Who doesn’t love a refreshing cola?
The harsh simmer of dissipating bubbles rushing past your lips and across our tongue.
Yummmm.
That’s half of it isn’t it? The textural appeal of the drink. The bubbles…those crisp, refreshing bubbles.
Now that we’re drooling, consider how cola is sweetened. Classic cola, sweetened with sugar, has about 54 grams of sugar per 500 mL (as seen in my Sugar Talk blog). More than what Diabetes Canada recommends over an entire day .
Though it’s not unheard of to drink 500 mL at a time either. Especially when it’s packaged conveniently in a bottle that fits perfectly in our hand, there’s hardly a second thought (and we don’t even have to be hungry to do it!).
Ok, now that we’re salivating, let’s use our imagination for a minute, this thought experiment has three parts…
Part 1: Imagine
Let’s go back to when we first started drinking cola. Imagine that the only option available was sugar-free cola; sugar-sweetened cola hasn’t been invented yet.
Delete it from your memory. Imagine that all cola is sugar-free. Imagine it is the default setting of manufacturers to sweeten cola with sugar-free alternatives.
They are the only drinks on the market. When we order cola at a restaurant, we pay for what we now know as diet cola, it’s just the default. It’s just the normal thing to do, no big deal.
Part 2: Introducing NEW Coke
Years have gone by, people are drinking diet cola likes its the norm, along with other drinks like Sprite Zero (my favourite) and Pepsi Zero.
Next thing you know, there’s a new product on the market and it’s being advertised aross the airwaves, in store shelves, and at bus stop shelters.
Introducing, NEW Coke, sweetened with sugar!
Part 3: The Evidence Against NEW Coke
Here’s where the hypothetical mixes with the reality. Imagine that we already have the research showing what happens when we drink NEW Coke. For example…
Sugar-sweetened beverages and type 2 diabetes
It is shown in many studies that there is an association between type 2 diabetes and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). One study showed an 18% higher risk of type 2 diabetes with even one serving per day.
Sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain
A recent study confirmed that SSBs promote a higher body weight in both children and adults. This same study also showed that drinking less SSBs was associated with weigth loss.
Ultimately, a positive linear dose-response association was shown between SSBs and weight gain. That’s a bunch of fancy words to say that the more SSBs we drink, the more weight we’ll likely gain.
Sugar-sweetened beverages and dental caries
SSB intake is associated with a higher risk of dental caries. Here’s how:
Sugar-sweetened beverages and cardiovascular disease
There is more emerging evidence to show that SSBs are positively associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a dose-dependent way. These are more fancy words to say that that the more SSBs we drink, the more our risk for CVD increases.
More specifically, this paper discusses that there is strong evidence to show an association between SSB intake and risks for high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack.
Sugar-sweetened beverages and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Once again, in fancy terms, it was found in this paper that “…consumers of SSBs are at a significantly increased risk of [non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)], and the consumption of SSBs has a dose-dependent effect on the risk of NAFLD”.
That paper showed separated risk into 3 categories: low consumption (less than 1 cup/week), middle consumption (1-6 cups/week), and high consumption (7 or more cups/week). Risks for NAFLD increased in each group by 14% (low consumption), by 26% (medium consumption), and by 53% (high consumption).
Back to Reality
The reality is, sugar-sweetened beverages like cola, are very common and are the go-to beverage for a lot of people. They’re everywhere, heavily advertised, and it’s not uncommon for our fridges to be stocked with them.
At the same time, it’s never too late to take stock of our current habits, evaluate them, and change them. Just because we’ve always drank sugar-sweetened cola, doesn’t mean we have to keep choosing it as our main drink.
We don’t have to be what we used to be and we don’t have to keep doing what we used to do.
Are artificial sweeteners safe?
Yes, artificial sweeteners are safe.
*Unless you have PKU (phenylketonuria), a rare genetic disorder that causes the amino acid phenylalanine to build up in our body (aspartame turns into phenylalanine). You would likely already know if you had this as it’s typically tested for at birth.
As Health Canada states: “Sweeteners are only approved when scientific evidence confirms that they are considered safe“. Click the link to learn more!
Also, as this recent study shows, non-nutritive sweetened beverages “have no acute metabolic and endocrine effects, similar to water”.
This means that contrary to what some will try to convince you, diet beverages do NOT increase insulin levels.
So, if Diet Coke came first first…would you still choose to drink regular Coke?
Thank you for reading! If you found this blog to be of value, interesting, or helpful at all, please share on your social medias 🙂
If you want to support the blog, you can do so at this link: Buy me a coffee (or two) ☕
