Diet Soda And Weight Loss
Why Cutting Calories With Sugar Substitutes Is A Bad Idea
June 22nd, 2012
Written by Holly Klamer, MS, RD
Edited by Brian Rigby, Clinical Nutrition Writer
The fact that added sugar is a source of extra calories and has no other nutritional value is not new. Many research studies have shown a significant correlation between sugar consumption and increased risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.
In the typical American diet, sugary beverages like soda contribute significantly to total caloric consumption. It would seem a logical fix to this problem of over-consumption to replace the sugar in soda with something non-caloric but just as sweet. This way, we could still eat and drink the sweet things we like, but wouldn't get any of the harmful effects of sugar. However, the question must be answered as to whether these sugar substitutes are safe, or whether they are ultimately harmful.
Cutting soda out of the diet is an easy target to lower total calorie and sugar intake. If you replaced this soda with diet soda, it would cut the calories and sugar content down to zero. In theory, it makes sense that replacing regular soda with diet soda would help someone who is trying to lose weight or reduce risk from the diseases associated with increased sugar intake. This may not really be the case, however.
Diet Soda Is Associated With Weight Gain
According to a 2009 study in
Diabetes Care,
daily consumption of diet soda was associated with a 67%
greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and 36%
greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome compared to those who did not consume any diet soda. These results are only correlated to diet soda intake, which means scientists cannot determine diet soda to be the cause. However, we do know that the results are somehow linked to diet soda, and more research should to be done to further determine the relationship between it and these diseases.
Similar results were found in a 2008 study in
Obesity, which followed 3,000 research participants over a period of eight years. Researchers found
significant differences between people who regularly consumed diet soda (at least 21 sodas a week) and those who did not. The participants who regularly drank diet soda had
double the risk of being overweight or obese as those who did not drink diet soda. Overall, the diet soda drinkers had an average of a 47% greater increase in the body mass index (BMI) compared the group which did not drink diet soda. Again, these results cannot determine cause itself, but show that diet soda and weight gain are somehow related.
So how might diet soda increase the risk for obesity and the diseases associated with obesity? Researchers are still trying to fully understand this, but it might have to do with the way sugar substitutes affect the brain and energy regulation. Some research studies have found an increase in hunger and food consumption in people after they started drinking diet sodas. The data is mixed, however, as some research has also shown significant weight loss when switching from regular soda to diet soda.
Diet Soda Can Cause You To Eat More
Eating sugar does have a satisfying effect on our brain, and eating sugar substitutes may not lead to the same satiating effect. This disconnect between taste and satisfaction may lead to a desire to eat even more food to feel that same satiating effect. In the 2008
Obesity study, overall dietary fat intake did go up as diet soda intake went up, which may be the brain trying to make up for the lack of satiety from sugar substitutes by consuming more fat.
Another, simpler, explanation for the increased calorie consumption may be that people who consume diet soda perceive that they are saving calories, and consciously or subconsciously justify eating a greater amount of food. Doing this can easily lead to even greater caloric consumption than you save by drinking diet soda.
Diet Soda: Not Great If You Want To Lose Weight
With so much research finding that diet soda intake is associated with
increased weight gain and risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, should diet sodas really be used in weight loss efforts? The data results are mixed, and as with anything in the nutrition field, moderation is a good rule of thumb to remember. Sugar in excess can be harmful, and it appears that sugar substitutes or diet soda may also be harmful in excess.
The exact relationship and exactly how much is too much still need to be deciphered. Will having a diet soda every once in a while sabotage weight loss efforts? Maybe not, but it does appear that habitual diet soda consumption is associated with overall weight gain, which means that it is probably not the best tool for weight loss. Weight loss has to be balanced with decreased total calorie intake, so if the result of diet soda intake is increased caloric consumption, then weight loss efforts will be hampered.
PEERtrainer Note:
We have noticed that for people trying to lose weight, there are certain foods and drinks which consistently fight their goals. Drinks which are artificially sweetened is one category which does not seem to help people lose weight, even though they are non-caloric, which is one reason why they count as a cheat under the PEERtrainer Cheat System.
We recently put together a starter kit for the PEERtrainer Cheat System which is designed to provide people with the exact tools we have seen work so many times with so many people (as opposed to diet soda).
Related PEERtrainer Articles:
A Complete Guide to Sweeteners
Natural Weight Loss
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References:
Nettleton JA, et al (2009). Diet soda intake and risk of incident metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA).
Diabetes Care volume 32(4),688-694.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.short
Fowler SP, Williams K, Resendez RG, Hunt KJ, Hazuda HP, Stern MP (2008). Fueling the obesity epidemic? Artificially sweetened beverage use and long term weight gain.
Obesity volume 16(8),1894-1900.
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n8/full/oby2008284a.html
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