By Dr. Mercola

Soda and other sweetened beverages have no redeeming nutritional value, and ditching them from your diet can go a long way toward improving your health.  One 20-ounce bottle of cola contains the equivalent of about 16 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which will cause your insulin to spike within 20 minutes of drinking it.

Your liver responds to this insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat, most of which is stored — hence the weight gain associated with a high-sugar diet.

But a chronically elevated insulin level (which you definitely have if you drink soda on a regular basis) is also a foundational factor of most chronic disease, from diabetes to cancer.

Sugary Beverages Tied to Increased Risk of Diabetes

Obesity, lack of exercise, and family history of the disease are among the risk factors for type 2 diabetes. However, your diet is perhaps the greatest predictor of diabetes, and sugary beverages like soda can play a major role.
Consumption of soft drinks has repeatedly been identified as a risk factor for weight gain and diabetes.

Most recently, British researchers investigated whether sugary beverages, fruit juice, and “diet” beverages could still influence the risk of type 2 diabetes even after controlling for the risk factor of obesity — meaning, can they increase your risk of type 2 diabetes even if you’re not obese?

The meta-analysis included 17 observational studies involving more than 38,250 cases of type 2 diabetes, all of which reported consumption of sugary drinks, fruit juice, and artificially sweetened beverages. None of the studies were funded by industry.

According to the authors:

“Higher consumption of sugar sweetened beverages [one 250 ml serving per day or higher] was associated with a greater incidence of type 2 diabetes, by 18 percent per one serving/day and 13 percent before and after adjustment for adiposity[i.e. body fat]…

[F]or artificially sweetened beverages, 25 percent and 8 percent… and for fruit juice, 5 percent and 7 percent.

Potential sources of heterogeneity or bias were not evident for sugar sweetened beverages. For artificially sweetened beverages, publication bias and residual confounding were indicated.

For fruit juice the finding was non-significant in studies ascertaining type 2 diabetes objectively.” [Emphasis mine]

The researchers estimate that over a period of 10 years, cutting consumption of sugary beverages could reduce the number of new cases of diabetes by nearly two million in the US, and by 80,000 in the UK.

They also note that while there appears to be bias and confounding factors influencing the results of artificially sweetened drinks, “neither artificially sweetened beverages nor fruit juice are suitable alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.”

‘Diet’ Drinks Worsen Obesity and Diabetes

To “help” diabetics and those struggling with their weight, the beverage industry has created a large niche of “diet” beverages, sweetened with artificial no- or low-calorie sweeteners.

However, since the advent of artificial sweeteners, rates of obesity and diabetes have continued to climb, and research over the past 30 years has repeatedly shown they have very similar effects as regular sugar, promoting both obesity and diabetes.

Some studies have even demonstrated that artificial sweeteners worsen diabetes and obesity to a greater degree than regular sugar and HFCS.

For example, one 2012 study found that saccharin and aspartame both cause greater weight gain than sugar, even when the total caloric intake remains similar.

Research published the following year highlighted the fact that diet soda drinkers suffer the same exact health problems as those who opt for regular soda, including excessive weight gain, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.

For even more research showing that artificial sweeteners promote obesity, type 2 diabetes and other health problems, please see this previous aspartame article.

The weight of the evidence is clear enough at this point that advertising artificially sweetened foods and beverages using the word “diet” is grossly misleading.