Darla Perigo
http://1deflep.blogspot.com
English 201.502
Essay 2 Proposal
Word Count: 777

The topic that I intend to research is comparing soft drinks, regular versus diet and their affect on weight and overall health. I am interested in this topic simply because I absolutely love cokes! No other drink will do for me! Probably most soft drink drinkers eventually fall into the same cycle that I did. One day, before you realize what is happening, a little at a time some extra weight somehow has managed to creep up on you. And that is when you make the decision that you are going to have to do something about it and start making sacrifices, some small cuts and some on a larger scale. I would be willing to guess that one of the first areas most people cut back on is in drinking soft drinks and switching over to the diet version of their favorite soft drinks.

Switching from regular soft drinks to diet may seem like such a small step; however, it usually is a trade off in taste. While I wasn’t a diet soft drink drinker until about the last five years or so, I would guess diet soft drinks have come a long way as far as taste. Unfortunately there is still clearly a difference between them and their “regular” counterpart.

And that is where artificial sweeteners come in. Originally I had thought that this essay would center more around artificial sweeteners: how they are chemically engineered and the dangers associated with consuming them. But I am finding that artificial sweeteners are like every other substance on the planet. There is a wealth of controversy surrounding them and the negative health effects caused by them. Countless researchers and medical professionals publish study after study that document the proof that there is a direct link between artificial sweeteners consumption and cancer, diabetes, heart disease; the list is endless. And, for every study that negatively berates artificial sweeteners and their negative side effects, there is a study aimed at disproving the bad PR. Companies then respond and try to do damage control by launching corporate marketing campaigns in an effort to reassure consumers that they are perfectly safe in their use of these chemicals.

I decided against focusing on artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks because of so much controversy and because there does not appear to be a right or wrong answer. It’s virtually impossible to figure out who the expert is, whose opinion is correct or who consumers should believe. Nearly everyone has heard the scary stories about the terrible health problems associated with them. Besides, I’m certainly not a chemistry major, so I would actually find much of the data boring, and I don’t have the background to really understand some of the chemical aspects of artificial sweeteners.

Instead I am hoping to focus more comparing regular colas and diet soft drinks and if there is a general affect on weight and overall health. While most everyone would guess that regular soft drinks are loaded with sugar (and that is going to have a negative affect on weight!) most of my online research seems to focus on diet soft drinks and the health threat they seem to pose.
Some interesting statistics I found on soft drinks include:

Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as the best-known product in the world.
Diet soda accounted for 29.6 percent of carbonated soft drink sales in 2005. That is up from 24.7 percent in 2000.
Diet Coke was “born” in 1982, became the number one sugar free drink in the United States and now ranks as the number three soft drink in the world.
Since the late 1970`s the soft drink consumption in the United States has doubled for females and tripled for males. The highest consumption is in the males between the ages of 12 - 29; they average 1/2 gallon a day or 160 gallons a year.
More than 15 billion gallons were sold in 2000.
Unbelievably, one statistic shows that for every can or bottle of diet soda that a person drinks each day, there is a 41 percent increase in their risk of being overweight!

As far as research options, I have found that there are numerous web sites listing statistics about America’s soft drink consumption and habits. There are just as many marketing sites that will sell statistical data on soft drink consumption. And there are unlimited sites that detail the numerous risks and factors affecting health and obesity as a result of drinking both regular and diet sodas.

1a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=1&did=1517644631&SrchMode=2&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218224080&clientId=41301b.The Sugar Association; The Sugar Association Applauds California Assembly Health Committee's Plans to Hold Hearings on Deceptive Advertising of Artificial SweetenersAnonymous. Pediatrics Week. Atlanta: Jun 9, 2008. pg. 532a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=17&did=1113298021&SrchMode=2&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218224080&clientId=41303a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=46&did=858555751&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218224923&clientId=41304a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=10&did=1276497791&SrchMode=2&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218224080&clientId=4130
5a. http://www.lexisnexis.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T4328891880&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T4328891888&cisb=22_T4328891887&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=227171&docNo=2
6a. http://www.lexisnexis.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T4328891880&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T4328891888&cisb=22_T4328891887&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=314633&docNo=22 6b. Jury to get Splenda-Equal fightAFX International Focus, May 10, 2007 Thursday 10:15 PM GMT, 492 words6c. Use because it shows fighting among brands7a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=1526207981&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218226162&clientId=4130
8a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=2&did=1206897191&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218227003&clientId=4130
9a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=4&did=1073031421&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218227317&clientId=413010a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=9&did=1188385431&SrchMode=1&sid=4&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218227801&clientId=413010b. Stop sipping! Surprising news about diet sodaJanet Bailey. Good Housekeeping. New York: Sep 2006. Vol. 243, Iss. 3; pg. 31, 1 pgs\11a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=18&did=22075751&SrchMode=1&sid=4&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218227801&clientId=413011b. How diet soda turns to poisonJennifer Cohen. Earth Island Journal. San Francisco: Fall 1997. Vol. 12, Iss. 4; pg. 29, 1 pgs12a. http://proquest.umi.com.lib-proxy.usi.edu/pqdweb?index=1&did=1256780441&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218228592&clientId=413012b. Effects of Soft Drink Consumption on Nutrition and Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisLenny R Vartanian, Marlene B Schwartz, Kelly D Brownell. American Journal of Public Health. Washington: Apr 2007. Vol. 97, Iss. 4; pg. 667, 9 pgs