I have heard a lot lately about the perils of drinking diet soda. Diet drinks have been under fire ever since a study came out in February from Purdue University. They fed one group of lab rats yogurt flavored with saccharine and one group was fed yogurt flavored with glucose. Oddly enough, the saccharine fed group of rats ate more and gained more weight than the glucose fed group.
This is counter-intuitive to most people, as we think of artificially flavored sodas as having no calories and therefore helping us to lose weight, not making us gain weight.
What scientists think is that taking in something so sweet triggers certain metabolism responses in our bodies. Our bodies naturally link a sweet taste with high caloric intake. But since there isn't any caloric intake linked with the sweet taste of a diet soda, our bodies get confused and our metabolic machine gets all screwed up. We then overeat...and the cycle starts.
Since this study was released, I have heard numerous women talk about how they are going to stop drinking diet soda as it is making them fat.
I do agree that everyone should cut down on her diet soda consumption...including me (although I am down to only about one per day...a vast improvement from the 4-5 I used to drink every day). Diet soda has no nutritional value and may have detrimental effects on calcium levels in the body.
However, I think a lot of women want to target something specific that is responsible for their weight gain. That way, she feels more in control, because then she has a simple solution: just stop taking in whatever that one item may be. But it just isn't that simple. There is no one magical thing that causes weight gain or obesity. It is often a complicated mix of environmental, physiological, and psychological factors.
One issue I have with this study...it was done on rats. According to the study, the rats that were fed saccharine over ate. But we aren't rats, and we can make conscious decisions...even if that means ignoring our cravings sometimes. So what if Diet Coke makes me want to eat more...does that mean I have to???
I'm not saying diet soda is good for you. And I do think that you are much better off drinking water. But I don't agree with criminalizing diet drinks as the evil perpetrator that is causing the obesity epidemic in this country.
And to be honest, if you need to lose weight, and I'm not talking about those last 5 lbs, but if you really are at an unhealthy weight and know you need to start changing your dietary habits, I would focus on your consumption of fast food, sweets, and fattening snacks (ie-potato chips) before I would worry about your diet soda consumption.
Carpe Diem y'all!
This is counter-intuitive to most people, as we think of artificially flavored sodas as having no calories and therefore helping us to lose weight, not making us gain weight.
What scientists think is that taking in something so sweet triggers certain metabolism responses in our bodies. Our bodies naturally link a sweet taste with high caloric intake. But since there isn't any caloric intake linked with the sweet taste of a diet soda, our bodies get confused and our metabolic machine gets all screwed up. We then overeat...and the cycle starts.
Since this study was released, I have heard numerous women talk about how they are going to stop drinking diet soda as it is making them fat.
I do agree that everyone should cut down on her diet soda consumption...including me (although I am down to only about one per day...a vast improvement from the 4-5 I used to drink every day). Diet soda has no nutritional value and may have detrimental effects on calcium levels in the body.
However, I think a lot of women want to target something specific that is responsible for their weight gain. That way, she feels more in control, because then she has a simple solution: just stop taking in whatever that one item may be. But it just isn't that simple. There is no one magical thing that causes weight gain or obesity. It is often a complicated mix of environmental, physiological, and psychological factors.
One issue I have with this study...it was done on rats. According to the study, the rats that were fed saccharine over ate. But we aren't rats, and we can make conscious decisions...even if that means ignoring our cravings sometimes. So what if Diet Coke makes me want to eat more...does that mean I have to???
I'm not saying diet soda is good for you. And I do think that you are much better off drinking water. But I don't agree with criminalizing diet drinks as the evil perpetrator that is causing the obesity epidemic in this country.
And to be honest, if you need to lose weight, and I'm not talking about those last 5 lbs, but if you really are at an unhealthy weight and know you need to start changing your dietary habits, I would focus on your consumption of fast food, sweets, and fattening snacks (ie-potato chips) before I would worry about your diet soda consumption.
Carpe Diem y'all!
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3 comments:
ohhh this is one of those topics that irks me. I actually stopped drinking diet soda because it has more chemicals than i want to put in my body. i have it occasionally as a treat when I set sail with the Captain.
However, look at all the food items we have with fake sugars and no one is telling people to stop eating those. Jellies with splenda, peanut butter with splenda, yogurt with aspartame and splenda...the list goes on and on and on. In fact did you know that FIBER ONE cereal has fake surger in it???? I wish companies would stop using it and i wish people wouldn't direct issues towards one product like soda...how about fake sugars in general.
You know, a nice alternative to diet soda that I have started drinking,and that tastes good is something I came up with about three weeks ago: Take a small bottle of Acai Juice(100%)[you can purchase at Schnuck's in the produce department or at Strawberry Fields], shake it up, pour 1/3 of the bottle (to watch calorie count) in a glass over ice, and squeeze 1/4 of a lemon in it, and drop the lemon in the glass, then add Lemon La Croix water to the top. Drink with a straw - very important! Straws are important! It's a nice drink because it has carbonation and a light flavor, and it is a low-calorie drink (like diet sodas).
It's refreshing, and Acai helps to remove toxins from the body (such as cigarette smoke!) and is a great antioxidant. Lemons are wonderful for balancing the bodies Ph-Balance to being more alkaline. Limes are also good, and would go well with Lime La Croix.
Hey Rita-
I like that! I'm going to give it a try!
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