Nutrition and Labeling - diet soda news

I saw this in a newsletter I get from Gourmet Magazine. Interesting??

"Remember when you thought the "negative calories" in diet soda could cancel out the positive ones in a chocolate chip cookie? According to a recent study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York, the opposite may be true: Drinking diet soda actually causes your body to absorb more sugar. Turns out that artificial sweeteners trigger the same taste receptors in the small intestine that glucose does, releasing hormones that absorb sugar into the bloodstream. Our advice? Wash down that cookie with a nice glass of milk."

Thanks! Great to know. Sodas should be an occasional treat, not the staple they are in our diets!
I'm always surprised when a whole foods, otherwise healthy diet/plan approves diet sodas on the menu/food list!

This has completely been my experience with diet sodas...About 15-20 minutes after drinking them I feel a blood sugar crash just as if I had eaten something really sweet. I like diet coke so I occasionally have one WITH a meal. But too many and I am right back on the craving bandwagon just as if I had eaten dessert.

It really annoys me that the "healthy schools" laws allow diet soda. Some of them even dont want to allow juice, but will allow diet soda

Drat, I thought for once there might be some good news about diet drinks. I have to admit, it's the one thing I'm having trouble with...but I'm down to no more than one a day (sometimes I don't even have one). Thanks for the info though!

I looked up more about this study and found this link with a little more info:

http://fusion.mssm.edu/media/content.cfm?storynum=325

As a former consumer of massive quantities of diet pepsi, I find this fascinating.

Miracles do happen though. No diet sodas for me now for..... I can't even remember. 8-9 months or more. Where's the dancing water bottle smilie?

My mom has been telling me for years that the diet coke is making me fatter, or not helping with the weight loss...guess mother does know best, lol. I know diet sodas are not good for me and I just didn't want to hear it. But reading Skinny B*tch really has opened my eyes for some reason and I am listening now. I've not cut it out completely yet, but I haven't had as much as I normally drink so that's a plus, I guess. I have cut back drastically and eventually want to cut it out completely...working on drinking more water for sure. I've got to learn to drink tea without the sweeteners as well.

Thanks for the info Spinymouse!

I saw this in a newsletter I get from Gourmet Magazine. Interesting??

"Remember when you thought the "negative calories" in diet soda could cancel out the positive ones in a chocolate chip cookie?

Who in the world ever thought THAT???

LOL @ LLV. I surely never thought it, I have always known that diet soda was probably not so good for me.

My dad has been telling me for years, also, that diet sodas can make you gain weight. I still drink them, though. I have one a day, no more (unless it's a special occasion). I still drink 5-6 bottles of water a day and at least one glass of skim milk. I just love Diet Pepsi with my lunch! (Or when I am around people eating and I don't want to eat... a glass or bottle of Diet Pepsi keeps my mind off the food spread!)

Wow, that's really interesting research. I'd like to find out more. However, I don't know if we can jump the conclusions about diet sodas from the current research. The link doesn't actually say anything about diet sodas. The closest bit says this: "This work may explain why current artificial sweeteners may not help with weight loss, and may lead to the production of new non-caloric sweeteners to better control weight..."

It seems to me this work is preliminary and they haven't identified how the receptors work. At least from this link, we don't know anything about the research (such as whether studies were conducted on humans or animals). So, it may certainly be that diet sodas are problematic in this regard, but I don't know if we can say that based on this research...

BTW, I applaud you for cutting out diet sodas. While I don't know that we really understand how diet sodas are working in our systems, I have a feeling it's likely that pure water is probably better for us. I haven't made that change yet, however.

Who in the world ever thought THAT???

I think they didn't mean that people thought the calories in the diet soda would actually cancel the cookie cals as in, make them zero, but I think what they were meaning was that people thought that, if you drank diet soda, you weren't getting calories there so you got to have a cookie. Again, I'm just assuming that is what they meant.

And Heather- although I don't have the actual publication or know the particulars, I can say that I am not surprised. Diet sodas always increased my appetite, so I couldn't say what was going on physiologically, but something was happening there, that is not happening anymore - yay!

