Millions of Australians rely on artificial sweeteners to minimize their sugar intake. And really, who can blame them? Sugar has absolutely no nutritional value and can be downright dangerous. In fact, the over-consumption of sugar can be blamed for countless health conditions ranging from diabetes and heart disease to cavities and obesity (and let’s not forget obesity-related diseases like stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and various cancers).

One of the most widely consumed artificially sweetened products on the market is diet soft drink. The food and diet industries have fooled much of the population into believing that these calorie-free beverages are the superior choice for our waistlines and overall health. And it makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, zero calories means less weight gain, so who wouldn’t want to indulge in a can or bottle—or two—a day?

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Diet soft drinks are proving to be just as harmful as their sugar-laden counterparts. Here are just a few reasons why.

 Tooth Troubles

One of the telltale signs of heavy methamphetamine or cocaine use is rotting teeth. And, of course, regular soft drink (and other very sugary food products) also cause tooth decay. But who would have ever thought that sugar-free diet soda could have the same exact effect on oral health? Indeed, a shocking study published earlier this year found this to be the case.

 In this study, the lead researcher observed that a woman in her 30s who drank two liters of diet soft drink every day for three to five years experienced the same tooth decay seen in a 29-year-old drug addict  (All participants came from similar socioeconomic backgrounds and admitted to poor oral hygiene habits, as well as not having regular dental exams.)

According to the lead researcher, the severe dental erosion was caused by the extreme acidity of their “drug of choice.” The illegal drugs are naturally acidic—particularly methamphetamine, which requires the use of highly corrosive materials in the manufacturing process—while soft drink contain high levels of citric and phosphoric acids. All of these acidic substances prove to be disastrous for the teeth.

Pack on the Pounds

Ironically, these zero-calorie fizzy beverages can actually cause you to gain weight! It all starts with how the brain processes and the body responds to these super-sweet sugar replacements.

In one study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate the brain responses young adults had to diet (saccharin-sweetened) soft drink versus regular (sugar-sweetened) soda. They found that those who drank the diet soft drink experienced much greater activation of the reward-processing centers of the brain.

In addition, the diet soft drinkers who consumed a greater number of diet soft drink had reduced caudate head activation—stimulation of neurons in the brain that are associated with emotions, memory and learning—suggesting that “there are alterations in reward processing of sweet taste in individuals who regularly consume diet soft drink, and this is associated with the degree of consumption.”

In other words, artificial sweeteners increase our desire for more fattening sugars, starches and carbohydrates, so by drinking diet soft drink, you’re more likely to consume additional sweets to calm your cravings. To add fuel to the fire, artificial sweeteners trick our bodies into thinking more sugar is on the way, which leads to the production of more insulin—and more visceral fat.

Diabetes Dangers

And speaking of insulin…diet soft drinks has been linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. This is particularly disturbing considering so many diabetics use artificial sweeteners and drink diet soft drink regularly in their efforts to avoid sugar.

A  recent study evaluated the effects of sucralose (Splenda®) on the metabolic response of 17 obese participants. The volunteers underwent two different glucose tolerance tests—one after consuming a sucralose-sweetened beverage and another after consuming plain water (the control).

The results showed that, compared to control, the sucralose caused higher glucose and insulin levels, and a greater peak insulin secretion rate. In conclusion, these researchers wrote,

“These data demonstrate that sucralose affects the glycemic and insulin responses to an oral glucose load in obese people who do not normally consume [artificial sweeteners].”

Ditch the Diet Soft drink

It should go without saying that we advise that you completely eliminate all artificially sweetened beverages from your diet.

There are plenty of tasty low-calorie or calorie-free alternatives to diet soft drinks. Using sparkling water as your base, add a splash of freshly squeezed lemon, lime or orange. Or create a 75-25 mixture of sparkling water and cranberry, blueberry or pomegranate juice—not only refreshing, but rich in antioxidants.

Another very healthy zero-calorie alternative is white, green, red or even black tea sweetened with stevia or xylitol—both 100-percent natural sugar alternatives that actually have very positive health benefits.

It’s no fun having bad breath—for you or for anyone standing anywhere near you. It can put a real damper on your social life.

But popping a mint or swishing around mouthwash isn’t always the right answer. It might only mask the problem that’s really causing your bad breath—or halitosis. And it’s only when you get to the bottom of what’s causing your bad breath that you can eliminate it for good.

Let’s take a look at what bad breath says about your health, how your breath can give us invisible clues as to whether you’re suffering from certain diseases and what you can do when your breath cries foul.

What Causes Bad Breath?

