So, I was visiting girlfriend this past weekend and we love to eat out at restaurants in Miami. My girlfriend is passionate about her fitness goals and wants to make sure she’s bikini ready for the summer. So, when she orders drinks, she always gets the diet or zero sugar versions. Now I like to order diet coke and zero Gatorade just like her and it tastes good. Being interested in health and fitness myself, this got me thinking whether ordering these sugar free drinks makes a difference than compared to drinking the normal version.
After researching more, I found that sugar-free sodas are not healthier for you than consuming the regular kind and that sugar-free may actually end up causing even more weight gain in the long run. The studies behind this found that drinking diet soda “ultimately ends up causing you to consume even more calories in other ways, like having an extra cookie”. This is because of the reasoning that by having saved calories in one instance, you can make up for it in another way. Diet sodas can help when wanting to cut down on a soda addiction though. Also, sugar-free carbonated drinks, including diet sodas and sugar-free flavored sparkling water, may cause problems ranging from headaches to increased risk of developing diabetes. Even though these sugar-beverages contain fewer calories than traditional sugar-sweetened drinks, consuming them may contribute to weight gain.
I think in my girlfriend’s instance, it is good for her to keep ordering the diet drinks because it is fewer in calories and fits her needs and lifestyle. Although, diet coke apparently can cause some health problems I am sure regular coke is not much better. All in all, she is not a frequent soda or Gatorade drinker, she normally just drinks water. But, when she wants to treat herself to a soda, why not make it diet right? Although, I know all of you coke lovers will be offended by the fact that we think diet coke tastes the same as regular coke…