I will see if I can find out further info. I'm very interested in this, as a lab rat myself (analytical chemistry) and former diet soda drinker.

Let me know if you do find out more. I'm simply fascinated (and a little freaked out!) by the idea of taste receptors in the small intestine!!!!

As a chemist, you probably have a better chance of understanding it than the rest of us, so maybe you can help us interpret it too!

When the temperature of Aspartame (the sweetner) exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol ASPARTAME coverts to formaldehyde.

Still wanna drink it?

:lol: :eek: I <3 whole foods! :yes:

I just bought the publication. It's not light reading!
Both humans and mice were involved in the study. No mention was made of spinymice. :dizzy:
Interesting how the media puts their twist on it with the "soda" thing. No mention was made of diet soda specifically, but I guess the media are trying to make it something we can relate to easily.
The artificial sweetener used in the study was sucralose.
That's what I have after a speed-read through it. I'll read it more in depth tonight.

jo

Spinymouse -- any sense of how they discovered we even have these receptors?

So, we know these receptors react to sucralose and the link you had yesterday indicated other sweeteners (which could be developed) may not react the same way....

What about "natural" sugars. How do the receptors react to fruit, for instance?? Do we know?

Okay, I'll shut up now! :lol: Just know I'll be interested in what you find!

20 years ago I was 14 and starting to get chunky so I switched to Diet coke and my brother said that's gonna make you fatter because it tastes sweet so your body will want sweet. Well I'm still drinking it and still getting fatter maybe I'll finally learn!
Interesting stuff.

This is just my personal opinion, but I honestly don't believe that diet soda can make somebody fatter. The claim behind diet sodas actually causing people to gain weight is because it supposedly makes you crave sweet stuff. However, it is up to us and our own willpower to NOT eat all the sweet stuff. Just because you're craving it doesn't mean you have to eat it.

I've been drinking diet soda for years. I don't crave sweet stuff and I've (obviously) lost a lot of weight and I'm still keeping it off. So it's not going to affect everyone the same.

I can't speak for everyone, but what made ME fat was eating too many calories.

Period.

It goes beyond a simple "craving" though LLV. We aren't talking about "oh now I want a cookie" It isnt a willpower issue.

First, I doubt it affects everyone the same way, some people can eat a piece of fruit all by itself and be fine. Those of us who are more prone to blood sugar swings and insulin resistance can't.

If I eat a piece of fruit all by its little lonesome self on an empty stomach I get a blood sugar spike, followed shortly by a huge crash. At this point we arent talking "craving something sweet". We are talking ravenously hungry, light headed, eventually to the point of irritability and nausea. I HAVE to eat then, and usually a substantial bit to calm it down. What I eat at that point is a matter of control and knowledge.

The body SCREAMS for carbohydrates, but a smart response is to give it a combination snack of carb/pro/fat. But those of us on a diet are so used to thinking of "if I am hungry when I am not supposed to be, eat something small...like fruit or veggies"....hello making it worse! Without the knowledge of how to handle a blood sugar crash, it is easy to spiral it to huge amounts of food needed to bring it back to steady.

That is how diet soda works for those who are sensitive. The signals tell our body sugar is coming. Insulin is released to prepare for the sugar that doesnt come. When the sugar doesnt come, we are in low blood sugar state which then causes us to NEED to eat to function. So what starts out as a zero calorie thing ends up demanding more calories than planned. And we CANT say no or we cant function.

I personally treat artificial sweeteners with the same caution I use for sugar or other highly refined carbs. Never on an empty stomach, never alone, always in combination with protein and or fat. I try to avoid them completely, but I really love diet coke.

However when things are out of control for me, if I am doing a refined carb free day, I also eliminate diet coke.

