We all know that sugar is not good for health. Avoiding sugar is the best way to lose weight. If we want to sweeten our food and drinks it is better to do so with a little bit of jaggery or honey rather than processed sugar. These days, we also get herbs like stevia which are better than sugar. Even cinnamon has a sweetening effect and is also good for health. 

With this growing awareness of the ill effects of sugar, a lot of people are having drinks and colas which contain artificial sweeteners. We feel that having drinks which contain sugar substitutes will help us to remain slim or healthy in a safe way. Some have also taken to having such drinks even if they do not have any health problems thinking that it will help us to maintain or reduce weight. People are selling this as a body of fast weight loss tips. But the reverse is actually true.

Sugar substitutes have long term side effects on health. Some of them cause a build up of cholesterol and some trigger strokes or heart attacks. Some of the chemicals used actually help cause diabetes. There are new extracts and chemicals which are constantly being launched, each once claiming to be safer than the previous varieties. But the fact remains, that these are still chemicals and we cannot know the side effects till after a few years. 

Sugar free and diet colas and soft drinks contain artificial sweeteners. Other sugar free drinks also contain such artificial substitutes and sweeteners. You may temporarily feel satisfied with them but the brain quickly sees through this ruse. The brain sees through this and at some stage the body will require a genuine intake of glucose or other sugary elements. Without realizing, you will land up having foods which the body can use to convert quickly to glucose. This is because the body needs glucose as it has an important role to play in providing energy and keeping your metabolism active. We cannot deprive the body for too long by using tricks. 

Therefore, it has been found that by completely avoiding sweets or sugar by having diet drinks, the brain will start craving for high fat and high calorie foods. So you may not have sugar but you may start to crave more of junk food and baked foods or fried foods. This makes you feel hungrier and gets you to eat more. So drinks with artificial sweeteners can actually make you fat. The other aspect to be kept in mind is that soft drinks have zero nutritional value. These are just a combination of chemicals, water and empty calories. Various ill effects of soft drinks on teeth and the stomach have been shown through various studies.

This is not the best way to lose weight. So if you want to manage your weight, stop having diet drinks. Instead satisfy your craving by having small pieces of a sweet dish or chocolate or lightly sweetened tea. This is a much better strategy to adopt than having sugar free or diet drinks. Also put in place a balanced diet plan for weight loss.