Is diet soda healthier than regular soda?

Diet soda is better than regular soda; however, you should avoid excess consumption of any type of cola. Learn more from Randy P. Martin, MD, about diet and regular soda.

Transcript

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Well, interestingly, studies have shown that people that consume a lot of diet colas or diet sodas actually gain weight.

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You know, Americans consume a lot of cola drinks or diet drinks or regular soda drinks every year.

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In fact, it's said that many of us consume almost one a day, which sounds like a lot to me, but we do.

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Remember that regular sodas have sugar in them. In fact, they might have as much as nine teaspoons of sugar in it. So it could be 100 to 150 calories in that.

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And high consumption of regular sodas really increases tooth decay, childhood obesity,

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and obesity in general. So diet colas came along, diet sodas came along, that replaced the sugar

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with artificial sweeteners. And while there's been a lot of concern about artificial sweeteners, the key thing is that you don't have all those calories that

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are coming from the sugar-like substances it added. So the obvious question is, what happens

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if you drink a lot of diet colas or diet sodas? Well, interestingly, studies have shown that people that consume a lot of diet colas or diet sodas

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actually gain weight. And why would that be? Well, it might be that they think they're saving calories so they eat too much of the wrong type of food,

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but there's some fascinating research that says, even though you're getting a sweet signal in your brain, you actually don't get

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the sugar in your blood system. And so your body actually craves more of the simple refined carbohydrates,

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and you actually eat more. I think the bottom line with any, whether it's regular or diet, is really minimize your intake of those.

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And you really want to drink healthy beverages. Good old water is great for you. You can have green tea if you want that.

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You can have cranberry juice with water. But try to avoid excessive consumption of any colas

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because they also have a lot of other substances in them. Drink water. It's good for you.