diet soda

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Why you need a diet drink detox — stat!

By Mandy Oaklander, Prevention

Pop quiz! What’s the single biggest source of calories for Americans? White bread? Big Macs? Actually, try soda. The average American drinks about two cans of the stuff every day. "But I drink diet soda," you say. "With no calories or sugar, it’s the perfect alternative for weight watchers . . . Right?"

Not so fast. Before you pop the top off the caramel-colored bubbly, know this: guzzling diet soda comes with its own set of side effects that may harm your health — from kick-starting kidney problems to adding inches to your waistline.

Unfortunately, diet soda is more in vogue than ever. Kids consume the stuff at more than double the rate of last decade, according to research in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Among adults, consumption has grown almost 25 percent.

But knowing these seven side effects of drinking diet soda may help you kick the can for good.

Can Diet Soda Make You Fat?

Kidney Problems

Here’s something you didn’t know about your diet soda: it might be bad for your kidneys. In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a twofold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: since kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers suspect that the diet sweeteners are responsible.

See how diet soda can actually cause weight gain after the break!

The waitress swings by your table and you casually order a Diet Coke. This zero-calorie beverage seems like a great way to have your soda and lose weight too, but aside from sabotaging your weight loss goals, innocently sipping a diet soda can put you at risk for a whole slew of health issues. Keep reading to find out why you may want to skip the diet soda, or at least cut down on your habit.

• Studies show that drinking diet soda may increase your risk of heart attack and stroke by 44 percent.
• The artificial sweeteners, though calorie-free, make our body crave sugary calories, so drinking diet soda can actually lead to weight gain.
• Although diet plays a major role, a diet soda habit may also be linked to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• Caffeine consumption can make you jittery, worsen IBS symptoms, increase blood pressure, cause sleep issues, and lead to osteoporosis.
• Artificial sweeteners are just that — artificial. Although the FDA deems them safe in moderate consumption, artificial sweeteners like aspartame can cause headaches and migraines, and long-term use of acesulfame K can cause nausea and possibly cancer.
• Aside from diet soda offering no nutritional value whatsoever, the caffeine can also lead to dehydration. You're better off choosing zero-calorie tea, seltzer, or water to stay hydrated.

Source: Flickr user Like_the_Grand_Canyon

Last week's controversial report linking soda consumption to cancer is more evidence indicating that the popular fizzy drink may not be the best choice for a healthy lifestyle. Even if you go the healthier route by choosing sugar-free diet soda, you're still not off the hook. Here are reasons to kick (or at least cut back) your daily diet-soda habit.

1. Weight gain: While researchers have yet to agree on the exact reason, studies show a link between diet soda consumption and weight gain. Study results indicate it's one of two reasons: most diet-soda drinkers already follow poor lifestyle habits that lead to excess weight gain, or artificial sweeteners confuse the body, causing it to crave the one thing it was deprived of — real sugar. Based on these recent studies, it's safe to say that diet soda alone is not going to make you fat, but it may be smart to limit your intake and view it as a vice, rather than a healthier alternative.
2. Risk of disease: Recent studies show that a diet-soda habit can increase your risk of stroke, osteoporosis, and type two diabetes. Early studies show diet-soda drinkers are 61 percent more likely to have a stroke, have four percent lower bone mineral density, and are more at risk for developing type two diabetes.
3. Damaging to the body: If you're a fan of your kidneys or teeth, now might be the time to curb your diet-soda habit. In a study, women who drank two or more diet sodas per day had decreased kidney function by about 30 percent. On top of that, the phosphoric acid in soda, dissolves the calcium in tooth enamel, weakening it.

If quitting this daily habit seems impossible to you, follow this 28-day plan to stop drinking diet soda for good.

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to nutritional consultant Mike Roussell, PhD, for some help!

Q: I'm a Diet Coke junkie. Despite having 0 calories, could this habit be sabotaging my weight-loss efforts?

A: In a word: no. While drinking diet soda every day isn't exactly good for your health, the chances of it sabotaging your weight-loss efforts are slim. The common misconception regarding the role of diet soda and weight gain comes from a couple of studies that received a lot of media attention. One such study looked at more 6,500 participants and found that diet soda drinkers were 67 percent more likely to have diabetes and 37 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome (a combo of symptoms that is basically where pre-diabetes meets heart disease). What's more, data from the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running heart disease study in the US, found a 56-percent increase in metabolic syndrome when people drank one or more diet sodas per day!

Find out how diet soda affects weight gain after the break!

Study after study has told us to watch out for those empty, sugary calories in sweetened drinks like soda, but two new studies remind us about the dangers of diet soda — they too can lead to weight gain and may raise your risk for developing diabetes.

The studies were presented at a diabetes conference this weekend, and together they show that drinking diet soda may just be another thing in our diets that is making us fat. One study followed 474 older-age diet-soda drinkers and found that their waistlines grew 70 percent more than non-diet-soda drinkers, even when the researchers accounted for differences in age, physical activity level, and diabetes status.

The news gets worse; read on for how bad a two-diets-a-day habit is for your waistline.

For those of us trying to watch what we eat or decrease our sugar intake, bad news on the diet soda front: a new study says that drinking the diet-friendly beverage may increase the risk of stroke by 61 percent. This study takes on even more meaning after hearing the news that more stokes are hitting young and middle-aged individuals.

The study, based on 2,564 people living in New York City with an average age of 69, found that people who regularly drank diet soda were more likely to have a "vascular event" compared to individuals who don't drink the carbonated beverage. Even when researchers took into account other factors like metabolic syndrome, heart disease history, and peripheral vascular disease, the risk of stroke was still 48 percent higher amongst diet soda drinkers. Hannah Gardener, an epidemiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and lead researcher on the project, says that these findings are still in the very early stages. And while they are able to show that diet soda does increase the risk of stroke, they still don't know why that is.

This is just another reason to skip out on that Coke Zero; past studies indicate that diet soda is bad for the kidneys, bone density, and may be the source of chronic headaches. If you can't put down that can quite yet, try this 28-day plan to give it up for good.

When it comes to medical opinions, it's sometimes wise to get a second one, which is what I am asking of you, oh wise FitSugar readers. A fan of Dr. Oz, I watched his show the other day where he mapped out a 28-day plan to rid one of his audience members of her 12-sodas-a-day drinking habit. A cola junkie, she seemed excited about their plan to walk away from the bubbly drinks, but I'm just not sure I'm buying his month-long program.

Curious to see what it is?

FitSugar reader colbie needs some help with our Give It Up Challenge.

Every afternoon I reach for a diet soda as an afternoon pick me up! I am sure all of that aspartame can't be any good for me, so it time to say good bye to diet soda. I am sure it won't be that hard to replace it with black coffee or afternoon tea! Any other suggestions?

Don't just offer advice, join the challenge. It's a chance to turn over a new leaf as the seasons change. Give up a vice or a bad habit for two weeks and see how your life improves. Tell us what you're giving up in the Get Fit For 2010 community group.