Putting “diet” or “organic” in front of any food or drink product instantly makes people want to buy it because they will believe that it is healthier for them than the regular products that are filled with real sugar. Recently though, I have been hearing that it is better to have drinks that are not diet because the chemical sweeteners are worse for you than the high amounts of sugar in the regular drinks. I decided to focus on regular coke vs diet coke for the purpose of this blog post. There are both positive and negative aspects of both regular and diet. The positive aspects of diet soda are that it does not cause cavities in your mouth because of the ‘fake’ sugar. But, the diet soda does contain high amounts of acid which can eat away at the enamel on your teeth over time. Although diet soda has no calories, it has artificial sweeteners in it that can be just as bad, if no t worse than real sugar. ““Artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas have been found to increase sugar cravings because it’s not a natural source of sugar and the brain continues to seek the real deal,” Marissa Puleo, a registered licensed dietitian explained to Medical Daily.“This can lead to increased eating and drinking because your body isn’t satisfied.”” A study from the University of Miami was able to correlate diet soda consumption with an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. This website talks more about the study under the “Diet Soda” and then “the ugly” tab. On the other hand, a 12 ounce can of soda has 140 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar. Contrary to popular belief, regular soda actually has less sugar than a lot of other popular drinks on the market. According to a survey done in 2012, about 48 percent of Americans drink at least one glass of soda per day. “obesity epidemic” the United States has been experiencing for some time. Dr. Christopher Ochner said: “If everything else in their diet is equal, a person who has a can of Coke a day adds an extra 14.5 pounds per year, just from the calories alone.” Soda does not only affect a person’s weight, but also their overall health.
There really is not a good answer to the question coke or diet coke, but in my opinion, regular coke is the way to go. Although it may taste “too sweet”, the regular sugar seems to have a lot less long lasting health affects than the artificial. The best option, of course it water, but if you really need a soda, go with regular coke.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/diet-soda-vs-regular-soda-one-worse-you-other-308063
http://www.arabella.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Coke-Diet-Coke.jpg
Being a huge coke drinker myself; I have actually looked into the health risks of coke. I know coke is not the best for me but i definitely think I drink more than the next person. After reading your article I actually looked more into the whole “coke vs. diet coke” debate. I found an article that actually did an observational study on non-soda, coke, and diet coke drinkers. The results of the study were really interesting! This article by Lisa Freedman on the study showed that, “Over the next nine years, those who drank diet soda daily were 48 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, compared with those who rarely drank soda. There was actually no risk increase for cardiovascular disorders among the daily drinkers of regular soda.” I thought it was really interesting to see that the chemicals in Diet Coke were much more detrimental.
I have also heard that diet coke is actually worse for you than regular coke because of the artificial sugars that are in diet coke. I personally don’t drink soda anymore because it does take a negative toll in your overall health so I just stick with mainly water now, but if I do need a soda, I stick with the regular stuff!