Does diet soda cause weight gain?

[Agorism]

It's zero calories so how could it cause weight gain but the subject, which I know little about as I haven't thought about it much jumped into my head today.

I generally believe that there is rarely a free lunch, and when there is one there is probably a cost somewhere.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/01...lth/index.html

"Your senses tell you there's something sweet that you're tasting, but your brain tells you, 'Actually, it's not as much of a reward as I expected,'" says Martin P. Paulus, MD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, and one of the authors of the study. "The consequence might be that the brain says, 'Well, I'll have more of this.'"
Health.com: 10 artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes
In other words, artificial sweeteners may spur drinkers -- or their brains -- to keep chasing a "high" that diet soda keeps forever just out of reach. It's not clear that this teasing effect can lead to dependence, but it's a possibility, Dr. Paulus says. "Artificial sweeteners have positive reinforcing effects -- meaning humans will work for it, like for other foods, alcohol, and even drugs of abuse," he says. "Whenever you have that, there is a potential that a subgroup of people ... will have a chance of getting addicted."
Timothy S. Harlan, MD, a nutrition specialist and assistant professor of internal medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, says that while diet-soda dependence appears to be a real phenomenon, it is probably caused by a complex mix of behavioral factors, not necessarily artificial sweeteners. "I don't think there is clear-cut evidence of biochemical dependence on diet soda, but my sense is that certainly people do become habituated to diet soda and dependent upon it," he says.

Researchers are still trying to sort out the counterintuitive link between zero-calorie soda and weight gain. One explanation may be that as your body gets used to experiencing the sweet flavor of diet soda without absorbing any calories, it begins to forget that foods containing real sugar and other carbohydrates do deliver calories.
"The next time you go for a piece of fruit, your history says, 'I don't know if this has calories or not,' so you track those calories less well, and you may eat more of them," says Susan Swithers, PhD, a professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
It's also possible that people who gravitate toward diet soda are more likely to gain weight because they have less healthy diets overall than people who choose water or other unsweetened beverages. (They may use diet soda to wash down fast food, for instance.)
If a relationship between diet soda and unhealthy food choices does exist, it may not be a total coincidence. There is some speculation -- largely unconfirmed, as of yet -- that diet sodas have subtle effects on insulin and blood-sugar levels that trigger hunger and food cravings and influence how (and what) you eat.

Basically the diet soda tastes excellent and you're drinking it all the time, and it's acting on reward zone. This brings your baseline up so that you require more food to maintain at that level you were at after you just spent all day drinking 10 diet sodas. You brain tells you eat eat to bring you back to baseline.

Just an idea.

[fisharmor]

What diet soda tastes excellent? I've only ever had one or two I didn't find repellent.

Actually, I've always found it much easier not to suck down soda all day. Water during the day, lightly sweetened iced tea for dinner, and the occasional IPA (or five...)

[ghengis86]

Your sweet cravings need to be satiated. Diet soda doesn't do it for the body. Your body sometimes needs a quick boost of glucose, which is ready energy in the blood stream. HFCS doesn't do it either, since fructose must pass through the liver to be broken down and available for absorption.

You'd be better off drinking a soda made with pure cane sugar. Drink it slowly, maybe save half for later. Just don't go crazy. Eat fruits that are high in glucose (not fructose; same issue as with HFCS).

And do you think rumsfeld's Searle/monsanto neurotoxin has no side effects? Getting fat is the least of your worries.

[trey4sports]

i got really deep into this discussion on a health forum a year back. Essentially, all peer-reviewed, scientific journalism pointed toward no, diet soda does not cause weight gain. The idea that artificial sweetners somehow affects blood sugar levels is false.

As for long-term affects on your health.... i have no clue.

[Sola_Fide]

i got really deep into this discussion on a health forum a year back. Essentially, all peer-reviewed, scientific journalism pointed toward no, diet soda does not cause weight gain. The idea that artificial sweetners somehow affects blood sugar levels is false.

As for long-term affects on your health.... i have no clue.

It's got to be impossible that diet sodas don't cause an insulin response...at least for me. When I am in ketosis, just one diet coke will knock me back out of ketosis.

[trey4sports]

It's got to be impossible that diet sodas don't cause an insulin response...at least for me. When I am in ketosis, just one diet coke will knock me back out of ketosis.

