Diet soda myth busted: Low-calorie drinks are giving you diabetes

There are some words in the English language that just don’t belong together.

Like government intelligence — and diet soda.

For years companies like Coke and Pepsi have sold us the fantasy that no-calorie sodas with artificial sweeteners can keep us thin as swimsuit models and free from diabetes.

And it’s a lie that’s leaving an awful lot of people sick and dead.

In fact, a new study proves that soda — especially diet soda — is attacking a lot more than your waistline.

And it could leave you on the fast track to a lifetime of diabetes. Even if you’re only drinking one can a day.

Diabetes in a canIt seems like we’ve been told again and again that diabetes is a disease of those who are carrying around extra pounds.

Well, toss that one in the recycling bin. While you’re at it, toss all your soda cans in there as well — before you open them.

Because that daily soda is a lot more dangerous than America’s favorite doctor — Dr. Pepper — would like to admit. And that’s true whether you’re overweight or not.

A new study in the British Medical Journal found that people who drink just one soda a day were nearly 20 percent more likely to become diabetic, regardless of how they tipped the scales.

This might explain why one in five people with type 2 diabetes are actually at a healthy weight. And they’re the ones who are most likely to indulge in that soda without thinking twice.

And it looks like those so-called “healthy” diet drinks are even worse. Go the no-calorie route, and you’re a whopping 25 percent more likely to end up with diabetes — again, no matter what you weigh.

Well, you won’t be surprised to hear that a soda trade group responded with the usual nonsense, about how the industry wants to be part of the solution to the obesity and diabetes epidemics.

Oh, cry me a river. These are the same people who have been trying to market diet soda to us as a health food for years. I told you just last week that Coke was caught red-handed sponsoring a sham research group that’s trying to make us think soda isn’t making us fat and sick.

They’re even paying athletes millions of dollars to market this stuff as some sort of performance drink.

But I’m hoping that the link between even low-calorie soda and diabetes isn’t coming as a shock to you. Because I’ve told you before about what researchers are calling the “diet-soda paradox.”

You see, artificial sweeteners in diet sodas can spike your insulin levels in a number of ways, including:

• Altering a hormone called GLP-1 that throttles the speed at which food leaves your stomach. When this hormone is reduced, food enters your intestines quickly and sends your blood sugar soaring.
• Activating the sweet taste receptors on your tongue. That causes the release of hormones to digest sugar, despite the fact that you’re not even eating any. By fooling your taste buds, you can also trick your pancreas.
• Altering your gut bacteria, which will cause a bigger spike in insulin than if you had a slice of chocolate cake instead of that diet soda. A study done last year in Israel found that mice drinking water that contained aspartame, saccharin or sucralose had higher insulin levels than mice drinking sugar water. A Tufts University scientists who analyzed the paper said that the mice were “almost diabetic.”

The Israeli researchers also found that people who consumed artificial sweeteners generally had much higher fasting blood sugar numbers than those who didn’t.

Look, the more we find out about soda, whether with or without calories, it’s very clear that it’s bad news for everyone.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re carrying around a spare tire or if you can still fit in your wedding dress.

Sources:

“Soda leads to diabetes even if you’re thin: Study” Newsmax, newsmax.com

“Even if you’re lean, 1 soda per day ups your risk of type 2 diabetes” Allison Aubrey, July 23, 2015, NPR, npr.org