More Diet Drinks, More Weight Gain!

The number of Americans who consume sugar-free, artificially sweetened products has grown rapidly. In 1987, less than 70 million Americans consumed these products, and in 2000, more than 160 million choose artificially sweetened products. However, people are not getting any thinner. Surprisingly, more people are becoming overweight or obese. So, is there an association between consumption of artificial sweeteners and an increase in obesity?

Scientists Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson at Purdue University studied how artificial sweeteners play tricks on the body and sabotages weight-loss efforts. The body associates sweetness with the amount of calories in food in order to regulate food intake. However, artificial sweeteners allow the body to feel sweetness without any calorie intake, and thus it disrupts this association. Consequently, the body loses its innate ability to count calories in food. As a result of the lost calorie counting ability, people are prone to overindulging in other sweet foods and beverages.

Some interesting statistics about soft-drinks and diet soft-drinks:

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.

According to the statistics, drinking diet soft-drinks increases the risk of becoming overweight or obese by 10%. This is not the goal of weight watchers! If you are heavy soft-drink drinker, then consider these statistics before you consume more than 2 cans a day.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040630081825.htm

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight