Photo by Cory Wyman ’16 – Oct. 8, Ethan Mena ’18 purchases a soda during lunch. Should we still have these soda machines on campus?
Regular soda is banned, yet diet soda is equally unhealthy
By Jack Cahill ’17
The Roundup
Recent studies from major universities like Harvard have reached the conclusion that aspartame, commonly found in diet sodas, is harmful to human health.
This has left some people at schools across the nation, including myself, wondering if we should keep diet sodas on campus.
If the answer is yes, we should ask ourselves why.
Why would we scrap conventional soda in favor of soda that is also unhealthy?
We should either allow both regular and diet soda, or no soda at all.
Mr. Scott Heideman, who is very well versed on the topic of health, said he avoids soda altogether.
“First and foremost I recommend to not drink any soda in general. It’s a personal choice for me to choose diet to reduce the blood sugar,” Mr. Heideman said. “I would say to look for other choices besides soda, that would be me. But, living in a country with choices, it’s up for us to make those choices.”
If Brophy health teachers agree with the statement that diet soda has a negative impact on our health, why have we decided to sell it as an alternative to conventional soda on campus?
This leads to the topic of personal responsibility for one’s health.
Aspartame, the sweetener in diet soda, has been found to cause weight gain, and it can possibly even contribute to cancer. Regardless, I, and other students, think that it ultimately comes down to the issue of personal responsibility.
“I do know that diet soda is bad for you, so I think it’d be better if the school just gave us Pepsi,” said Justin Henneberry ’17.
It seems that Brophy students such as Henneberry think that it would be an infringement of personal responsibility if we were to rid the campus of diet soda.
But, given the health effects of diet soda, we shouldn’t try to pass it off as a healthy alternative to conventional soda.
It’s only logical to maintain conventional soda on campus if we are to maintain diet soda, as they’re both bad for your health.
