Regular Coke or Diet Coke, which is healthier? This has been a controversial question that nobody really has an answer to. Is Diet Coke healthier because it has zero calories? Is Regular Coke healthier because it has less chemicals? Both beverages contain ingredients that health experts consider harmful. Diet Soda is just as bad as regular soda, the artificial sweeteners in Regular Soda which could lead to obesity or diabetes, while diet coke has zero nutritional value especially because it has zero calories, according to webber-nutrtion-.co.uk Diet Coke or regular Coke issue. Bearcats around campus took part in a survey about whether they like Coke or Diet Coke better and why. Most bearcats said regular coke because of the taste. Most of the bearcats also said that they drink Coke and/or Diet Coke monthly which shows they don’t drink it that much, but when they do they choose regular Coke.
I interviewed the healthcare teacher Shelby Lamendola. “[I] actually have, like, very strong aversion to diet or artificial sweeteners in anything, so I don’t like Diet Coke or any diet sodas, but I also don’t drink soda, except for very rarely…i think neither is really healthy but I think honestly that Diet Coke is unhealthier. Diet coke is unhealthier because it’s misleading. People think that it’s a safe alternative but it’s not and then they also consume a lot more of it than they would a regular Coke because they think its its diet and its less calories, so its safer, and they kind of it like water or in place of water. … it becomes unhealthier because we monitor ourselves better when we know we’re drinking something that’s not great for us.” This shows that the healthcare teacher who knows all about human analogy and health, doesn’t think that either Coke or Diet Coke is healthier. Although, she does say that Diet Coke is unhealthier than regular Coke. This is especially because nobody really knows about the harmful chemicals that are in Coke and Diet Coke.
The ingredients in regular Coke are carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup (to be changed), caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, and caffeine. There are six chemicals added in the ingredients of regular Coke. The ingredients in Diet Coke are carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, natural flavors, citric acid, caffeine, phenylalanine. There are also about six chemicals in Diet Coke. Although this makes it seem like one is healthier than the other, the chemicals in Diet Coke are actually a lot more harmful than the chemicals in regular Coke.
These chemicals can cause a lot of very harmful diseases. Aspamarte is linked to causing multiple different types of cancer, if it is consumed at a high number. It could cause cancers, especially breast cancer and obesity-related cancers, according to cityofhope.org. Another chemical that is in Diet Coke that can be harmful is Phenylalanine. Phenylalanine can hurt people who have a certain disease called Phenylketonuria or PKU. If you consume too much of Phenylalanine while having PKU, it could get worse and could potentially cause brain damage depending on how severe the PKU is according to mayoclinic.org. This can help us see that even though both Coke and Diet Coke are very unhealthy, Diet Coke is still the unhealthier choice. Adding to this, people who drink diet coke actually end up consuming a lot more food calories after drinking diet coke than if you were to drink regular coke. People who have higher weights are at more of a risk for more than 10 types of cancer. Not only this, but there are also a few more risks surrounding both Coke and Diet Coke. People who drink regular Coke, as shown in the survey, don’t drink it as much as people who drink Diet Coke. People who drink regular Coke know it’s bad for them so they don’t drink as much of it, due to the fact that it could potentially cause harm to them.
But people who drink Diet Coke assume that because it has zero calories it is a lot healthier. So, thinking this, they drink Diet Coke a lot, most said regularly, because they think that it will help them with their calorie intake, or due to a diet. This is very unhealthy due to the fact that in substitute for the zero calories, they put chemicals in there that are very harmful. These chemicals being consumed on a daily basis could potentially cause harm for the rest of a person’s life, if they start doing this at an early age.
So, ultimately neither Coke or Diet Coke is healthy, there is not one that is a better option fully, although Diet Coke is very much unhealthier than regular Coke. Both have really unhealthy chemicals, most of which are given by diet coke, but they should not be consumed too much for the diseases they can cause.
