Diet Soda vs Regular Soda

Ava Donza March 11, 2013 English Persuasive/Argument Vista

Imagine youre running. Your feet pound on the clay track. Youre out of breath, and just want something to drink, something to quench your thirst. A whistle sounds in the distance. You let out a sigh of relief and use the last of your strength to propel yourself to the long brown bench where a lone blue bottle sits. With your eyes fixed on the prize, you take one last stride and collapse on the bench, the impact making the contents of the bottle slosh around inside. Breathing hard, you grab for it, unscrew the cap, press the bottle to your lips, and throw your head back. The cool, fizzy liquid travels down your dry throat, soothing it with its sweet, tangy flavor. After gulping down half the bottle, you look at the bottle and smile. You are proud of yourself for switching from regular soda to diet. You think about how it has no calories, no sugars, and how it stops you from gaining weight. But what you dont think about is how diet soda can actually increase your chances of gaining weight and getting a serious disease. Many studies have been done, and they all say the same thing: diet soda is worse for you than regular soda. First of all, if you drink just one can of diet soda per week, it can increase your chances of getting Type 2 diabetes by 33%. French researchers at Inserm formed an experiment: they got together about 66,118 women and tracked their beverage habits for 14 years. At the end of the study period, 1,369 of the women were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. On average, those women drank more diet drinks than sugarsweetened drinks. The researchers found that both diet and regular soda can increase your chances with diabetes, but diet drinkers have a higher risk. The researchers also found that people who drink diet soda crave more sugar. Meanwhile, the women who only drank 100% juice did not have an increased risk of diabetes. Along with that, drinking diet soda on a regular basis have more of a chance of getting heart attacks and strokes. The studys results clearly state that diet soda is worse for you, and will not help you lose weight or be healthier. Second of all, diet soda can cause you several problems. One problem you may encounter is kidney failure. Harvard Medical School conducted an experiment for 11 years, with 3,000 women. The researchers found that kidney function started declining when the women drank more than two cans a day. Another problem is bad metabolism. The University of Minnesota concluded that drinking just one can of diet soda per day can increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 34%, which can give more problems. Also, diet soda can cause serious damage to your cells. Dangerous

chemicals in most diet sodas can completely destroy them. These chemicals can also create new allergic reactions. Diet-drinkers also tend to have more oral problems, such as cavities, more decay, and bad breath. Lastly, it has been proven that people who drink diet soda have reproductive issues. All of these problems come from just one can of soda. In other words, diet soda is horrible for you. Dont let the name fool you. Have you actually looked at the nutrition label of a diet soda? Yeah, I thought not. Well, Ill tell you whats not on there. Calories and sugar. Sounds like a wise choice. How about...not! There is plenty of evil packed inside that seemingly innocent Diet Coke you love. How about that caramel color? Seems unimportant. The companies heat up sugar cane until it reaches the right color. But when they heat it up, a chemical enters the liquid called 4-methylimidazole. Research shows that longexposure to this chemical leads to an increase of lung cancer that affects mice, rabbits, chicks, and RATS. (Ew!) Another thing soda companies include is aspartame. Coca Cola says that this is harmless to children and pregnant women, but science proves this wrong. It can increase peoples chances of any cancer and weight gain. Lastly, the natural flavors are actually hundreds of chemicals that are used to mimic the flavors of natural foods. In reality, its not at all natural. There are plenty more evil ingredients these companies put in diet sodas, but these three should be enough to make you realize that diet soda is horrible. As you can see from my evidence, diet soda is worse for you than regular soda. Just because it has zero calories doesnt mean its the wiser choice. You should treat any soda like you would ice-cream. Once in while is okay, but everyday is not. Diet soda is kind of like a liquified boa constrictor. Once you start drinking it, it slowly suffocates your insides, bit by bit. Nobody wants poison in their intestines, so if I were you, I would put down that Diet Coke and go get a clear glass of water.

Bibliography
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/study-diet-soda-increases-risk-diabetes-whystill-192600358.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/diet-soda-diabetes-risk-type-2-artificiallysweetened-sugar_n_2663247.html http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/diet-soda-bad-you http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Sugar-free-and-diet-sodas-linked-todiabetes-Study

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sugary-vs-diet-drinks/ http://news.menshealth.com/diet-soda-ingredients/2012/11/10/