When did diet soda become a healthy food? I think it was sometime in between the commercials of skinny women drinking the pink cans from the 70s and the fabulous super-models slurping down a silver can in the middle of tumbleweeds in the dry west. So, a little diet soda in the middle of a cubicle can’t hurt, right? We can’t exactly emulate their lives, so why not at least drink what they do? As busy, discerning professional women, we can choose to buy products and brands that reflect our self-identities that also do not risk our blood sugar levels going into pre-diabetes states.

Well, here’s the reality. It all comes down to sugar. How you metabolize it and how much you eat of it does have something to do with it. As sugar gets eaten or drunk or ingested by whatever means, the body releases insulin. Insulin helps metabolize the sugar and bring the levels down. When you eat a simple sugar, like those found in cupcakes or white pasta, these insulin levels go up and up and up. And, over time, so does your weight and your pant size.

Eventually, your body can’t exactly figure out how to get all that sugar broken down to use as fuel and eventually you have what is known as diabetes. It really is all about metabolism and breakdow. And at some point, especially as your belly grows in size, your body can’t figure out how to do it anymore. It doesn’t have the right tools. Well at least this is what happens with the most common form, otherwise known as Type 2 diabetes, the "lifestyle" disease.

So, stop, I hear you say. I am a professional woman. I don’t live on cupcakes, donuts, cake or white pasta, for that matter. What does this really have to do with me? Well, slight elevations in blood sugar, between the ranges of 100 and 125, which were previously considered normal, are now associated with the development of heart disease. We are also that the "Western diet," a diet soda and a hamburger, for example, or even more than two diet soft drinks a day, is associated with the metabolic syndrome or what is known as a pre-diabetic state.

I know, a little teaspoon in coffee in the morning doesn’t constitute an all-out sugar fest. But, let’s think. Here’s a little test showing how fast our sugar intake adds up if we don’t watch it: Some sugar in the morning in coffee along with a bagel (ding), a tuna fish sandwich on a roll for lunch with a diet soda (ding, ding), a baked white potato (ding) on the side, with clams oreganato with linguine (ding, ding, ding, ding.) Simple sugars everywhere. We have deadlines to meet and kids to pick up, and often we add a lack of exercise to our bad diet habits.

We are not immune to it. In fact, the metabolic syndrome is a new epidemic. It's something even you might have if, in fact, you are a little overweight, have borderline high blood pressure and borderline high sugar. It is a state which is closely related to the increased incidence of obesity in this country.

We may not have to watch our intake like super models, but sugar and how we metabolize it is something we all must pay attention to.

by Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, www.forwomenshearts.com --- Also go to www.eventsoftheheart.org to learn about the latest event: What is at the Heart of Women, taking place in Los Angeles on April 28th, 2008.