Diet Soda: Pros and Cons.

Blog Post #3

Diet Soda: Pros and Cons.


People who are addicted to diet sodas, they constantly reporting that they are suffering from dizziness, headaches, hair loss, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss after drinking diet sodas. There are no scientific evidences that those symptoms are caused by consuming aspartame but all the claims of health problems are enough evidence to agree that diet soda may be the cause.

The pro of diet soda is that diet sodas supposedly have less sugar than regular sodas or no sugar at all. Despite the cons, as yet, there's no definitive evidence that the ingredients in diet sodas are harmful, provided you don't drink more than 80 cans (yes, 80) a day.

The cons, the side I am on, is that diet soda still has acid that attacks the enamel on your teeth and a recent study released recently found that they cause health problems and increased the risk factors of some diseases for diabetics. The artificial sweeteners in diet soda metabolized as carbs, and can cause long term health problems. Diet soda increases your risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Three big studies have found that people who drink even one diet soda a day have a greater chance of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a precursor to diabetes and heart disease. Also it doesn't truly quenches thirst, loaded with artificial flavorings and colorings, actually is more likely to make you hungrier than say drinking water. Moreover, some of the health issues that have been related to artificial sweeteners in scientific studies as well as observations are:
* some have been linked to potential cancer risks
* negative effects on the liver, kidneys, and other organs
* stimulating cravings
* gastrointestinal problems
* developmental problems in children and fetuses
* headaches

I agree to the cons side because I used to drink diet coke as a way to make me feel full and satisfied while treating myself to good taste. Diet soda companies are saying that diet sodas are 99% water, so I preferred drinking diet sodas than water. During this time, I started to have headaches, sometimes panic attack and became lethargic. After quit drinking diet soda and drinking only water, I felt much better, become active again and my headache or anxiety attacks gradually disappeared.

Blog post #2

I found this site saying “Diet Coke is 99% Water (And That Is Now a Good Thing)” and there were ridiculous comments such as “I’m glad that diet coke is 99% water. It’s just about all I drink, so it’s good to know I’m getting the recommended 8 glasses of water a day by drinking coke.” In this article, the author is saying that when Diet Coke contains 99% of water and the price is the same but taste better, why people would want to drink water. Diet coke and water is not almost same; they are totally different. This article is lack of credibility for five reasons.

First of all, this is not a scholar article. This post is neither from a blog, newspaper nor a scholar site. Secondly, the author’s occupation is not related to science field.

He is a distinguished service professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is an educated and credible man in economics but not in science. Because of this site is based on economics, the post is relevant to economic problems, but the author should have researched why the 1% makes total difference between water and Diet Coke. Thirdly, the post is out of date; it was posted on August 20th, 2007. Almost past four years now. Moreover, there are neither experimental nor epidemiological evidences. None of the evidences of Diet Coke is almost same as water are from controlled, well-designed experiments or clinically proven. Lastly, his belief of Diet Coke is 99% water is an anecdotal fact; it is based on the new print ad that he saw for Diet coke. The company could have said it without pointing out what is the 1% made out of, to just sell more Diet Cokes.


This site is a credible source to prove that Diet Coke and water are different. Everyone drinks water but there are neither side effects nor a study that water is harmful. However, in one study that mentioned in this site, research subjects who consumed more than one daily serving of diet soda had a 36% greater risk of metabolic syndrome: a cluster of risk factors that significantly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. This study also found that people who consume diet soda daily have a 67% higher risk of type 2 diabetes compared with those who didn't consume diet soda, possibly due to artificial sweeteners' effect on insulin resistance and glucose metabolism. This site is credible because the authors of the article are doctors and the article is from a clinically proven book. The date of this article is written was on November, 2010 which is pretty recent. Lastly, the evidences that Diet Coke is harmful are from experimental bases. Therefore, Diet Coke and water is not almost same they are completely different.


Reference

Levitt, S. (2007, August). Diet Coke is 99% Water (And That Is Now a Good Thing)
Retrieved from http://www.freakonomics.com/2007/08/20/diet-coke-is-99-water-and-that-is-now-a-good-thing/

Yantis, M,A. & Hunter, K. (2010, November). CLINICAL QUERIES: Is diet soda a healthy choice?
Retrieved from http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/static.asp?pageid=1119493