Saw this on Yahoo News and thought y'all would find it interesting..
Do Diet Sodas make you Fat?
The short answer(s) to this question is no and, maybe, yes. One recent study has shown that people who drink diet soda still have a 41 percent chance of being overweight.
What is even more interesting about this research is that these diet-soda drinkers have a greater risk for obesity than do those who drink regular sodas.
How is this possible? It can't be that the diet sodas are causing obesity, since they contain no calories.
Some researchers believe that the problem with diet sodas is this: When people consume diet drinks, they think they're doing something "good" for their body — and then they feel free to splurge on other, high-calorie items.
For example, if you are eating at McDonald's and order a diet soda in place of a regular soda, you may think, "Now I can super-size my meal." People don't do this intentionally; it just happens and we don't pay attention to it — and then the extra pounds slip on board and stow away.
There is also some research that suggests diet sodas may actually stimulate the appetite. This explanation of the relationship between diet sodas and obesity is that the overly sweet taste of diet drinks actually creates a craving for still more sweet things, thus upping calorie consumption.
What then should you do about your drink choices?
First, remember: Everything in moderation. If you are drinking a lot of regular or diet soda each day, decreasing your intake of either may help you lose weight. Also, think about when during the day you drink diet sodas; do you then tend to splurge on other calories?
Although escaping the obesity epidemic isn't as easy as avoiding diet sodas, you should think about what you drink.
They call it calorie compensation. Just read some research that said that people who eat 300 calorie sandwiches at Subway for lunch may end up eating more calories in a day than those who have lunch at McD's because they cut themselves a lot of slack later in the day because they were "good" at lunch. Those who went to McD's know they need to watch it later because of the size of their lunch.
Personally, I don't tend to buy much of it. Diet sodas do not make you fat. Too many calories makes you fat and diet sodas don't have any. What you do with the rest of your intake is up to you; the diet soda isn't forcing you to eat a donut.
Personally, I don't tend to buy much of it. Diet sodas do not make you fat. Too many calories makes you fat and diet sodas don't have any. What you do with the rest of your intake is up to you; the diet soda isn't forcing you to eat a donut.
I agree 100%, Robin. You can massage the data anyway you like but the bitter reality is that it really is as simple as each person being responsible for their his/her caloric intake.
I started LAWL at the end of October this year. Since then my buddy, who realizes that he also needs to lose weight, has been saying that he is going to do so. Then when we go out for dinner he'll order the worst thing on the menu. When I ask him if he's still trying to lose weight he says that he knows what he ordered is not a good choice as far as that goes but..... And but is always, "Well, it's Christmas so it's hard to eat right," or "Yeah, I'm too busy this week to start eating properly," and so it goes. He just hasn't made up his mind tp do it. He talks a good game but that seems to be the extent of it for now. We'll see what happens come January.
He also says the same thing about joining the gym. Again, every time I invite him (I gave him a 3-day pass to come check it out) he's always too busy. Go figure.
I told him that I'm busy too but that I've made eating right and exercising a priority. I just find the time to pack a lunch and my two snacks every day. Failing to do so is simply not an option. It's become routine and I don't even think about it anymore. Hopefully he'll get there soon as well.
I work with two people at two different facilities who lost weight just from stopping drinking the soda at all. They didnt make any other major dietary changes.
I know that I've done better when I totally cut the diet soda out of my diet. I do know that my weight will be up the next day at least a pound if I drink one, although that might be due to sodium (or something else that just tends to make me retain a bit of water).
I don't think it was diet soda that caused me to gain weight though, it was all the unhealthy food that I was eating at the time. I guess if you are willing to put something as clearly unnatural into you body as diet soda, you most likely are not eating the most nutritious food. I can believe that people who eat the most unhealthy and unnatural food tend to gain more weight.
I think this may be a lot like the link researchers found between heart disease and decafeinated coffee. Um, people without heart disease are less likely to want to drink decaf.
I think the same is true of diet sodas. Diabetics and overweight people, I would guess, would be the largest consumers of diet sodas, but that doesn't mean that diet sodas cause obesity or diabetes.
I don't believe diet soda makes a person gain weight, but do agree it could lead to some thought processes which allow for it. I used to do what Dan mentioned. I would order my food with diet coke or diet pepsi, and then reward myself for drinking a diet soda with a large dairy queen blizzard. Looking back, I now realize that was pretty mangled up thinking process there. *lol*
I guess we've all made those jokes (and probably have done it) about getting a diet coke to wash down that supersize snickers bar? I'm not sure if diet soda's cause you to gain weight but I've noticed a change in my weight loss since I started drinking them again. When I first started LA I was a stickler about not drinking them....only water! Then I started slacking off and would have them with lunch. NOW I'm having two per day, one at lunch and one in the pm. You may have seen that I mentioned not getting my water in another thread, well duh, could it be because I'm gulping down the diet coke? Thanks Dan for pointing this article out and making us think
I have read research that showed that artificial sweeteners and diet sodas can cause the body to crave more food. The level of sweetness in diet sodas causes our bodies to crave more sweet and the lack of calories causes the body to not feel full. So you end up wanting sweeter foods more often. Plus, the chemicals cannot be good for our bodies.
Do Diet Sodas Make you Fat??
