So, if you’re like me, you crave a soda now and then. You also probably go back and forth for a few seconds before you decide to grab a diet or normal Coke, right? Well today I grabbed a throwback Mountain Dew in the HUB and I was horrified when I saw that there are 73 grams of sugar in this 20oz. drink. I immediately regretted not getting the diet Mountain Dew that was sitting right next to it. But should I?

If you take all the sugar out of soda it would just be artificially colored, carbonated water. But somehow, all those diet sodas you see in pretty much every mini mart on campus (thanks PepsiCo) taste almost the same as the normal sodas but without ANY sugar or calories. We can thank artificial sweeteners for that. Unfortunately, these “diet” sodas might actually be worse for us in the long run than the sugary alternatives.

Holly Strawbridge of Harvard Health Publications wrote an interesting article exploring some of the side effects of artificial sweeteners. One of the more interesting things she mentioned was that only a minuscule amount of artificial sweetener is needed in comparison to the amount of sugar to create the same sensation of sweetness. This can lead to overstimulation of sugar receptors and eventually lead to intolerance of more complex, less sweet foods, like vegetables. However, she supports this point with the quote of one doctor. To really make a statement about this she should cite a supporting study or additional experts with congruent viewpoints.

In Strawbridge’s article she does point to a very interesting and concerning study titled, “Diet Soda Intake and Risk of Incident Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)*.” This study followed the amount of incident type 2 diabetes and incident metabolic syndrome reported by individuals participated in a food frequency questionnaire up until 5 years after the completion of the survey. Shockingly, they found that daily consumption of was associated with a 36% greater chance of metabolic syndrome and a 67% greater risk of type 2 diabetes. The researchers do note that because of the observational nature of this study that they cannot establish causality. To derive causality they should conduct a double-blind randomized control trail. Even so, with results like these, it is rational to consume less diet soda.

A study published September 27th, 2014 in Nature found that non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) actually create a glucose (a natural sugar) intolerance through the alteration of gut microbiota in adult male mice and humans. The researchers found that this glucose intolerance affected the susceptibility to metabolic disease. Although there was not randomization among the human subjects, all of the testing was done ethically with informed consent and reported to the proper authorities. Among their 381 subjects (44% male, 56% female), they found positive correlations between an increase in weight and waist-to-hip ratio and the consumption of NAS; both symptoms related to metabolic syndrome. They also noted a correlation between NAS consumption and symptoms related to glucose intolerance. This study seems to have been conducted properly because it would have been hard to have a double-blind procedure when it comes to someones diet and health. Despite that it was not double-blind, the findings and methods seem to be sound.

Considering both of these studies I am going to steer VERY clear of diet soda. Any guilt I felt when drinking that mountain dew is now out the window. In fact, I would say it might actually be better to consume drinks with real sugar (but we’ll explore that in another blog post). It is concerning that there are studies such as these and you can still buy as many artificially sweetened as you want on Penn State’s campus. Ignorance to the negative health effects of such drinks potentially speaks to the power of corporations like PepsiCo. They exclusively provide all of the drinks you see around campus due to their corporate sponsorship with the University. Without a shadow of doubt, more attention and more research needs to be done to bring this to light.