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Drinking Diet Soda Is Healthier For You Than Drinking Regular Soda Filled With Sugar

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Next, many consumers believe that drinking diet soda is healthier for you than drinking regular soda filled with sugar but studies are starting to show that artificial sweeteners may actually lead to diabetes. Mary Ann Yantis, PhD, RN, a nurse educator for Nursing Education Consultants and Kate Hunter, RD, LD (2010), a clinical dietitian at Adventist Medical Center reports (2010) that drinking more than one serving of diet soda per day can increase your risk of metabolic syndrome by more than 36%. Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors, which includes hypertension, abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia. These risk factors increase a person’s risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and stroke. This same study also reports (2010) that one diet soda per day can increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more the 67%. This is possibly due to the fact that artificial sweeteners can be up to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and this intense sweetness can be addictive thus creating cravings for more sweetness in order to feel satisfied. Yantis and Hunter (2010) point out that the sweet taste triggers the same dopamine signals that are also triggered by drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Craving for more intense artificial sweetness will result in consuming more calories, increase the likelihood of developing insulin resistance, and more than likely affect the glucose metabolism (Yantis & Hunter, 2010). Another study done

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