Does diet soda cause diabetes?

The answer to that question about diet soda seems simple. However, it becomes more complex the more you think about it. At first we would like the answer to be no, after all, that is what these dietary options are for. We think they are better than other options and hey! anything is healthier than a donut. Diet sodas help point us in a better direction, at least in intention. And yes, they are not drinks with the full calorie content like their fully sugary counterpart. It’s no secret that regular soda has a strong association with diabetes. In fact, sugary drinks are the number 1 cause of high blood sugar levels in people. They cause obesity, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation. All the necessary bases for diabetes. Many studies have linked drinking diet soda to diabetes, heart attacks, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and hypertension. However, these studies were mostly observational in nature. This means that it is difficult to differentiate in the results whether people who already had a sign of diabetes simply switched to drinking diet sodas or whether they actually contributed to generating it. Initially, the first studies on this type of soda showed that people who drank them lost weight. The problem is that these studies were very small, untracked, and sponsored by the beverage industry. Other studies in comparison showed completely different results. In these, artificially sweetened drinks were linked to the obesity epidemic that surrounds us today. We can debate saying that there are certain levels of discomfort or poor health and that drinking these sodas is better than those that are made with sugar. Drinking a lot of soda made with sugar or artificially sweetened is clearly not good for your health. There is evidence that links drinking any type of soft drink with diabetes, some more than others, true, but we should not turn a blind eye. Take care of your health and don’t trust yourself!