Sunderland Echo

Eight reasons to ditch fizzy drinks

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‘Diet’ drinks like diet-coke, coke zero, and pepsi max can seem like a health-conscious choice because they have less calories than sugary soft drinks.

But, the chemicals and artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks can be just as harmful to your health. ily help you lose weight.

In a recent study, diet drink consumers had a 70% greater increase in waist circumfere­nce compared with non-consumers.

Participan­ts who drank two or more diet fizzy drinks a day experience­d a 500% greater increase.

This is partly down to the way artificial sweeteners confuse your body, and partly down to psychologi­cal reasons.

If you know you’re not consuming any liquid calories, it is easier to convince yourself that having chocolate biscuit instead is OK. in the United States. When you drink diet beverages, you’re not taking in any calories – but you’re also not swallowing anything that does your body any good, either.

The best no-calorie beverage is water.

It’s essential for many of our bodily processes, so replacing it with diet drinks is a negative thing.

A case study published in the journal General Dentistry compared the mouths of a cocaine-user, a methamphet­amine-user, and a habitual diet-drink consumer, and found the same level of tooth erosion in each of them.

The main culprit in drink drinks is citric acid, which weakens and destroys tooth enamel over time. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that fizzy drink consumptio­n (all kinds, not just diet) is associated with low bone-mineral density.

When you consume a diet drink, the brain anticipate­s energy levels will increase when it senses the sweetness but when this does not happen it tells the body to consume more.

And since the diet drinks still contain caffeine, it can lead to hyperactiv­ity, insomnia and decreased sleep quality.

So, next time you are tempted by a ‘diet drink’, have a think about all of the negative effects on your health.

You have to ask yourself, is it really worth it?

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