When you love cold and fizzy carbonated beverages, a question may cross your mind: between regular and diet soda, which one is suitable for your intake? This question about carbonated drinks has prevailed for ages and is not answered as a closed-ended debate. One of these drinks contains many grams of sugar, while diet sodas are infused with a heavy quantity of artificial sweeteners to make the diet beverage acceptable to taste buds.
In this article, we will cover the pros and cons of both beverages. We will also try to understand which is more harmful and which is better for human intake.
Understand the Ingredients of Your Beverage:
We will go through the contents of regular and diet carbonated beverages, before discussing their impact on human life and health.
Regular carbonated drinks have white sugar made from sugarcane, beetroot, and sometimes corn syrup. The calorie count per serving (250ml) is about 300 calories. Per serving, sugar content is 10 teaspoons or about 40 grams. Internationally known carbonated beverages include Pepsi Cola, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, and Sprite. Different countries have local, homegrown brands like Next-Cola and Gourmet-Cola in Pakistan and Thumbs-up and Campa-Cola in our neighboring country, India.
Sugar in diet or zero-sugar carbonated beverages is replaced by artificial sweetener content like sucralose and aspartame. These diet drinks have either zero calories or as low as 8-10 calories per serving. International brands are offering beverages in this category like Pepsi-Zero, 7up-Zero, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and Sprite Zero. Even local brands have launched this category after noticing the rising demand for zero-sugar beverages. These drinks are not only a choice for diabetics, they are also preferred by health-conscious people.
Regular or Zero-Sugar, Which One is a Healthier Choice?
We cannot ignore the fact that depending on health conditions, the pros and cons of both categories may vary from person to person.
Tasty but Health Hazardous Regular Soda:
Regular carbonated drinks are made after decades of efforts and transformations according to consumers’ demand. People love these drinks due to their sweet tooth and addictive flavors. The increased usage of these sugar bags raises huge question marks on human health.
The biggest problem the world is facing due to these carbonated beverages is the rapidly increasing graph of obesity around the globe. It has given a tremendous and dangerous hike to diabetes. Human teeth, which are the strongest part of the human body, are decaying early due to the consumption of these sugar-loaded drinks. A 250ml serving offers 250-300 calories but its nutritional value is zero. One serving consumed on a daily basis may result in a weight gain of 7-8 kgs in a year.
Diet Soda: A Healthy Choice or Just a Hype?
Years of consumption of these sugary beverages have raised addiction in humans. People are falling for zero-calorie and no-sugar claims of beverage companies after realizing the cons of regular beverages.
Artificial sweeteners are equipped with chemicals that are not good for the human body. They may also result in an unhealthy gut according to some studies. They do not kill one’s urge for a sweet tooth but rather increase it. Being acidic, they are still equally harmful to teeth.
What Do Nutritionists Say?
Most health experts and nutritionists are in favor of only moderate consumption of carbonated drinks. Carbonated drinks are consumed to fulfill the need for hydration, the urge for fizz, and the desire for a sweet tooth. For hydration, one should choose water. If one is urging for fizz, they have the option to consume sparkling water with lemon or mint. Fruit-infused water, honey mixed with cold water, or homemade iced teas can fulfill the sweet tooth desire.
Reality of Sweeteners Used in Both Categories:
- Regular Carbonated Drinks are loaded with cheap concentrated sugar syrups. Consumption of these drinks is resulting in health issues like obesity, fatty liver, diabetes, and heart problems. Instead of fulfilling one’s urge for a sweet tooth, these drinks enhance sugar cravings and also result in instant sugar spikes, which are life-threatening for people with high blood sugar.
- Diet Sodas or Zero Sugar Drinks might have zero sugar, but their impact on consumers’ health is not zero. These drinks confuse the human body about hunger and satisfaction and send wrong signals to the brain. Diet soda consumption is still an ongoing, never-ending debate among health and nutrition specialists.
If you like to consume carbonated drinks, do not make it a daily habit. You should rather go for occasional consumption only.
Consumer Choices Nowadays:
Today’s consumers are much more reluctant about what goes into their bodies. They are now much more concerned about the ingredients and nutritional values of the edibles or drinkables. This concern has resulted in decreased consumption of regular drinks in the last decade. Zero-sugar drinks are still in demand, but with a lot of questions and concerns. Low-calorie drinks (flavored sparkling water and fruit-infused water) and probiotic drinks are trending. Globally, sparkling water sales have increased by 11%, while carbonated drinks consumption has faced a 4% decline in the year 2024. (Statista)
Which One Wins in Different Situations?
People who are health-conscious and prefer clean eating should intake natural fluids or beverages. Regular carbonated beverages are not good for human health by any means because of the hefty sugar amounts. Zero-sugar drinks, on the other hand, can be taken with caution. If you are in a phase of weight loss or managing your diabetes, cut down or eliminate diet soda as much as you can. Do not believe the zero-sugar tag without reading the ingredients because some of these zero-sugar drinks still have synthetic additives.
Tips to Cut Down Soda Consumption:
- Start slow: Replace one soda a day with sparkling water.
- Use fruit flavors: Lemon, orange slices, or berries make drinks exciting.
- Make it fun: Try soda water mixed with 100% fruit juice.
- Stay prepared: Keep a water bottle or herbal tea in hand.
Conclusion: Who is the winner?
None of these drinks can be a healthy choice and do only bad to your body in their own different ways. Regular soda is loaded with lots of sugar and has given diseases like obesity, strokes, diabetes, and dental issues to the world. While zero-sugar drinks have contributed to poor gut health and dental issues due to their acidic nature and presence of artificial additives. These beverages have zero nutritional value.
Hence, the winner is neither regular soda nor diet soda but YOU, only if you somehow manage to stay away from these carbonated drinks. The best you can do for yourself is to eliminate these drinks from your life completely or at least limit their consumption to occasions only.
I have listed some better alternatives:
- Sparkling water with any citrus fruit
- Iced herbal teas
- Fruit-infused water
- Coconut water
Remember one thing: taking anything in moderation is always a wise option.
Let’s Chat!
Which do you prefer — regular or diet soda? Or have you already made the switch to healthier drinks?
Drop a comment below, share your favorite beverage recipe, or tag a friend who needs to see this!