THE TRUTH ABOUT DIET DRINKS
How often have I heard a conversation like this…
“Diet Coke/diet drinks are so bad for you”. “Really, why’s that?” “They contain those artificial sweeteners, you know, ‘Arspartine’ and ‘Succarhine’ they cause cancer and rot your insides
Oh My Days! Face palm, nope!
Stop right there. This is just another nutrition myth that has spiralled out of control. For starters Coca Cola and PepsiCo wouldn’t be allowed to sell them if this was the case. The scare mongering started in the 70’s and 80’s in the US when they carried out studies on rats (not humans) testing sweeteners like Aspartame. They discovered a link with sweetener intake and higher BMIs. A more recent study then found a greater number of tumours in rats who had consumed aspartame compared to those who hadn’t consumed any. However, the amount of aspartame that the rats were given in the trial was equivalent to a human drinking over 2000 cans of diet drink in just one day, hardly a comparable test is it?
Since then, hundreds of trials (on actual humans) have shown that low calorie/diet drinks significantly aid weight loss and there is no strong evidence to suggest any effects on human health.
This comes back to everything in moderation. If you want a can of Diet Coke, have one. If you want to use sweetener in your tea instead of sugar, do. If you want to switch standard/full sugar drinks such as Coke or fruit juice to a zero sugar/diet option it may also help you lose weight.
Coach Kate