WARNING: This article might crush your dream of losing weight. Prepared now? Alright. The most popular weight-loss product in America was scientifically proven to actually encourage weight-gain.
Yes, your diet soda makes you fat.
According to a recent study, daily diet soda drinkers get 2 ½ more inches of belly fat eevery 10 years than those who don't drink diet soda. Despite having no or lesser calories, these tricky drinks make you gain more weight.
Miriam Jacobson, RD, CDN, explains to Yahoo Health that diet drinks cause insulin to be released in the gut. Insulin is the body's primary fat-storage hormone, thus it will have the body hold onto any extra fat.
Just like regular sodas, diet colas also damage the immune system because their acidity causes disorder with our gut bacteria. And the dark coloring in many sodas contains artificial phosphorous that leaches calcium from our bones.
Yahoo looked through the ingredients of the most popular diet sodas in America and ranked 38 of them by measuring the amount of aspartamane, the most pervasive sweetener, in them. Researchers claim that aspartame is linked to brain tumors and lymphoma. Yahoo gave demerits to diet sodas with higher aspartame counts and gave high marks for drinks with natural ingredients.
Now...drumroll please! Here are the top 38 diet sodas on the list:
38. Diet Mountain Dew 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 50 mg sodium
37. Tab 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
36. Fresca Original Citrus 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
35. Coca-Cola Life 12 oz, 90 calories, 24 g sugar
34. Pepsi True 12 fl. oz., 60 calories, 16 g sugar
33. Pepsi Next 12 fl oz, 60 calories, 15 g sugar
32. RC Ten 12 fl oz., 10 calories, 3 g sugar
31. Dr. Pepper Ten 12 fl oz, 12 calories, 2.4 g sugar
30. Sunkist Ten 12 fl oz., 10 calories, 2 g sugar
29. A&W Ten 12 fl oz., 10 calories, 2 g sugar
28. Canada Dry Ten 12 fl oz., 10 calories, 2 g sugar
27. 7-Up Ten 12 fl oz, 10 calories, 2 g sugar
26. Pepsi Max 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
25. Mello Yello Zero
24. Fanta Zero 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
23. Diet Sunkist 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 sugar
22. Pibb Zero 0 calories, 0 sugar
21. Diet Barq's Root Beer 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
20. Diet Mug Root Beer 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
19. Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry 0 calories, 0 g sugar
18. Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Vanilla 0 calories, 0 g sugar
17. Dr. Brown's Diet Black Cherry 0 calories, 0 sugar
16. Diet Dr. Pepper 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
15. Diet Mug Cream Soda 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 sugar
14. Coke Zero 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
13. Diet Coke Cherry 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
12. Diet Coke with Lime 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
11. Diet Coke 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
10. Diet Coke with Splenda 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
9. Diet Pepsi 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
8. Caffeine Free Diet Coke 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
7. Diet Rite
6. Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi 0 calories, 0 g sugar
5. Diet 7-Up 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
4. Sprite Zero 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
3. Zevia Ginger Root Beer 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
2. Hint Kick 12 fl oz, 0 calories, 0 g sugar
And the number one diet soda is...Bai5 Bubbles! 11.5 fl. oz. of the Bolivia Black Cherry flavor: 5 calories, 1 g sugar