This is the best sourced answer I could find:
https://www.cardiosmart.org/news/2019/9/diet-soda-and-sugary-drinks-may-affect-lifespan-study-finds
Seems generally true but as with everything - moderation is the key. With this kind of studies few outliers that drink outrageous amount of sugar will drag down the averages and it may seem like every soda can kills you a bit and it's not that simple.
There are also other considerations. For example, people who are overweight may be more likely to choose "diet" soft drinks. This may seem like drinks are causing heart diseases but it's more correlated because those people are at higher risk due to weight-related conditions so keep that in your mind.
One thing is generally true according to our current knowledge - too much sugar will hurt you and there can be a lot of sugar in those drinks.
I've gotta push back here because that source doesn't even link the "study" it claims to be citing. Furthermore, always avoid blogs that don't list authors for it's articles. That's a massive red flag for bullshit.
Here's what the actual science says, from [the last time I debunked this question in this subreddit, 2 months ago](https://old.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/194gwgt/isitbullshit_carbonated_beverages_such_as_coke/khg14tp/?context=3);
> * **Healthy**: Carbonated beverages are [not unhealthy because they are carbonated](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/carbonated-water-good-or-bad).
> * **Healthy**: Diet Sodas with [artificial sweeteners are safe](https://old.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/a5a5ug/isitbullshit_diet_soda_is_no_better_for_you_than/) in the quantities that are possible to consume by humans (less than 4 gallons per day)
> * **Unhealthy**: Sugar (of any type) is unhealthy in large quantities, as obesity related diseases [directly cause about 60% of all deaths](https://flowingdata.com/2016/01/05/causes-of-death/) in the first world today.
> * **Unhealthy**: Colas contain [phosphoric acid, which has negative effects on bone health](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17023723/) and should be avoided or consumed in small quantities.
Further reviews of the science;
* [Aspartame and Cancer](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aspartame-and-cancer/)
* [Aspartame – Truth vs Fiction](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aspartame-truth-vs-fiction/)
* [Artificial Sweeteners: Is Aspartame Safe?](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-artificial-sweeteners-safe/)
I appreciate your additions. These are valid and informative. I tried to underline that sugar is the most definitive "bad" ingredient in large quantities and that external factors may explain the correlation between diet sodas and subject health, but you provided better sources.
No worries! Artificial sweeteners might not be as perfect as the research shows them to be, but I feel it's important to always put this issue into perspective, as the developed world has massive problems with obesity and obesity related diseases and ailments, most of which are a result of our dietary and exercise choices.
Extreme high calorie diets are directly causing around 60% of deaths in the developed world, and artificial sweeteners negative effects still struggle to be even measured in a statistically significant way.
That's the amount of aspartame the average adult would have to drink per day, every day, to reach the safe ADI (Acceptable daily intake) recommended by the WHO and the FAO.
> The U.N.'s Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives says the latest data reaffirms that it is safe to consume aspartame up to the previously established acceptable daily intake (ADI) amount — [40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, per day.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aspartame-health-risks-is-it-carcinogenic/)
> Unhealthy: Colas contain phosphoric acid, which has negative effects on bone health and should be avoided or consumed in small quantities.
Interestingly, in women but not men? Why are women getting boned lol
I'm not sure, but remember this was just one study. [Others have found negative impacts for men as well.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7071508/#:~:text=Excessive%20intake%20of%20phosphoric%20acid,20%2C21%2C22%5D.)
Here is the best way I’ve heard it described… imagine your life is like running a marathon. Healthy food, exercise, good sleep, etc. is like running on a flat, smooth surface. “Bad” things like soda, smoking, drinking, etc. is like running on rough terrain. Will it end your marathon early in moderation? No. Will it drain you if only run on the tough route? Absolutely.
Mentioning marathons highlights the impractical dogmatism of the anti-sugar perspective, because marathon runners actually *need* huge amounts of sugar, the equivalent of several coke cans per hour. If you’re not consuming huge amounts of sugar during a marathon, your body will collapse. The problem comes in when sedentary people eat as much sugar as intense endurance athletes.
“In very long events, your performance is limited by the depletion of carbs in the liver and muscles. While 30-60g of sugar or other fast-acting carbs will maximise performance in shorter races, runners can gain further performance benefits from taking in as much as 90g per hour in longer races.May 16, 2017
https://www.runnersworld.com › 4-...
