You pull into the driveway of McDonald's and think to yourself "should I get a Coke or stick with my diet and get a Diet Coke"; well, if you really look at the ingredients, you would see that diet is not the way to go. Contrary to popular belief, the alternative drink is not really beneficial for the diet, as many years of research has shown. Although you would save calories, the drink provides no nutritional value. Today, Coca Cola is preferred to dieting because it causes weight gain, fatal diseases and many health problems. Of course all the coke, Pepsi, etc. They make you fat, but recent studies have actually made drinkers gain more weight than dieters. the average Coke drinker. Because diet drinks contain artificial sweeteners instead of regular sugar, our bodies think they're getting regular sugars. Diet coke tricks your body into thinking sugar is on its way and your body pumps out insulin, a fat-storing hormone, which ultimately causes consumers to have more belly fat than a regular coke drinker. Additionally, diet drinks mess with your body and its metabolism, and because of this, you burn fewer calories than normal. In a study where rats were given Diet Coke and even after eating fewer calories, Diet Coke drinkers gained 14 percent more body fat than rats who drank regular Coke. You never thought you'd hear the word "deadly" and "Diet Coke" together, did you? According to an 11-year Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold greater risk of kidney decline. Gibson 2Kidney function began to decline when the women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: Since kidney decline has not been associated with sugar... middle of paper... the other ingredients are far from helping you when it comes to losing weight. Weight gain, fatal diseases and health problems are the many factors that result from the consumption of diet drinks. Works Cited Mosbergen, Dominique. “Health Risks of Diet Sodas: Study Says Artificial Sweeteners May Cause Weight Gain, Deadly Diseases (VIDEO).” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, July 11, 2013. Web. January 9, 2014. Allon, Janet. "Wait! Study Shows Diet Soda Is Not Only Bad for You, It Makes You Fat." Alternet. Alter Net, 11 July 2013. Web. 09 January 2014. Holland, Laura. "Food for Thought: Do Diet Drinks Cause Diabetes? | The National. "Food for Thought: Do Diet Drinks Cause Diabetes? | The national team. The National Inc., June 23, 2013. Web. January 9, 2014. Squillace, Maria. “10 Reasons to Give Up Diet Soda.” Fox News. FOX News Network, October 29, 2013. Web. January 9. 2014.