Do you or someone you know drink diet soda instead of regular full sugar soda? Diet soda is soda that mimics the taste of regular soda without the sugar. They use artificial sweeteners to achieve the same “sweet” taste (with a terrible after taste, in my opinion). Most “diet” items use aspartame in place of sugar.

Almost immediately upon consuming aspartame, it breaks down into three chemical compounds: phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. The first two are amino acids, phenylalanine can be toxic in high doses due to it binding to other compounds and immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. Methanol is know as “wood alcohol” and toxic in large does as well.

These amino acids can cross the blood brain barrier and it may cause conflict with various neuronal processes. Just one diet soda raises the level of phenylalanine in the brain, causing serotonin levels to decrease. In at least one study, phenylalanine concentrations were higher in people with HIV, sepsis, cancer and those undergoing trauma.

Issues with Diet Soda

Many studies have linked consuming diet soda to weight gain, kidney problems, increased risk of diabetes, heart problems and increased risk of depression.

Stroke and Alzheimers: In a study in 2017 that had 2,888 people over the age 45, indicated a link between tripling a person’s risk of stroke and Alzheimer’s by consuming just one diet soda per day. In a 2014 study of 2,037 male Japanese factory workers found that men who drank diet soda were more likely to develop diabetes than those who did not. The correlation held even after adjusting for family history, age, BMI, and lifestyle factors.

Heart Failure: According to research from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, men who drank two or more servings of Diet Coke had a 23% higher risk of developing heart failure. 42,400 men were tracked over 12 years and 3,604 cases of a positive association between sweetened beverage consumption and risk of heart failure.

Kidney problems: A study done back in 2009 of over 3,000 women found a link between diet soda and kidney problems. Women who drank two or more diet sodas a day had as much as a 30% decrease in kidney function.

Diabetes and metabolic syndrome: In 2008, University of Minnesota found that one soda drink a day led to a 34% increased risk of metabolic syndrome and 67% risk of type 2 diabetes.

Increased weight gain: Compared to those who do not consume soda, drinking diet soda increases your waist circumference by 70%. If you consume 2 or more a day, you increase your waistline by 500%!! This is due to the diet sweeteners ability to trick the body and disrupt its ability to regulate calorie intake! Artificial sweeteners trigger insulting, which sends your body into fat storage mode.

Depression: Those who drink four or more cans of sweetened drinks (whether soda, diet soda or fruit punch) had a significantly higher chance of being diagnosed with clinical depression that those who don’t. For sodas as a whole, there is a 30% greater chance of depression, but diet sodas have 22% extra increase as compared to regular ones. 

Chiropractic

Chiropractic is whole body wellness. When the central nervous system is functioning at higher levels (due to the chiropractic adjustment) your body can handle the stresses (pollution, stress, bacteria, viruses, toxins, poor choices, sugar and many more) of life better. Good nutrition helps nourish your body to protect and support the processes in which the body functions.

Instead of reaching for a diet drink (or even a sugary drink) go for water! Once you start drinking more water, your body will crave it! What you put into your body now matters later. Everything has a reaction, either a good/healthy reaction or one that can cause problems later on in life. Give us or a chiropractor near you a call to start living a healthier life.

~Dr. Lacey~
Carder Chiropractic Clinic, INC.
El Reno, OK 73036