There are a lot of reasons why your breath might not smell like a bouquet of roses, some more surprising than others. One of the most common reasons is simply that bacteria in your mouth are breaking down the food you’ve eaten. This process releases foul-smelling gases researchers call volatile sulfur compounds. Onion, garlic, eggs and cabbage smell especially strong, but other foods can produce unpleasant aromas too.

In some cases, however, the answer isn’t as simple as what you ate for dinner. The way a person’s breath smells can serve as a red flag to get tested for certain diseases.

Breath that smells fishy or like urine or ammonia is a sign of kidney failure.

Diabetics whose breath smells fruity or like nail polish remover should visit their doctor immediately to test for diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition. Diabetic ketoacidosis is caused when cells in the pancreas don’t produce enough insulin. The body then switches from insulin as an energy source to fatty acids. This results in the production of acidic ketones, which can build up in the blood and cause a diabetic coma or death.

It Often Starts in the Stomach

Another culprit causing bad breath may be a stomach infection with the bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). H. pylori causes stomach cancer and ulcers, and bad breath may be a warning sign that it’s present. H. pylori is more common in developing countries, with up to 70 percent of people infected.

According to the researchers, “Our findings suggest that eradication of gastric H. pylori significantly alleviates halitosis and coated tongue. . . .”

The Heartburn-Halitosis Connection

People who have a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) often have problems with bad breath.

Researchers tested 132 patients complaining of upper GI symptoms. The patients who had bad breath were more likely to have more severe heartburn, regurgitation and belching. The 72 patients who had GERD also were more likely to have bad breath.

Gum Disease, Cavities and Bad Breath

Gum disease—or periodontal disease—may leave a bad odor behind in your mouth. The same bacteria responsible for gum disease can reside on your tongue too, and its presence in tongue coatings can cause bad breath.Even cavities can cause a bad case of halitosis.

Morning Breath and Sleep Apnea

Morning breath is caused by reduced saliva production while you sleep. Without the antibacterial properties of the saliva, odor-producing bacteria have free reign of your mouth.

But people who have obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that causes people to stop breathing intermittently throughout the night, may sleep with their mouth open, causing even more saliva to dry up overnight. In one study, of 744 people with sleep apnea, 30.4 percent had bad breath.Some studies have found that people who have sleep apnea are more likely to also have periodontal disease, a condition that is also linked to bad breath.

Sinus infection and Post Nasal Drip

Chronic low grade sinus infections drain post nasal to the back of the throat not only causing mucous congestion but odour from the infection. Often driven by allergies and fungal infections, treating the sinus infection often eases bad breath.

Wiping Out Bad Breath

The best solutions for bad breath are to get rid of the problem permanently. Breath mints only work temporarily, and they’re usually loaded with sugar, which isn’t good for your teeth. And mouthwash may work, but antibacterial mouthwashes like Listerine® not only kill the bad bacteria in your mouth, but also kill the beneficial bacteria too, leaving your mouth vulnerable to gum disease. 

If the cause of your bad breath is something as simple as decaying food, brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing once a day and getting regular dental cleanings can really help.

Xylitol mints and xylitol gum offer another solution for those times when your breath smells less than sweet. Unlike sugar, xylitol has some long-lasting beneficial effects. It not only directly freshens the breath, but it also inhibits mutans streptococci, the bacteria responsible for gum disease and tooth decay. Xylitol lowers levels of mutans streptococci in plaque and saliva because these bacteria are unable to use xylitol as an energy source. Xylitol also stops the bacteria from sticking to the tooth surface and stops the bacteria from producing acid that wears down the tooth’s surface.To reduce cavities, aim for 6 to 10 grams per day.

If you suffer from chronic bad breath, it’s a good idea to get checked out by a dentist and a health practitioner who can test you for other conditions such as an H. pylori infection, gum disease, cavities, diabetes, sinus infections, sleep apnea or kidney disease.

Taking a good probiotic can help sweeten up your breath. In one study, researchers gave the probiotic Lactobacillus salivarius along with the sweetener xylitol in tablet form to 20 subjects who suffered from halitosis. After two weeks of taking the probiotic, the subjects’ bad breath decreased. Their gums were also healthier, with less bleeding during probing.

Finally, using a tongue scraper to remove the coating on your tongue can help freshen your breath. By cleaning the tongue, you can get rid of 70 percent of oral sulfide gases, which play a role in bad breath.

Invisible Clues to Your Health

Bad breath isn’t always just a sign that you need to brush your teeth. Sometimes, it’s a clue that something else is wrong such as gum disease, an H. pylori infection or diabetic complications. By doing some detective work, we can read the clues your breath is leaving behind to figure out why you have bad breath in the first place.

