Diet Soda Pregnancy Health Facts Revealed Which Are Quite Shocking

We recently became aware of some diet soda pregnancy health facts that we find quite shocking for the effects of this, we thought, “innocuous” every-day drink which we think need to be revealed. In our opinion, you need to be aware of the potentially damaging effects of diet soda on a pregnant mother and baby. Read-on to find out more:

Is it safe to drink diet soda during pregnancy?

Is drinking diet soda safe during pregnancy? Perhaps you decide an occasional diet pop will be a better choice than a regular, sugary soda. Is that the better choice, though? While no definitive study has been done and validated by later research, there have been plenty of concerns raised to give one pause for thought.

What do the studies suggest? An article published in the September 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that pregnant women who drank at least once daily artificially sweetened sodas or soft drink were a whopping 38% more likely to deliver their babies prematurely or before the 37th week of pregnancy. No increase was seen in women who drank regular, sugary pop, however. This study involved nearly 60,000 women and researchers controlled for known prematurity risks such as advanced maternal age, smoking and being overweight.

An occasional soft drink is not likely to do you any harm. But it is important that all pregnant women be aware that research has raised concerns about both diet soda and, only to a minor extent, regular soft drinks during pregnancy. To be on the safe side, you may want to limit the amount of soda you drink. Just to make the point, it’s very hard to refute that the above-quoted, large study found that those who drank more than one artificially sweetened or sugar-sweetened beverage a day had an increased risk of preterm delivery. A smaller study of about 3,000 women showed that those who drank artificially sweetened beverages every day during pregnancy were more likely to have babies who were overweight at age 1.

Caffeinated soda in those sodas which contain it, is also not good for pregnant women, and here again, not all experts agree on the point at which damaging effects occur. Drinking a moderate amount of caffeinated soda is probably safe for your unborn child, according to the American Pregnancy Association. They considered that the “moderate” range is generally defined as 150 mg to 300 mg per day. For example, a 12-ounce can of Diet Coke contains anywhere from 38 to 47 mg while the same amount of Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper has 46 to 55 mg. In addition, it should be noted, many obstetricians vary in the advice that they give their patients about what’s considered a safe level of caffeine during pregnancy.

Our view is that while pregnant you might want to switch to non-caffeinated sodas like 7-up, Fresca or Caffeine-Free Coke or Caffeine-Free Pepsi to be on the safe side.

Drinking diet soda when pregnant may cause childhood obesity

Should you really stop drinking all forms of soda now that while pregnant? It seems a shame as it is an enjoyable drink and available in all stores and eating places? Unfortunately, yes!

For some time now, research has shown that when pregnant women gain a lot of weight during pregnancy, they have heavier babies. Soda contains an awful lot of sugar. During pregnancy, ladies tend to be less active – and understandably so, and it is so easy to put on weight during confinement. The abundance of sugar in the diet is leading heavier babies. In turn, heavier babies tend to grow into heavier children, who tend to grow into heavier adults. There is no doubt that being overweight or obese in childhood can adversely affect a child’s future health and well-being. So it’s areally very important for pregnant women to try not to gain more than their doctors tell them to.

Expectant moms who drink artificially sweetened beverages like sodas, teas, and coffees daily could have babies who end up overweight or even obese by their first birthdays, according to one study we found. That study compares more than 3,000 pregnant women’s diets to their babies’ body mass indexes at 12 months old. Infants with a high body mass index (BMI) are more likely to be overweight or obese even later in childhood, which puts them at risk for obesity in adulthood. Even worse, is the finding that related complications like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And researchers found that, compared to babies of women who rarely drank artificially sweetened drinks during pregnancy, babies of moms who consumed artificially sweetened drinks daily during pregnancy were two times as likely to be obese.

Diet soda without caffeine doesn’t much better when reviewing the research. Drinking it during pregnancy was linked to poorer fine motor, visual, spatial and visual-motor abilities in early childhood (around age 3). By mid-childhood (age 7), kids whose moms drank diet sodas while pregnant had poorer verbal abilities, the study findings reported. The researchers also found that when kids themselves consumed more sugar, that excess sugar consumption was tied to memory and learning difficulties. What helped, however, was eating whole fruit. Kids who regularly consumed whole fruits had better visual-motor abilities in early childhood and better verbal intelligence in later childhood.

According to Los Angeles Ob-gyn and author of; “Your Pregnancy, Your Way”, Dr. Alison Hill. The caffeine content in diet coke is not high enough to be a threat to the pregnancy. In an interview with Romper, Hill assured all present that pregnant women can safely have 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine every day. As there are only 42 milligrams in one can of diet coke, even women who drink multiple cans a day can do so without cause for concern over their caffeine intake.

