I just found out that diet soda actually is terrible for you. I’ve been drinking a ton of it. And that it would probably be better to just drink a regular soda. Can someone please breakdown what it does to to microbiome. And also include if any damage done will repair one you’ve stopped drinking diet soda.
Please feel free to add anything else you like to say.
In: Biology
Very good inquiry and I appreciate that you care enough to look into this.
Generally with artificial sweeteners, some people believe that they might increase appetite and promote weight gain. The idea is that artificial sweeteners may be unable to activate the food reward pathway needed to make you feel satisfied after you eat. Given that they taste sweet but lack the calories found in other sweet-tasting foods, they’re thought to confuse the brain into still feeling hungry. Additionally, some scientists think you’d need to eat more of an artificially sweetened food, compared with the sugar-sweetened version, to feel full. It’s even been suggested that sweeteners may cause cravings for sugary foods.
**With The Microbiome**
In one study, the artificial sweetener saccharin disrupted gut bacteria balance in four out of seven healthy participants who were not used to consuming them. And with gut health, the four “responders” also showed poorer blood sugar control after as few as 5 days after consuming the artificial sweetener. What’s more, when gut bacteria from these people were transferred into mice, the animals also developed poor blood sugar control. On the other hand, the mice implanted with the gut bacteria from “non-responders” had no changes in their ability to control blood sugar levels^([1]). Although interesting, more studies are needed before strong conclusions can be made.
Basically, while sugar isn’t the best, artificial sweeteners aren’t the best. As long as you watch out for yourself anything in moderation is key. There’s so much research happening and much unknown that it’s hard to give a simple answer.
1: [Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/)- National Center for Biotechnology, National Library of Medicine |
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