas, could cause headaches for a small percentage of people.
4. Bone Health
Diet soda contains several compounds that may negatively affect bone health and lead to bone loss. One study found that excessive caffeine intake can negatively affect bone health. Another study found that excessive phosphoric acid consumption could lead to the same thing. Diet soda contains phosphorus, which may decrease bone density and increase the risk of osteoporosis, especially in older adults.
5. Cardiovascular Issues
One 2021 study found that regularly consuming artificial alternative sweeteners, which are present in diet soda, is associated with a risk of developing cardiovascular complications. This includes glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes.
Read also: Sweet and Savory Keto Cream Cheese
Another study found that consumption of these sweeteners is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a group of factors that, if left untreated, may increase the likelihood of developing heart disease. Studies show that drinking just one diet soda per day may increase the risk of cardiovascular problems including AFib (irregular heartbeat) and high blood pressure.
6. Increased Appetite and Cravings
Some research suggests that the artificial sweeteners found in diet soda may have the same effect on the food reward pathway in the brain as regular sugar. One study found that it can make food more palatable. This could lead to increased hunger and food intake.
Additionally, because artificial sweeteners are significantly sweeter than regular sugar, researchers have suggested they might increase sugar cravings and dependence, making it much harder to reduce your intake. Nevertheless, research on this topic is mixed. Additional studies on diet soda and sugar cravings are needed.
7. Potential Weight Gain
Scientists have found mixed results on whether drinking diet soda is associated with weight gain. One study found that habitual, long-term diet soda consumption was linked to increased body fat, including visceral fat. Some research suggests that your brain reacts to artificial sweeteners much like it does to sugary sweets. Ingesting them frequently may increase your desire for high-calorie foods, putting you at a greater risk of weight gain. Another study found that people with overweight or obesity who switched to diet soda were likely to consume more calories in food than people with overweight or obesity who drank regular soda. In fact, those who drank diet soda had a higher BMI than their counterparts.
8. Insulin Confusion
Your brain normally associates “sweet” with calories. In the realm of human physiology, that’s a good thing. It drives your body to release insulin as sugar’s chaperone to the cells to create fuel. In the past, people assumed this process couldn’t occur when we consumed artificial sweeteners because calories don’t follow the sweet flavor. But one study found the process could very well happen anyway. In the study, individuals who consumed a specific artificial sweetener (sucralose) had increases in both insulin and blood glucose levels. Frequent rises in insulin have been linked to insulin resistance and an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Read also: Learn more about massage beds with rollers
9. Brain's Reaction to Sweetness
Some research also suggests that those who drink diet soda have higher activity in the area of the brain associated with the desire to consume foods high in fat and sugar. Drinking diet soda seems to alter your brain’s sweet-sensing reward center. This means diet soda could potentially change how your brain reacts to cravings for high-calorie foods.
10. Stroke and Dementia
The consumption of artificial sweeteners like aspartame, has been linked to an increased risk of neurological problems like stroke and dementia.
11. Kidney Problems
Kidney function declined over two decades in women who drank several diet sodas a day, according to researchers from the prestigious Nurses' Health Study. In fact, compared with women who did not drink diet soda, soda-drinking women had a 30% greater reduction in kidney function in 20 years. Excessive soda consumption, diet or regular, may increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and the formation of kidney stones. Drinking one diet soda daily did not decrease kidney function more than normal. Drinking two or more diet sodas, though, appeared to cause problems. The diet-soda drinkers experienced a drop in their glomerular filtration rate (an important measure of the kidney's function).
12. Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NFLD)
Research has established a strong correlation between diet soda and NFLD, which affects up to half of people.
13. Thyroid Function
Some studies have found that drinking diet soda can cause the thyroid gland to work less efficiently, potentially leading to increased fat storage and weight gain.
14. Joint Pain
The artificial sweeteners in diet soda can trigger an inflammatory response in the body and may worsen joint pain.
15. Other Health Impacts
A systematic review explored how excessive DS consumption can affect multiple organ systems, and associations have been made to mental health burden, delays in child neurodevelopment, cardiac remodeling, worsening retinopathy in diabetics, incidental end-stage renal disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in men, rheumatoid arthritis in women, hip fractures, dental erosion, increases in breath alcohol concentration when used in alcoholic beverages, and accelerated cell aging.
Mental health and its relationship with ASB consumption were studied by different authors. In both studies, the majority of the patients involved were women, and the design was based on a survey evaluating coffee consumption, ASBs consumption, and major depression. They found a statistically significant association between depression and consumption of ASB, which was more apparent among women than men. Another approach evaluated the consumption of these substances in the setting of eating disorders. DS drinkers were more likely to report binge eating and purging than regular soda drinkers, who were more likely to report these behaviors than non-soda drinkers. Individuals with eating disorders, particularly bulimia nervosa, consumed more DS than controls.
A prospective cohort study explored the relationship between ASB and child cognitive development. They followed 1,234 mothers’ diets during their pregnancies and years later monitored their children’s neurodevelopment. They found that maternal DS consumption during pregnancy may adversely impact child cognition, as children's cognitive scores were inversely proportional to mothers' SSB and ASB consumption.
