How zero-calorie diet sodas
can add up around your waistline
You know those articles that newspapers produce around New Year’s every year that say if you switch to diet sodas, you’ll lose so many pounds over the year because of the calories you save? Two new studies reveal these calorie-deficit tricks seldom work.
These studies, presented at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions, confirm what many nutritionists have argued for years: diet soda can make you fat.
One long-term study, involving 474 people, evaluated the waist circumference for diet soda users versus non-diet soda users. As a whole, diet soda drinkers had a 70% greater increase in waist circumference compared with non-diet soda drinkers. It gets worse. The “frequent users,” who consumed two or more diet sodas daily, had waist circumferences five times larger than non-diet soda drinkers.
The second study used diabetes-prone mice to determine how aspartame, the artificial sweetener in most diet sodas, affects the hormone insulin. One mice group consumed aspartame- and corn-oil added chow. The other group consumed corn-oil chow without the aspartame.
Three months later, the aspartame-eating mice had elevated fasting glucose levels, but lower insulin levels, than the non-aspartame mice. Interestingly, the aspartame mice also had lower body weight. “These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans,” Dr. Gabriel Fernandes, a researcher in this study, concluded.
Diet soda can trigger what’s called the “halo effect.” Much like people psychologically believe organic junk food to be healthier, so too they justify downing a Snickers bar with all the calories they save in diet soda.
A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, for instance, concluded college students who used artificial sweeteners showed no decrease in overall sugar intake. You’ve probably seen someone with a doughnut in one hand and a Diet Coke in the other. That’s the halo effect in action.
Diet soda might also be addictive. Any sweetener, artificial or not, can trigger a beta-endorphin response, leading to cravings. That might explain why having a diet soda at lunch makes that 3 p.m. siren call to the vending machine so difficult to resist. With its exacerbated sweetness, your taste buds might not be able to differentiate aspartame from regular sugar, and bam, your pancreas releases fat-storing insulin.
As if potential weight gain weren’t enough, aspartame can trigger numerous other health issues such as headaches and skin problems.
Getting off the diet-soda rollercoaster requires effort if you’re flying through a six-pack-a-day habit. Solution: substitute mineral or seltzer water with a lemon or lime for flavor. You’ll get the fizz and flavor without the aspartame.
Not ready to go cold turkey? Limit the diet sodas to one a month. You might discover you no longer miss your old habit. Remember, though, that soda acidifies the body, so drink plenty of water to compensate.
My Thoughts: I have said before how I am a recovering soda addict. And like many people with the same affliction…I have thought that I might be able to get away with consuming diet soda and not hurt my diet. I had always heard that it wouldn’t make a difference, and that diet soda makes you gain weight as well. That’s why I like to research that a little, I had a hard time explaining why that was the case. I think this article does a good job explaining it. So my weight loss advice for the day…..DRINK WATER!!!
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