What Happens If You Drink Too Much Diet Soda

one study found that diet soda drinkers had a higher risk of If you are having trouble viewing this email, [click here.]( You are receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in quality health and lifestyle tips. You can remove your email by clicking [unsubscribe]( at any time, or simply reply back to this email asking to be removed. Here's Today's Tip... Diet Soda. In the early 1960s, a new kind of beverage took the stage. It wasn't a new shape, or color, or flavor. No, this was diet soda. And It. Was. Awesome. With zero calories and no added sugar, diet soda promised to be a healthier alternative to regular soda. But like most promises in life that sound too good to be true, it probably is. Can you tell the difference between a glass of regular and diet soda? Turns out, neither can your body. And that's where the trouble starts. Until recently, everything we ate contained some amount of calories. When we ate something sweet, for example, the brain sent signals to the pancreas, which produces insulin, a hormone that essentially serves as a conductor of sorts, telling the body what to do with the sugar. For example, insulin can help shuttle sugar into cells to be burned for energy or stored for later use. So, when we drink diet soda, the sweetness tricks our body into thinking it's real sugar. But when those energy-packed calories don't arrive, the insulin has nothing to store. Scientists think that repeatedly tricking our bodies this way could explain why study after study keeps finding the same thing: that drinking diet soda is associated with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a mix of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and weight gain, which can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. In fact, one study found that diet soda drinkers had a higher risk of stroke and dementia than regular soda drinkers. And for another 8-year-long study between 1979-1988, participants who started out at a normal weight and drank an average of 21 diet beverages a week faced DOUBLE the risk of becoming overweight or obese by the end of the study compared to people who avoided diet beverages completely. And while drinking diet soda with a meal may sound like a tasty, calorie-free alternative to plain water, a growing body of research is starting to find that this may be the WORST time to drink it. On one hand, the excessive sweetness of the artificial sweeteners may cause insulin to “overshoot”, potentially resulting in ingested calories to be stored as fat. On the other hand, artificial sweeteners seem to have adverse effects on gut bacteria, which play an important role in carbohydrate metabolism, energy harvesting, and more. Another issue could be the fact that artificial sweeteners in diet sodas can be tens to hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. So when we taste it, our brains anticipate even more calories than what we give it. It's like when you go to a party expecting loads of food and you end up with a handful of veggies and vegan cheese. You're left unsatisfied and hangry. In the same way, artificial sweeteners can leave our brains wanting more, which studies have shown leads to increased appetite, and potential weight gain, in fruit flies, mice, and humans. Even though diet sodas seemed to be a good idea in theory, in practice, it just hasn’t seemed to work out. Susan E. Swithers, a professor of psychological sciences and a behavioral neuroscientist at my alma mater Purdue University, says, “Although it seems like common sense that diet sodas would not be problematic, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Findings from a variety of studies show that routine consumption of diet sodas—even one per day—can be connected to higher likelihood of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and high blood pressure, in addition to contributing to weight gain.” “’Are diet sodas worse for you than regular sugar-sweetened sodas?’ I think that’s the wrong question,” says Swithers. The real question: “What good are [diet] sodas for you in the first place?” And if the reason you're drinking diet soda is to drop a few pounds, maybe stick to water. To getting the facts, Change That Up Need help with "Memory Loss"? It's been medically shown that anyone who does this for more than 21 days risks severe memory loss...  Find all about it here:  [Daily Habit Accelerates Alzheimer's By 73%...](     *We always recommend consulting your family physician before making any major change in your daily routine. This email was sent to {EMAIL} by support@changethatup.com 7339 E Williams Dr. Suite 26375 Scottsdale, AZ 85255 [Edit Profile]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Report Spam](