Does Diet Soda Affect Gout

Gout Diet: 7 Foods To Eat 7 Foods To Avoid

Why do certain foods cause painful gout symptoms? Our bodies produce uric acid as it digests some types of foods and excess uric acid can accumulate in our joints as crystals. Healthy individuals can usually filter out much of the extra uric acid however, for those who have underlying health conditions or elderly adults whose body processes have slowed down, uric acid builds up.

Pregnant Women Who Drink Diet Coke Every Day Risk Having Babies Who Develop Obesity

Childhood obesity, and obesity in general, has the potential to wreak havoc on a person’s overall health. According to Stanford Health Care, “Obesity puts you at greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, sleep apnea, some types of cancer, and stroke.” Sadly, drinking Diet Coke throughout pregnancy equals a strong chance the baby will develop obesity during infancy and childhood.

According to a study from the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Manitoba in Canada, “maternal consumption of artificial sweeteners during pregnancy may influence infant BMI .” Another study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 2017 revealed that there were “positive associations between intrauterine exposure to ASBs and birth size and risk of overweight/obesity at 7 years.” Though a diet soda might sound tempting when you’re pregnant, research shows that it’s probably not worth it.

So Is It Better To Just Drink Regular Soda

Not so fast. There is abundant datathat tells us that sugar is not necessarily a sweeter alternative, at least whenhealth is concerned.

If you crave caffeine , you are likely better off with plain coffee or tea. If youre looking for flavor in a drink, try freezing raspberries, cucumber, mint, lemon or lime in ice cubes to add a hint of sweetness. You can even use fruit in soda water to recreate sodas bubbly appeal.

Quitting a habit is never easy, but experts recommend that kicking soda all the way out of your diet can have profound effects on both your weight and your health.

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Ten Tips For Beating Gout

If you have gout, use these nutrition tips to lower your risk:

What Are The Best Foods To Eat When You Have Gout

While eating particular foods wont be enough to make gout go away, studies suggest that certain foods and drinks may help reduce uric acid in your body. For example:

• Milk. Some early research suggests that drinking skim milk may help reduce uric acid and gout flare-ups. It speeds up the excretion of uric acid in your urine and also reduces your bodys inflammatory response to uric acid crystals in your joints.
• Cherries. Scientists are currently researching the benefits of cherries and cherry juice for managing gout symptoms, and early results are promising. Cherries have known anti-inflammatory properties, and they may also help reduce uric acid in your body.
• Coffee. You may have heard that coffee is acidic, but the type of acid in coffee is very different from uric acid. In fact, drinking coffee daily can reduce your uric acid levels by several means. It slows the breakdown of purine into uric acid and speeds the rate of excretion.
• Water. People who drink five to eight glasses of water a day are less likely to experience gout symptoms. This makes sense since your kidneys use water to excrete uric acid in your urine. Water is also good for kidney health. Impaired kidney function is one factor that can contribute to gout.

However, many healthcare providers prefer to focus on general dietary guidelines rather than particular foods. They suggest that you:

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Where Can Artificial Sweeteners Be Found

There are many forms of artificial sweeteners, but one is found in many store-bought products and will be difficult to avoid: fructose. So, you may eat a sandwich and experience gout later that night because of the sandwich.

How is this possible? Fructose is a very cheap sugar to use, meaning it could even be in your bread, especially white bread.

This is pretty unlikely though. The primarily things to avoid in this case are fruit juice and soda.

Avoiding artificial sweeteners then will be very hard to do, especially if you drink a lot of fruit juice, soda, or consume any other food that contains high fructose corn syrup.

If you read the ingredients label on many food products in your home, you are bound to find this listed on there somewhere.

Now it may seem like a daunting task to undertake. It may be difficult at first, but it is definitely possible if you simply pace out how much of the sweeteners you consume in a day. For example, dont chug down an entire can of soda at once, spread it across an hour or two.

You can also have a diet soda as the sweeteners in those have been found to not aggravate your gout. But they arent necessarily healthier for you in general.

Gout & Alcohol: Why It Matters

You wont necessarily have to give up alcoholic beverages if youre diagnosed with gout. Why does alcohol intake matter at all? Some people who drink a lot of alcohol never get gout. Alcohol can increase levels of uric acid in your body. So it can be a strong cause of hyperuricemia and gout. Alcohol works to raise urate levels by decreasing how much urate your kidneys excrete. Beer has earned a reputation as being especially bad for gout, since it has this effect on your kidneys, but also because beer has its own proteins that are broken down to urate in the body. So drinking beer raises urate in two different ways.

