Is diet coke healthy?

Short answer? No. Long answer? Diet coke is not a part of our diet as it does not have any nutritional value. It is not a part of a balanced diet that a person requires to live a healthy life. Diet coke is very popular among people who are on their fat loss journey because it claims that it is sugar free and has no calories. But people are unaware of the health hazards of consuming diet coke.

 

Diet soda is essentially a mixture of carbonated water, artificial or natural sweetener, colors, flavors, and other food additives. It was first introduced for people with diabetes and later it was marketed for people who are trying to lose weight. You might have recently heard about WHO claiming that artificial sweeteners are not good for our health. Many studies prove that. The word “diet” used in products is a marketing gimmick and not actually what should be included as a part of our diet.

 

Do you know how diet coke is different from regular coke? Regular coke uses refined sugar as sweetener while diet coke uses artificial sweeteners like asparatame. Artificial sweeteners has no calories but that does not mean that it is good for our body.

Health effects of Diet Coke-

1. Metabolic syndrome and obesity are some of the health hazard of consuming this drink.
2. Increases appetite- It stimulates hunger hormones. It is also known to give a dopamine kick to our brain which is a motivating hormone. So. everytime you drink coke it results in giving you that kick which makes you go for it again.
3. It might cause weight gain- Contrary to popular belief, it can make you gain weight when consumed regularly by replacing it with nutritionally rich foods.
4. It creates an imbalance in the gut microbiome- Our gut hosts millions of microorganisms performing the task of digestion, absorption and much more. Artificial sweeteners are known to wreak havoc on gut microbiome because our body cannot identify these sweeteners to digest easily.
5. Increased risk of chronic kidney disease- Diet coke contain high phosphorus content which can increase acid load on the kidneys