Diet Soda: Helpful or Harmful? CC#3

     An expository article published on Friday, February 8, 2013, by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine/Healthy Living, confirmed results from a study done by French researchers, linking diet soda to increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes.  This article by Alphonse was written as part of a series over the past year stating claims by various research groups about the ill effects of consuming diet soda. 
     Dr. Honglei Chen, a study author from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, stated that artificially "sweetened beverages...have important physical and mental health consequences."  Dr. Chen's study, along with another study, performed by the Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, have stated that consumption of artificially sweetened beverages is contributory to conditions such as depression and weight gain rather than weight loss.
     The current French study to be published in the American Journal of clinical nutrition was done by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research.  The study covered "66,118 middle aged women whose dietary habits were tracked from 1993-2007."  The study showed that people who drank light or diet soda's were at higher risk for Type 2 Diabetes than those who drank regular soda's.  Epidemiologists Francoise Clavel-Chapelon and Guy Fagherzzi, stated that "Women who drank about 12 ounces of artificially sweetened beverages per week were 33 percent more likely to develop the disease..."  Although these drinks have no calories or sugar, they are found to increase sugar cravings in consumers, causing them to eat more sugar containing foods.  Also, Aspartame, among other artificial sweeteners, causes a rise in blood sugar just like regular sugar. 
     The American Diabetes Association states that "About 25.8 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes...about 8.3 percent of our population."  Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in people 20 and older; and causes heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and nerve damage.  Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes in the United States. 
     In conclusion, I have learned that this disease is highly controllable by each individual.  If we are careful about what we consume, our weight and our overall health, we can completely avoid this type of diabetes.  Education regarding this disease is essential to the population of the United States as well as the world itself.