What Can I Do to Find Out Which Sweeteners are in Drinks in My Country?

Over the last few years the use of the worst sweeteners has been reduced, but the danger to pregnant women remains. Some major soft drinks manufacturers have eliminated the additive aspartame from their basic recipe, but continue using it in their diet versions.

We would always recommend checking the ingredients list for each individual product on the product before you buy or open the can. Recipes can, and do, vary within each product in a company’s range and between nations.

For example, in the UK, Coca-cola original doesn’t use aspartame, but Diet Coke and Coke Zero both contain it. Similarly, Pepsi no longer contains aspartame, but Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max do.

It’s also worth noting that although aspartame is more commonly found in sugar-free versions, some non-diet drinks still contain it.

This includes several popular drinks such as Sprite, Tango, Dr. Pepper and Irn Bru, according to Naturaler.

When researching our list of aspartame-free drinks, we found that both diet and non-diet drinks contained other artificial sweeteners like acesulfame-K, sucralose and saccharin, says Naturaler.

While aspartame has received a particularly bad reputation, there is no guarantee that these other options are any healthier and each one may cause a different reaction from your body.

Check out this NHS webpage for more information on the various artificial sweeteners common in British supermarkets.

Can you drink diet soda during pregnancy?

Fluid intake is another important building block of a healthy pregnancy. You should drink eight to 10 glasses of water a day. Water is the best choice – but you can occasionally add a few glasses of fruit juice to your diet.

Should you avoid all soda type drinks, or now or stick to one a day maximum intake if you totally “crave” it! We are the first to sympathise when it comes to cravings during pregnancy. I have found myself drinking a fair bit of full-fat coke during pregnancy, especially early on. I’m very aware of the astronomical amount of sugar these drinks contain. But have at times felt I needed it, especially as I haven’t always been able to eat much due to pressure of time while still working. I have not always followed the best practice and avoided the odd soda binge, and that does worry me.

I would personally think that to drink standard sugary coke would be preferable to drinking diet coke, for my baby. I believe the artificial sweeteners in the “diet” versions are much worse for me and baby than sugar. Personally, I wouldn’t beat yourself up though, especially as it’s very hard to enjoy anything sometimes when pregnant. What the studies never consider is the effect on a Mum’s mental health of not allowing her a little bit of the food she fancies, as stopping all soda drinking may have a real effect on her mood. In itself, a depressed mother does hold other unrelated risks for both of them. But you could try and cut back as I’ve had to with the full-fat stuff and have it as a treat rather than every day.

Everyone knows soda isn’t exactly health food, but if a favourite drink, and for many women, that’s Diet Coke. It helps you get through the little aches and pains of pregnancy along the way, should you really deny yourself that indulgence? Knowing exactly how much diet coke you can have while pregnant will not only give you peace of mind while still allowing you to indulge in that carbonated perfection. First of all, it’s important to keep in mind there are two significant components of diet coke to think about when it comes to pregnancy: caffeine and artificial sweeteners.

Could What You Drink During Pregnancy Mean an Overweight Child Later?

There is a case history of a particular well-known sweetener brand back in 1991 which gained a bad reputation for its use in soda drinks. When I was pregnant with my first child I recall my obstetrician telling me not to drink any products with the artificial sweetener Aspartame in them, better known at the time by the brand-name Nutrasweet. I was in fact already familiar with this artificial sweetener at the time since the only soda I drank, Diet Coke, vividly displayed the Nutrasweet swirl logo on its cans. As a card-carrying member of what I call the “snack well” generation, I was already all too eager to believe the promises made by corporate giants. Those of us in the “snack well” generation basically believed we could have our low-fat cake and eat as much of it as we desired too. Oh, yes in those days we thought pregnant Mums could flout good nutritional eating guidelines without any consequences. Nowadays, pregnant Mums “to be”, often discipline themselves to eat low-fat foods, not realising that these foods are still packed with calories. In fact, these may not contain many fewer calories than their sugar/corn-syrup counterparts. There is a danger of drinking zero-calorie sodas pumped with artificial sweeteners, from being more than naturally depressed.

Many women who are pregnant worry about what is safe and what’s not safe to drink in the form of alcohol, while expecting. The advice is to not risk it and stay alcohol-free throughout, for the benefit of the child. A recent study said that women with gestational diabetes who drink diet soda during their pregnancy could be putting their children at risk for weight gain. Salena Zanotti, M.D. of Cleveland Clinic did not take part in the study but said previous studies have shown that drinking diet soda in moderation during pregnancy is generally safe, but this most recent study is the first to look at the potential impact long-term.

