There isn’t anybody left who thinks diet soda is good for you, is there? Just in case you haven’t heard, be warned: the “diet” in the label definitely doesn’t mean “health.” The chemicals present in diet soft drinks – especially the most common artificial sweetener, aspartame – make these beverages, in many ways, worse for you than regular soda. We could go over all the ways diet sodas hurt your body, but why don’t we take a more positive spin instead and look at all the ways Prevention tells us your body benefits when you give them up?
1- Your brain will feel and work better.
One of the scariest things about aspartame and the other chemicals in diet soda is that some studies show that they literally rewire our brains, damaging nerve endings and altering chemicals. Luckily, as soon as you stop ingesting them, those effects start diminishing. You’ll think more clearly, sleep better, have fewer headaches and experience less anxiety. The sweet receptors in your brain will also go back to normal, meaning . . .
2- Food will taste better, and you’ll crave foods that are better for you.
Sugar will finally satisfy your cravings again, rather than prolonging them the way diet sodas do. It doesn’t just happen in your brain, either. Your taste buds get so used to the extremely high sweetness of artificial sweeteners – aspartame is 200 times sweeter than regular sugar and Stevia is 600 times sweeter – that you can become numb to more subtle, natural tastes. Getting rid of that overstimulation not only means you’ll be able to satisfy your cravings with healthier foods, you’ll actually want them more and prefer them to too-sweet soft drinks.
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