IIRC, insulin isn't completely correlated to blood sugar. I have seen several bodybuilding supplements that are carb-less and claim to create an insulin response while not increasing blood sugar. This is done to utilize insulin to transport nutrients to the muscles without affecting blood sugar levels.

[heavenlyboy34]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96849.php

A study by scientists in the US suggests that eating artificial sweeteners could make people put on weight because experiments on laboratory rats showed that those eating food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more calories than their counterparts whose food was sweetened with normal sugar.

The study is the work of Drs Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, two psychologists based at the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and is to be published in the February 2008 issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA).

The authors suggest that a sweet taste may cause animals to anticipate the calorie content of food, and eating artificial sweeteners with little or no calories undermines this connection, leading to energy imbalance by increasing food intake or reducing energy expenditure.

They conducted three sets of experiments on adult male laboratory rats who were put in two groups. One group was given yogurt sweetened with glucose (equivalent to table sugar, containing 15 calories a teaspoon), and the other group was given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin.

The rats that had the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, put on more weight, gained more body fat, and did not cut back on their calorie consumption in the longer term.

All these results were statistically significant, said the authors, who argued that by breaking the link between the sweet taste and the anticipated high calorie food, the saccharin changed the body's ability to control food intake.

They also suggested that the change depends on experience, which might explain why the obesity epidemic in humans has gone up in line with increased use of artificial sweeteners, and why scientists fail to agree on the effect of artificial sweeteners on humans: some research shows weight loss, others show weight gain or no effect at all. Swithers said it could be because those studies did not take into account prior consumption and that people have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners.

The authors also measured changes in the core body temperature of the rats. Usually, when the body of an animal gets ready to eat, the "metabolic engine" revs up, which raises the core temperature of the body. But when they gave the rats fed on saccharin sweetened yogurt a new, sweet tasting, high calorie meal, their core body temperature did not go up as much as that of the rats who had been fed on yogurt sweetened with glucose.

Swithers and Davidson argued this was because the saccharin fed rats had a blunted response that had the double effect of making them eat more and making it harder for them to burn off calories. As they explained in their paper:

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar."

[anaconda]

Aspartame is very bad.

Here's an interesting article:

http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexcl...xclusive15.htm

[MikeStanart]

Correlation not causality.

[sratiug]

Your sweet cravings need to be satiated. Diet soda doesn't do it for the body. Your body sometimes needs a quick boost of glucose, which is ready energy in the blood stream. HFCS doesn't do it either, since fructose must pass through the liver to be broken down and available for absorption.

You'd be better off drinking a soda made with pure cane sugar. Drink it slowly, maybe save half for later. Just don't go crazy. Eat fruits that are high in glucose (not fructose; same issue as with HFCS).

And do you think rumsfeld's Searle/monsanto neurotoxin has no side effects? Getting fat is the least of your worries.

Cain sugar, sucrose, is about half fructose.

[Dustancostine]

I would say its more psychological than anything else. Most people who drink diet soda are fat (just guessing but I bet I'm right), so while they feel good about making a change in one part of their lifestyle, they continue to do the bad stuff in the rest of their lifestyle thinking the diet soda is going to make it okay. Also think about where you buy diet soda (or any soda for that matter), unless you are buying at the grocery store and drinking it at home, it probably comes from a fast food joint or a gas station and you are usually buying it with something else. The something else is what is bad.

Also this video talks about the effects of the Acidity in Diet Soda on your Thyroid Glands.

[heavenlyboy34]

Correlation not causality.

Not necessarily. But some studies have shown causation. Do your own due research, as usual. The "experts" are usually wrong (and are often paid off).

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

In the form of tumors, yes.

[KingRobbStark]

A gradual diet is the best approach. If your body is used to the junk, then it's beneficial that you transition your body to a healthier diet (all the better if mixed with exercise). I would also like to mention that diet soda is not the best alternative to regular sodas because of the combination of solutions used to compensate sugar and corn syrup (among other things). Also an interesting study I remember reading suggests that positive thoughts concerning weight loss will actually help in reducing your weight.

[Rael]

There is much more evidence pointing to the dangers of sugar and HFCS than aspartame. It's probably better to drink water or a natural sweetener like stevia but if the choice is sugar or aspartame I think there's no question sugar is much more dangerous.