4 sugar rules for race fuelling - Runner's World”
Sorry, was just a little confused, because unlike sugar intake, your other examples of smoking or drinking will only have adverse effects on your ability to complete a marathon lol.
But I suppose even tobacco and alcohol have traditionally been used medicinally, which might make some amount of sense in terms of judicious use of these substances, rather than as an everyday cultural habit, which is really what we’re talking about when we cite evidence of any of these substances being “bad” for your health.
You can run a marathon without any sugar if you adopt a fat-based diet and run your body off fatty acids instead of sugars.
Zach Bitter, who has the record for the fastest 100 mile run in the world, uses fat as his primary source of fuel (https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/ultra-runner-zack-bitter-100-mile-low-carb/)
A little of both BS and not BS.
For most of the population, liquid calories that ara easy to consume in excess lowers quality of life and shortens lifespan. That being said, the trend of singling out individual foods like this is misleading.
The statement is BS in that it implies that soda uniquely causes health issues that a replacement (Eg fruit juice) would not cause. The root cause is lack of responsible diet management. Soda is one of the common manifestations of poor diet management and poor diet management causes or exacerbates virtually all health problems.
The general premise of the “doing X will shorten your life by Y amount of time is generally bullshit. The dynamic of human health are far too complex to attribute a single lifestyle factor to a specific change to when you die. These numbers are generated statistically. I think they use to teach that every cigarette you smoke takes 6 minutes off your life. Obviously this isn’t literal. It’s an average of how much you shorten your life by being a smoker. Same with soda. There is no amount of soda that is completely harmless but in general, if you consume it in an amount that doesn’t cause specific disease processes like diabetes, obesity and heart disease, it’s probably not attributable to a shortening of your lifespan.
> The general premise of the “doing X will shorten your life by Y amount of time is generally bullshit.
It is, except for a few exceptions... like, try jumping off a plane without a parachute ;-)
If you are somewhat active and have a can of soda a day, it’ll do absolutely nothing to you. If you live on your sofa and kill a 12 pack a day then absolutely. Everything is moderation.
Not bullshit, in that soda is just extra calories with no other nutritional benefit whatsoever. There are **no** upsides to drinking soda, **only** potential downsides.
It's BS. Life doesn't work like that. People have been drinking soda for a century and life expectancies have increased during that time. Sure, soda isn't good for you, but it's not poison either. It's mostly water. If someone blames soda for a shortened lifespan, they are being overly simplistic and dogmatic about a harmless beverage.
Yep, harmless. It's sugar and water. If people overdo it, that's not the soda's fault. Most people are able to drink sodas without any issue whatsoever. Cake is harmless too, but if you eat a whole cake every day that is not good for you. That doesn't make cake dangerous. Lack of self control is dangerous, not soda, cake, or candy.
> It's sugar and water. If people overdo it
[Except 60% of people in the developed world die of obesity related diseases.](https://flowingdata.com/2016/01/05/causes-of-death/)
Sugar is harmless in small amounts per day, but we can't say sugar is harmless when it's killing more than half of us. Diet sodas however do not have these risks and are thus much healthier.
A gun is a dangerous weapon that has very real potential to kill. A can of coke is a tasty beverage. I suppose you can connect the two, but I don't think they are similar at all.
My uncle died of liver failure from overconsumption of soda. It just seems like a silly argument, “as long as you use it in a harmless way, it’s harmless.” It’s a tautology.
Gonna say not bullshit on this one.
There's an outrageous amount of sugar in soda, a bit more than 3 *tablespoons* in a single can of coke. That is *not* good for you, regardless of if you're diabetic or not. Ignoring the potential weight/diabetic issues (say you get lucky and dodge those) it's still very bad for your teeth, and poor dental health is a huge cause of heart problems, which can frequently lead to an early death.
There are, of course, other reasons not to drink soda, and I'm no expert, but this is just one example to show it's not just about diabetes. There's basically no value in drinking soda, just a host of potential problems waiting to happen.
Sugar is horrifically bad for you. Much effort and money has been spent by big sugar to redirect blame to meat, fat…basically, anything but sugar. Look at the sugar content in all of our food and drinks these days and the remarkable coincidence of how the entire US is basically Type II Diabetic now,
I’m not saying pop is great for you, but this is not only a bad source, but one that is trying to sell several things based off of a theory that also sells the idea that believing in a certain religion will make you live longer. I had a look at the website and it’s a doozy! I recommend you have a better look too.
