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Have you ever wondered, “Does soda break a fast?” Let us dig a little deeper to answer this question, does diet soda break a fast?
Fasting is a process of abstaining from food that causes you to gain weight. A proper fast day is a day to resist those foods that build up fat and tell you what and when to eat. It is a fat-burning method1, and it maintains a better digestive tract.
The fasting schedule is generally obeyed for 24 hours until you are in a spiritual fasting state.
1. Diet Soda
Diet soda is a beverage that consists of acids, colours, flavours, preservatives, carbonated water, caffeine, and artificial sweeteners2, like aspartame, cyclamates, saccharin, acesulfame-k, and sucralose in replacement for sugar.
Diet soda arrived into existence in the 1950s, especially for people suffering from diabetes. Later, this was in the market with a new purpose of reducing weight.
Since diet soda is a very low contender of natural sugar and calories, it is mostly preferred to lose mass.
Soda exists in the market as regular soda and diet soda. Many people have this doubt, does diet soda break a fast? Let us learn a bit more to answer, knowing the difference between regular and diet soda.
Diet Soda vs Regular Soda
Regular soda is loaded with sugar and calories and has a sweet taste. It is not that harmful when consumed infrequently. Since there is a lot of sugar content, it is even banned in a few countries.
New York City has never encouraged sweet beverages larger than 16 fluid ounces to keep the people of that country safe.
As mentioned, regular soda brings you weight, and too much consumption drains your bones. The phosphate in soda deteriorates calcium sources3 in the body. Coming to taste, it tastes much better.
The difference between the original soda and a diet soda is, that diet soda is a beverage free from natural sugars. And it helps you lose weight since there are no contenders of natural sugars in it. Diet soda tastes light with a diverse combination of artificial flavours.
2. Does Diet Soda Break a Fast?
Does diet soda break a fast? If we were to reply to this question, there is an analysis to acknowledge the answer. Diet soda is carbonated water that contains no calories, and no natural sugars.
Since the main motto of fasting is to drop the number of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in our body for some time, insulin resistance is also monitored.
It is alright that the intake of anything that has no calories can hold a fast.
But there are a few other features to consider. It is not just calories that break a fast, but any other ingredients like artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, and Ace-K, can attain weight.
So to all those who had fixed a goal to drop weight just by fasting, you can better stay apart from the diet sodas. Does diet soda break a fast? Click here for an extensive study.
We are not supposed to use diet soda that consists of certain artificial sugars. Then what are we deemed to take? Here are some beverages and foods to consume to hold your fast.
3. What Can You Consume?
3.1. Black Coffee:
It is okay to enjoy black coffee without breaking your fast. Black coffee is calorie-free and quite safe to drink in your fast.
You can undoubtedly consume it, without adding any sugar, cream, milk, or any sweeteners to it.
You can also instead have a cup of tea because coffee has an extensive amount of caffeine, which raises your hunger and causes some panicky feelings.
3.2. Tea:
Just similar to coffee, it is also calorie-free. Both tea and coffee fall under the beverages category. That being said, you can have tea with no addition of sugar, milk, honey, cream, or any other sweeteners.
The best results are all when you consume it in the form of tea bags, leaves, or flakes. Avoid bottled iced tea since it is strongly sugary. You can only opt for it, unsweetening with no calories and sugar.
If you want some flavour to be added to the tea, better go with flavouring agents with no calories, like cinnamon. These add-ons will surely change your perception if you are a black tea hater.
You can have tea, a little more than coffee, as it contains more caffeine content than tea.
3.3. Water and Seltzer:
Drink as much water as you can. Water is calorie-free4, fat, and sugar-free. Water is the only beverage that you can sip as much as you want with no restriction and fills your tummy without letting you fall hungry. But do not add sugar, sweeteners, or calorie gainers, degrading its uniqueness.
You are permitted to mix up with naturally flavoured, calorie-free splashes or juices. Drinking much water keeps you out of dehydration.
3.4. Diluted Apple Cider Vinegar:
We crave food during fasting. To limit us, 5 to 10 ml of diluted apple cider vinegar can be taken by combining it with water. This keeps us hydrated and restrains us from cravings as well.
4. What to Avoid?
4.1. Regular Soda:
We can justify taking the above-mentioned reasons for not drinking soda in a fast.
Regular Sodas are a heavy source of sugars and artificial sweeteners and the sugars in them break the fast.
