Diet Soda Makes You Fatter!!! (Ghasp!)

Melancholy

Melancholy

New member
I was reading this article, found it interesting:



I am a huge abuser of artificial sweetners, including Sucralose (top choice), Apartame, and Sacharrin... I like it all. I drink several "diet" drinks per day (Monster Energy, Coffee with Sugar free sweetner, Diet soda, and crystal light).

I definitely had a weight problem that has since subsided, but I know others out there don't like diet soda because they gain weight from it. Anyone agree/ disagree with this study?
 
Here's my take on it, having been a long time diet coke drinker. I think the researchers have it all wrong.
Drinking soda dehydrates you because of all of the caffeine. Well, my theory is that it removes water from your system, even during meals, making you feel hungrier because you have less water in your belly. So.. there goes the benefits you get from eating filling foods like soup and stew.
 
iangould said:
I don't think so Diet Soda will make us fatter. It is good to stay healthy and to maintain our weight.I think researcher are really wrong in this research.
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Sorry, but thinking that someone is wrong doesn't make it so. That's why research is done, to gather facts. People THOUGHT Galileo was insane, and they THOUGHT Darwin was a heretic.
This is a thread about research, and emotional opinions simply aren't valid.
If you have some sort personal experience or know of some research, please post.
 
Disagree.

I lost 120 lbs while drinking diet soda.

Would I have lost more if I had drunk water instead? Possibly. But I certainly didn't get 'fatter' by drinking diet pop.

For me, it's either diet or full sugar. I can't drink the amount of water I should because it makes me throw up. So there isn't much choice for me.

So no...don't agree with the study at all. It might not be the healthiest and it might not be ideal, but to say that diet pop makes you gain weight sounds like complete nonsense to me. Consuming more calories than you burn makes you fat. Diet soda has 0 calories (or very close to 0 anyway), so it's impossible to gain weight from drinking it.
 
I did drink diet soda, until I read more about aspartame. The guy that discorvered was trying to come up with a new drug and accidentally licked his finger. It was sweet...so...bam! Aspartame. Yuck. Then, there have been studies showing that aspartame turns to formaldehyde under warm conditions. Double yuck.
So, no more diet soda for me. I'll use Truvia in my coffee, thank you.

"Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est."
 
I wonder if on average people might put on weight with diet drinks because they think that it makes up for whatever they have with it? (So "I've had a diet soda, I can afford to have this piece of cake"- so they save ~100-130 calories on the drink, but then blow 300 calories on a piece of cake) I'm not talking about most people here, I'm more talking about the wider population who are less diet conscious or aware of what they're eating. A diet drink "looks" good, so they think they're justified elsewhere.

I don't drink a lot of diet drinks, but doing so has allowed me treats I couldn't have had otherwise. I think it's a net benefit if you watch your intake and such.
 
No doubt, Amy. I see people eat triple cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. Lol It doesn't work that way.
I totally agree with the treat thing. I was doing that before I read the articles. I don't think diet soda itself makes you gain weight. Just the bad choices that go along with it.

"Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est."
 
imaninjadangit said:
No doubt, Amy. I see people eat triple cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. Lol It doesn't work that way.
I totally agree with the treat thing. I was doing that before I read the articles. I don't think diet soda itself makes you gain weight. Just the bad choices that go along with it.
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(more on my theory)
Yup, I've done it.. I've been there.... This works because Diet Coke is easy to drink.. like water.... it tastes good, and goes down smooth... then... it clears your stomach of water (the caffeine sends the water out of your stomach), so you CAN keep eating without feeling as full.
If you think I'm full of BS... try doing the same thing with water, or other NON caffeinated diet soft drink, and see how full you get. I've been doing this a long time, folks. Try it, I think you'll agree.
 
San said:
Diet soda has 0 calories (or very close to 0 anyway), so it's impossible to gain weight from drinking it.
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the consumption of diet coke etc is not directly going to cause you to gain weight from its calories but it does stimulate the delivery of insulin to break down the sugar. Unfortunately there is no sugar to break down and so your body has just shot more insulin in to you than you needed. This can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) which in turn can cause people to feel an increased desire to eat.

There also appears to be a growing number who believe there may be a link between certain types of cancer and aspartame.
 
ForRealThisTime said:
the consumption of diet coke etc is not directly going to cause you to gain weight from its calories but it does stimulate the delivery of insulin to break down the sugar. Unfortunately there is no sugar to break down and so your body has just shot more insulin in to you than you needed. This can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) which in turn can cause people to feel an increased desire to eat.

There also appears to be a growing number who believe there may be a link between certain types of cancer and aspartame.
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Yes, that is possible, even though I still doubt the increased insuline theory. It's not as if our metabolism has tastebuds. It doesn't think 'oh, there's something sweet, let's create some more insuline just in case'. Insuline production is, simplified, a response to consuming sugar, not a response to consuming something that tastes sweet. It doesn't work that way.

For me personally, the opposite is the case - if I crave something sweet, a diet soda will usually take care of that, without making me want to eat more.

And even if all of the above was true - it still means that consuming diet soda on it's own doesn't even have the ability to make you put weight on. If a person sticks within their calorie range, and doesn't add any additional food, the consumption of diet soda won't hinder weight loss at all.