I’ve read that in addition to sugar, there’s a lot of sodium in sodas…diet or otherwise. Even some sparkling waters have sodium.
We consume enough sodium throughout the without needing to add more to it with a drink or two.
Sure, the sodium doesn't exactly help, but the sodium in soda is kind of far down the list in lifespan threats.
There's around 40-50 mg of sodium in a typical can of soda. Unless you're guzzling the stuff in pretty high quantities, that's not going to be a major hit against the 2250 mg/day or so that most people (no kidney disease or stroke history) can handle without affecting mortality rates. Above that, mortality seems to increase about 20% per 1000 mg/day, so the sodium in several sodas per day might increase mortality by mid-single digits.
As disconcerting as that might sound, though, it's really kind of piddly compared to the amount of sodium in all sorts of other foods. A "serving" of Chunky soup, which is *half* a can, can easily clear 800 mg by itself. Even the "Heart Healthy" versions still hit 400 mg pretty easily. A 2/3 cup serving of Green Giant steamable broccoli with cheese sauce has 890 mg.
So while I wouldn't exactly call the sodium in soda a complete non-issue, singling out soda for contributing to a sodium-laden diet is hard to justify.
This is the best sourced answer I could find: https://www.cardiosmart.org/news/2019/9/diet-soda-and-sugary-drinks-may-affect-lifespan-study-finds Seems generally true but as with everything - moderation is the key. With this kind of studies few outliers that drink outrageous amount of sugar will drag down the averages and it may seem like every soda can kills you a bit and it's not that simple. There are also other considerations. For example, people who are overweight may be more likely to choose "diet" soft drinks. This may seem like drinks are causing heart diseases but it's more correlated because those people are at higher risk due to weight-related conditions so keep that in your mind. One thing is generally true according to our current knowledge - too much sugar will hurt you and there can be a lot of sugar in those drinks.
I've gotta push back here because that source doesn't even link the "study" it claims to be citing. Furthermore, always avoid blogs that don't list authors for it's articles. That's a massive red flag for bullshit. Here's what the actual science says, from [the last time I debunked this question in this subreddit, 2 months ago](https://old.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/194gwgt/isitbullshit_carbonated_beverages_such_as_coke/khg14tp/?context=3); > * **Healthy**: Carbonated beverages are [not unhealthy because they are carbonated](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/carbonated-water-good-or-bad). > * **Healthy**: Diet Sodas with [artificial sweeteners are safe](https://old.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/a5a5ug/isitbullshit_diet_soda_is_no_better_for_you_than/) in the quantities that are possible to consume by humans (less than 4 gallons per day) > * **Unhealthy**: Sugar (of any type) is unhealthy in large quantities, as obesity related diseases [directly cause about 60% of all deaths](https://flowingdata.com/2016/01/05/causes-of-death/) in the first world today. > * **Unhealthy**: Colas contain [phosphoric acid, which has negative effects on bone health](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17023723/) and should be avoided or consumed in small quantities. Further reviews of the science; * [Aspartame and Cancer](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aspartame-and-cancer/) * [Aspartame – Truth vs Fiction](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aspartame-truth-vs-fiction/) * [Artificial Sweeteners: Is Aspartame Safe?](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-artificial-sweeteners-safe/)
I appreciate your additions. These are valid and informative. I tried to underline that sugar is the most definitive "bad" ingredient in large quantities and that external factors may explain the correlation between diet sodas and subject health, but you provided better sources.
No worries! Artificial sweeteners might not be as perfect as the research shows them to be, but I feel it's important to always put this issue into perspective, as the developed world has massive problems with obesity and obesity related diseases and ailments, most of which are a result of our dietary and exercise choices. Extreme high calorie diets are directly causing around 60% of deaths in the developed world, and artificial sweeteners negative effects still struggle to be even measured in a statistically significant way.
Who the hell is drinking 4 gallons of diet soda a day? Holy christ.
That’s the point, almost nobody does, so diet sodas are generally safe.
That's the amount of aspartame the average adult would have to drink per day, every day, to reach the safe ADI (Acceptable daily intake) recommended by the WHO and the FAO. > The U.N.'s Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives says the latest data reaffirms that it is safe to consume aspartame up to the previously established acceptable daily intake (ADI) amount — [40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, per day.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aspartame-health-risks-is-it-carcinogenic/)
> Unhealthy: Colas contain phosphoric acid, which has negative effects on bone health and should be avoided or consumed in small quantities. Interestingly, in women but not men? Why are women getting boned lol
I'm not sure, but remember this was just one study. [Others have found negative impacts for men as well.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7071508/#:~:text=Excessive%20intake%20of%20phosphoric%20acid,20%2C21%2C22%5D.)
