Thread: Study: Drinking diet soda actually causes weight gain, blood sugar spikes

This doesn't surprise me. I'll stick to water, milk, and tea.

LOL @ those diet drinking pansies.
Beer and regular soda works for me.

i refuse to believe this.....nobody is going to convince me to get rid of my diet cokes

Im a diet coke addict, but I am diabetic after all.

Originally Posted by irish_2003

i refuse to believe this.....nobody is going to convince me to get rid of my diet cokes

Hell yeah, DC is my drug of choice!

You cannot tell me that diet soda is worse for you than sugar loaded regular. Sorry, not gonna happen.
Plus, some of us just prefer the lighter flavor.

Interesting article.
Thanks for the link

I love my Diet Coke!!!

wow, should cut the diet pepsi.. i love diet pepsi

"A landmark new study out of Texas confirms this, having found that not only do diet sodas not help with weight loss, but they actually cause both weight gain and health problems."

Oh really? Diet sodas "cause" weight gain? Bold claim, with no explanation. The statement as it is written says that if you drink diet soda, you will gain weight. I've successfully lost weight on several occasions while drinking diet sodas.

"They may be free of calories, but not of consequences."

So how is diet soda "causing" weight-gain?

"These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."

I see, that explains possible negative health consequences other than weight gain.

"Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio gathered ten years worth of data on 474 participants from a larger, ongoing study called the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. Among these participants, those that consumed two or more diet sodas a day experienced waist size increases that were a shocking six times greater than those who did not drink diet soda."

"...consuming them (diet soda) actually leads to a 70 percent increase in waist size compared to those who do not drink them."

10 years of data on almost 500 people...I'm sure diet soda wasn't the only thing that affected their weight. There are numerous factors to consider here. Association between diet sodas and weight gain is noted in this specific group. Claiming causality in this case is irresponsible.

"So rather than consume artificially-sweetened beverages and foods with the hope that they will somehow induce weight gain and promote health — two notions that have proven once again to be false"

Ok, obvious typo contradiction here. Who wrote this article?

"The best way to begin to lose weight is to consume less processed, refined sugars and simple carbohydrates in the first place."

The "best way" to lose weight, and not a single mention of caloric deficit? Yikes.

The article poorly presents the context of practical dieting. I'm no master of the subject, but the author of that article did not do a very good job.

I'm not saying diet soda may not have negative qualities, or that any of the information in the article is completely off base, but I think the perspective the article gives is unsubstantiated and a bit sensationalist.

Every time one of these studies comes out I find that they are never monitoring the subjects diets overall, only whether or not they drink diet soda. That eliminates any possible 'control' group situation in which you can have the diet soda be the only change in the subject's diet.

A long term study following a group of people following similar diets and exercise plans with the caloric intake around the subjects' maintenance calories, separated into groups as follows:

Control: Caloric intake at maintenance, no soda intake of any kind
Soda: Caloric intake at maintenance, drinking soda each day - Carb intake reduced at same times of day as soda is ingested to make 'room' for soda calories
Diet Soda: Caloric intake at maintenance, drinking diet soda each day

That way we could see whether there is any actual noticeable difference between the control group's results and the diet soda group's results and also between the soda group's and the diet soda group's results. I would expect and hope to see some weight gain above the others in the soda group, to really show a difference it would be great to have other groups with calories above or below maintenance calories and see how much the difference is having excess carbs/calories coming from different sources.

The one part of the article I did find very interesting, however was that they stated that 'Rats consuming an amount of saccharin each day gained more weight than the rats consuming an equal portion of plain sugar'

I love my diet. Mnt. Dew. I know it's not the best for you, but I don't think one a day is going to kill me or make me fat. So far I am still alive and not fat

Originally Posted by fufu

"A landmark new study out of Texas confirms this, having found that not only do diet sodas not help with weight loss, but they actually cause both weight gain and health problems."

Oh really? Diet sodas "cause" weight gain? Bold claim, with no explanation. The statement as it is written says that if you drink diet soda, you will gain weight. I've successfully lost weight on several occasions while drinking diet sodas.

"They may be free of calories, but not of consequences."

So how is diet soda "causing" weight-gain?

"These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."

I see, that explains possible negative health consequences other than weight gain.

"Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio gathered ten years worth of data on 474 participants from a larger, ongoing study called the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. Among these participants, those that consumed two or more diet sodas a day experienced waist size increases that were a shocking six times greater than those who did not drink diet soda."

"...consuming them (diet soda) actually leads to a 70 percent increase in waist size compared to those who do not drink them."

10 years of data on almost 500 people...I'm sure diet soda wasn't the only thing that affected their weight. There are numerous factors to consider here. Association between diet sodas and weight gain is noted in this specific group. Claiming causality in this case is irresponsible.

"So rather than consume artificially-sweetened beverages and foods with the hope that they will somehow induce weight gain and promote health — two notions that have proven once again to be false"

Ok, obvious typo contradiction here. Who wrote this article?

"The best way to begin to lose weight is to consume less processed, refined sugars and simple carbohydrates in the first place."

The "best way" to lose weight, and not a single mention of caloric deficit? Yikes.

The article poorly presents the context of practical dieting. I'm no master of the subject, but the author of that article did not do a very good job.

I'm not saying diet soda may not have negative qualities, or that any of the information in the article is completely off base, but I think the perspective the article gives is unsubstantiated and a bit sensationalist.

Master Fufu shall not be tricked. I agree 100%. If you could control the experiments by having groups consume the exact same diets with the exception of one group drinking regular soda, and the other group drinking diet soda, then you would have data worth writing an article about. Otherwise, I call bullshit on the article and the writer.

Just drink them alone and not with food, you'll be fine. I drink like 3-4 day and im very jacked. Almost superhero like.

Think about it, diet soda now, diabetes tomorrow.

just listen ti wilford Brimley.

Originally Posted by IronAddict

Think about it, diet soda now, diabetes tomorrow.

just listen ti wilford Brimley.

I call BS on this study.

hahah, ive told my ex girlfriend that like a hundred times, however at the time I was just being a dick, cause I was tired of sipping off her diet sprite at the movies

Originally Posted by KelJu

Holy shit, I just wasted an hour of my life watching the mash-ups to thsoe shitty old commercials.