4.2. Alcohol:
Alcohol consumption is highly restricted in a fast period. It affects the digestive tract when consumed on an empty stomach. It is rich in calories, and taking it will surely break your fast.
4.3. Gummy Multivitamins:
A small amount of sugar, protein, and fats in it tends to break the fast. These are to be avoided for better results.
4.4. Protein Powder:
Protein powder is an energy hub that contains calories and keeps you out of fasting.
4.5. Smoothies:
Smoothie installs a set of nutrients into your body that is not how fast to be done.
4.6. Dry fruits:
Dry fruits are a rich source of sugars and nutrients. These are the best fast breakers. Dates, apricots, and raisins come under this category.
4.7. Soups:
Soups are a complex protein source, and quickly edible carbs, including lentils, tofu, and pasta, can split fast. You can avoid soups made of heavy-creamed, high-fibre, raw vegetables as well.
4.8. Vegetables:
Vegetables are the best source of nutrients and minerals. You can always resist eating vegetables when you are on a fast.
5. Advantages of Diet Soda:
5.1. Reduces Liver Fat:
Considering a few studies, it is stated that substituting diet soda with regular soda can burn the fats around the liver.
5.2. Shrinkage of Reflux:
Some of the researchers were out with a result, declaring that carbonated drinks5 or diet sodas are not the roots of reflux or heartburn.
5.3. Not a Strong Cause of Cancer:
Some other experimental studies on artificial sweeteners proved that diet soda is not found to cause cancer.
5.4. Weight Loss:
Many studies prove that diet soda burns fat and diminishes weight. As it contains no calories and no sugar.
5.5. Maintains Blood Sugar Level:
As diet soda is found to have no sweeteners and calories, it controls the sugar levels, and insulin response, and improves your physical health benefits.
6. Disadvantages of Diet soda:
6.1. Non-Nutritious:
Diet soda is a mixture of artificial sweeteners, flavours, and colours with no nutritional value. It is a lack of calories, sugar, and proteins.
6.2. Weight Loss is Being Conflicting:
Since diet soda lacks calories and possesses artificial sweeteners, too much consumption leads to obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Yet, there are no specific studies to prove that diet soda is exactly the source of obesity.
6.3. Diet Soda Prone to Diabetes and Heart Disease:
Although diet soda has no calories and sugars, it develops heart disease and type-two diabetes.
As diet soda consists of artificial sweeteners, intake of it enhances the hazard of type-two diabetes. Diet soda has also been associated with raising blood pressure and prone to heart diseases.
Even kidney health is being affected by the intake of diet soda. The risk factor is considered by the quantity of diet soda that we are drinking.
People who are sipping seven glasses of diet soda have an intense danger from consuming one glass per week. Since diet soda has a strong content of phosphorus, it raises acidity in the kidneys.
6.4. Tooth Decay:
Compared to regular soda, diet soda has high acid values, due to which dental erosion occurs.
6.5. Improved Chance of Osteoporosis:
Diet soda and regular soda correlate with bone mineral thickness decline in women.
6.6. Associated With Depression:
From a few observational bits of knowledge, it is observed that people who drank too much diet soda(more than four diet or regular sodas per day) are found to have high rates of depression.
Conclusion
In case, summing up things if we were supposed to conclude the question, Does diet soda break a fast?
Yes, diet soda crushes a fast though it does not contain any calories, sweeteners, or natural sugars, it has few artificial sweeteners that gain weight.
In case you are committing a fast to lose weight, better skip diet soda from your menu.
Read more from us here.
- El-Zayat, Salwa Refat, Hiba Sibaii, and Karima A. El-Shamy. “Physiological process of fat loss.” Bulletin of the National Research Centre 43.1 (2019): 1-15. ↩︎
- Chattopadhyay, Sanchari, Utpal Raychaudhuri, and Runu Chakraborty. “Artificial sweeteners–a review.” Journal of food science and technology 51 (2014): 611-621. ↩︎
- You, Ilhwan, et al. “ASR potential of alkali-activated soda-lime glass powder in the absence of calcium sources.” Cement and Concrete Composites 139 (2023): 105027. ↩︎
- Singh, D. P., et al. “Phytochemical and pharmacological importance of stevia: A calorie-free natural sweetener.” Sugar Tech 21 (2019): 227-234. ↩︎
- James, Janet, et al. “Preventing childhood obesity by reducing consumption of carbonated drinks: cluster randomised controlled trial.” Bmj 328.7450 (2004): 1237. ↩︎
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