Drink More Diet Soda, Gain More Weight?

[Harmless711]

?

Overweight Risk Soars 41% With Each Daily Can of Diet Soft Drink

By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Charlotte Grayson, MD
on Monday, June 13, 2005


June 13, 2005 -- People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.

The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity," Fowler tells WebMD. "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."

In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.


"There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.

More Diet Drinks, More Weight Gain

Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.

For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

26% for up to 1/2 can each day
30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person's risk of obesity went up 41%. Is this true?

[BSMNT732]

Its true but they dont give a reason for why. I could do a study of Americans who drink water become obese... well when you are dealing with a country thats about 2/3 overweight then thats what would happen. Point is that diet soda doesnt make you fat, eating poorly and not enough exercise does.

[stahlhart]

"Yes, I'll have a Big Mac, a large order of fries, and a Diet Coke."

Thank you for playing...

C.K.

[ed9sir]

i figure its something to do with the drop in blood sugar to the caffeine intake (in most diet pops). This drop in blood sugar can trigger cravings.

However, I believe this study only applies to people with the average American diet. For people like us who watch everything we eat, I doubt that diet soda can be the cause of any reversals in our fat loss progress. I've always lost steadily, and enjoy diet sodas once or twice a week.

[radar717]

ya - itz the old when ice creams sales go up so do drownings logic. Both are more likely to happen because both increase during summertime but neither have anything to do with each other.

Drinking diet does make u crave MORE diet soda. Prob not a good thing cause u cant fool your body. Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there.

Also could be that people trying to watch their weight by ordering diet-soda but fail at dieting. So prob a lot of failed dieters in that number. (seen a Mickey D's a million times - A double cheesburger and large fries with a diet coke.)

[MsDominatus]

I don't drink diet pop unless i'm out to dinner. But I do have a a diet energy drink a few times a week. I am having no issues with sugar cravings or gaining weight. I call bu!! sh!t!!! I hate it when studies don't provide solid validity for their statements. What a waste of time.

[Andrew99]

I drank two diet Cokes a day for 9 months over which I lost 60 lbs. Like we say in science, correlation does not imply causation.

[siamesedream]

Haha! I'm sorry, but this seems to be the worst study I've ever read. Over a period of 6 months which I dropped 60 lbs of fat, I drank a 12-pack of diet sodas almost every single day. I'm not kidding, either. It helped curbed my appetite and allowed me to taste something that I thoroughly enjoyed.




I drinking all diet sodas to see what would happen, and I just recently hit a plateau. I doubt it has anything to do with lack-of-diet soda, but my point is, in my experiece, diet soda has never had any ill effect.

[DJohnson]

It's as simple as this. 99% of Diet Soda drinkers are fat. People who aren't nutrition freaks and aren't fat drink real soda. Fatness is the cause the Diet Soda is the effect, not the other way around.

[SPDraver]

Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there...

You got it right there. People drink Diet soda and it causes the body to release insulin. This works against most people two fold. First, when your drinking all this diet pop and your body continualy releases insulin but has no glycogen to process, it causes insulin resistance in the person. Secondly, since your body is not getting the sugar it wants, you start to really crave it, both physically and mentally. Now alot of us on here have the self control to say no or eat a piece of fruit or something rather than grab a pint of ice cream. But for many americans, they give in to the urge to eat something sugary and binge because they are craving it so bad. This combined with your bodys newly aquired insulin resistance, causing it to just sit there and turn to fat.

Now one or two diet sodas a week isn't going to do this, but if you drink 3 a day, it very well can.

Plus, too much pop, even diet, is bad for your teeth. Its not the sugar that eats your teeth away, its the phosphoric acid that eats them away.

Hope this sheds a little light on the subject. I'm no doctor or anything, just read alot about this study since I heard about it several months ago.

[Rogier77]

Complete bullcrap. I used to drink up to a bottle of diet coke per day. My bf% has never been over 10%. Obese people tend to choose diet coke and then have 4 big macs.

[Rogier77]

It's as simple as this. 99% of Diet Soda drinkers are fat. People who aren't nutrition freaks and aren't fat drink real soda. Fatness is the cause the Diet Soda is the effect, not the other way around.

Exactly!

[featherz]

I lost 45 pounds guzzing diet soda like it was going out of style. I still drink it and am in no way obese and have maintained that loss for over a year and am sitting around 14-15%BF (female!). I agree with others who say that if you are obese, you are more likely to be drinking diet soda - that does not mean that diet soda made you that way!

[monkeydan]

People drink Diet soda and it causes the body to release insulin.

Links?

[SupremeDan]

Drinking diet does make u crave MORE diet soda. Prob not a good thing cause u cant fool your body. Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there.

where do people get this concepts from???? the body only releases insulin at significant levels when a peak glicose enters blood stream.......it doesnt spike by taste.....

if that was true people o keto would go hipoglicemic all the time........

one more of those urban legends....

[siamesedream]

Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there.

