You all may have seen the recent headlines regarding consumption of diet soda and risk of dementia and stroke. If not then click here to read the story.

For years Americans have focused on realizing that sugary drinks are not our friend due to calories and risk for diabetes and obesity. This has caused us to shift our focus often to drinking diet sodas or artificially sweetened drinks to cut out those calories and keep a slimmer waistline.

However there is now more and more research showing that artificial sweeteners may actually cause more weight gain than weight loss. Click here to read a great article by Harvard University explaining the latest research on this. Research is showing that when we consume artificial sweeteners our brains are not having the same reaction to those as it does when we consume sugar. This leads to our bodies still craving more sweets which may lead to more calorie consumption and therefore weight gain.

The most recent headlines concerning diet soda and dementia and stroke is not due to the word “diet,” but due to commonly used artificial sweeteners used in those diet drinks. The study demonstrated a link between drinking one diet soda per day to increased risk for dementia and stroke. The research participants were drinking diet drinks that contained one of the following artificial sweeteners: saccharin, acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, or sucralose.

Don’t recognize the names? Let me break it down for you:

-Saccharin= Sweet’N Low
-Acesulfame= Sweet One
-Aspartame= Equal or NutraSweet
-Sucralose= Splenda

So obviously, if all of the participants in a study showed that drinking sodas containing those ingredients caused a link to dementia and stroke, one can easily conclude that consuming any of those ingredients in any way will also increase your risk of dementia and stroke.

In a nutshell, sugar is not our friend. We have known that now for quite some time. It increases our risk for diabetes and obesity. However, research is proving that just because you use artificial sugar to try to cut out calories you may be still increasing your risk for not only obesity but also dementia and stroke. We simply need to get back to the basics in our diets. This means we start eating foods in their most natural God made forms. And we need to start drinking more of the lowest calorie option available: WATER.

Stay tuned for more diet information and help in the near future. We have exciting new possibilities that will help our patients maintain/lose weight, decrease medications by using proper diet, and controlling diabetes more with foods than with medicines. A blog post concerning this exciting news will come your way soon!

As always please feel free to contact our office for any of your healthcare needs. We are passionate about keeping you healthy!

Yours truly,

Carolyn Clark, NP-C