Diet Soda and Metabolic Syndrome

A 2008 at the University of Minnesota tracked over 9,000 people and their health for nine years. The investigators discovered that those who drank one can of diet soda a day were 34% more likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those who didn't. Fifty-nine percent of Americans drink diet soda.

Science suggests that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas and other foods may actually trick the brain into thinking it’s time to eat more. A 2008 study at Purdue University noted that rats who consumed artificial sweeteners consumer more calories later, and gained more weight. Rats in the study that were fed yogurt sweetened with no-calorie saccharin took in more total calories and gained more weight than rats fed yogurt sweetened with sugar. Scientists speculate that over time, reduced-calorie sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose condition the body to no longer associate sweetness with calories, thereby disrupting its ability to accurately assess caloric intake. This disruption, in turn, leads to overeating. The study concluded that artificial sweeteners actually changes brain chemistry as well as metabolism. The number of Americans who consume soda, yogurt and other products containing sugar-free sweeteners more than doubled from 70 million in 1987 to 160 million in 2000. Over the same period, the incidence of obesity among U.S. adults rose to from 15 to 30%.

Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) in Diet Soda

Aspartame, the sweetener in NutraSweet, Equal, and many other processed foods, is another excitotoxin that has been associated with neurodegeneration. Excitotoxins and other problems, such as food allergies, can be a source of neuroinflammation that can trigger mental health problems, including depression.

This artificial sweetener is in Equal and NutraSweet, along with products that contain them, such as diet sodas and other low-calorie and diet foods.

Evidence implicating aspartame includes early animal studies revealing an exceedingly high incidence of brain tumors in aspartame-fed rats compared to no brain tumors in concurrent controls and a recent finding that the aspartame molecule has mutagenic potential, meaning it is capable of causing mutations.

Sugary Beverages and Alzheimer’s

Just in case we need another reason to give up soda; here it is. Excess drinking of sugary beverages like soda appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers at University of Alabama at Birmingham gave mice sugary water over a 25 week period in addition to their regular, balanced diet. Before and afterwards, they compared metabolism, memory skills, and brain composition.

The sugar-fed mice gained about 17% more weight than controls, had higher cholesterol levels, and developed insulin resistance. These mice also had worse learning and memory retention, and their brains contained over twice as many amyloid plaque deposits, an anatomical hallmark of AD.

The researchers concluded that roughly 5 cans of soda per day in humans would be enough to create the same effect.

References
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