Sickly Sweet: the downside of sugar-free soft drinks

By cmsadmin | Thursday, 08 October 2020

Since the early 1970’s the rise in popularity of sugar free drinks has led to the drinks market being drenched in a multitude of drinks from Coco Cola to citrus drinks to the huge market in sugar free energy drinks. This market is worth tens of millions of dollars and companies are getting very rich from your sweet indulgence; you can have that sweet hit but without the calories so isn’t it a win for the companies and consumer. However, I think the consumer is still putting his own wellbeing at risk and here’s why.

Weight Gain

In 2020 the “Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine’ published a paper that suggested that artificial sweeteners did not activate the reward pathway in the way that natural sweeteners did. The net result is that the body gets the sweet hit but none of the satisfaction of the calories. This leads you to having an increased appetite. That appetite increase happens despite the fact that you may already have had enough of your daily calorie load. Also, the intensity of the sweeteners only serves to increase our craving for sweetness even more.

Metabolic Syndrome (MS)

According to a 2009 journal “Diabetes Care” diet soda drinkers have a 36% greater risk of developing MS and a 67% increase of developing Type II Diabetes than those that don’t drink these products.

MS exists when you have one or more of the risk factors.
(* these are measurement requested by your Doctor)

Excess stomach fat (enlarged waist size)
High triglycerides *
High Blood pressure
High fasting blood sugar*
Low High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) *

Teeth and Bone Problems

Most carbonated drinks contain phosphoric acid and it is this chemical that carbonates your drink. It gives it the fizz! This makes the drink acidic and will attack the enamel of the teeth leading to erosion and subsequently tooth decay.

This acid also causes the body to excrete calcium. Sensing the drop in calcium levels the body releases calcium from the skeleton. Overtime this will weaken the structure of the bones and therefore increase the risk of fracture.

Always read the labels of these drinks and avoid this chemical; it is not your friend.

A sugar free drink sounds like a great healthy option but despite their advertising and claims that they are good for you because they don’t have sugar then perhaps you should consider what they do have as a substitute and what those substitutes do to you.