I am always drinking soda whenever I have the chance. I know it’s not good for me but I still always catch myself reaching for the soda over the water when the options are presented to me. Making it almost impossible for me to quit it always comes across my mind about switching to diet soda. But does this slight change really make a difference? In reality both types of soda are extremely bad for you especially if you drink it in an excess amount. Both diet and regular soda have its ups and downs.

Although diet soda is said to have no sugar, this doesn’t mean it is as good as water to drink. No sugar does mean though that there are no calories which is usually what draws consumers to a diet product rather than a regular. However, as good as no sugar sounds the artificial sweeteners in diet products lead to cravings for real sugar according to Marissa Puleo. This question is also posed in Eating Well. These cravings given off by the artificial sweeteners may actually cause you to gain weight instead of lose it.

There are also many pros of drinking diet soda other than it containing no calories. Compared to regular soda, diet soda is better for your teeth. The artificial flavoring doesn’t allow bacteria to live on them like sugar does, helping to lessen your chance of cavities.

Regular soda contains real sugar and on average about 120 calories per serving (120z). The sugar that is in regular soda is what causes someone to get cavities, which no one likes to hear when they go to the dentist. However, all of the sugar and calories you get in one serving of a regular soda product does not compare to some of the other drinks out there. Snapple for example contains 200 calories. So although regular soda does have a high amount of calories, there are worse drinks you could be drinking.

According to a study talked about in Men’s Fitness, a group of subjects were asked how often they drink soda and whether it is diet or regular. Nine years later they did a follow up and found that the ones who drank diet soda were 48% more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than the ones who didn’t drink soda. As for the subjects who drank regular soda, there was no harm to them compared to the non-soda drinkers.

In conclusion both diet and regular soda has there ups and downs. In ways diet may be better for you, but in other ways regular could be better for you. Both equally not good for one’s own health therefore, if you are one of those people who can’t go a day without soda (I know I am) maybe try to gradually cut back on your soda intake.