Reasons to avoid diet soda

The idea that diet soda is "healthy" seems to be more a function of good marketing since the 1960s than any scientific research.  The same could be said of sugar substitutes in general, but those who drink diet soda regularly probably consume far more soda than other food with the same amount of sugar substitutes.  The negative impact of drinking 1+ diet sodas per day in the U.S. is not new information.  However, the long term impact from an epidemiological standpoint is probably more obvious in 2018 than it was fifty years ago when diet drinks were still relatively new.  Coca-Cola and Pepsi were selling diet sodas by 1963.

A search on "reasons not to drink diet soda" will bring up lots of articles.  Here are a few to think about.

10 Reasons to Give Up Diet Soda - 2013

11 Reasons You Should Never Drink Diet Soda, Like Ever - 2017

Diet Soda: Good or Bad?

includes links to references - 2018

Looking for clinical trials related to diet soda can get pretty complicated.  Here's an example.  This 2015 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared diet soda to water over a 24-week period.  It's a small study considering obese women with about 30 subjects in each group.  The soda group drank 1 soda at lunch 5 days a week.  The results was that the group drinking water at lunch lost more weight and the difference was statistically significant.  The level of insulin resistance was also measured and the water group did better.

Effects on weight loss in adults of replacing diet beverages with water during a hypoenergetic diet: a randomized, 24-wk clinical trial

It's clear that a diet soda causes just as much of an insulin spike as a regular soda.  Higher insulin levels means less chance the body switches over to burn stored fat.  That can be a key reason people who drink diet soda all day long have big waistlines and trouble staying at a healthy weight, no matter how much they restrict calorie intake and/or exercise.

The development of diabetes, kidney failure, heart failure, or osteoporosis takes years and there are many risk factors.  The research in the last 10-20 years generally supports the idea that finding an alternative to diet soda that does not include sugar substitutes is worthwhile for people interested in long term health.

When I was growing up, my family never drank soda of any kind.  Now that I am over sixty, I am rather glad I do not like soda or the taste of any sugar substitute in any type of drinks.