Boning up on diet soda

It's a guilt-free delight, a weight-loss dud, a Frankenfood that'll "suck the calcium" right out of your bones. Love it or hate it, diet soda's nearly as controversial as the national debt in an election year.

And even we YOU Docs are not immune to it: At one time (in the distant past), one of us (Dr. Mike) swigged 24 cans of the stuff a day. It took Dr. Oz's most determined self (with help from his wife, Lisa) to get him to cut back to one a day.

That's not a bad goal for you, either.

Recent research suggests that some diet sodas do indeed leach a little calcium from your bones, especially if you tend to chain-drink them. They also may raise your risk for diabetes and more.

Should you give them up entirely? Here are the pros and cons:

The cons

Caffeinated sodas, diet or not, pose the biggest threat to your bones. Recent research shows that it may be the caffeine in some sodas, rather than the acids in all of them, that coax excess calcium out of your skeleton.

Diet soda increases your risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Three big studies have found that people who drink even one diet soda a day have a greater chance of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a precursor to diabetes and heart disease.

Why? Maybe because diet soda drinkers also tend to order the burger and fries (instead of the salad and fruit).

Maybe because diet colas contain caramel flavoring, which reduces your body's ability to process blood sugar at a molecular level.

Or maybe because people whose extra weight already puts them at risk for diabetes and heart trouble drink diet soda in an attempt to consume fewer calories.

Diet sodas don't help you lose weight. Bummer. True, but still a bummer, we know.

Worse, there's some evidence that artificial sweeteners actually encourage weight gain, perhaps by fueling your taste for sweet foods.

The pros

Despite the cons, as yet, there's no definitive evidence that diet sodas are harmful, provided you don't drink more than 80 cans (yes, 80) a day.

We assume you don't, so, generally speaking, do this:

• If you drink regular soda, diet's still a better choice. Every 12-ounce can of the real thing floods your body with 136 calories, most of it courtesy of 33 grams of high-fructose corn syrup, which you totally don't need.
• Clean up the rest of your diet first. Don't sweat one or maybe two diet bubblies a day. It's more important to get the rest of your diet up to good-for-YOU standards. By that we mean loads of fruit and veggies; 100 percent whole grains instead of the processed white stuff; healthy fats from fish, nuts and olive/ canola oils; low- or no-fat dairy; skinless white-meat poultry; and as little red meat, saturated fat and refined sugar as you can stand.
• Get extra calcium. For every 12 ounces of soda you sip, bump up your calcium intake by 20 milligrams. All that takes is a few extra swallows of skim milk or a few extra stalks of broccoli. Add that to the calcium supplement you should be taking anyway (1,000 mg before age 60, 1,200 from then on; half in the morning, half at night; we like ours in the form of calcium citrate).
• Steer clear of diet-soda "fantasy math." A zero-calorie soda doesn't cancel out the calories and fat in that Philly cheesesteak or the four frosted rosettes on the office birthday cake. Really.
• Love bubbles? Pour yourself a no-cal sparkler. Your bones and metabolism have nothing to fear from the carbonation in club soda or seltzer. So if it's the fizzy, tickly tingle that you really love, make sparkling water your calorie-free refresher. Want more taste? Choose a flavored type and/or add a spritz of lemon or lime, fistful of berries or frozen grapes, or an ounce or two of your favorite real fruit juice.

The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, are authors of "YOU: On a Diet." To submit questions, go to www.RealAge.com.

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