Diet soda weight gain
February 11, 2008
Don’t mess with the real thing. Have you been drinking artificially sweetened diet soda on the assumption that it will help you lose weight? It might be time to reconsider that notion. Diet soda causes weight gain, according to researchers. A recent study where rats were fed yogurt sweetened with a simple sugar similar to table sugar gained less weight and body fat than rats fed yogurt sweetened with zero calorie saccharin.
Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center researchers explained, "Breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body’s ability to regulate intake. That change depends on experience. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners."
Saccharin appears to trick the body in not registering artificially sweetened drinks and foods as sugar. As a result of this thwarted response, people tend to have more trouble controlling the amount of food they eat and maintaining a desired body weight. Sweetened foods provide a stimulus, and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake, however, when artificial sweetened drinks and foods are not followed by many calories, the body gets confused. Therefore, people can eat more or expend less energy than they might if they were consuming naturally sweetened drinks and foods.
Researchers admit that this news will not be welcomed by human clinical researchers and healthcare practitioners, who often recommend low or no calorie sweeteners as a means of controlling weight gain.