Diet Soda and Your Health....

Over the many years of practice, I have the same questions asked of me over and over..one is, is drinking soda or diet soda bad for me?  There is only one answer to this ABSOLUTELY YES!!!  I causes everything from Cancer, Obesity, Heart disease, Strokes and other life threatening diseases.  Below are a couple of wonderful articles from Dr. Mercola I think you will find helpful.

Drinking This "Popular Poison" is Worse than Smoking

Striking Similarities Between the Soda Industry and Big Tobacco

If I asked you to quickly recall a commercial or slogan from leading soda companies, like Coca-Cola or Pepsi, could you do it?

 Chances are you'd have no trouble recalling the friendly polar bear commercials or "the real thing" logo, and if you asked your kids, they'd probably come up with a few too.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for how beverage big-wigs have gotten their products firmly embedded into the homes of millions of Americans and others worldwide. Coca-Cola, for instance, spends close to $3 billion a year on advertising. With that amount of money it's no wonder the company has managed to hold on to its wholesome reputation.

They, and other beverage giants, are also in the habit of forming strategic alliances with health organizations that make it appear as though they are looking out for your health, which is about as laughable as Big Tobacco sponsoring a marathon. And like Big Tobacco, they also create front groups to fight anti-soda legislation and science.
For instance, as Time magazine reported:

• The American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other soft drink producers, has attacked suggestions to tax soda as "discriminatory." Their organization is touted as a "neutral forum," but in reality is devoted to discrediting negative press against soft drinks. For instance, in relation to obesity, ABA states, "All of our industry's beverages can be enjoyed as part of a balanced lifestlye."
• The soda industry has created the front group Americans Against Food Taxes, which runs anti-tax campaigns. As Kelly Brownell wrote in Time:
  
  

  "The name of the group implies a patriotic, grass roots movement, not a highly financed entity initiated and organized by industry."

• Another industry-created front group, Foundation for a Healthy America, recently donated $10 million to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to research and prevent childhood obesity! Diet Coke has also teamed up with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to raise awareness for women's heart health programs and was the official "Beverage of Choice" for the 2010 winter Olympics.
• The soda industry funds research to discredit links between soda drinking and health problems. Brownwell writes:
  
  

  "The tobacco industry paid scientists who did research disputing links between smoking and lung cancer, the addictive nature of nicotine, and the dangers of second-hand smoke. The soda industry funds scientists who reliably produce research showing no link between SSB [sugar-sweetened beverage] consumption and health. The tobacco industry bought favor from community and national organizations by giving large donations. In an ironic twist, Coca Cola and PepsiCo are corporate sponsors of the American Dietetic Association."

The Coca-Cola Company Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness (isn't that name an oxymoron?) even creates continuing education courses for registered dietitians!

The Top Reason to Give Soda the Boot …

Some of you reading this are undoubtedly thinking, how bad could soda really be? From my perspective, there is absolutely NO REASON you or your kids should ever drink soda. If you were stranded in the middle of a desert with no other fluid available, then maybe, but other than that … none, nada, zip, zero. No excuses.

From a health perspective, drinking Coke or any soft drink is a disaster. Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year, not to mention increase your risk of diabetes by 85 percent. The primary reason why soda is so dangerous to your health?

Fructose.
The fructose content of the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used in many popular soda brands has been sorely underestimated. Around 100 years ago the average American consumed a mere 15 grams of fructose a day, primarily in the form of fruit. One hundred years later, one fourth of Americans are consuming more than 135 grams per day, largely in the form of soda.
Fructose at 15 grams a day is harmless (unless you suffer from high uric acid levels).

However, at nearly 10 times that amount it becomes a major cause of obesity and nearly all chronic degenerative diseases. Instead of consisting of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, many soda brands, including Coke, Pepsi and Sprite, contain as much as 65 percent fructose, nearly 20 percent higher than originally believed. According to one study, the mean fructose content of all 23 sodas tested was 59 percent -- higher than claimed by the industry. When you consider that Americans drink an average of 53 to 57 gallons of soda per year (depending on the source of your statistics), this difference in actual fructose content could make a huge difference in your health.

Diet Soda is Not a "Healthier" Alternative

By Dr. Mercola

There are other reasons aside from weight gain to think twice before drinking diet soft drinks. In fact, there are already hundreds of published studies linking artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which is widely used in diet soda, to serious health complications. Cori Brackett's documentary film Sweet Misery is an excellent summary of the problems with aspartame.

You can also view my interview with Victoria Innes-Brown, who over a 2.5-year period performed a set of meticulous and detailed animal experiments, documenting the effects of using aspartame liquid comparable to diet soda. This included not only large tumors but also neurological effects, paralysis, skin disorders and symptoms of cerebral palsy.
Recent research has also linked diet soda consumption to higher rates of strokes, heart attacks and other lethal vascular events as well as metabolic syndrome.

There is literally enough evidence showing the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners to fill an entire book -- which is exactly why I wrote Sweet Deception. If you or your loved ones drink diet beverages or eat diet foods, this book will explain how you've been deceived about the truth behind artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose