Diet Soda may seem like a good solution for your sugar craving and diet but it is not. It looks like the perfect drink with no calories and only flavored with soda. But in reality it is not a perfect drink. It is packed with chemicals and artificial sweeteners. So drinking it on regular basis leads to weight gain. Although there are many factors responsible for stimulating weight gain, artificial sweeteners and sugar craving are the most significant among others. So first have some idea about artificial sweeteners which are quite popular due to their lower count of calories.
Artificial Sweeteners and Craving for Sugar
Artificial Sweeteners are widely used as sugar substitute. Soft drinks in general contains eight teaspoon of sugar where as one teaspoon of sugar itself contains 16 calories leading to approximately 128 calories in normal soft drinks. So artificial sweeteners can be used as a substitute for sugar. The use of these sweeteners reduces the amount to calories in drinks to almost zero but they may still be considered as culprit for increasing weight. As it stimulates craving for sugar, which pushes your taste buds to expect more of glucose.
These diet drinks which are laden with sweet artificial sweeteners disturb the metabolism of body by increasing the insulin level in the anticipation of more sugar to come which makes the body from fat-burning to a fat-storing state. So consuming beverages which are super sweet even with no calories may lead to a high preference for sweetness. Hence, the consumer make unhealthy food choices throughout the day resulting in weight gain.
Digestive system; Good and Bad Bacteria
There are loads of bacteria in our digestive tract. Some are helpful and support good health called as probiotics (meaning ‘for life’) whereas others are harmful to health often require the need for antibiotics (meaning ‘against life’). Probiotics support digestion and repopulate intestinal bacteria. These are plant-fiber compounds which pass the undigested through the upper portion of the gastrointestinal tract and stimulate the growth of good bacteria. Combination of pre- and probiotics are termed as intestinal power couple.
Many researches have confirmed the beneficial aspects of probiotics leading to good health. The probiotics play an important role in helping numerous bodily functions like
- Preventing bad bacteria and allergies.
- Producing many vitamins
- Absorbing minerals and eliminating several toxins.
- Absorbing and digesting certain carbohydrates
Bad Bacteria; Yeast and Weight Gain
Yeast overgrowth is a complex matter because it affects health in several ways. Yeast truly eats sugar so that they can reproduce and make more yeast. It gives a response to the body making more insulin and disturbing complete metabolism. Eating a lot of processed foods and drinking soft drinks can promote yeast growth in the body. There are many famous preservatives which are antibiotics and they kill good bacteria. And when you ingest these, they not only stop acting as preservatives but start killing good bacteria from the digestive system. In addition to stimulating weight gain and insulin resistance, artificial sweeteners can prove addictive also.
Conclusion
Many studies have suggested that promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners as healthy alternatives is wrong as they may be free of calories, but not of bad consequences.
References
http://www.livestrong.com/article/393355-does-diet-soda-cause-belly-fat/
http://www.rd.com/health/diet-weight-loss/is-diet-soda-making-you-fat/
http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20859953,00.html
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