It is rare to find anyone in the health community saying
something nice about soda. Even diet soda has a bad reputation with the health-conscious.
But given the massive amount of soda consumed every year, doesn't it make sense
to encourage people to drink diet soda?
Soda is a big business, $75 billion big. The average
person in the U.S. drinks more than 700 servings of sodas in a year. About half of us drink it every day. That’s a
lot of soda.
Sugary soft drinks are associated with type II diabetes,
metabolic syndrome, liver disease, cardiovascular disease and insulin
resistance. There is nothing good to be said about that. The artificial
sweeteners first used to produce diet sodas were problematic, too. They were
associated with all sorts of health problems in lab rats, and possibly even
people. Now, safer alternatives make diet or zero-calorie sodas safe, if not
delicious.
Does it make sense to shift from sugary sodas to
zero-calorie sodas? A recent research study out of the Harvard Medical School
followed teenagers for a year. One group drank sugar-sweetened soda and the
other group drank zero-calorie soda. That was the only intentional difference
between the groups. After a year, their weights were compared. The zero-calorie
soda group had gained about four pounds less than the sugar-sweetened group.
Four pounds. This was attributed exclusively to drinking diet soda.

So it seems that drinking zero-calorie soda has multiple
benefits. For one, it eliminates a prime source of “empty” calories. And since
sodas can represent up to a third of our sugar consumption, this is a material
change for the better. Second, drinking zero-calorie sodas seems to avoid
triggering increased hunger like sugar-sweetened soda does.
Thirsty? It’s best to drink water. Thirsty after
exercise? Drink low-fat chocolate milk. Crave a soda? Drink a sugar-free
version. You will be glad that you did.
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