Also: if it indeed does cause an insulin response, there is a lot of studies that indicate that insulin response does cause a slower metabolism...therefore, even if nothing else was eaten, the insulin alone could cause weight gain...everything else being equal

If I eat a piece of fruit all by its little lonesome self on an empty stomach I get a blood sugar spike, followed shortly by a huge crash. At this point we arent talking "craving something sweet". We are talking ravenously hungry, light headed, eventually to the point of irritability and nausea. I HAVE to eat then, and usually a substantial bit to calm it down. What I eat at that point is a matter of control and knowledge.

I was under the impression that naturally occuring sugars (such as the fructose in fruit) helped to prevent a fast blood sugar spike and following crash. I thought they took longer to break down. I could be wrong. But my nutrition instructor told us that it is mostly refined/processed sugars that caused this.

That is how diet soda works for those who are sensitive. The signals tell our body sugar is coming. Insulin is released to prepare for the sugar that doesnt come. When the sugar doesnt come, we are in low blood sugar state which then causes us to NEED to eat to function. So what starts out as a zero calorie thing ends up demanding more calories than planned. And we CANT say no or we cant function.

Thanks for explaining that. However, I'm personally hypoglycemic and I've never had any problems with diet soda.

So I guess it just depends on the individual.

Spinymouse -- any sense of how they discovered we even have these receptors?

So, we know these receptors react to sucralose and the link you had yesterday indicated other sweeteners (which could be developed) may not react the same way....

What about "natural" sugars. How do the receptors react to fruit, for instance?? Do we know?

Okay, I'll shut up now! :lol: Just know I'll be interested in what you find!

From the publication: the receptors were detected in human duodenal biopsy or by postmortem samples and detected by immunofluorescence; confirmed by cells immunostained, laser-captured and subjected to RT-PCR.

Feeding studies were done.

Natural sugars used in the study were glucose and sucrose. There was also a non-metabolizable nonsweet sugar (2-deoxy-glucose) used as a control which did not cause the GLP-1 release as did the natural sweetners and the sucralose.

I'm still wading through it all!

jo

I was under the impression that naturally occuring sugars (such as the fructose in fruit) helped to prevent a fast blood sugar spike and following crash. I thought they took longer to break down. I could be wrong. But my nutrition instructor told us that it is mostly refined/processed sugars that caused this.

It is very individual. I cant eat fruit ever by itself, or even with food for breakfast. That is how I respond to fruit...now refined sugars are much much worse. I am extremely sensitive...I cant eat oatmeal or any of the low glycemic carbohydrates alone either.

This is just my personal opinion, but I honestly don't believe that diet soda can make somebody fatter. The claim behind diet sodas actually causing people to gain weight is because it supposedly makes you crave sweet stuff. However, it is up to us and our own willpower to NOT eat all the sweet stuff. Just because you're craving it doesn't mean you have to eat it.

I've been drinking diet soda for years. I don't crave sweet stuff and I've (obviously) lost a lot of weight and I'm still keeping it off. So it's not going to affect everyone the same.

I can't speak for everyone, but what made ME fat was eating too many calories.

Period.

Wow, what a great thread. I like the comments about willpower: Just because you're craving it doesn't mean you have to eat it. That's bolstering! I am also fascinated by "Jo's" comments about the way, scientifically, the diet ingredients function in our system. Fascinating!

From the publication: the receptors were detected in human duodenal biopsy or by postmortem samples and detected by immunofluorescence; confirmed by cells immunostained, laser-captured and subjected to RT-PCR.

Feeding studies were done.

Natural sugars used in the study were glucose and sucrose. There was also a non-metabolizable nonsweet sugar (2-deoxy-glucose) used as a control which did not cause the GLP-1 release as did the natural sweetners and the sucralose.

I'm still wading through it all!

jo

Wow, it's amazing how "Greek" a lot of that is to me. But after reading it a couple of times, it sounds like they are doing feeding studies (on animals only?) to find out which substances cause the GLP-1 secretions. So it was glucose and sucrose as well as sucralose...

And were the human studies just done to find the receptors? Or were the feeding studies on humans too!

And that non-metabolizable nonsweet sugar (2-deoxy-glucose) ... it may not cause the secretions, but do we want to eat it???? :lol:

Seriously, thanks for wading through this stuff!