Isn’t the real thing always better?  Do you really want to eat imitation cheese?  Or if someone offered you fake cake, would you eat it?  How about a phony bologna sandwich?  You probably wouldn’t want it, now would you?  This is the same concept with diet soda and other drinks.  Now I understand if you have Diabetes and have trouble with glucose that you would choose to consume diet drinks.  However, I feel, as it seems that most people consuming these drinks are following other unhealthy eating patterns or worse yet the actual artificial sweeteners being used are actually hurting you.  Yes, I said it they may be a culprit in turning your fitness and health goals into a debacle.

 

According to studies, scientists last month at The American Diabetes Association’s conference presented two findings that show associations between diet sodas and the unhealthy and between aspartame and mice.  Now, I understand that these are just two studies and are not the end all for you to make your decision.  The information presented should be something to for your brain to at least digest.

 

The first study with humans followed 474 people over 20 years and found that those drinking diet soda had increases in waist circumference 70% more than non-users.  Frequent users were defined as having 2 or more diet drinks a day were found to have increases up to 500% more than non-users.  That number is mind bogglingly high!

 

You can take one of two things from this study.  One, those people were either terribly inactive, had a poor diet or both.  Two, diet soda directly caused waist circumference increases that results in higher risk for diabetes.

 

Whenever research is done with mice, you must say to yourself, “Well, we’re not mice so what does this have to do with me?”  And you may well be correct.  But like I said earlier, it does bear further research and self-evaluation on your part.  The mice that had aspartame added to their food over a three month period had higher resting blood glucose levels (an indicator for diabetes onset).  The researches concluded that there might be a risk in heavy exposure to aspartame.

 

Which brings us full circle.  Why don’t you just drink the real thing?  Well, I don’t condone drinking soft drinks and other liquids over water.  They are full of empty calories.  If you decided to go down that road then moderation is key.  The least processed ingredients are best.

 

Isn’t the real thing always better?

 

Source:
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (2011, June 28). Waistlines in people, glucose levels in mice hint at sweeteners’ effects: Related studies point to the illusion of the artificial. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 27, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm
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Disclaimer:
This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Body By Brent or its staff.
Brent

Brent

President, Personal Training Manager at Body By Brent LLC
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