Are you on diet and love soft drinks? Its a pity that the calories in your soft drink will not going to be a help in your diet plan and if you think that replacing your soft drink with 'diet' drinks will help then you my friend are in for a disappointing ride.

Diet drinks supposedly consist of zero net calories but still they have a lot of negative effects. Diet drinks actually contain aspartame, a commonly used artificial sweetener which is quite harmful for your health if you are consuming it on daily basis.

Here are the five reasons to avoid diet drinks: 

•  Harmful for heart

According to research from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, men who drank two or more servings of Diet Coke had a 23% higher risk of developing heart failure. In the study, 42,400 men were tracked over 12 years and 3,604 cases of a positive association between sweetened beverage consumption and risk of heart failure were found. In addition, 509 people died of the condition.

•  Kidney problems

A study done back in 2009 of over 3,000 women found a link between diet soda and kidney problems. Study suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function.

• Increase in risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes

Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems like diabetes and stroke, in addition to increased belly fat and high cholesterol.

• It leads to ‘increased waist circumference.’

Researchers found that two servings of diet soda, specifically Diet Coke, increased waistlines by over three inches.

• Mood Swings

Scary as it is, aspartame, or the sweetener in Diet Coke, is on an EPA list of potentially dangerous chemicals contributing to neurotoxicity, right beneath arsenic.

The American Academy of Neurology has discovered that artificially sweetened drinks are connected to a higher risk of depression – at least 30% as much.

—clark