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Diet Soda May Sabotage Weight Loss Efforts

Submitted by MedHeadlines on 12 February, 2008 – 19:4616 Comments

People who drink diet soda in an effort to lose weight may be doing more harm than good according to a recent study conducted by the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University. artificial sweeteners lead to weight gainIn the study, rats given yogurt sweetened with zero calorie saccharin later gained more weight and put on more body fat than rats who ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar comparable to table sugar).

The study 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. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. Because people 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 were conducted to explore whether saccharin changed lab animals’ ability to regulate their intake using various assessments, the most obvious being caloric intake, weight gain and compensation by cutting back.


“The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to body weight gain that would not occur if a person consumed the very same food sweetened with higher calorie sugar,” the authors wrote. The authors noted that this outcome may seem “counterintuitive” and may not come as welcome news to doctors and dieticians who have long recommended low or no-calorie sweeteners to their patients.

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16 Comments »

  • Down Withdiets says:

    I’ve always said that I’ve never seen skinny women drinking diet Coke. In my hometown, you can see fat chicks all day long holding kidneyfailure sized Big Gulps filled to the brim with Diet Coke!

  • Snarling C says:

    This isn’t any surprise to some diabetes educators. My best friend’s mom has had Type II for about 30 years and volunteers to help newly diagnosed folks manage their illness. She says that she reccommends people “test” out diet sweetners to see what their body does with it. For some, these no-calorie sweetners do nothing to their blood sugars and she counsels them to go ahead and drink diet sodas. For others, the taste of the sweetness changes their insulin levels exactly the same way that sugar does - for them, she reccomends water or some other non-sweetened drink (like unsweetened tea or coffee).

  • Brilliant discovery! You do not have to me a scientist to make such an obvious discovery. I am not sure if you realize that medical science has very little to do with dieting. Actually, medicine has nothing to do with dieting because obesity is not at disease! Medicine will definitely help us deal with the obesity related diseases but in reality, your doctor has no idea how to make your diet works.
    http://www.dietuniversal.com

  • All sodas are created equal. They are full of artificial flavors, chemicals, ben-zene, and that basically means, low-dosed fattening poison.

  • [...] 4. diet soda may not really be “diet” after all: Read the Story [...]

  • Kari says:

    What diet soda uses saccharin anymore??? That hasn’t been around since the 70’s! I am more interested in studies on Aspartame or Splenda - that’s what is used in diet drinks today.

  • Daryl says:

    Great so everyone who is eating diet soda as their main source of food, stop!

  • mick says:

    What would we do with out scientist, probably all lose weight.

    Reading inane studies online can cause obesity.

    http://www.crazanity.com

  • Rob says:

    This article title and meaning is completed flawed. The diet soda of today does not contain saccharin unless you’re dumping Sweet N Low packets into your soda cans. I lost 33lb’s and am now in my mean BMI just from switching to a sugar free alternative diet.

  • Dagne Goodwin says:

    So wait a minute……for years we’ve been told that what you put in for calories and exert for calories will determine what you look like. Now it appears there are substances that can change that cycle. Not a surprise exactly since many people “diet” with absolutely no success at all. I’ve always assumed it was due to not being honest, will power, feelings of hunger etc. A very long time ago my grandmother gave me some excellent advice, “if man made it, it’s no good, if god made it, eat it”. How about we do a study on that?

  • Beaniiman says:

    I agree, lets face the fact that the man made alternatives are just excuses.

  • Nice! yet another excuse for fattards to keep eating themselves to death.

  • chikwendu says:

    May someone explain it a little bit deeper for me, please?

  • Must be in the minority myself had no problems with drinking diet drinks mind you mine don’t contain that additive so probably why.

  • Weight Loss says:

    Taking sweetend with zero calorie saccharin in gained more weight and put more body fat, diet soda in an effort to lose weight may be more harm than good. I think all diet soda will effect equally on body.

  • [...] I know people who drink diet sodas are hungrier. [...]

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