Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 1:32PM Scratch the diet out of diet soda
Waistlines in people, glucose levels in mice hint at sweeteners' effects: Related studies point to the illusion of the artificial
ScienceDaily (2011-06-28) -- In the constant battle to lose inches or at least stay the same, we reach for the diet soda. Two studies suggest this might be self-defeating behavior. ... > read full article
It is no surprise to me that the weight loss benefits of diet soda are being challenged by a new study.
This exact issue came up during a Psychology lecture in University back in 1997. The professor explained that the body could be confused when drinking diet sodas. Basically, the body expects a certain amount of calories from a sweetened drink, and when it fails to register the calories, it signals the brain to eat more to compensate for the loss.
This explanation stayed with me, and when I put myself on a sugar reduced diet, I made a concerted effort to move from regular soda to water and not to artificially sweetened drinks. In two months, I had loss 15 pounds, all of it from the replacement of soda and juice with water.
In a perfect world everyone would drink water, but some people can’t get over water’s blandness. Not a hard thing to accept when you consider the amount of effort that has been put into artificially flavouring or sweetening our drinks.
This is a lesson for people to remain diligent and not to take corporate or societal claims at face value. Do your own research and judge from the specific results you have from eating, drinking or using specific products.
The following linked article goes into more detail about the effect of artificial sweeteners on the brain.
Reader Comments (1)
There is no way something as unnatural as diet soda can work for weight loss. If we just go by the rule "keep it natural" and "eat less calories than you burn," then you really can't go wrong.
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