Most schools are a Pepsi campus, but personally I am not a fan. I like Coke better specifically diet coke. To me a diet coke and lemon in the hand is the best thing and always the best thing and always quenches my thirst. I like the taste of diet coke compared to the taste of the regular coke. I actually think that the regular coke is too sugary and it actually hurts my teeth when I drink it, so I never drink it. Although, drinking soda specifically coke isn’t good for someone’s health and if they want to loose weight, but which type diet or regular is “better” for you?
It could just be an extra label on the can/ bottle saying diet, but is diet any better than just regular coke? The reason why there is a “diet” name to coke is because there is no sugar used but rather artificial sweeteners that were considered safe by the FDA, Food and Drug Administration. Just because there is no sugar in the drink doesn’t mean that the artificial sweetener is healthy. There is no evidence yet to prove if artificial sugars are healthier. This article states that “recent research shows that artificial sweeteners are not inert- they alter human metabolism and gut bacteria and may be linked to Type-2 diabetes.”
A scientist at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis conducted study with the intent to find out how 17 obese humans processed glucose after drink water or sucralose, otherwise known as Splenda. The conclusion was that the people who had the sucralose released 20% more insulin compared to the people who drank water before the glucose. So artificial sugars have no role in the functioning of the metabolism. There is going to be another experiment with a control group being the non- obese subjects.
Researcher Bjorn Richelsen did an observational study to see if sugar sweetened soft drink increased obesity through our appetites. The conclusion was that the regular sugary coke led people with a larger appetite and the people who drank diet coke did not increase their caloric intake. This website claims that “the researchers found that, on average, people who drank diet soda over the course of the 12- week study lost about 13 pounds, which was 4.5 more than those who had switched to water. They said that was due to the fact that diet soda make people feel more full and leave them with a larger appetite than water.
From a lot of the research that I was looking into, nothing was very conclusive or gave definite answers. So my conclusion is that there needs to be more tests to see if what I am actually drinking, which is the diet coke, is a faux and I should be drinking the regular to not gain any extra weight or add not safe sugars into my body. I like the taste of diet coke better, but if it worse for my health then it is not worth drinking.
Interesting topic! To further investigate the differences between diet soda and regular soda, I found a study (link below) that tested the effects of soda sweetened with aspartame (diet soda) against the effects of soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (regular), in contrast to a control condition in which no soda was consumed. What the study found was that “drinking large volumes of APM (aspartame)-sweetened soda, in contrast to drinking HFCS-sweetened soda, reduces sugar intake and thus may facilitate the control of calorie intake and body weight.” Therefore, the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that diet soda may be better for you than regular soda. However, this is not suggesting that diet soda is simply good for you in general. I think this is the crux of the problem because in our society, people mistakenly believe that diet soda is good for you simply because it can be less unhealthy than regular soda. Therefore, the take-home message from this research in my opinion is that, while there is evidence to suggest that diet soda may not be as unhealthy as regular soda, there is little evidence to suggest that diet soda is healthy for you in general, so we should still limit our intake of diet drinks.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/51/6/963.short
I found this post eye catching. The diet vs regular has been going on for a while and a few years back when I was a little overweight my doctor told me to not drink as much juice, switch to low calorie Gatorade, ect. So ever since then I’ve been drinking diet soda as well such as Coke. The about how you found out that diet soda fills you up faster sound true cause that happens to me when drinking during meals. It gives me less of an appetite. I feel like this is part of the Texas sharp shooter problem, where you keep look at the same study over and over again until the data you get is accurate. The debate between sodas is far from over
These experiments sounds like the ones which result will be manipulated by companies. We talk about similar cases in class. If I am the owner of Coca Cola, I would definitely want to prove that diet coke is absolutely healthy, or extremely efficient in weight control. When the benefit of a company is potentially involved in the study, the result can be chaotic. A meta-analysis is probably suitable for these kind of test to access what role the companies play in finding the truth about the products. Overall, great post!
This topic has been debated for a while, and I agree that there is still no clear answer. However, there have been studies that show that drinking diet soda can damage your health. This Time article describes one of these affects such as a higher risk of hip fractures in women and a higher risk of developing type two diabetes. The article explains, “the data indicate that people who drink even one diet soda a day are at higher risk for health outcomes like type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension and stroke”. More studies need to be done on this topic, but there is growing evidence that suggests your best option is to kick your soda habit altogether.
I thought this was a great topic to write about because it’s an important misconception that everyone should be aware of. People automatically assume that just because the label name says “diet”on the front that it is immediately better for you to intake. Looking at the nutrition label and the facts enthralled throughout your blog, anyone can gather that this drink is not a good liquid to have in your body. It’s like acid in your system. This leads me to ask the question, is there really any soda out there that won’t be detrimental to our bodies and diets. The answer I’m presuming will come up is probably not.