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May 7, 2008, 9:21 pm
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Why are sugar substitutes bad for you?

Is there any evidence for any speculations made?

I drink Diet Coke and I don't want anything bad happening..

I've read about a recent study that shows that drinking diet soda can actually cause you to gain weight. It seems that your body tries to burn sugar because of the sweetness in the soft drink but because there is none you actually start to crave sugar instead. They did say more research was needed.

A lot will depend on how much you drink as well. If you have 1 maybe 2 a day then I'd say it wouldn't be too bad but if you drink a lot every day then I'd be very careful.

Chris

I don't believe that. Diet Coke satisfies my thirst...it doesn't make me hungry or more thirsty.

If you have any worries about it, why not try and cut down on it? Have two cans a day instead of four and start drinking water or green tea as a health insurance (though there isn't any real insurance out there).

You won't need to worry so much about it and can think of how healthy you are acting by drinking things that everyone says is good for you!

Here are some of the questions answered on the national cancer website pertaining to artificial sweeteners. Click the link at the bottom for more.

Is there an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed that cyclamate in combination with saccharin caused bladder cancer in laboratory animals. However, results from subsequent carcinogenicity studies (studies that examine whether a substance can cause cancer) on these sweeteners and other approved sweeteners have not provided clear evidence of an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer in people.

What have studies shown about a possible association between specific artificial sweeteners and cancer?

Saccharin

Studies in laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked saccharin with the development of bladder cancer. For this reason, Congress mandated that further studies of saccharin be performed and required that all food containing saccharin bear the following warning label: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals." Subsequent studies in rats showed an increased incidence of urinary bladder cancer at high doses of saccharin consumption, especially in male rats. However, mechanistic studies (studies that examine how a substance works in the body) have shown that these results apply only to rats. Human epidemiology studies (studies of patterns, causes, and control of diseases in groups of people) have shown no consistent evidence that saccharin is associated with bladder cancer incidence.

Because the bladder tumors seen in rats are due to a mechanism not relevant to humans, and because there is no clear evidence that saccharin causes cancer in humans, saccharin was delisted in 2000 from the U.S. National Toxicology Program's Report on Carcinogens , where it had been listed since 1981 as a substance reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen (a substance known to cause cancer). More information about the delisting of saccharin is available at http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/append/appb.pdf on the Internet. The delisting led to legislation, which was signed into law on December 21, 2000, repealing the warning label requirement for products containing saccharin.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

All soda is bad for you. My boyfriend used to get on me about drinking diet soda. He told me that I might as well be drinking a regular soda. Artificial sweetners are just as bad for you. Diet soda may have 0 calories but it still has sugar in it.

From what I have read, sugar substitutes may be worse from you. The brain thinks they are sugar and sets and insulin response, but there is no sugar in them. It may be contributing to the rise in diabetes.

There is also the phosphoric acid, which leaches calcium from your bones.

You have to drink a serious, serious amount of soda a day or over a lifetime to end up leaching the calcium from your bones. Its possible, but I've yet to actually see a case of someone who drank so much they had a calcium deficiency.

Obviously soda is bad for you as are fake sweeteners, that doesn't mean most people will avoid them. Anything used in moderation is unlikely to kill you. So if you choose to have a couple cans of diet coke a week you're probably going to be fine, lots of people have drank a couple a day without any known issues that I've ever heard of.

I've heard that all soda, including the diet ones do bad things to your teeth.

Do some research.

Artifical sweatners(more specifically sweet n Low) are said to have a chemical in them that caused bladder cancer in lab rats. The warning has been lifted since that discover after revisions were made on the sweetner but I'd still be cautious.