[sratiug]

There is much more evidence pointing to the dangers of sugar and HFCS than aspartame. It's probably better to drink water or a natural sweetener like stevia but if the choice is sugar or aspartame I think there's no question sugar is much more dangerous.

I'm not saying sugar is good for you, or that fructose in sucrose or hfcs does not damage your liver, but total insulin response is the key factor as far as diabetes and fat storage. Carbs from all sources cause diabetes and fat storage. Is aspartame safer than potatoes or brown rice? Sugar raises resting blood sugar levels less than complex carbs.

[kpitcher]

Personally I'm very leery about anything that contains aspartame. It was denied approval for years, the FDA even looked at sueing Searle for falsifying test results. When Reagan was in office Rumsfeld used his political influence to push it through. An interesting history of aspartame approval : http://www.rense.com/general33/legal.htm

[fisharmor]

There is much more evidence pointing to the dangers of sugar and HFCS than aspartame. It's probably better to drink water or a natural sweetener like stevia but if the choice is sugar or aspartame I think there's no question sugar is much more dangerous.

My mom told me a story once about when I was really young. There was an anti-sugar craze in the 70's (which is probably why diet sodas started appearing in the first place).
Lots of parents jumped on the bandwagon and started watching their kids' sugar intake.
So mom asked our doctor his opinion. The answer:
"This is the first generation of children where we worry about what they eat, as opposed to that they eat."

I welcome further research, but I think this has been figured out since ancient times... moderation in all things, excess in none.
(Except liberty, that is.)

[RCA]

Mods?

[ghengis86]

Cain sugar, sucrose, is about half fructose.

Right, but it's not HFCS. I think cane sugar is the best option if u want a soda

[VBRonPaulFan]

i'd be more worried about the chemicals that get pumped into diet sodas to make them taste sweet, over worrying about packing on a few pounds. if you're drinking soda... you probably dont care about a few pounds coming on as it is.

[Seraphim]

Aspartame and other artificial sweetners throw off your pituitary glands ability to properly regulate hormone production. This is intergral to proper glucose/glycogen balances and weight/energy regulation.

YES, "DIET" actually contributes to weight gain and UNhealth.

[Agorism]

Sweets work on reward centers in your brain and they release corresponding hormones.

Also increased insulin will change your body fat distribution if it's doing that.

[Ninja Homer]

There are 2 reasons why the body creates fat. The first is the one that everybody knows; to store energy. The second isn't as commonly known; the body will create fat cells and store toxins in them to keep the toxins away from vital organs.

It is the job of the kidney and liver to cleanse the toxins out of the body. If you take in too many toxins, then the kidney and liver can get clogged up, kind of like a log jam. At this point, the body will start creating fat, and storing toxins within it so that the toxins don't destroy your vital organs. If somebody goes on a diet without cleansing the liver and kidneys, then as they lose fat the toxins will be released into the body, and they'll get very tired and sometimes sick, and then the body reacts to it and starts creating more fat. This is how yo-yo dieting works. This is also why so many people who go through gastric bypass surgery end up getting very sick, or develop new diseases that didn't exist before their surgery.

Not everybody agrees, but it's my belief that the body treats aspartame as a toxin. At least for some people... but there may be some where it doesn't cause any problems at all. I know an awful lot of people that started gaining weight after they started drinking diet sodas.

If you look at the rise of the obesity problem in the US, it goes hand in hand with the rise of commercialized food, which generally has more toxins in it.

[Seraphim]

You are 100% correct and this post goes well with mine just above.

There are 2 reasons why the body creates fat. The first is the one that everybody knows; to store energy. The second isn't as commonly known; the body will create fat cells and store toxins in them to keep the toxins away from vital organs.

It is the job of the kidney and liver to cleanse the toxins out of the body. If you take in too many toxins, then the kidney and liver can get clogged up, kind of like a log jam. At this point, the body will start creating fat, and storing toxins within it so that the toxins don't destroy your vital organs. If somebody goes on a diet without cleansing the liver and kidneys, then as they lose fat the toxins will be released into the body, and they'll get very tired and sometimes sick, and then the body reacts to it and starts creating more fat. This is how yo-yo dieting works. This is also why so many people who go through gastric bypass surgery end up getting very sick, or develop new diseases that didn't exist before their surgery.

