Reports keep surfacing that soft drink companies are continuing to search for the “perfect” no-calorie sweetener for their concoctions. But no matter how alluring this may sound, there’s good reason to be wary.
A story at BloombergBusiness describes efforts to “build a better diet soda.” The motive behind the work going into identifying new sweeteners is an attempt to staunch our declining thirst for soft drinks. Soft drink sales are dropping like a rock sinking into a puddle of Diet Coke.
The artificial sweeteners used now in diet drinks don’t taste very compelling and the reputation of these chemicals, according to the Bloomberg story, is spooking consumers.
What the story neglects to explore is the basic health destructiveness linked to soft drinks, whether they’re sweetened with plain sugar, the infamous high fructose corn syrup, or a chemical that only a food chemist could love. Soft drinks increase the acidity in your body (leading to a wide range of health imbalances including weakening bones), boost your risk for kidney stones, interfere with the absorption of minerals and increase the fat you carry around your middle.
When soft drink companies have tried to incorporate the natural sweetener stevia into their beverages, the drinks have generally disappointed because what you get in the finished product is a limited amount of natural stevia and whole host of artificial additives.
And even if these giant food companies could come up with a no-cal sweetener that pleased the tongue, research shows that just the fact that something tastes sweet with no calories may harm the body. For instance, a study of sucralose at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, shows that its sweet taste stimulates the digestive tract and the pancreas to release extra hormones, including insulin. This causes an uptake in glucose absorption, derived from other foods eaten at the same time.
The researchers warn that nobody knows what the long-term effects of these physiological processes are. But there is going to be an effect. “Our results indicate that this artificial sweetener is not inert – it does have an effect,” warns researcher M. Yanina Pepino. “And we need to do more studies to determine whether this observation means long-term use could be harmful.”
A better choice for a refreshing drink is something like coconut water. Coconut water enjoys widespread popularity in tropical countries where you can get it still in the young green coconut with a straw inserted.
Coconut water is refreshing and just about the perfect liquid after an exercise session.
“Coconut water is a natural drink that has everything your average sports drink has and more,” says researcher Chhandashri Bhattacharya who has investigated the effects of sports drinks. “It has five times more potassium than Gatorade or Powerade. Whenever you get cramps in your muscles, potassium will help you to get rid of the cramps. It’s a healthy drink that replenishes the nutrients that your body has lost during a moderate workout.”
If you sweat profusely when you exercise, she recommends adding some unprocessed sea salt (table salt is stripped of useful minerals) to your coconut water. Even if you don’t work out, she says, coconut water provides the potassium that most Americans don’t get in their diet.
When the next no-cal soft drink rolls out, we can expect to see a compelling marketing campaign designed to draw consumers to supermarket checkouts. But I think the truth about these drinks is as clear as Diet Sprite: You should avoid them and check out coconut water instead.
The brand I like best is Harvest Bay coconut water because it has no added sugar and it’s not packaged in a can, which can have harmful chemicals in the inner lining. Taste Nirvana is another good one. They do have one canned version, but I like the one that comes in a glass bottle.