Wow.... I can't believe that that rediculous, absurd notion is accepted by so many.



You do realize that if this is true, American obesity can be attributed, in large part, to bakeries and any place that releases a sweet smell? By this logic, walking along the street is detrimental to your well-being since you may cross "The French Bun" and smell a cinnamon roll thereby releasing insulin into your bloodstream.

[SupremeDan]

Wow.... I can't believe that that rediculous, absurd notion is accepted by so many.



You do realize that if this is true, American obesity can be attributed, in large part, to bakeries and any place that releases a sweet smell? By this logic, walking along the street is detrimental to your well-being since you may cross "The French Bun" and smell a cinnamon roll thereby releasing insulin into your bloodstream.

lol..........maybe i will realese insulin just by looking at some doghnuts....

[SPDraver]

Let me just state that my comments in no way reflect my actual thinking or practice. Just what I read is all. I still drink diet pop. I have to have my carbination. I just try to cut down because I have seen it proven that phosporic acid, over long periods of time, even in small doses, can destroy teeth.

[radar717]

I said before:
Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there.

Of course I didnt shout from the top of a moutain that this is pure fact. And of course smelling something isnt the same as having it in your body - arrrrrgghh!

I've just noticed that what I drink diet I crave it. Doesnt happen when I drink water so somethings going on and the first part of my post discredited the study - I agree - Fat people drink diet then eat a double whopper with large fries.

Also im sure u cant gain weight on a zero cal drink just saying that your tongue is a receptor that causes all kinds of things to happen in your body depending on what it tastes.

With no proof to back it up I still maintain that if your body tastes sugar it starts the process for digesting it. Why wouldnt it?

[siamesedream]

I said before:
Tongue tastes something sweet - body releases insulin. Prob not a good thing even though no cals are there.

Of course I didnt shout from the top of a moutain that this is pure fact. And of course smelling something isnt the same as having it in your body - arrrrrgghh!

I've just noticed that what I drink diet I crave it. Doesnt happen when I drink water so somethings going on and the first part of my post discredited the study - I agree - Fat people drink diet then eat a double whopper with large fries.

Also im sure u cant gain weight on a zero cal drink just saying that your tongue is a receptor that causes all kinds of things to happen in your body depending on what it tastes.

With no proof to back it up I still maintain that if your body tastes sugar it starts the process for digesting it. Why wouldnt it?

Do you have any idea how our brain links our sense of taste with our sense of smell? If taste causes our body to release insulin, smelling would as well. They are directly linked and related to each other.

I also don't understand why you felt the need to state that smelling something and actually having it in your body are 2 different things. We all know that, just like tasting something and having it in your body are 2 different things.... just like tasting an artificial sweetener meant to mimic the taste of sugar is different from having actual sugar in your body.

[Outsider4life]

siamesedream...you drank a 12 pack of diet soda a day!!!

you lost 60lbs, thats awesome but the damage that could have or was done to your stomach is disasterous.

[TCR]

This is rediculase! Has anybody taken a stats course here? One of my profs even brought this article up in class as an example of media stupidity. Correlation is not causation! Just because fat people drink diet soda doesnt mean that diet soda makes you fat. All this means is fat people tend to drink more diet soda and the fatter you are the more likely you are to drink diet soda.
Personally I drink like a litre of diet soda a day, I eat diet pudding, diet gum and just about everything else with aspartame and artifical sweetners (including all my protein powder and diet redbulls) and right now I have 8%. If aspartame made you fat I would be morbidly obese

[siamesedream]

siamesedream...you drank a 12 pack of diet soda a day!!!

you lost 60lbs, thats awesome but the damage that could have or was done to your stomach is disasterous.

Well, actually, most of it was Minute Maid Light Lemonade - my favorite soft drink ever.

[neo 17]

I drink diet coke hardcore and I'm still loosing weight at a high rate. I suppose drinking milk and orange juice also makes you fat? Haha.

[keninishna]

Ive been diabetic since age 3 and I was raised on diet soda and I'm not fat. Seriously I never drink normal soda. Maybe once every 6 months. Normal soda just has waaay to many carbs.

[Open Palm]

So are you telling me that my sweet, chocolate mint protein shake with 4g of carbs in it will make me fat because of insulin release? Are you an idiot? Or do you just want attention.

[monkeytwoguns]

I've just noticed that what I drink diet I crave it. Doesnt happen when I drink water so somethings going on and the first part of my post discredited the study - I agree - Fat people drink diet then eat a double whopper with large fries.

When I drink diet coke I crave more and when I drink water I crave more.

[monkeytwoguns]

I lost 45 pounds drinking 4 diet cokes a day (its better then me drinking 4 cokes a day like i used to)

[91SundanceRS]

I haven't drank soda at all in a while (diet or regular) nor any sugared drinks especially since I've started back on my fat loss program.

Before starting back on my program, I drank mainly regular.

[Robbyrh10]

I love this thread

Oh, and by the way, licking postage stamps causes an insulin release