Exercise…you either love it or loathe it. (Or you hate it and do it anyway…)

But despite your feelings on the matter, few—if any—people would dispute the tremendous benefits of regular physical activity. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find any real downside to working out. Well, take that back. If there is one drawback that seems to be expressed by busy parents, career people and students alike, it’s this: the inability to find time to fit exercise into the day.

Yes, squeezing an hour—even half an hour—of exercise into an already jam-packed schedule can present quite a challenge. But, according to emerging research, “I don’t have the time”should no longer be an acceptable excuse if you want to be as healthy—and productive—as possible. Why?

Because research shows that regular physical activity enhances the ability to integrate your personal and professional lives. In other words, fitting exercise into your routine can help you achieve significantly better work-life balance.

This idea certainly seems counter intuitive. How can adding yet another item to an already overflowing to-do list actually create better balance?

Lead researcher Dr. Russell Clayton collected data from 476 working adults who answered various survey questions on exercise behavior (such as how often they exercised), as well as how they handled conflicts between work and family obligations.

Dr. Clayton and his team discovered that exercise allows people to physically, mentally and emotionally detach from work and other responsibilities, therefore alleviating stress and helping them feel more confident and empowered.

According to Dr. Clayton, even one exercise session can help you experience a sense of mastery. Meeting exercise goals—like running two km, for instance—produces a prolonged “can-do” attitude that spans across multiple roles throughout the day, from work and school to parenting and even your marriage.

He calls this “self-efficacy,” the “sense that one is capable of taking things on and getting them done.” He explains that people with high self-efficacy see difficult situations as challenges that can be conquered, rather than problems that can bring them down.

Exercise Doesn’t Have to Be Fancy

Many people think that in order to get a good or worthwhile workout, you need to go to a gym. If you prefer this approach to physical fitness, then by all means continue doing it. But you don’t necessarily need fancy equipment to raise your heart rate and break a sweat. A good fitness routine can be as simple as taking a 30-minute walk or jog in your neighborhood, or putting in a workout DVD and completing it in your living room. Simply doing squats, push-ups, sit-ups or wall sits in your own home counts as a workout too.

Also think about what time of day works best for your schedule. Some people like to wake up before dawn (while the rest of the family sleeps) to exercise. Others like to break up their day with a lunchtime workout session. Still others prefer to unwind in the evening and work out their stress in the gym or weight room. Whatever your inclination, stick to it—and the rewards, as this research shows, will cross over every single part of your life.

• There are two main types of peaches—clingstone and freestone. The names are quite literal. The flesh of a clingstone “clings” to the pit (or stone), while the freestone kind, you guessed it, pulls away from the pit “freely.”
• While definitely a fruit, peaches are actually members of the rose family.
• Peaches hail from China, where they have been cultivated since 1,000 BC.
•  In China, the peach tree is thought of as the tree of life, and peaches are symbolic of immortality and unity.
• Peaches are good sources of fiber and vitamins A, B and C.
• According to a 2015 study from the University of Reading, chewing gum can help you get an annoying song out of your head.
•  Chewing gum while cutting an onion can help you stop your eyes from watering.
•  Contrary to what your mother told you, swallowing gum will not cause a gum build-up in your stomach. However, it will take a few days to pass through.
•  The three most common flavors of gum are peppermint, spearmint and cinnamon.
•  Excess gum chewing can lead to temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ. Like any muscle or joint, overuse of those associated with chewing can lead to pain and problems.

A study published in November 2014 has determined that a diet low in carbohydrates and saturated fat may be the most effective eating plan for managing diabetes and associated cardiovascular problems.

Researchers concluded, “A Low Carbohydrate  diet with low saturated fat may be an effective dietary approach for type 2 diabetes management if effects are sustained beyond 24 weeks.”

In this study, researchers compared the effects of a very low-carb, low-saturated fat, high-unsaturated fat (LC) diet with a high-unrefined carb/low-fat (HC) diet on glycemic control and cardiovascular factors in type 2 diabetes. The LC diet consisted of 14 percent carbohydrates, 28 percent protein and 58 percent fat (with less than 10 percent coming from saturated fat), while the HC diet contained 53 percent carbs, 17 percent protein and 30 percent fat (again, less than 10 percent from saturated fat).

A total of 93 obese adults were randomly divided to follow one of these two diets, along with an exercise program for 24 weeks. Upon completion, both groups achieved similar weight loss, as well as reductions in blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and LDL cholesterol.

However, the LC group had greater triglyceride decreases, less need for medication, lower glycemic variability (the degree to which a patient’s glucose fluctuates) and HbA1c levels—and increases in protective HDL cholesterol.