Diet soda not so dietetic, according to recent study

Findings published last month indicate that diet sodas unfortunately are not the way to enjoy soda without any of the ill effects.  In fact, the study shows they could actually cause even more.

Diet sodas, or artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs), are based on the assumption that it's simply the sugar in soda or other sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) that cause Type II diabetes, weight gain leading to obesity and all the problems that come with it.  However, with the sugar substitutes used in ASBs proving to have their own set of long term health risks, it seems that those looking to indulge their sweet tooth won't be able to have their cake and eat it too.
The primary commercial artificial sweeteners are acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One), aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), neotame, sucralose (Splenda) and saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet'N Low).  Incidentally, the last was the first artificial sweetener to go public and is actually a derivative of tar.  While it is true they cut out calories, they wouldn't work as a viable substitute if they didn't taste like sugar - which means sending the signals from your taste buds to your brain that you just consumed the original sweetener. 

Except you didn't.

Your body is programmed to respond a certain way to sugar consumption - releasing hormones such as insulin to regulate the amount of sugar, or glucose, in the bloodstream.  These hormones keep blood glucose levels constant, releasing it in measured amounts to provide energy as it is needed.  Consuming a sugar substitute triggers this same reaction as your system attempts to process it but finds no glucose.  Doing so regularly will eventually alter your body's programming to not release insulin in response to sweet stimuli on your taste buds, including real sugar, resulting in low insulin levels and unregulated blood glucose.  Chronic lack of insulin and elevated blood sugar levels is also known as Type II Diabetes.

More immediate responses to mass ASB consumption (and likely anything else that lists artificial sweeteners as a key ingredient) ironically include weight gain and potentially obesity.  While the little message on the Splenda packet congratulating you on cutting out X amount of calories may be right, such high intensity sweetness on a daily basis can lead to an out of control sweet tooth, because the reward centers in your brain have been deadened to the stimulus, causing you to crave more before your satisfied, making resisting a stop at the office snack machine after lunch all the more difficult.