Diet Drinks and Weight Gain?

This is from WebMD. For full disclosure, they find this study inconclusive. Other studies found similar results. But you be the judge. --Matlock

Another study often cited in the news stories and blog postings followed people in San Antonio, Texas and showed that those who drank more diet sodas gained more weight over time.

Researchers analyzed data from the San Antonio Heart Study, which followed more than 5,000 adults for between seven and eight years.

Although people who drank both sugar-sweetened and diet sodas gained weight, diet soda drinkers were more likely to become obese. And the more diet sodas the participants drank the greater their weight gain.

The Framingham analysis included 9,000 middle-aged men and women followed for four years. Researchers found that compared to people who didn’t drink sodas at all, those who drank both sugar-sweetened and diet soda were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of symptoms often linked to obesity that increase risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Because both of these studies were observational, it is impossible to say if the diet sodas played a direct role in the weight gain.

It may be that people switch to diet soda when they begin gaining weight without addressing other aspects of their diet that are causing the weight gain.


My comments: Our bodies well know how to deal with Carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals & water. Sugar is a (CHO) carbohydrate.
Chemical substances in food have to be filtered, dispose of or assimilated.
Can you feel satiety, or get a feeling of fullness from chemicals as you do when you eat natural food?

Experts do not have a monopoly on common sense.