Many times women come into my office and report drinking a soda quite often during the week. Sometimes it is one soda in the afternoon for a pick-me-up, sometimes it’s several. Either way, soda leads to weight gain…and no, it doesn’t matter if it’s diet.
In 2007, the University of Minnesota published a study in Circulation of which 9,514 participants were evaluated. The researchers found that people who drank just one diet soda everyday had a 34% increased risk of metabolic syndrome. This syndrome includes abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL (good cholesterol) high LDL (bad cholesterol), elevated blood pressure, and insulin resistance.
In the Framingham Heart Study by Boston University, 6,039 participants without metabolic syndrome at the start of the study had a 44% increased risk of developing new onset metabolic syndrome with one or more soda intake per day. Specifically, they had a 31% increase in obesity risk, 30% risk of increasing abdominal waist circumference, 25% increasing risk of developing elevated blood sugar or triglycerides, and a 32% risk of low HDL on blood-work.
Finally, a study presented at the 2005 American Diabetes Association found that for each can of diet soda drank per day, the risk of obesity increases 41%. Does this mean you should switch to regular soda? Absolutely not! Those are filled with huge amounts of sugar. If you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle and maintain a normal weight, please switch from soda to something that is beneficial to your body, such as water!