Pregnant women who drink non-diet sodas during pregnancy are more likely to have kids who carry extra body fat by age 7, researchers say. In the study of more than 1,000 mother-child pairs, each additional serving of sugary soda per day consumed in pregnancy was associated with higher increments of waist size and body mass in kids years later.

“sugary beverages have been linked to obesity in children and adults,”

said study author Sheryl Rifas-Shiman of Harvard Medical School in Boston. Although past research has tied sodas and some fruit drinks to excess weight gain, obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, few have looked at beverage intake during pregnancy.

Should Pregnant Women Stop Drinking Sugary Drinks With Added Chemical Sweeteners?

When we become pregnant, we all need to make changes to our diet and lifestyle for the good of the growing baby. These changes may include eating a healthier diet, cutting down on caffeine, quitting smoking and avoiding alcohol. In our quest to give our babies the best start in life, we scrutinize our past food choices. When you are trying to cut caffeine out of your diet, you need to remember that many brands of soda contain caffeine. Often, women mention caffeine as the reason they chose to limit their intake of soda during pregnancy. This is good since caffeine is a problem, but it’s far from the only problem with drinking soda.

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 labour. Preterm labour 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 labour, more than one study has uncovered a link between diet soda consumption and early labour.

Is It Bad to Drink Diet Soda While Pregnant?

This was just one of many research findings presented at the seminar, which attracted researchers from Australia, Holland, England and the US. Another Danish study showed that ‘light’ soft drinks also have a negative effect on foetal development in the mother’s womb. If a pregnant woman frequently drinks diet sodas, the risk of her baby having asthma by age seven is increased by 30% a study said. This study was conducted by the State Serum Institute and the CFP and the findings were recently published in the journal Plosone.

Some fizzy drinks are OK, but regular coke is not because caffeine is bad for the fetus. It is associated with miscarriages. Try low sodium Chicken Noodle Soup or Ginger Ale. I can’t imagine how anyone can drink 2 gallons of coke per day, but apparently some do? One woman quoted, who did, also had a very poor diet nutrition-wise and was a heavy smoker. She died but it probably just wasn’t the soda alone that caused her death. I just don’t understand how any half-sensible person wouldn’t see that drinking as much soda as that would not be a formula for disaster.

My favourite soda is diet coke, but I try to only have 1 or 2 a week and drink other caffeinated drinks that are not diet style drinks. That means that I don’t get migraines from my caffeine addiction. I know I am addicted to energy drinks but I do always avoid them often while pregnant. If it is not diet soda, that is one heck of a sugar load. I think it is the equivalent to 12 teaspoons of sugar in a 12-ounce can. And unfortunately, if it is diet soda, it is loaded with chemicals. Hate to say it because the sugar gives you a higher diabetes risk and a higher risk that your child will, later on, develop diabetes, and the chemicals are just nasty for you. My question is whether enough thought has been given to the idea of tapering off your soda drinking by cutting the soda in half with sparkling water?

Diet Sodas During Pregnancy

Expectant mothers want the best for their children. But all the evidence suggests diet sodas and other artificially sweetened beverages may not be good things. A study released in Jama Pediatrics suggests artificial noncaloric sweeteners, those often used to replace sugar, consumed during pregnancy could give a child twice as great a chance of being overweight at 1 year old.

“To our knowledge, our results provide the first human evidence that artificial sweetener consumption during pregnancy may increase the risk of early childhood overweight,”

the researchers concluded.

“Given the current epidemic of childhood obesity and the widespread consumption of artificial sweeteners, further research is warranted”.

Love diet coke? You need not stop drinking this drink during the pregnancy period. Drink it in moderation; there is no doubt about that!

What does diet coke contain? It contains aspartame, better known as “Nutrasweet”, which is a sweetener without calories. It is used in various diet sodas and foods. This substance has two amino acids. Till now, there has been no proof that suggests that diet coke and pregnancy do not go together. However, make sure to have only one per day.

Individuals with diabetes need to monitor their sugar intake closely. Some women develop diabetes for the first time during pregnancy, a condition known as gestational diabetes. Your health care provider will check your glucose levels to determine how your body is metabolizing sugar. Diabetics need to limit sugary beverages, such as regular sodas, although an occasional diet soda containing nonnutritive sugar is usually acceptable.

Is diet soda off-limits while pregnant?

Aspartame is also known as Nutrasweet, and this form of artificial sweetener has been around the longest, which means that it has the most studies done and long term effects noted. Most doctors agree that when used in small amounts, diet soda containing aspartame is safe for pregnant women, but no more than one or two eight to twelve-ounce servings should be used each day, as the maximum limit.

