Men have long been using carbonated sparkling water to have alcoholic beverages, and even women and kids drink a soda pop when it is hot and feel thirsty. Americans are perhaps the most voracious drinkers of soda, consuming billions of cans of soda every year. Americans drink more soda than water. It is a well known fact that soda contains sugar, and sugar translates into calories with the result that we see more obese than normal people out there in the country. There is more type 2 diabetics in US than any other country in the west; even kids show symptoms of sugar. To remove the ill effects of sugar, companies have devised a totally new soda called diet soda (though it has other names such as diet pop, sugar free, light soft drinks etc also). These drinks are directed for health conscious people and advertised as such also. Let us compare regular soda with diet soda.
Regular Soda
Regular soda, whether in the form of Coke or Pepsi, contains approximately 9-teaspoonful sugar in the form of corn syrup with high fructose content. Can you imagine eating 9 teaspoons of sugar one after another, or for that matter, adding so much of sugar to your cup of tea. This is exactly what people get when they go for sugared or regular soda. It is advertised as a safe cold drink, but one can imagine the damage to health such soda may be causing.
Diet Soda
To allay the fears of a health conscious population, all major players of soft drink market are today producing their diet versions with both Pepsi and Coke trying to capture the sugar free segment. A diet soda is artificially sugared (containing no sugar) soft drink that is carbonated and is being promoted as a good alternative for regular soda. But it contains ingredients used for sweetening that are believed to be rather more harmful for our health than even regular soda. Among these are Phosphoric acid that is bound to extract calcium from our bones, Aspartame that makes the soda sweet but is an artificial product nonetheless, and aceytelfame potassium that is also harmful for us.
But whatever the claims made by experts regarding its harmful effects, diet soda is certainly good for all those who are diabetic and desire to drink soft drinks. With no sugar inside, diet soda does not push up insulin levels inside the user.
|
What is the difference between Diet Soda and Regular Soda? • Regular soda is sweetened using high fructose corn syrup and contains alarming quantities of sugar (nearly 9 teaspoonfuls). • Diet soda does not contain sugar but is artificially sweetened using aspartame, which is good for diabetics or people having a desire to lose weight. • However, experts feel that it is not a good idea to take diet soda a lot and say that it should be consumed in moderation.
|