As for cancer, yes - in mice. I'm not a mouse. And does it really matter if I die of cancer because of the chemicals in my sweetener, the chemicals in the air, in clothing, in building materials, in other foods or because I was out in the sun for too long?
Most diet sodas don't contain aspartame anymore anyway (at least not the ones I drink), but the sad fact is that something that is supposedly safe to use today, might be linked with some sort illness tomorrow.

I think I'll just keep things in moderation, and hope for the best.
 
San said:
Yes, that is possible, even though I still doubt the increased insuline theory. It's not as if our metabolism has tastebuds. It doesn't think 'oh, there's something sweet, let's create some more insuline just in case'. Insuline production is, simplified, a response to consuming sugar, not a response to consuming something that tastes sweet. It doesn't work that way.
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read about cephalic phase response
 
Yeah, I read about that when I was in school, a long time ago. It refers to the possibility that, in some individuals, the smell/taste/sight of certain foods can, under certain circumstances, cause a physical response in the form of the release of small amounts of insuline, which then might or might not lower the blood sugar level of said individual to a level that might possibly cause cravings for food. It's not dissimilar to a dog that starts drooling in response to the sight or smell of food. It is an isolated physical response which occurs in a relatively small number of people (but unsurprisingly, according to studies, in a lot of dogs).

All that said, that's pretty vague. Just because a few people react in that fashion, you can't generalise it. In general, in a normally functioning, healthy human body, the chance of a cephalic phase response is rather small, and it's more likely that it is simply the sweet taste of whatever sweetened beverage the person is drinking is making them crave more of the sweet taste, without an actual physical reason. In other words....it's all in our heads!!
 
"a few people"

Im unable to find statistics that state how many people, when you studied this in school did you have access to figures? Would be interesting to know what they are.
 
No, I don't have figures. All the studies I could find that were even related to this phenomena in humans mentioned 'rare cases', 'isolated cases', 'rarely' and expressions similar to that. I'm not into the topic enough to go and find the actual transcripts of the studies and the exact numbers.
 
San... no one said that Diet Soda makes you fatter, (maybe they did..... let me clarify this) however, there IS an established correlation between people who drink diet soda vs. those who don't.... and those who do weight more, ON AVERAGE. Sure, there's lots of people who may drink diet soda who are very healthy, but that's not the point of the research that was being done. It's about averages.
In fact, there was another study done that showed that people that drank regular soda weighed less than diet drinkers. ON AVERAGE.
I think asking if people agree or disagree with a study where facts are established (and this isn't the first study.) is asking for pointless emotional responses.
 
I realise that entirely. And I don't argue the facts. What I argue is the way the study was presented, and the fashion the points were made.

Diet Soda does not make you fat. It can, in itself, not cause weight gain. That's a fact. The way the article is presented is incorrect, and making statements that are misleading.

Yes, diet soda can cause circumstances under which weight gain is more possible, but I challenge everybody to show me a study where a test group is eating entirely the same things, and doing the same amount of exercise, and where one group has two glasses of diet pop a day and the other doesn't. I would bet my life savings that there will be NO difference between those two groups. The diet soda is not adding calories to your diet, it's the person's behaviour after consuming the diet soda that will possibly cause weight gain.

It's not an emotional response, and there are no established facts. Saying that diet soda makes you fat is factually wrong, and that was all I was trying to point out. I hate sensationalist, nonsense headlines like that.
 
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I think it's funny how people will fight over everything. Next, you're going to debate which shade of blue the sky really is. Geez.

How about this....if you consume too much of ANYTHING, it will make you fat. Diet soda will bloat you, because of carbonation. The sodium in it will make you retain water. Of course, you have to be drinking mass quantities of it and not be drinking anything else.

Instead of bickering, why don't we focus on why we're here. This isn't an informative debate anymore. It's just people trying to one up each other.

Let's be happy. Let's work together to get to our goals. That's the reason we're here! :sifone:
 
You know... San.... that's 100% true... but you should have said it earlier!
In fact, I'd be willing to bet (but not my life savings) that a 100% controlled group that drank diet soda did in fact lose more weight because of the caffeine.
However, more studies need to be done that show the reasons WHY diet soda leads to weight gain, does it cause increased appetite (my belief) or could it slow metabolism, or other crazy stuff.
Yeah, WE GET IT ALREADY........ now do some meaningful research, people! Geez.
San said:
Diet Soda does not make you fat. It can, in itself, not cause weight gain. That's a fact. The way the article is presented is incorrect, and making statements that are misleading.
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Also, let me be 100% clear on this, San,YOU'RE RIGHT, but.. you're also WRONG!
You're mistaking the study with the writing of the article.
YES, the journalists are a bunch of thoughtless self-centered sensationalist butt monkeys.
However, the study that was done was (at least according to the article) correctly, and the statements are factual. So.... instead of reading the article, we should focus on what the study says, right?
 
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imaninjadangit said:
Instead of bickering, why don't we focus on why we're here. This isn't an informative debate anymore. It's just people trying to one up each other.
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You would make a horrible politician. LOL, but some good points were made, and I think I've cleared it all up.
Also, let me point out, that if bickering on the internet didn't exist, the internet wouldn't be much fun at all! :D
 
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