Not everybody agrees, but it's my belief that the body treats aspartame as a toxin. At least for some people... but there may be some where it doesn't cause any problems at all. I know an awful lot of people that started gaining weight after they started drinking diet sodas.

If you look at the rise of the obesity problem in the US, it goes hand in hand with the rise of commercialized food, which generally has more toxins in it.

[sratiug]

There are 2 reasons why the body creates fat. The first is the one that everybody knows; to store energy. The second isn't as commonly known; the body will create fat cells and store toxins in them to keep the toxins away from vital organs.

It is the job of the kidney and liver to cleanse the toxins out of the body. If you take in too many toxins, then the kidney and liver can get clogged up, kind of like a log jam. At this point, the body will start creating fat, and storing toxins within it so that the toxins don't destroy your vital organs. If somebody goes on a diet without cleansing the liver and kidneys, then as they lose fat the toxins will be released into the body, and they'll get very tired and sometimes sick, and then the body reacts to it and starts creating more fat. This is how yo-yo dieting works. This is also why so many people who go through gastric bypass surgery end up getting very sick, or develop new diseases that didn't exist before their surgery.

Not everybody agrees, but it's my belief that the body treats aspartame as a toxin. At least for some people... but there may be some where it doesn't cause any problems at all. I know an awful lot of people that started gaining weight after they started drinking diet sodas.

If you look at the rise of the obesity problem in the US, it goes hand in hand with the rise of commercialized food, which generally has more toxins in it.

Fat is stored when carbohydrates are eaten. All carbs turn to sugar and must be removed from the blood stream to prevent death. Five grams carbs = 1 teaspoon sugar = the total amount of sugar in your blood stream. The body can make sugar when needed from protein and fat.

[Working Poor]

I can't drink them because they make my chest hurt but, I do know that diet soda makes excellent ant poison just pour on on an ant hill and they will be gone.

[VBRonPaulFan]

^ rofl. there is no better excuse to stop drinking but for that reason alone haha.

[Seraphim]

No, fat is stored when the body is fed more calories then it uses. It is not relevant what sort of calories the surplus calories are, in terms of fat stroage.

Fat is stored when carbohydrates are eaten. All carbs turn to sugar and must be removed from the blood stream to prevent death. Five grams carbs = 1 teaspoon sugar = the total amount of sugar in your blood stream. The body can make sugar when needed from protein and fat.

[Zippyjuan]

A study released in 2008 found that rats given sugar (glucose) compared to another group given food with sacharine found that the sacharine group gained much more weight- they ended up eating more food which more than made up for the caloric savings from using the artificial sweetner. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0210183902.htm

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) — Want to lose weight? It might help to pour that diet soda down the drain. Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their intake and body weight.

Psychologists at Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn't make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.

Authors Susan Swithers, PhD, and Terry Davidson, PhD, surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body's ability to regulate intake. That change depends on experience. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. It also might explain why, says Swithers, scientific consensus on human use of artificial sweeteners is inconclusive, with various studies finding evidence of weight loss, weight gain or little effect. Because people may have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners, human studies that don't take into account prior consumption may produce a variety of outcomes.

Three different experiments explored whether saccharin changed lab animals' ability to regulate their intake, using different assessments --the most obvious being caloric intake, weight gain, and compensating by cutting back.

Other studies have found similar results. This one from 2004. http://www.naturalnews.com/001253.html

Groundbreaking new research published in the International Journal of Obesity reveals that artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose -- precisely the kinds of chemical sweeteners found in diet soft drinks or many low-carb food products -- may actually promote obesity by tricking the body into thinking that sweet-tasting foods and drinks don't contain as many calories as they really do.
In the experiments, rats who were fed artificially-sweetened foods tended to overeat foods containing real sweeteners, causing them to gain weight. In humans, it's the same result: drink diet soft drinks and consume enough foods made with artificial sweeteners, and you'll very likely overeat the sweets when the real thing comes along: apple pie, cookies, cake, ice cream, and so on.

This result is rather obvious, come to think of it: I don't recall ever seeing a thin person buying a twelve-pack of diet Pepsi at the grocery store. The people you see buying diet soft drinks are inevitably overweight or obese. Obviously, if diet soft drinks made people thin, you'd see lots of thin people buying them, right? It's common sense.



Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/001253.html#ixzz1TQ8Z8h97