What Happens to Your Body After Drinking Diet Soda

The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners

Though artificial sweeteners are generally considered safe, a recent study found that they can contribute to type 2 diabetes and obesity. The artificial sweeteners in question include sucralose (brand name Splenda), aspartame (Nutrasweet), and saccharin (Sweet’N Low).

Because our bodies are not designed to metabolize these chemicals, they may trigger our brain’s reward center while increasing appetite. In one study, rats fed artificially sweetened liquids ate more high-calorie food than rats fed regular liquids. We should be careful when we replace sugar with something else — we may end up eating more calories in an attempt to satisfy cravings for sweets or savory flavors.

When you consume a diet soda, your body is tricked into thinking it’s about to receive calories. But when those calories don’t arrive, it causes your body to release hormones like cortisol and insulin — the stress hormone and sugar-regulating hormone, respectively.

Meanwhile, artificial sweeteners have been linked with increased rates of depression and cancer in men. And since artificial sweeteners are sweeter than regular sugar, they may lead you to consume more sweets later on.

Many diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners and those that don’t often use artificial sweeteners in their diet varieties. Artificial sweeteners are calorie-free but they’re not exactly healthy. Research has shown that they may actually contribute to weight gain and diabetes.

They do so by interfering with your body’s natural ability to regulate blood sugar levels through a process called insulin release, which is triggered by sugars of all types — even artificial ones! By inhibiting insulin release, your body never gets a chance to process sugars in their natural way; they stay high in your bloodstream instead of being processed as energy.

What are the side effects?

Although diet soda may help you cut calories, researchers have discovered some side effects that can come along with drinking diet sodas. The carbonation in soda can damage tooth enamel, which could lead to cavities or tooth decay.

While diet sodas have no calories or sugar, they still provide you with a significant amount of caffeine and chemicals. These chemicals could create other health problems like heartburn and headaches. While it’s not proven yet, drinking excessive amounts of diet soda could also be associated with fatigue and muscle pain.

While these side effects don’t seem like much compared to being overweight, it’s important that you understand what happens when you drink too much of your favorite drink.

When you drink diet soda, there are some side effects that might occur, and they include headaches, nausea, and fatigue. Aspartame is a chemical found in many artificial sweeteners such as Equal and NutraSweet.

Side effects are common with a diet soda addiction. These include headaches, anxiety, stress, mood swings, and depression. You may also start getting severe stomach pains or develop chronic fatigue. Additionally, your body will become dependent on artificial sweeteners and it can take up to three weeks for your taste buds to readjust after quitting diet soda.

It is important that you eliminate all traces of soda from your life because it can cause extremely serious side effects like strokes and heart attacks in some people. The next time you feel like reaching for a diet soda as a quick energy fix, think about what happens when drinking diet soda over time…and then don’t drink it!

The Sugar in Sugary Drinks

While diet soda is often marketed as a good alternative to sugary drinks, it can be just as bad. Just one can of soda contains more than 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories — and that’s before you even factor in added ingredients like lemon juice or sweeteners. Sugary drinks are particularly dangerous because they trick your body into craving more sugar.

And because most of us don’t drink just one soda at a time, those extra calories can add up fast — especially if you’re not paying attention to what you’re drinking (or eating). Plus, research has linked sugary beverages with a slew of health problems from obesity and type 2 diabetes to heart disease and cancer.

The average American ingests 170 pounds of sugar every year, according to some estimates. This is in part due to our overconsumption of sugary beverages.

In a 2012 study published in PLOS Medicine, a trio of U.K. researchers found that people who consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages were at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems than those who consumed less soda and other sugary drinks.

Sugary drinks are diet-busters in a can. Most sweetened drinks come with high doses of sugar, but diet soda is even worse: Studies show that consuming too much aspartame — the artificial sweetener in most diet sodas — can cause headaches, anxiety, and upset stomachs, among other symptoms.

To keep your sugar levels and metabolism stable while boosting hydration levels at once, try water with sliced cucumbers or strawberries; a quarter cup of berries contains fewer than 20 calories and provides plenty of fiber to help fill you up. (See what happens when women stop drinking soda.)

The Truth About Fructose

No, diet soda isn’t always better for you than regular soda. Studies have shown that drinking diet soda, which is sweetened with artificial sweeteners and contains no sugar or calories, can actually lead to weight gain over time.

In a 12-year study of more than 68,000 women who were tracked as part of a long-term health study, researchers found that those who drank one or more servings of diet drinks each day had twice as much belly fat as those who consumed none.

Also — and here’s what really hurts — the belly fat increase was due specifically to fructose in sugary beverages (regular soda and other sugary drinks) rather than any other source of sugar.

