Why Diet Sodas Once Again Linked to Diabetes?

With the explosion of Type II Diabetes Mellitus being diagnosed amoung our children, one has got to wonder why? I definitely have seen Diabetes affects in my practice and so far the common denominator is the nutrition being given to these children. One in particularly is the amount of soda these kids are drinking.


Yet again a new large scale study has demonstrated the connection between diet sodas and developing Type 2 Diabetes. This time French researchers found that by drinking just ONE 12 ounce can of artificially sweetened drink PER WEEK will increase the risk of developing Diabetes by a wopping 33%. Could you imagine if you drank one or two a day, like some of my patients?

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and covered 66,118 middle aged adults whose dietary habits and health were tracked from 1993 to 2007. This is a large scale trial over multiple years which holds much more credance than some of the smaller scale studies previously done.

The results went even further and extrapolated that those participants who drank diet soft drinks had a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes than those who drank regular, sugar filled sodas. Those participants who drank 100% natural squeezed fruit juices instead had NO additional risk.

Researchers tried to explain the connection by stating that aspartame, one of the main artificial sweeteners used today, causes “an increase in glycaemia (high glucose levels in the blood) and consequently a rise in the insulin level in comparison to that produced by sucrose (fruit sugar)”.

The translation: drinking artificially sweetened drinks causes a chemical reaction in your body that makes you crave and desire other sweet things and despite the claims that aspartame is a benign sweetener, the data shows the body does indeed react the same way to it as the body would to plain old sugar.

Wait a minute, weren’t these artificial sweeteners designed in the laboratory to specifically NOT raise blood glucose levels? Wasn’t this claim the ignition to the explosion of the diet revolution? How did these artificial sweetener’s data initially get by the scientific community?

This is actually data we’ve known for years, but as I said before this is the largest study done so it should carry more weight with the scientific community.

However, I don’t see much changing in the world of artificial sweeteners. Its just found in way too many things. I wonder if the Nutritional Councils will ever get it right for our kids? They probably won’t, so it’s just up to you!

Bottom line, eat and drink more natural foods and avoid soda as much as possible. Simple enough to me.