Bad Decisions

Day 132


I'm convinced that Diet Soda leads to more bad decisions than a few shots of Patròn ever could. 

Ever since I began slowly letting the Diet Coke back into my daily life, I find myself craving things that I did not previously crave. In fact, when I was off the "sauce", I could easily say "no" to unhealthy processed junk and barely give it a second thought. Now that I've picked up my daily Diet Coke habit where I left it in December, I find myself craving all of these things. I know that my experience isn't exactly science. But, it's real.

If you don't want to take my word for it. Below is what the experts have to say...

David Ludwig, MD, PhD,  recently published a commentary in JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) expressing concern about the widespread use of artificial sweeteners in soft drinks. He offers some insight about why we humans naturally crave sweetness and the potential danger of confusing our ancient biological pathways of hunger and satiation with fake sugars.

He asserts that consumption of sugars in their natural forms is generally not harmful. Problems arise when sugars are refined, concentrated and added to the food supply in massive amounts. Sugar-sweetened beverages merit special mention, because sugar in liquid form seems to escape notice by the body’s calorie-detecting apparatus.

Modern science, which gave us refined sugars like high fructose corn syrup, has proposed a novel solution to the obesity epidemic: artificial sweeteners. These compounds stimulate taste receptors at hundreds to thousands of times the potency of natural sugars, producing intense sweetness at trace concentrations. With growing attention to the adverse effects of sugar-sweetened beverages, consumption of artificial-sweetened beverages has increased dramatically. In fact, some industry analysts predict that sales of  “diet” drinks could eventually exceed those of sugar-sweetened beverages.

A recent study found that rodents fed the artificial sweetener saccharin lost the ability to accurately regulate calorie intake and gained weight. Studies have also linked artificially sweetened beverage consumption to higher risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Consider me convinced. I'm getting back on the wagon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers!
Margaret