America’s obesity epidemic has brought weight loss and a resulting slew of new diet fads into the limelight. Weight loss products fill supermarket shelves and promise quick results, but by utilizing diet products to drop pounds, Americans could be overlooking potential detriments to their health.

Of particular interest are the countless new diet sodas on which many Americans have come to rely. Many diet drinks claim to contain zero calories, zero grams of sugar, fat, and carbohydrates, and in fact many don’t contain any of those disliked macronutrients. But, this begs the question: what exactly do they contain? Take a look at the back of one of the tin cans and read the ingredients. Of the few chemicals you can actually pronounce, you might recognize aspartame (marketed as NutraSweet), sucralose (marketed as Splenda), saccharine, or Acesulfame-k; all of which are artificial sweeteners that imitate the taste of a soda sweetened with real sugar.

The above sweeteners were discovered in the 70s, and were thought to help prevent obesity by providing the satisfying taste of sugar without the calories. However, I believe that they haven’t really done much to remedy the problem of obesity, and may in fact be worsening the situation. As I researched artificial flavor enhancers and their side effects, I stumbled upon numerous tests performed on rats and their results.

The first finding that really intrigued me was that artificial sweeteners seemed to stimulate appetite in the rats when consumed, which is exactly the opposite of what a diet product should be designed to do. The health side effects from consuming some sweeteners are even more concerning. A study done on a group of adults suffering from migraines showed that consuming aspartame made participants’ headaches more frequent and more severe. In a study of the effect of aspartame on 40 patients with depression, the study was cut short due to the severity of reactions within the first 13 patients tested. Finally, in an FDA trial, 12 rats out of an initial 320 developed malignant brain tumors after receiving aspartame as part of their diet.

And if that’s not enough to make you question the benefits of using artificial sweeteners, here’s one more thing: don’t be convinced that there are really no calories inside those colorful packets. Artificial sweeteners often contain dextrose and maltodextrine, two refined carbohydrates, which means that in the end you are still consuming a few calories. So next time you decide to enjoy a nice cold diet soda, ask yourself if the benefits of fewer calories really outweigh the uncertainty when it comes to artificial sweeteners.

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