Why Choosing Diet Pop is NOT Better for Your Health

With so many diet drinks and calorie-free beverages available, you may believe that these products might offer a healthier and more guilt-free alternative to regular beverages.

The truth is, diet drinks aren't the dietary blessing they once seemed to be, and may in fact be linked to cardiovascular disease in women. Simply put, choosing diet drinks over regular beverages is not better for your health and can actually be bad for your heart long-term.

A Startling Link Between Diet Soda and Heart Disease (what pop companies don't want you to know)

One shocking article published in The Huffington Post in late March 2014 looked at a sample of 60,000 post-menopausal women with an average age of 62.8 years.

To quote from the article:

"Women who consumed two or more diet drinks daily were not only 30% more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes, they were 50% more likely to die from some sort of cardiovascular disease, when compared with women who never or rarely drank diet drinks."

These results align with findings from earlier studies. What makes this all the more startling is the fact that, according to a 2009 - 2010 survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), almost one-fifth of all Americans drink diet sodas. In fact, half of these habitual soda drinkers are taking in two cups or more, every single day!

A Word of Warning for Older Women

Although there isn't nearly enough established research for us to completely discard the notion of ever drinking a Diet Coke again, there are other studies linking frequent soft drink consumption with reduced bone density – this applies to both diet and regular sodas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkswo0U7G7Q

Older women seem to be at particular risk from the potentially harmful effects of drinking highly acidic diet sodas. Those who already suffer from diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease would almost certainly be wise to steer clear of soda until further research has been completed.

At the very least, these findings should serve to illustrate the point that just because a drink or food is labelled as being of the ‘diet’ variety or somehow low in carbs, fats or calories as a whole, does not mean it is a healthy food.

[tweet_box float="right" width="40%" design="default"]"Within 10 minutes of drinking a can of soda, over 100% of your daily sugar intake hits your system."[/tweet_box]

As you begin to enter the later years of life, it becomes increasingly important to take every possible precaution to make sure your long-term health and well-being stays in focus.

To achieve this, try to avoid drinking liquid calories wherever possible, but also make an effort to stay away from artificially sweetened and flavored foods and drinks.

Instead, opt for a diet that is rich in green fibrous vegetables and healthy fats , with enough quality protein to ward off any risk of degenerative disease.

A Sip of Soda: How Soft Drinks Can Impact Your Health [infographic]