Diet Drinks and Weight Loss

Diet drinks are commonly used by people who want to lose weight. They have the mistaken belief that by drinking them instead of the 'full-sugar' version they will be assisting their weight-loss efforts.

However, choosing diet drinks instead of the 'full sugar' version is simply trying to choose the lesser of two evils! Both types are bad for your health and both will stop you from losing weight.

Of course, everyone knows that 'full sugar' versions of soft drinks are loaded with sugar and they will promote an insulin spike in the blood stream, which will promote fat storage and stop fat burning.

However, you may not be aware of why diet soda and weight loss do not occur together. Furthermore, other 'diet foods' also promote fat storage and stop fat burning in your body. Simply put, diet soft drinks contain artificial sweeteners and despite the clever marketing of them that promotes them as being healthy, they are in fact quite unhealthy. In fact, the aspartame danger is quite real and is something you need to be aware of.

Before we examine the aspartame danger as well as the best diet drink, we will cover how diet soft drinks as well as other 'diet foods' promote fat storage and stop you from burning fat.

How Diet Drinks Stop Fat Burning

Most artificial sweeteners are at least several hundred times sweeter than sugar. In fact, aspartame, which is the most commonly used artificial sweetener in diet sodas is approximately 1500 times sweeter than sugar.

As a result, when a diet soft drink is consumed, as soon as the artificial sweetener hits the taste receptors in the mouth, these receptors immediately send a signal to the pancreas to start producing insulin with the expectation of a huge sugar hit!

Shortly after, the expected surge of sugar into the blood stream fails to arrive but the insulin has already been secreted from the pancreas. This insulin secretion then has the effect of storing the sugar that is in the blood stream. This results in a lower blood sugar and a low blood sugar may increase appetite.

Furthermore, if the stores of glycogen in the liver and muscles are full, the blood glucose that is getting stored by the insulin will be converted into fat and stored in the fat cells around the body.

To make matters worse still, high insulin levels in the blood stream stops the body from mobilising and utilising fat as a fuel source; it stops fat burning instantly!

Therefore, if you want to maximise your fat loss, it is imperative that you avoid or at the very least, minimise your intake of diet soft drinks.

The Aspartame Danger

Not only do diet soft drinks containing artificial sweeteners (mainly aspartame) affect fat burning but there appears to many health dangers of artificial sweeteners as well.

Here are just some of the potential health problems associated with artificial sweetener use:

Gastrointestinal problems

Headaches

Organ problems, particularly the liver and kidneys

Developmental problems in children and foetuses

Increased cancer risk

Considering the impact of diet soda and weight loss in addition to their major potential health problems, it simply makes sense to minimise your intake of diet soft drinks or avoid them altogether!

The Best Diet Drink

As most people know, the best diet drink to have is pure, clean, filtered water!

Of course, many people say they don't like the taste (or lack of taste) of plain water. Therefore, it may be necessary to have a squeeze of lemon in the water to give it a more palatable taste.

One of the best investments you can make in your health is to purchase a stainless steel water bottle. This is a far better option than continuously buying bottled water from the store. Perhaps you could purchase a home water filter or at least buy the big, 15-litre tubs of water and then continuously fill up your water bottle as you need it.

Considering the aspartame danger and the problems of consuming diet drinks regularly, it is definitely worthwhile making an effort to drink more water on a regular basis.

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