30 Jun
2011
I've been on a health kick for a little while now. I'm not a dietician, but I've done a considerable amount of research into what I should and shouldn't be eating in order to get the body I want. One of the questions that friends ask me is, "why don't you drink diet sodas?" You hear 'facts' thrown around a lot, stuff like, "Diet soda causes you to gain just as much weight as regular soda, sometimes more because you drink more of it than you would regular soda." This doesn't seem to make sense. Diet soda doesn't have any calories! Isn't that why I can drink 2-4, sometimes 8 cans of diet cola per day?
Unfortunately the fact is right. Diet sodas do cause you to gain more weight, but its not from the surge of glucose that a can of regular soda gives you. Diet soda slows your metabolism through a different mechanism. Think about it this way: Your body is an incredibly efficient machine. It balances and rebalances millions of times per day to make sure your blood doesn't get too acidic or alkaline. Through breathing, the bicarbonate buffer reaction, urination, and other processes your body keeps you alive by taking out the stuff there is too much of and replacing it with the stuff you need. You need to have a blood pH around 7.4 to stay alive. Both Alkalosis and Acidosis can be deadly and they are the consequences of an imbalanced body. Eating highly acidic stuff is more thing your body has to account for.
But you're thirsty. So you decide to drink a few cans of diet soda. It's sweet, and sharp, and bubbly. You feel pretty good for a while. How could something so tasty and guiltless be bad?
Diet soda is full of Phosphic Acid (H3PO4). This stuff is a caustic polyprotic acid, with a pH roughly around the level of battery acid. It is highly water soluble, and the soda company dilutes it in bubbly water to give your drink that bite you crave without burning your throat; but the acidity has to be accounted for by your body. In order to make up for the abundance of protons flying around due to our excessive consumption of acids, the body uses alkaline compound producing minerals. To combat the Phosphoric Acid, your body has to give up some Iodine. Actually, a lot of Iodine. And the thing Iodine is essential for is thyroid function. I won't get into too much detail about how the thyroid works, but it requires Iodine to control the release of hormones that stimulate your metabolism. Your metabolism drives your body to burn glucose, breakdown fats, and use up the stuff you eat to make ATP and nutrients and all the other stuff you need to live. When we drink tons of diet soda, energy drinks, alcohol, and processed foods, we deplete our body of essential iodine because our body is constantly forced to combat the onslaught of acid. So we stop working properly, and we gain weight. Couple that with the mentality that drinking a zero calorie beverage gives us license to eat unhealthy foods, and the freedom to drink multiple cans for soda instead of water, and we start to have a big problem that builds day after day after day.
I don't want to be the harbinger of bad news. I know how many of you love your diet drinks, so I'm not saying you need to stop outright, but consider moderation. If you want to understand why your workouts aren't as effective as they could be, or why, despite your decreased food intake you haven't lost weight, think about how your body is fighting to keep things balanced and needs all the help it can get. Drink lots of water and whenever you can, eat unprocessed foods. If your body is working right, you can have the natural, delicious fats in meats and nuts and fish and not gain weight. Living well doesn't have to be a burden.
To your continued health!