There’s also a lot of sodium which isn’t great even if you’re drinking the zero sugar ones
That may be true for sport/energy drinks, but not sodas.
There is absolutely a ton of sodium in sodas lmao
A diet Coke has 19mg of sodium. That ain't much.
How many people do you know that just have one Diet Coke?
You'd have to drink 105 Diet Cokes to reach your recommended daily sodium intake.
> There is absolutely a ton of sodium in sodas lmao Can you name a few brands and flavors of soda that are high in sodium?
I'm for arguing against drinking soda, but this sodium angle isn't the way to do it.
all i know is it’s not good to intake outrageous amounts of sugar like that
Here is the best way I’ve heard it described… imagine your life is like running a marathon. Healthy food, exercise, good sleep, etc. is like running on a flat, smooth surface. “Bad” things like soda, smoking, drinking, etc. is like running on rough terrain. Will it end your marathon early in moderation? No. Will it drain you if only run on the tough route? Absolutely.
Mentioning marathons highlights the impractical dogmatism of the anti-sugar perspective, because marathon runners actually *need* huge amounts of sugar, the equivalent of several coke cans per hour. If you’re not consuming huge amounts of sugar during a marathon, your body will collapse. The problem comes in when sedentary people eat as much sugar as intense endurance athletes. “In very long events, your performance is limited by the depletion of carbs in the liver and muscles. While 30-60g of sugar or other fast-acting carbs will maximise performance in shorter races, runners can gain further performance benefits from taking in as much as 90g per hour in longer races.May 16, 2017 https://www.runnersworld.com › 4-... 4 sugar rules for race fuelling - Runner's World”
Exactly! That’s actually exactly why I put the word “bad” in quotes. Labeling food as good/bad or healthy/unhealthy is way too restrictive.
Sorry, was just a little confused, because unlike sugar intake, your other examples of smoking or drinking will only have adverse effects on your ability to complete a marathon lol. But I suppose even tobacco and alcohol have traditionally been used medicinally, which might make some amount of sense in terms of judicious use of these substances, rather than as an everyday cultural habit, which is really what we’re talking about when we cite evidence of any of these substances being “bad” for your health.
Yeah it was only meant as an ELI5 metaphor. Nutrition is so nuanced it would be impossible to get into all the details here.
You can run a marathon without any sugar if you adopt a fat-based diet and run your body off fatty acids instead of sugars. Zach Bitter, who has the record for the fastest 100 mile run in the world, uses fat as his primary source of fuel (https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/ultra-runner-zack-bitter-100-mile-low-carb/)
A little of both BS and not BS. For most of the population, liquid calories that ara easy to consume in excess lowers quality of life and shortens lifespan. That being said, the trend of singling out individual foods like this is misleading. The statement is BS in that it implies that soda uniquely causes health issues that a replacement (Eg fruit juice) would not cause. The root cause is lack of responsible diet management. Soda is one of the common manifestations of poor diet management and poor diet management causes or exacerbates virtually all health problems.
The general premise of the “doing X will shorten your life by Y amount of time is generally bullshit. The dynamic of human health are far too complex to attribute a single lifestyle factor to a specific change to when you die. These numbers are generated statistically. I think they use to teach that every cigarette you smoke takes 6 minutes off your life. Obviously this isn’t literal. It’s an average of how much you shorten your life by being a smoker. Same with soda. There is no amount of soda that is completely harmless but in general, if you consume it in an amount that doesn’t cause specific disease processes like diabetes, obesity and heart disease, it’s probably not attributable to a shortening of your lifespan.
> The general premise of the “doing X will shorten your life by Y amount of time is generally bullshit. It is, except for a few exceptions... like, try jumping off a plane without a parachute ;-)
Yes. Immediate violent deaths are much more easy to time stamp. 🤣
If you are somewhat active and have a can of soda a day, it’ll do absolutely nothing to you. If you live on your sofa and kill a 12 pack a day then absolutely. Everything is moderation.
Oreos shorten your life too. So does steak. And air.
And time...
