Are you drinking soda daily? Several studies suggest that you should stop Now!
Soft drinks, with refreshing, sugared flavors, are a popular beverage of choice, especially in countries with warm climates. They may be thirst-quenching but put drinkers at the risk of obesity-related diseases.
Any information released by the acclaimed research institutions deserves attention. A decade-long study conducted by their top-notch researchers reveals telling information about a weight-loss drink you know and love – diet soda.
Studies Prove the Harmfulness of Drinking Soda
The facts that Harvard and other academic institutions have uncovered about diet drinks are alarming and potentially dangerous.
The University of Iowa discovered that drinking more than two diet sodas a day increases a person’s propensity for heart disease or stroke. Their study dwelt on the heart health of 60000 women, and their habits when it came to drinking soda.
The study found that women who consumed two diet drinks daily had a 30% chance of experiencing heart failure. They were 50% more likely than their counterparts to die of heart disease.
The study also found links between cardiovascular disease and Metabolic Syndrome. It includes a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressure, excess body fat and high triglyceride levels.
To sum up the research, drinking soda, and specifically, diet soda, can have consequences that include high blood pressure, weight gain or stroke.
The Harmfulness of Diet Soda Ingredients
If you want to limit your risk of developing heart disease, you may want to kick your diet soda habit to the curb.
Besides its propensity for causing heart problems, drinking soda may prompt kidney failure as well. A 2009 study of 3000 women found that diet soda has links with renal impairment. Two or more of these drinks a day led to as much as a 30% decline in kidney functions.
Diet drinks lead to an increased risk of Metabolic Syndrome. The term refers to a set of factors that may trigger heart diseases, such as diabetes or stroke. The University of Minnesota revealed in a 2008 study that diet soda increased the likelihood of developing this syndrome by 34%.
Diet soda can alter your mood. Chemicals such as Aspartame can promote neurotoxicity. The American Academy of Neurology discovered that artificially sweetened drinks raised the likelihood of depression by 34%.
8 Ways Your Well-Being Will Improve When You Stop Drinking Diet Soda
Clearly, giving up diet soda is one of the best things you can do for your body. Aside from preventing heart disease and other obesity-related conditions, eliminating the habit of drinking soda will benefit you in other ways.
1. Your Focus Sharpens
Your will find your clarity of thought improving when you stop drinking soda. Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used to flavor diet drinks, alters chemicals in the brain, leading to headaches, anxiety, insomnia, and stress. The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (EJCN) indicated that rats which drank diet soda had cerebellum with damaged nerve endings.
2. Your Tastebuds Will Become More Sensitive
You will find food a bit tastier when you avoid diet soda. Aspartame, which is 200 sweeter than raw sugar, can overwhelm your taste buds. Brain scans reveal that diet soda alters the sweet receptors in the brain, prolonging cravings for sweets instead of satisfying them.
Heather Bainbridge, from the University of Columbia Medical Center Weight Control Division, reported that patients who give up diet drinks cannot tolerate their sweetness after taking them again.
3. You Lose Weight
Diet soda is apparently a weight loss aid, but it causes you to pack on the pounds. Researchers who conducted a 9-year-study found that individuals who drank diet soda tended to put on more abdominal fat than those who did not.
4. Your Bones Become Stronger
Putting away diet drinks may be a way to increase the strength of your bones. A study performed in 2014 found that diet soda increased the risk of hip fractures by 14%.
5. You Will have a Healthy Attitude Towards Food
Those who drink diet soda have a tendency to indulge elsewhere. Researchers find that those who take diet drinks make poor food choices because they believe that they can accommodate the extra calories. Eliminating the soft drink may help them do away with the junk food habit.
6. Your Tolerance for Alcohol Will Improve
Diet soda, according to experts, gets you drunk faster than regular soda. When consumed together with alcohol, it causes your stomach to empty quickly and triggers an increase in blood alcohol concentration, according to the American Journal of Medicine. Another study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found that people who mixed alcohol and diet drinks became intoxicated faster than those who did not.
7. You Decrease Your Risk of Obesity-Related Diseases
A study in Diabetes Care found that drinking diet soda caused the pancreas to release insulin, the fat storing hormone. A study in Japan revealed that Japanese men who drank 1 or more diet sodas daily were likely to develop Type 2 diabetes.
4 Alternatives to Diet Soda
Many drinks that can replace of artificially sweetened ones. They will keep you hydrated and feel that you are drinking soda.
1. Hint Unsweetened Essence Water
This naturally flavored water does not contain sweeteners or carbohydrates. A wide variety of flavors will spoil you for choice. Try the cucumber or honeydew-hibiscus flavors. Adding a slice of cucumber to the drink makes it taste much better.
2. Hint Fizz Unsweetened Watermelon
A sparkling drink, Hint Fizz Unsweetened Watermelon will satisfy you if you crave a carbonated drink. However, it does not come with any of the dangers and will cool you on a hot day. There are many other flavors than watermelon.
3. Zavia Cola
This drink will please your senses if you are a Diet Coke addict. Zavia uses stevia, an alternative to artificial sweeteners. It resembles diet cola but has zero calories. There are no carbohydrates at all.
4. Kombucha
Turn to this drink if you need a weight loss aid. It acts as an appetite suppressant and increases your energy. You will enjoy its bubbliness if you crave the fizziness of diet soda.
Diet soda will not do you good, so do not fret if you have to give it a miss. There are natural options that will satisfy your thirst and your sweet tooth.
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