The relationship between diet soda and health is complex because there are many opinions about what best defines a person's health. On the one hand, people who are already unhealthy because of excess consumption of sugar may become healthier when drinking diet soda. Unfortunately, many studies have also shown that the chemicals in diet soda make it an unhealthy choice as well. As such, the relationship between diet soda and health depends on an individual's state of health. It is usually best to think of this product as unhealthy in a relative sense and to try drinking alternative products that may be healthier.
One of the reasons many people claim that there is a positive relationship between diet soda and health is because of obesity. Generally, if a person is consuming a large amount of non-diet soda, then switching to diet soda can help promote weight loss. This is a good solution for people who are obese if soda cannot be given up overall due to cravings, caffeine addiction, or other problems. On the other hand, weight loss is not always synonymous with health, and so diet soda and health may not be related at all in this sense.
Another connection between diet soda and health is highly negative, because there are some doubts about the long-term effects of some of the chemicals used to make diet soda. Artificial sweeteners are generally assumed to be safe, but most people believe that it is better to use natural alternatives. Even natural alternatives, such as sweeteners derived from the stevia plant, may not be entirely safe due to processing. Whether or not consuming chemicals is actually dangerous depends on which studies one believes, but when these chemicals turn out to be dangerous, they often cause serious problems like cancer. Many people choose to minimize risk by sticking with natural products that have been used for a long time.
The connection between diet soda and health also depends on how much of the product one drinks. For people who drink diet soda very rarely, there is little risk of suffering a decrease in overall health from the product. It is primarily people who drink large amounts of soda on a daily basis who must worry about the chemicals in soda. As a surrogate for less healthy alternatives, diet soda can be very healthy, but it is usually better to slowly make a shift towards healthier beverages. The healthiest drink of all is, of course, water, and drinking water instead of soda can result in great improvements in health.