Beer and liquor are especially linked to higher uric acid levels, and wine is linked to this as well. Moderate intake of alcohol is generally defined as two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. However, even moderate drinking on a regular basis is associated with a higher risk of recurring gout attacks.

You may be able to drink occasionally and not experience a gout flare, but regular drinking of any type of alcohol puts you at risk. Also, heavy or even regular moderate drinking adds calories to your daily intake. It can contribute to weight gain in some people .

While only you can decide how much, what or when to drink alcohol, your doctor and nurses can advise you on how to make these changes in a healthy way. Keep these thoughts in mind when you talk about drinking with your healthcare professionals:

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You’ll Be At An Increased Risk Of Diabetes If You Drink Diet Coke Every Day

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 30 million Americans have diabetes and there are even more citizens who are considered prediabetic. Although common, diabetes can be a debilitating illness. And, if you drink Diet Coke every day, you’re sadly at an increased risk of developing the disease during your lifetime.

According to Healthline, “Although diet soda has no calories, sugar or fat, it has been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes.” Specifically, one study from the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in France found that the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages “were associated with increased risk.” Diet coke may be advertised as a healthy alternative to regular soda, but given its link to the metabolic disease in those who drink it regularly, it really shouldn’t be portrayed as healthy at all.

May Be Linked To Type 2 Diabetes

Even though diet soda doesnt contain any calories or carbs, some research has found its associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

In fact, one study in over 2,000 men showed that regularly drinking diet soda was linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a 7-year period .

Similarly, a study in 61,400 women showed that consuming artificial sweeteners regularly was tied to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the long term .

In another study, people with type 2 diabetes who used artificial sweeteners were more likely to have insulin resistance .

A hallmark of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance is a condition in which the bodys ability to use insulin to transport sugar from the bloodstream into the cells efficiently is impaired, leading to increased blood sugar levels.

Its essential to note that the research behind this potential link only shows an association, so more research is needed.

In addition, other studies have shown that consuming artificial sweeteners and diet soda was not associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes or alterations in blood sugar and insulin levels .

Summary

Although research is inconsistent and more research is needed, some studies show that consuming diet soda and artificial sweeteners may be associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

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Is Diet Soda Bad For Gout

One of the most important discoveries regarding the matter is the link between fructose and gout. Believe or not, this ingredient is the only one that has been linked to gout and gout attacks. All others are almost irrelevant when it comes to this condition. But, diet soda doesnt contain fructose or any type of sugar as a matter of fact, so it is just a great drink for us, gout sufferers.

I personally like diet Coca-Cola and it is simply the best beverage for me. I am also confident that it wont affect my uric acid levels and it will refresh me and nothing more. This isnt something I can say about orange juice and now I will explain why.

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In 2008, Arthritis Research Centre of Canada conducted a research and summarized the results. According to the massive number of participants which were used between 1988 and 1994, the level of the uric acid in the body increased as people consumed soft beverages. The same study discovered that uric acid rose the highest when people consumed orange juice. On the other hand, when they consumed diet beverages, uric acid stayed the same, it wasnt increased nor decreased.

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Fizzy Drinks Linked To Gout

Men who consume large amounts of fizzy or sugary drinks are at higher risk of contracting gout than those who abstain, a new study has concluded.

Researchers from Harvard and the University of Vancouver found that those who consumed five or six sweet beverages a week were nearly 30% more likely to suffer attacks of the illness than those who drank less than one serving monthly. The risk rose to 85% for those drinking two or more a day.

As well as sugar in drinks, the study found that natural fruit sugar, or fructose, posed a substantial risk for gout.

That means people who drank orange or apple juice or even ate those fruit regularly were prone to the illness. Meanwhile, diet soft drinks, which often contain sweetener rather than fructose, were not found to be associated with gout.

“The risk of gout was about twice as high among men in the highest fifth of free fructose consumption than among men in the lowest fifth the current study provides prospective evidence that fructose and fructose-rich foods are important risk factors in the primary prevention of gout in men.”

Hyon K Choi and Gary Curham surveyed over 46,000 male medical professionals aged 45-70 with no history of the illness over a period of 12 years, as part of a wider study into diet and general health. A total of 755 reported incidents of the condition. The link between gout and sugary drinks and fructose remained even when accounting for age, alcohol consumption, body mass and high blood pressure.

