The difference between diet and regular drinks lies mainly in the sweetening ingredient. Instead of sugar or high fructose corn syrup, diet drinks contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or sucralose. Although as MayoClinic.com notes, diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners provide benefits to weight watchers, diabetics and cavity-prone individuals, there is another point to consider. Diet drinks, especially those containing aspartame, may affect your liver.
Ingredients
Depending on the type and flavor of the diet drink, ingredients, in addition to an artificial sweetener, can also include water or carbonated water, a coloring agent, phosphoric acid, citric acid, caffeine and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. Of these, the ingredients often linked to liver function are aspartame, one of the most common artificial sweeteners in diet drinks and caffeine.
Identification
Aspartame is a synthetic sweetener made from the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Although aspartame does contain calories, the Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness explains that because it is 200 times sweeter than sugar, the 1/200th of a teaspoon added makes its calorie count insignificant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for use in dry powder drinks in 1981 and for carbonated drinks in 1983. Once you ingest aspartame, your body breaks it down into its component amino acids and, according to the BIHW, continues with absorption the same as amino acids from dietary sources. Caffeine is a natural, plant-based substance the FDA approved in 1958. The FDA considers caffeine safe if you do not consume more than about 300 mg per day, or about five to six diet drinks.
Opinions
There is controversy surrounding the use of aspartame in diet drinks and its potential to affect your liver. Although the FDA, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Union consider aspartame safe, others disagree. For example, Dr. James Bowen of the World Natural Health Organization states that aspartame causes fat buildup in liver cells that can lead to a form of hepatitis called steato hepatitis. Dr. Sandra Cabot, medical doctor, researcher and author, says that aspartame metabolism takes large amounts of energy from the liver, leaving little for liver cells to engage in fat metabolism. The net effect, says Cabot, is liver overload that leads to weight gain.
Expert Insight
The results of a study published in the international journal "Life Sciences" states that aspartame may lead to a buildup of formaldehyde within all body cells, but in especially high concentrations in the fat cells and in the liver. Study results state that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard.
Considerations
If you have hepatitis, do not take the pain medication acetaminophen along with diet drinks that contain caffeine. Researchers at the University of Washington state that caffeine can triple the amount of an enzyme called NAPQI, normally created as acetaminophen dissolves. This enzyme has the potential to liver damage or failure.
References
- MayoClinic: Artificial Sweeteners: Understanding These and Other Sugar Substitutes
- American Beverage Association: Soft Drinks and Diet Soft Drinks - Know Your Ingredients
- The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness: Aspartame
- The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness: Caffeine
- World Natural Health Organization: Steato Hepatitis, Another Extensive Nutrasweet Plague
- World Natural Health Organization: Aspartame Makes You Fatter