While one diet soda a day may not seem like much, most dieticians and doctors recommend limiting your soda intake in this way so as to consume more juice, water and milk which each supply more health benefits and nutrients than soda. There are, however, a few aspects to consider. Nutrasweet, the brand name of Aspartame, is a non-caloric sweetener used in diet sodas and many other foods. It is made up of two amino acids. The digestive tract breaks down Aspartame the same way that it would break down any other protein during digestion.

Approved in 1996 by the FDA, which set an acceptable daily intake as 50 mg. Per day or about 4 cans of soda (70% of all Aspartame is used in diet sodas). Aspartame is 80 or more times sweeter than sugar. The FDA has found no correlation between using aspartame and cancer. It is approved for pregnant women. It is not used in baking. Some people are sensitive and may have headaches, dizziness or skin reactions. Neotame was  FDA approved in 2002. Neotame is a chemical which comes from Aspartame, having no bitter or metallic aftertaste. It is 8,000 times sweeter than sugar.

Diet soda and no fish can harm the mother and baby

Listed below is the summary of the harmful effects of consuming soda during pregnancy:

• loss of calcium from bones due to the carbonated acid and phosphoric acid (flavouring agent)
• increase in blood pressure due to the presence of sodium in carbonated water
• can cause birth defects such as congenital disabilities
  the excessive consumption of sugar and artificial sweeteners may lead to obese babies
• may also lead to miscarriage
• a 2018 study suggests a negative relationship between consuming sodas during pregnancy and the baby’s brain development.
• The study found that when mothers-to-be consumed more sugar during pregnancy, especially in the form of sodas, their children grew up with poor non-verbal and problem-solving skills along with poor memory. The study also showed that the effects were just as bad with diet sodas – consuming it during pregnancy was linked to poorer visual motor, spatial, and fine motor abilities in babies.

Fish is a delicious source of protein, and with an abundance of essential fatty acids, it is normally considered a staple in a healthy diet. Keep in mind, though, that some types of fish have negative side effects during pregnancy because of their high mercury levels that are toxic and can be harmful to both mother and baby. Harmful fish to eat during pregnancy: tilapia.

Is It Safe To Consume Soda And Diet Soda During Pregnancy?

Artificial sweeteners are used to give food and beverages the sweet taste of sugar without all of the calories. Many different brands can be found in the supermarket. There is no nutritional need to consume artificial sweeteners. However, if you decide to include them in your diet, use the information below to choose one that is safe for your baby. Also, some people have reported sensitivities to many of the artificial sweeteners, even those deemed safe for pregnancy. If you feel that you have a reaction to an artificial sweetener, stop using it and consult your doctor or nutritionist for more information.

A freshly revamped diet Pepsi and other products are available with the phrase “now Aspartame free” on its silver label. These are now stocked on supermarket shelves nationwide. Pepsico ditched the controversial sweetener aspartame in response to consumer demand, replacing it with Sucralose, known by the brand name Splenda, and Acesulfame Potassium, or ace-k, both sweeteners thought to be safer. The change reflects widespread public concern about the safety of aspartame. Diet sodas contain several questionable ingredients, but Aspartame is the one they are most concerned about”.

Alcohol is bad during pregnancy. We know that and hence some pregnant women replace liquor with soda and diet soda during celebrations and parties. The idea behind this is that soda contains simpler ingredients such as carbonated water, sugar or artificial sweetener, and flavourings that seem harmless. But sodas are more complicated than they seem and their additives could have adverse effects on you and your unborn child.

Are These Drinks Really Safe During Pregnancy?

Doctors have been warning about the dangers of diet soda for a long time. We know consumption is linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, headaches, tooth erosion, osteoporosis and depression. Now, a new study has shown that women who drink diet soda during pregnancy are more likely to put their kids at risk of obesity. Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that daily diet soda consumption increased women’s risk of delivering a high birth weight baby by 60 per cent versus women who never touch the stuff. This study was also the first to follow these kids up to age seven and determined that they were almost twice as likely to be obese.

Remember you are what you eat ! Staying away from artificial ingredients is the best for our health. Sugary drinks are a bad choice, but diet drinks can even be more dangerous to both you and your growing baby. Drinking a reasonable amount of diet soda a day, such as a can or two, isn’t likely to hurt you. The artificial sweeteners and other chemicals currently used in diet soda are safe for most people, and there’s no credible evidence that these ingredients cause cancer. Some types of diet soda are even fortified with vitamins and minerals. But diet soda isn’t a health drink or a silver bullet for weight loss. Although switching from regular soda to diet soda may save you calories, it’s not yet clear if it’s effective for preventing obesity and related health problems in the long term.

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