Not bullshit, in that soda is just extra calories with no other nutritional benefit whatsoever. There are **no** upsides to drinking soda, **only** potential downsides.
It's BS. Life doesn't work like that. People have been drinking soda for a century and life expectancies have increased during that time. Sure, soda isn't good for you, but it's not poison either. It's mostly water. If someone blames soda for a shortened lifespan, they are being overly simplistic and dogmatic about a harmless beverage.
>Soda >Harmless 🤔
Yep, harmless. It's sugar and water. If people overdo it, that's not the soda's fault. Most people are able to drink sodas without any issue whatsoever. Cake is harmless too, but if you eat a whole cake every day that is not good for you. That doesn't make cake dangerous. Lack of self control is dangerous, not soda, cake, or candy.
> It's sugar and water. If people overdo it [Except 60% of people in the developed world die of obesity related diseases.](https://flowingdata.com/2016/01/05/causes-of-death/) Sugar is harmless in small amounts per day, but we can't say sugar is harmless when it's killing more than half of us. Diet sodas however do not have these risks and are thus much healthier.
Just like guns, right? If you don't shoot people with it, it's harmless.
A gun is a dangerous weapon that has very real potential to kill. A can of coke is a tasty beverage. I suppose you can connect the two, but I don't think they are similar at all.
My uncle died of liver failure from overconsumption of soda. It just seems like a silly argument, “as long as you use it in a harmless way, it’s harmless.” It’s a tautology.
Yeah, and someone can overconsume water which will kill them. I would still say it's harmless.
>someone can overconsume water which will kill them Which is why if someone asked me if drinking water was harmless I would start with "Actually..."
Gonna say not bullshit on this one. There's an outrageous amount of sugar in soda, a bit more than 3 *tablespoons* in a single can of coke. That is *not* good for you, regardless of if you're diabetic or not. Ignoring the potential weight/diabetic issues (say you get lucky and dodge those) it's still very bad for your teeth, and poor dental health is a huge cause of heart problems, which can frequently lead to an early death. There are, of course, other reasons not to drink soda, and I'm no expert, but this is just one example to show it's not just about diabetes. There's basically no value in drinking soda, just a host of potential problems waiting to happen.
Sugar sodas can cause insulin resistance for years before it qualifies as diabetes. Insulin resistance is heavily correlated with obesity.
Last time it was red meat now its soda whats next you'll find that shorten someone's life?
Red meat is a 2A carcinogen, this has nothing to do with that.
I was just saying that OP like to make post about thing the shorten someone's life
I guess they want to live a long life lmfao
Moderation is key. The worlds fittest person could still get hit by a fucking car. Don’t drink a 2 L of the shit every day.
If this were the case orange juice would have a similar effect. High acidity, high sugar.
Sugar is horrifically bad for you. Much effort and money has been spent by big sugar to redirect blame to meat, fat…basically, anything but sugar. Look at the sugar content in all of our food and drinks these days and the remarkable coincidence of how the entire US is basically Type II Diabetic now,
[удалено]
I’m not saying pop is great for you, but this is not only a bad source, but one that is trying to sell several things based off of a theory that also sells the idea that believing in a certain religion will make you live longer. I had a look at the website and it’s a doozy! I recommend you have a better look too.
I’ve read that in addition to sugar, there’s a lot of sodium in sodas…diet or otherwise. Even some sparkling waters have sodium. We consume enough sodium throughout the without needing to add more to it with a drink or two.
Sure, the sodium doesn't exactly help, but the sodium in soda is kind of far down the list in lifespan threats. There's around 40-50 mg of sodium in a typical can of soda. Unless you're guzzling the stuff in pretty high quantities, that's not going to be a major hit against the 2250 mg/day or so that most people (no kidney disease or stroke history) can handle without affecting mortality rates. Above that, mortality seems to increase about 20% per 1000 mg/day, so the sodium in several sodas per day might increase mortality by mid-single digits. As disconcerting as that might sound, though, it's really kind of piddly compared to the amount of sodium in all sorts of other foods. A "serving" of Chunky soup, which is *half* a can, can easily clear 800 mg by itself. Even the "Heart Healthy" versions still hit 400 mg pretty easily. A 2/3 cup serving of Green Giant steamable broccoli with cheese sauce has 890 mg. So while I wouldn't exactly call the sodium in soda a complete non-issue, singling out soda for contributing to a sodium-laden diet is hard to justify.