5 Things You Need to Know About Diet Sodas

1. Step Away From the Fries

Ordering that diet soda with a meal does not green light you to order anything you want. Often the faulty logic is that because you are saving calories on the diet soda, you can up your caloric intake elsewhere. A study by the University of Texas Health Science showed that people who drank diet soda actually had a higher rate of obesity than people who order non-diet drinks.

2. Diet Sodas Are No Substitute

After that tough workout, reach for water and not diet soda. More specifically, drinking diet soda with caffeine, because caffeine is a diuretic and facilitates dehydration, makes you more, not less, thirsty. There is no true replacement for water to rehydrate the body, so stick to good old-fashioned water and stay away from the caffeinated diet drinks and diet drinks in general.

3. Tooth Decay

Most people think that because diet sodas do not contain the sugar levels of regular soda, they are do not affect a person's dental health. However, the carbonation and chemicals in diet sodas can cause to the tooth enamel to erode and cause tooth decay, especially with prolonged consumption of diet sodas. If you do consume diet sodas, be sure to rinse your mouth out with water after drinking them so the chemicals do not linger on the teeth.

4. What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

The artificial sweetener in most diet drinks is aspartame, or NutraSweet. While studies dispute the health issues regarding these additives one thing is for sure--no one knows the long-term effect these chemicals can have on the body. There seems to be more and more conclusive evidence that these chemicals are bad for your body. Everyone only gets one body--do you really want to chance the health of it? As with any food or drink additive, research as much as possible about that chemical and make the decision for yourself.

5. Silly Body, Tricks Are for Kids

Some research published in the "International Journal of Obesity" suggests that diet sodas may stimulate appetite because they trick the body. The body gets the sugary taste from diet drinks and starts to hunt for the calories that should accompany that sweet taste. When the body does not find the calories, it gets frustrated and starts to demand the calories it expected, thereby leading to an increase in appetite.