Argumentative Essay About Diet Sodas

Diet Sodas Diet sodas became more popular than ever in the 2000s. Since the introduction of Diet Coke, Coca Cola Zero, Sprite Zero and Fanta Zero, diet sodas have sometimes been considered as a replacement of water. Certainly, one bottle of diet soda has less than one calorie, but the ingredients that make up the diet sodas are harmful to our health. Despite containing no sugar, a little known fallacy is that diet sodas can help us on losing our weight. Diet sodas contain very little calories but they are not healthy, may lead to major health problems and there are certainly other drinks which are more beneficial than diet sodas.
During the NYC Soda Ban, numerous people argued that diet sodas are not the factor causing obesity or metabolic
syndrome, the numerous people who said this stated that the people is the problem of obesity. Surely, a portion of this statement is correct; the other portion of the statement is false. Without a doubt, diet sodas can never cause obesity without a living body because people need to consume the beverage first to actually get fat. Also, a bottle of diet soda contains almost zero calories; this is a good benefit of diet sodas because drinking a bottle of diet soda does not affect your daily calorie intake. But since diet sodas are dangerous, it is not fair to sell unsafe products in the stores. Furthermore, not many people recognize this fallacy, but diet sodas cannot lead to weight loss. The people who thought diet sodas can help them shed some pounds will continue drinking diet sodas and eventually experience the ugly effects the diet sodas could lead to. People who established that diet sodas are not dangerous do not realize the truth about the beverage. First of all, diet sodas are basically water and other chemicals mixed together to form an incredibly sweet drink that contains less than one calorie. Companies like The Coca Cola Company and Pepsi remove all the sugar in their diet sodas and replace them with artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame and Saccharin. These substitutes for sugar have less than one calorie, but they also contain almost no nutrients that our bodies can benefit from. A team at the University of California, San Diego performed a research that confirmed diet sodas lead to excess hunger for food. They concluded this happens because the human brain is attracted to sugar, but since the sugar substitutes, or the artificial sweeteners possess very little amount of calories, the brain signals the body to consume more food. Amazingly, recent experiments done by a team led by Dr. Sara N. Bleich at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health proved that diet sodas do not lead to weight loss in any way. The team predicted this happens because the artificial sweeteners found in the drink do not possess great nutritional values and diet beverages do not play a massive role in weight loss, meaning that a person could drink diet sodas everyday but still not lose weight because the person could be eating more than they should. Sugar, a very harmful substance if consumed uncontrollably, actually contains benefits for our bodies.
First of all, sugar is a source of energy; it also reduces the risks of having low blood pressure. Our brains also cannot function properly without sugar. There are numerous reasons why people should discontinue the consumption of diet sodas. For instance, a research team at Nature, a journal company, proved diet sodas might increase the chances of having a metabolic syndrome. A person with a metabolic syndrome has three of the following: excessive body fat, high-fasting glucose, triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high blood pressure. Diet sodas are also linked with type II diabetes, especially in women. Scientists proved that, for women, drinking only one bottle of diet soda each day could increase the risk of catching type II diabetes by 6%. Although diet sodas can lead to metabolic syndrome, there are no solid evidences that prove diet sodas can cause
cancer. Without a doubt, there are better replacements for diet sodas, one of them being water.
Water contains zero calories, allows our body to function properly, and control the amount of sugar in our blood. Freshly squeezed juices can also act as a replacement of diet sodas. Freshly squeezed juices are beneficial to us since it contains nutrients for our bodies. Such nutrients fall under the Carotenoids class, they prevent cancer. Some fruits also contain Vitamin C, which prevents cardiovascular disease and even skin wrinkling. Another better alternative for diet sodas is iced tea. Iced tea is sweet, but it is not mixed with artificial sweeteners, which can possibly lead to major diseases. Iced tea is packed with antioxidants and Vitamin C. Antioxidants prevent cell damage and Vitamin
C Diet sodas cannot assist us on losing weight. They are not natural, have almost none nutritional values, and can lead to major health problems, such as type II diabetes or high blood pressure. As established by a number of researchers, diet sodas are bad for our health. Fresh juices and iced teas would be the better replacements for diet sodas. Once again, because diet sodas are hazardous and not diet-friendly, people should prevent consuming them.

Visual Resource The graph above shows the correlation between the consumption of diet sodas and abdominal obesity. As shown in the graph, people who consumed more that two servings of diet sodas per day have a mean increase of waist circumference of 4.74 cm. while people who consumed none diet sodas per day have a mean increase of waist circumference of only 0.76 cm. The little increased waist circumference for people who do not consume diet sodas at all may result from other food consumptions. This graph proved that diet sodas lead to health problems such as abdominal obesity.