Diet Soda & Weight Gain
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| Fri, 06-24-2005 - 11:32am |
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Charlotte Grayson, MD
on Monday, June 13, 2005
June 13, 2005 -- People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.
"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity," Fowler tells WebMD. "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."
In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.
"There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.
More Diet Drinks, More Weight Gain
Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.
For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
26% for up to 1/2 can each day
30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person's risk of obesity went up 41%.


I know. I don't drink much soda, never have, but I've been buying a bottle of diet Coke once in a while. It usually takes me 3 or 4 days to drink a half liter bottle. I told DH about this and he said that it may be because the body needs a certain amount of sugar so when we don't get it from the soda we look for it from somewhere else. Not sure if that's true of not, but I told him if I want a soda I think I'll just treat myself to a regular one.
Susanne
Oh no.... here I was all proud that I'm down to one 20 oz diet coke a day- that's my fix..... dang it!
Yvonne
CL to the Minne
>>>Maybe this risk is connected to people who don't understand healthy eating in general.
I've heard, and no I don't have a reference to it, that some studies have shown that artificial sweeteners stimulate appetite so people who use them tend to eat more calories. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. Once again every body reacts differently.
DH thinks that since the body needs some sugar maybe people compensate by getting the sugar somewhere else and unknowingly increase their calories.
Susanne
I don't buy that diet soda in itself causes weight gain, cuz as already mentioned in this post, it has no calories. But i did notice that when i diet without diet pop, i tend to lose more weight faster. Am i unconcously taking in more calories cuz i know i've been "good" with diet pop? I believe i might be. Ok i'll cut down on diet soda this week and see if there is a difference.
Mary
247/236/165