8. Dementia
Drinking diet soda and consuming diet foods that contain aspartame can increase your risk of developing dementia by up to three times. If your family has a history of dementia, you are already at risk for developing it. If you consume diet drinks, you are only causing this risk of developing the disease to go up. Drinking aspartame laden drinks seems to be the worst culprit as the body breaks it down into methanol, which is converted to formaldehyde. This is quite dangerous for the entire body, but especially for the brain.
When the brain cannot distinguish between the sweetness of these drinks and sugar and expects calories to follow, it can cause many different types of issues. It is important to note that aspartame found in liquid form is worse that when it is found in powdered form such as what is used in baking. However, both are quite bad and should be avoided if possible.