It seems counterintuitive that artificial sugar can have a real effect on your blood sugar, but some research on artificial sweeteners indicates that may indeed be the case. All carbohydrates, including sugar, eventually end up as glucose in your blood. Once there, glucose serves as an energy source. Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame or saccharin are used to sweeten diet soda.
Artificial Sweeteners
On the Mayo Clinic website, Dr. Maria Collazo-Clavell writes that diabetics should consider most artificial sweeteners free foods, meaning they do not count as carbohydrates and do not affect your blood sugar level. But certain artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol, xylitol and mannitol contain sugar alcohols and do affect your blood sugar. Read product ingredient labels to find out exactly what type of sweetener is used to flavor your favorite diet soda.
Aspartame
As of summer 2011, aspartame is still considered a free food, but a 2011 animal study raised questions about its relationship to blood sugar. At a meeting of the American Diabetes Association, Sharon Parten Folwer and other researchers from the University of Texas presented a paper indicating that aspartame increased the fasting blood glucose levels of a group of 40 mice. After being fed aspartame for three months, the mice also had lower insulin levels; insulin is a hormone that helps metabolize glucose in your body. The mice used in the study also had decreased pancreatic function after being fed aspartame. Your pancreas produces several hormones, including insulin. Further research with humans is necessary to determine if diet soda containing aspartame can have the same effect.
Metabolic Syndrome
Diet soda consumption is linked to the development of metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that together can increase your risk for developing diabetes. Symptoms of metabolic syndrome include having an apple-shaped body, thick around your top and middle section; insulin resistance, in which your body resists the influence of insulin; aging; and living a sedentary lifestyle. According to an article published in the April 2009 issue of "Diabetes Care," drinking diet soda daily increases your risk for metabolic syndrome by 36 percent and your risk for diabetes by 67 percent.
Diabetes
A 2011 study from Harvard researchers allays some concerns regarding the damaging effect of diet soda. The researchers studied the relationship between diet and regular soda consumption and diabetes in a group of more than 40,000 men. In the March 2011 issue of "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," the researchers write that for healthy men, drinking sugar-sweetened soda definitely increased their risk for diabetes. Diet soda also seemed to increase the risk, but the correlation diminished after researchers adjusted for other health factors, including family history of diabetes, body-mass index and weight gain.
Recommendations
Monitor your intake of diet soda consumption. If you drink more than one or two each day, consider cutting back. Even if your favorite diet drink does not contain sugar, it may have other ingredients that can affect your health, such as caffeine or sodium. Consider what you're eating with your diet drink. Even if your soda does not raise your blood sugar level, the food you're eating with it may do so.
References
- MayoClinic; Can I Use Artificial Sweeteners If I Have Diabetes?; Maria Collazo-Clavell, M.D.; September 2, 2010
- American Diabetes Assoication 71st Scientific Sessions in San Diego; Aspartame Consumption Is Associated with Elevated Fasting Glucose in Diabetes-Prone Mice; Sharon Parten Fowler, M.P.H., et al.; June 24-28, 2011
- PubMed Health: Metabolic Syndrome
- "Diabetes Care"; Diet Soda Intake and Risk of Incident Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA); Jennifer A. Nettleton, Ph.D., et al.; April 2009
- "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Sugar-sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Men; Lawrence de Koning, Ph.D., et al.; March 2011
