No Diet Soda Summer

Macro photograph of coca-cola bubbles.

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A couple of years ago I wrote a post about Soda Free Summer, how six Bay Area counties got together to try to help people stop drinking soda in the Summer. I also wrote a couple of posts about how diet soda is no better than regular soda and quite possibly worse.

Well, new evidence has popped up yet again that diet soda is really no help at all in fighting obesity and in fact may be a hindrance. This has made the news, not surprisingly. Essentially what these studies are showing is that people who drink diet sodas for a long period of time (several years) actually gain more weight than people who drink something else. Note that the study authors’ acknowledge that people who drink diet sodas are more likely to be overweight, but that didn’t change the fact that over several years, drinking diet sodas did not help them lose weight and instad they gained weight. There’s also evidence that there may be other harmful benefits long-term to drinking diet soda.

Basically, drinking regular soda is clearly bad for you – purely from the point of view of the amount of sugar in a single drink, let alone several drinks over the course of a hot Summer day. So regular soda is out. And drinking diet soda is perhaps even worse for you, certainly not any better, at least in the long run. Now diet soda is out. So what SHOULD you drink?

Water. Even better, water with a slice of fruit. And make it really easy to drink plenty of water. Here’s an article with some great tips on how to make it more likely you drink enough water.

The goal of all these drinks is to kep you hydrated and help you cool down. Water does that perfectly.

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