Why is Diet Soda Addictive?

Why is Diet Soda Addictive?

An addiction to diet soda may seem silly to most people, many of whom have been tricked into thinking that calorie-free soda is the healthier choice compared to traditional carbonated beverages. Since it’s calorie free and sugar free, most people who are dieting will choose diet soda as a beverage of choice at meals and snacks. Due to its highly-addictive nature, diet soda is often consumed in excess, often replacing pure water.



The most common brands of diet soda include these ingredients:

Carbonated water
Caramel color
Aspartame 
Phosphoric acid
Potassium citrate
Natural flavors
Citric acid
Caffeine

This is a toxic cocktail of chemicals that are known to cause changes in brain chemistry, cellular communication, and basic metabolism. Aspartame is one of the biggest health culprits in diet soda, not to mention a host of other processed foods. It is probably the key ingredient associated with addiction.

Why is Diet Soda Addictive?

Aspartame, the chemical sweetener used to replace high fructose corn syrup in diet soda, activates the reward centers in your brain. [1] The trouble is, because aspartame doesn’t provide any calories (energy), the body misses out and makes it crave more. It’s your body’s way of basically “reaching out” for fuel when it’s missed the calories from the first hit of diet soda consumption. Diet soda is trying to trick the body, but the body rebels and makes you want more and more to satisfy those reward centers in the brain and provide energy for cells.

Brain chemistry is also tampered with when aspartame is ingested. Aspartame is comprised of two amino acids and a methyl ester, and these compounds can affect the dopamine system in the brain linked to positive reinforcement. [2] Alcohol and drugs can cause similar effects, but at different levels of severity. The caffeine in diet soda–not to mention in regular soda, coffee, and energy drinks–is considered a drug, and an addictive one at that. Caffeine is a psychostimulant, and, when combined with aspartame’s dopamine effects, increases addictive behavior. [3] Read more