Andersson et al., in their cross-sectional study, measured cardiac remodeling in SSB and DS consumers. Despite having identified the high body weight of soda drinkers as a confounder, they found that soda consumption, especially DS, was associated with higher left atrial dimension (LAD) and left ventricular mass (LVM), compared to no soda consumption.
One article was found that studied the relationship between the consumption of DS and diabetic retinopathy in the diabetic population. It found statistically significant results and determined that, in diabetics, DS consumption was associated with higher glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and retinopathy, while non-caloric flavor consumption was associated with obesity.
Rebholz et al. studied the incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in consumers of the beverage. Relative to one glass/week of DS, consuming one to four glasses/week, five to seven glasses/week, and seven glasses/week, respectively, was associated with 1.08-times, 1.33-times, and 1.83-times higher risk of ESRD after adjusting multiple variables.
Another cohort study explored the effect that ASBs have on lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). With statistically significant results, they found that caffeinated ASBs increased LUTS in the women’s cohort, and that citrus juice consumption diminished them in the men’s cohort.
A prospective cohort study conducted with over 90,000 patients studied the possibility of carcinogenic properties of DS. In men, > one daily serving of DS increased risks of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in comparison with men who did not consume DS.
Hu et al. conducted a prospective cohort study evaluating the tendency of soda consumption and risk of developing RA in women; following 79,570 women between 1980 and 2008, and 107,330 women between 1991 and 2009. The results showed a significant association between SSB consumption and increased risk of RA in the first cohort, but not in the second cohort; on the other hand, neither of the two cohorts showed a remarkable association between DS consumption and risk of RA.
In a large cohort study conducted by Fung et al., with a total of 73,572 female patients, it was determined that, after repeatedly assessing patients every four years for DS consumption and incident risk fractures, increased soda consumption of all types may be associated with increased risk of hip fracture in postmenopausal women.
A prospective cohort study was done among 3,828 women planning pregnancy and 1,045 of their male partners, evaluating the association of ASB intake with fecundability; following enrolled participants for up to 12 menstrual cycles or up to pregnancy.
Leung et al. examined, through a cross-sectional study, the associations between ASB and telomere length in a sample of 5,309 healthy adults. The effect of DS on the chemical loss of mineralized tooth substance was measured by a cross-sectional study that involved 2,368 male and female participants. The results revealed that high consumption of DS slightly increased the odds of dental erosion, although the relationship was not statistically significant.
A randomized controlled trial, done on 20 participants and using two different moderate alcohol doses, confirmed the premise that mixing alcohol with diet beverages can result in higher breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) when compared with mixing the same amount of alcohol with sweetened beverages.
Kicking the Habit: Strategies to Reduce Diet Soda Consumption
There are plenty of simple steps you can take to decrease your intake of diet soda. Start by slowly swapping it for other drinks in your diet. Here are a few alternative drinks to consider:
- Flavored water
- Herbal tea
- Coconut water
- Seltzer water
- Kombucha
Look for versions of these drinks that either are unsweetened or have a lower sugar content. You can also try adding a splash of juice to water or seltzer. You can make flavored water by adding cucumber slices, fresh or frozen fruit, herbs like basil and mint, or citrus fruits like lime or lemon to plain or sparkling water for a hint of flavor without added sugar.
It may also help to buy less soda when you go grocery shopping and stock up on healthy alternatives instead. This will make it much easier to reach for a different drink in place of diet soda when you feel thirsty.
Finally, it may be easier to gradually decrease your diet soda consumption instead of cutting it out all at once. Reducing the amount of diet soda that you drink each week to make long-lasting, sustainable changes may be easier to stick with over time.
Here are a few things you can do to ease the transition:
- Get your caffeine somewhere else. If you crave caffeine (in moderation), you’re likely better off with plain coffee or tea. Just don’t load them up with cream and sugar!
- Add natural flavor to your drinks. If flavor is what made diet soda your drink of choice, try freezing raspberries, cucumber, mint, lemon or lime in ice cubes to add a hint of sweetness.
- Carbonation is key. Many diet soda drinkers relish the carbonation of soda even more than the sweetness. If that’s you, try putting fruit in seltzer or sparkling water to recreate soda’s bubbly appeal. There are also many flavored seltzers and sparkling waters on the market that work well as a diet soda alternative.
- Try new things. There are a lot of alternative beverages out there. Have you tried kombucha? Coconut water? You can even get carbonated apple cider vinegar drinks these days! Just make sure you review the ingredients before you raise a toast to your new, soda-free life.
Lifestyle changes can help:
- Avoid getting too hungry. Are you the type to skip breakfast? Do you stick to three square meals a day? That’s not setting you up for success because it makes you more likely to crave something sweet during the day.
- Distract yourself. If you’re suddenly struck with the urge to grab a soda, respond by doing something that isn’t drinking soda. Drink a glass of water: It’s possible you’re just thirsty. Take a 10-minute walk. Call that friend you keep meaning to catch up with. Chances are, that craving’s going to drift to the back of your mind, and eventually disappear.
- Plan accordingly. Make sure you bring a soda alternative with you to the neighborhood barbecue. Have cold water or iced tea waiting for you in the fridge, so it’s easier to make a healthy choice at the end of a busy day. Anticipating cravings and planning ahead can make confronting them less taxing.