Fructose occurs naturally in many fruits and vegetables, but it’s also found in products like high-fructose corn syrup. Often referred to as just fruit sugar, fructose is a major component of sugar substitutes — both natural and artificial — and it can be dangerous for your health if consumed in excess.

In fact, most diet sodas are sweetened with pure fructose or high-fructose corn syrup. What does that mean for your body?

If you’re a soda drinker, you may have been fooled into thinking that diet sodas are a much healthier alternative. The truth is that diet soda is linked to several negative health effects and can be just as bad for your body as regular soda.

To really understand what happens when you drink diet soda, it’s important to know what makes up these drinks in general. Like regular sodas, most diet sodas contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), artificial sweeteners and flavors, phosphoric acid, and caffeine (usually in large amounts).

Unlike regular soda though, they also tend to contain artificial colors such as yellow #5 or red #40 which could be potentially harmful if ingested regularly over an extended period of time.

More Reasons Not to Drink Diet Soda

If you’re trying to lose weight, there are a few reasons why you should be wary of diet soda — not just for its high sugar content. A study from Purdue University suggests that drinking diet soda may actually lead people who aren’t on a diet, or even watching their weight, to overeat.

Researchers discovered that when women drink aspartame — which is found in artificial sweeteners like Equal and NutraSweet — it causes them to crave carbohydrates and not register feeling full. To achieve effective weight loss, stop drinking all kinds of artificially sweetened drinks and opt for clean water instead. It’s free, pure, calorie-free, and delicious!

Beyond what we’ve already discussed, there are two main reasons not to drink diet soda. First, it doesn’t do anything to help you lose weight; in fact, many studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can actually make you gain weight!

The second reason is that while artificial sweeteners may help suppress your appetite (or at least trick your body into thinking it has), they also leave a bad taste in your mouth.

New research shows that diet soda is linked to cardiovascular disease, stroke, and early death. People who drank two or more diet sodas per day were 48 percent more likely to have a vascular event (including heart attack, stroke, and other problems) than those who did not drink diet soda, according to research from Yale University.

And people who said they consumed three or more diet sodas daily were nearly three times as likely as non-consumers of artificially sweetened beverages to have had a stroke or a heart attack. Researchers found that even one can of diet soda be associated with long-term health risks:

Those who consumed one artificially sweetened beverage each day had a 30 percent higher risk of having or dying from heart disease than people who did not consume them.

Will cutting out soda help you lose weight?

If you’re drinking a can of soda every day, you could easily be consuming hundreds of empty calories per week. If you’re looking to lose weight and cut down on your calorie intake, cutting soda from your diet is an easy way to go about it.

To lose weight safely but quickly, reduce or eliminate sodas from your diet. Instead of drinking regular soda, try fizzy water with a splash of lemon and lime; mix up a fruit smoothie with low-fat yogurt, or add fresh juice and sparkling water for flavor with zero added sugar.

You know that pop is loaded with sugar — and liquid calories tend to add up quickly. But it’s unlikely you’re downing just one per day, so what’s all that extra sweet stuff doing to your body? Let’s take a look at what happens when you cut out soda for good…

Just because a drink doesn’t have calories or sugar, doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Some diet drinks, like diet soda and zero-calorie juices, can cause you to gain weight by messing with your metabolism and tricking your brain into thinking you’re hungry.

While there are some non-caloric sweeteners that are harmless, avoid aspartame (NutraSweet), saccharin (Sweet ‘n Low), sucralose (Splenda), and acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One). These chemicals have been linked to metabolic disorders and cancers in lab animals, according to FDA research.

Why does drinking a diet soda leave you wanting more?

The carbs from a regular soda spike your blood sugar, which leads to a boost in insulin production. Insulin then tells your body it’s time to store energy, and any leftover calories after that will be packed away as fat for future use.

Over time, excess insulin can lead to insulin resistance, which is linked with increased risks of heart disease and diabetes.

When you drink diet soda instead of regular soda, you don’t get those same spikes and drops in blood sugar — and when you don’t experience these blood-sugar fluctuations over time, your cells become less responsive to insulin; i.e., you become insulin resistant.

Why do diet sodas always leave you craving a full-sugar version? Blame it on your brain. Studies show that artificial sweeteners, like those found in diet soda, can alter people’s appetites and make them more likely to overeat — even when they’re not hungry.

When you drink diet soda, your body is tricked into thinking it’s consuming calories. Your brain responds by releasing dopamine and boosting your appetite, which often results in over-eating or binging on high-calorie foods after drinking a diet soda.

The chemical reactions caused by drinking diet soda leave you feeling hungry, unsatisfied, and craving more sugar and food. To keep your weight under control while cutting back on sugar, drink sparkling water with fresh fruit juice instead of sweetened sodas like Coke or Pepsi.