--- title: Diet Soda and Artificial Sweeteners: Is Diet Soda Bad For You? description: Why the fake fizzy stuff falls flat canonical: https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T16:17:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:40.100Z article:section: Health og:title: Is Diet Soda Bad For You? og:description: Why the fake fizzy stuff falls flat og:url: https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is Diet Soda Bad For You? twitter:description: Why the fake fizzy stuff falls flat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Should I Drink Diet Soda? > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Afghanistan's Bodybuilding Champions [Watch (HLS stream): Afghanistan's Bodybuilding Champions](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dwvgQ7dG.m3u8) (4:52)  _Published 2009-06-08. Bodybuilders celebrated the Mr. Afghanistan competition in Kabul, in spite of security and money woes_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 11, 2014 4:17 PM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 11, 2014 4:17 PM UTC _Welcome to_ Should I Eat This?_—our weekly poll of five experts who answer nutrition questions that gnaw at you._  Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME **5/5 experts say no.** Man, diet soda just can’t catch a break with these experts. Maybe that’s because it’s the ultimate hypocrite of the beverage world. People probably get hooked on diet soda in the hope that the “diet” part will pay off. (Why else would you suffer an aftertaste as metallic as the can it comes in?) But liquid weight loss this is not. A 2014 [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24432876) led by **Sara Bleich,** PhD, associate professor in health policy and management at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, suggests it might be just the opposite. Her research found that overweight and obese adults who drink diet beverages actually consume _more_ calories from food than their sugar-soda-drinking peers. “Oftentimes my patients come to me ecstatic because they’ve kicked their regular soda habit to the curb,” says **Kristin Kirkpatrick**, registered dietitian and manager of wellness nutrition services at Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute. “Unfortunately, it’s often replaced with a new habit of drinking diet soda.” Indeed, for all of its skinny-making promises, diet soda might be making you fat. Artificial sweeteners—the super-sweet, low- or no-calorie lifeblood of diet soda—trigger greater activation of reward centers in the brain compared with regular old sugar. That activation changes the way you seem to experience the “reward” you get from sweet tastes, Bleich says. “Another way of thinking about this is that for diet beverage drinkers, the brain’s sweet sensors may no longer provide a reliable gauge of energy consumption,” Bleich says. A change in those brain signals might get in the way of appetite control. This isn’t the only one of diet soda’s potentially weighty problems. A 2009 [study](http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.short) by nutritional epidemiologist **Jennifer Nettleton**, PhD, and her team found associations between diet soda consumption and type 2 diabetes. Though an observational study of this kind can’t establish causal links, drinking at least one diet soda a day was associated with a 67% greater risk for type-2 diabetes compared to people who never or rarely drank it. **Susan Swithers**, PhD, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University, wrote a 2013 [paper](http://download.cell.com/images/edimages/Trends/EndoMetabolism/tem%5F888.pdf) looking at the evidence for and against diet soda. “Right now, the data indicate that over the long term, people who drink even one diet soda a day are at higher risk for health outcomes that they are probably drinking diet sodas to try to avoid, like type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension and stroke,” she says. Not only does diet soda appear to fuel to problems it’s supposed to fight, but studies also link it to less obvious health issues. **Vasan Ramachandran**, MD, principal investigator of the Framingham Heart Study,points to a recent [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25099544) linking soda, both sugary and diet, to a higher risk of hip fractures in women. It’s another observational study, he says, but that’s largely the way diet soda research goes. Some experts think that other factors might be contributing to the link between diet soda and poor health outcomes—not just the drink itself. But the associations are strong, the evidence is consistent and the biological mechanisms are plausible, he concludes. A recent [study](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature13793.html) in _Nature_ shows that zero-calorie artificial sweeteners might mess with gut bacteria in a way that predisposes mice to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance—“the underlying precursors of metabolic abnormalities and diabetes,” Ramachandran says. So next time you’re craving an aluminum can of carbonated non-food constituents like artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners, remember Nettleton’s voice in your head. If you’re thirsty, she says, drink water. If you’re tired, have a cup of coffee. And if you want a weight-loss aid to squash those hunger pangs, “Take a walk around the block.” Still feel hungry? “Then eat,” she says. “You are hungry.” _Read next:_ [_Should I Eat Greek Yogurt?_](http://time.com/3616400/greek-yogurt-nutrition/) ## Transcript >> Take a look around Kabul these days and the evidence is on the walls, Afghans are getting pumped. More than 200 gyms are now open in the capital with hundreds more in the provinces. Ground zero of Afghan bodybuilding is Gold's Gym. It was founded soon after the fall of the Taliban, by Bawar Khan Hotak, widely regarded here as the godfather of the sport. Under the Taliban, recreation was limited. So, Bawar Khan and his friends decided to make weights out of cement and old soviet tank parts. When he took part of the Strong Man Competition at the National Stadium, he was so popular that he got into trouble. -[ Foreign Language ] -" I became heavy weight champion of Afghanistan ," he says. " My fans and friends started to throw money and flowers at me to show their support ." -[ Foreign Language ] -" This is an old afghan tradition but the Taliban disagreed and thought it was bad, and so they put me in jail for a while ." >> His next goal was to open Kabul's first western style gym. He named it Gold's after the one in Southern California where his hero Arnold Schwarzenegger used to train. Now, some of his own students train for the annual Mr. Afghanistan contest, arguably the biggest sporting event in the country. But with the war going on, the government has little to offer in the way of support. With just 2 weeks left before the Mr. Afghanistan contest, the war presses business contacts for contributions. -[ Foreign Language ] >> For the first time in years, it appears to be in jeopardy. Across town, Zubair Mohsin owns and manages the Ariana Power Gym. Zubair used to compete himself, winning the Mr. Kabul title in 2004. He opened the basement facility 3 years ago with savings from his day job with the United Nations and now has more than 400 members. >> I know as you know, that is, in bodybuilding it's a completely different sport. In bodybuilding, you have diet, you have to gain weight, you have to lose weight, and you have to spend lots of-- lots of money. But unfortunately, no one can-- no one can encourage the bodybuilding, I mean, the competitors. It's terrible in Afghanistan. But, beside that, people are very interested in bodybuilding. >> Students need to have that kind of, you know, the inspiration besides studying and joining some course at school, you know, and in some other places. It's good to have sport. But-- We study for our minds but we have sport to have a physical-- a good physical appearance. >> In the end, enough money was raised to hold the Mr. Afghanistan contest in a rundown movie house in the City Center. The stands are packed and with the ever present threat of bombing attacks on public avenues, security is tight. Backstage, contestants get the finishing touches. For solid hours the capacity crowd can't get enough. After tense deliberations by the judges, Shuqrullah Shakili is chosen this year's Mr. Afghanistan. It's an overwhelming moment from the 24- year- old mechanic from Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold. He gets no prize money for his hard- won victory, just a trophy and the buzz on the street that comes when you're the country's best. -[ Foreign language ] >> For time. com, this is Jason Motlagh in Kabul. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/"},"headline":"Should I Drink Diet Soda?","datePublished":"2014-12-11T16:17:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:40:40.100Z","description":"Why the fake fizzy stuff falls flat","url":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Weight loss","Soda","should i eat this?"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/","name":"Should I Drink Diet Soda?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Afghanistan's Bodybuilding Champions","description":"Bodybuilders celebrated the Mr. Afghanistan competition in Kabul, in spite of security and money woes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dwvgQ7dG/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-06-08T00:33:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dwvgQ7dG.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/","duration":"PT4M52S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3628546/diet-soda-bad-for-you/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```