There has long been a debate on whether diet and low sugar food and drinks are more beneficial to your health than the full-fat version. Many diet or low sugar products are made sweet by adding artificial sweeteners, and new research has shown that this may have side effects which can be quite bad.

Six artificial sweeteners – aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame, and acesulfame potassium-k have been linked to being toxic to gut bacteria, something that we all need to maintain a healthy digestive system.

Unfortunately, the advice is ever changing and its not only diet food and drinks that contain these sweeteners.  Many health experts say that it is safe to drink and eat a range of foods but everything in moderation. If you drink a lot of diet coke for example, then rather switching to drinking the equivalent in full-fat coke, cut down the amount of it you drink altogether.

Diets have always been a hot topic and if you do your research you will find a lot of conflicting advice out there. Fruit and vegetables are an important part of any diet and you need to try and eat at least 5 portions a day. Try to eat as little processed foods as possible and keep an eye on how much sugar and salt is added to your foods.