Americans drink a whopping 10.4 billion gallons of soda every year. Many of these drinks contain sugar-based sweeteners like sucrose and fructose, which can have a dangerous impact on your blood glucose levels if you are a diabetic. Diet soft drinks are one alternative to sodas that allow you to have the same sweet taste without the calories, but you may wonder if these soft drinks are any safer than their sugary counterparts.
Carbohydrate Content
One carbohydrate will raise your blood glucose level anywhere from 3 to 5 mg per deciliter. A single 12-ounce can of regular cola contains 35.2 g of carbohydrates, or roughly 12 percent of your daily value for the macronutrient. Because many artificial sweeteners in diet sodas have no calories or carbohydrates, they do not have the rocketing effect on your blood glucose that regular soda does. This makes diet drinks a much safer substitution for diabetics, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Moderation
You still need to limit the amount of diet soda you drink daily, even if the label on the bottle says there are no carbohydrates. While artificial sweeteners have significantly fewer calories than standard sugar, each type may contain a few calories per gram. For example, aspartame has 4 calories per gram. Drinking a large amount of diet soda per day can give you a slight rise in blood glucose, but it will likely be negligible. Speak to a registered dietitian if you feel you drink an excessive amount of diet soda per day and have cause to be concerned about the potential blood glucose effect.
Filler Material
Many non-sucrose sweeteners — such as saccharin, sucralose and stevia — have no carbohydrates on their own, but the final product used in a diet soda may not be so pure. Manufacturers often couple artificial sweeteners with chemical agents like erythritol, isomalt and trehalose to change the texture and taste of the final product. These additives may contain small amounts of carbohydrates that can have a slight effect on your blood glucose.
Hunger Effect
Diet soda has little direct effect on your blood glucose, but it could be driving you to binge eat. Research from Purdue University published in “Behavioral Neuroscience” in 2008 demonstrated that rats eating yogurt sweetened with saccharin consumed more calories than rats who ate the same food sweetened with sugar. This may be because the calorie-free sweeteners do not satisfy your hunger, driving you to eat more as your hunger increases. However, the American Dietetic Association calls Purdue’s findings “speculative” until additional research confirms them.
References
- American Diabetes Association: Ask the Registered Dietitian Archives
- "Journal of the American Dietetic Association"; Position Paper -- Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners; Valerie B. Duffy, Ph.D., R.D., et al.; 2004
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Diabetes Diet
- Harvard School of Public Health: Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks - What's the Best Choice?
- Healthaliciousness.com: Side by Side Nutrition Facts Comparison for Carbonated Beverage, Cola, Contains Caffeine