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What Are The Disadvantages Of A Low

• Its limiting. For people with hyperuricemia, a low-purine diet is a long-term lifestyle change. It also happens to target many favorite indulgences, including sugar, sweets and alcohol. For some people, giving these up indefinitely may seem unrealistic, especially when its only a complementary therapy. Like most diets, you do have to stick to it to reap the benefits.
• It limits omega-3 sources. Seafood is among the most important dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and the low-purine diet limits many of these. Omega-3s have many known health benefits in particular, alleviating inflammation and joint pain from arthritis. Many Americans dont get enough omega-3s, and limiting seafood can make it even harder. However, fish-oil supplements are ok on this diet. Salmon, sardines and mackerel are also good sources and relatively low in purines.
• Its not a cure. Diet may move the needle a little on uric acid levels in your blood, but not as much as medications do. The best approach is to combine them. Some people argue that the benefits of the diet arent proven to be worth the trouble when compared with medication. But medication alone is often not enough to manage gout effectively. In these cases, many people appreciate having something they can do proactively to reduce their symptoms.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

If You Drink Diet Coke Every Day While Pregnant You May Go Into Labor Early

There are seemingly a million restrictions when it comes to what pregnant women should eat and drink as well as what they shouldn’t eat and drink. While a soda or coffee here or there is not likely to be harmful, drinking diet soda while you’re pregnant could actually cause you to go into early labor.

Preterm labor is associated with a number of risks. According to Stanford Children’s Health, premature babies may have trouble breathing, kidney problems, and seizures. While it may seem almost unbelievable that a beverage could cause preterm labor, more than one study has uncovered a link between diet soda consumption and early labor.

One, from the Centre for Fetal Programming at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark concluded there was “an association between intake of artificially sweetened carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks and an increased risk of preterm delivery.” Another, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Institute of Clinical Sciences in Sweden found that “a high intake of both AS and SS beverages is associated with an increased risk of preterm delivery.” So, if you’re pregnant, drop that Diet Coke.

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What Were The Results Of The Study

About 1.5% of the men developed gout during the study. Men who drank more fizzy drinks were more likely to develop gout than those who drank fewer fizzy drinks.

Men who had more than one fizzy drink a day increased their risk by 45% two or more drinks a day increased the risk by 85%, compared with men who drank less than one fizzy drink a month. Diet fizzy drinks did not increase the risk of gout. People with the highest intake of fructose doubled their risk of gout compared with those with the lowest intake.

When You Drink Diet Coke Every Day You Risk Getting Headaches

Even though headaches are a common condition, no one would want to get a headache if they could help it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can trigger headaches, like certain foods and drinks. While everyone is different when it comes to their dietary triggers, you do risk getting a headache when you drink Diet Coke every day.

“I have several clients who used to suffer from migraines and pinpointed their cause to diet soda,” Minnesota-based dietitian Cassie Bjork told Health. On top of that, esteemed neurologist Orly Avitzur told Business Insider that diet sodas “offer little nutritional benefit, and in some cases, diet sodas can cause headaches or make you overeat.”

One older study found “that aspartame may be an important dietary trigger of headache in some people.” Given that study was from the late ’80s, more modern evidence is needed to truly prove that as fact. Still, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that Diet Coke causes headaches, which may encourage many to stay away.

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Does Soda Affect Arthritis

More than 50 million Americans have been diagnosed with arthritis one in every five adults making it the leading cause of disability in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1. Arthritis is an umbrella term encompassing more than 100 diseases that cause stiffness, pain and swelling of the joints, and includes osteoarthritis, gout, fibromyalgia, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Some foods, like soda, increase the probability of developing or inflaming arthritic conditions, particularly when consumed in excess.

If you are experiencing serious medical symptoms, seek emergency treatment immediately.

Artificial Sweeteners And Weight Loss

Research results on the effects of Coke Zero and other artificially sweetened beverages on weight loss are mixed.

One 8-year observational study found that people who drank more than 21 artificially sweetened beverages per week almost doubled their risk of overweight and obesity, compared with people who didnt consume these kinds of drinks .

The same study noted that total daily calorie intake was lower in individuals who drank diet beverages despite their increase in weight. This suggests that artificial sweeteners may influence body weight in other ways than calorie intake .

Another study observed that drinking diet soda was associated with greater waist circumference over 910 years .

On the other hand, many human intervention studies indicate that the use of artificial sweeteners is either neutral or beneficial for weight management.

In one 6-month, randomized, controlled study, people with overweight or obesity experienced moderate weight loss of 22.5% of their body weight when replacing caloric beverages with diet beverages or water .

In another study, people in a 12-week weight loss program who drank artificially sweetened beverages lost 13 pounds , while those drinking water lost 9 pounds .

Thus, the evidence on the effects of artificially sweetened beverages on weight management are conflicting, and more research is needed.

Similarly to regular soda, drinking diet sodas like Coke Zero is associated with an increased risk of tooth erosion.

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