Can Diet Soda Help You Lose Weight?

Contrary to popular belief, diet soda does not help with weight loss.  This seems backwards, doesn’t it?   How can the diet sodas so many people use to help keep them thin, and with virtually no calories in them, actually cause weight gain?   Unfortunately, the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, as well as many other products on our grocery store shelves, have plenty of ill effects on our health.  If you think about it though, it makes sense.  How could a cocktail of chemicals be healthy?

A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center investigated the relationship between diet soft drink consumption and waist circumference.  The study tracked hundreds of participants over a 10 year period and found a 70 percent increase in waist circumference among those who reported drinking one diet soft drink per day.  Shockingly, participants who consumed 2 or more diet soft drinks per day had waist circumference increases of 500 percent over those who did not drink diet soda.   Unfortunately, this is only one of many research studies that have detected a correlation between obesity and diet soda consumption.

But why?

Researchers believe that the artificial sweetener often found in soda, aspartame, actually increases blood glucose levels.  The exact mechanism by which this occurs is subject for debate, but one possibility is that when the body tastes something sweet, a chain of events is set in motion to mobilize insulin in the bloodstream to deal with the expected onslaught of sugar.  In the case of artificial sweeteners, that insulin proves useless.   But elevated insulin levels are a precursor of type II diabetes, obesity, and related conditions.

Speculation also abounds that since artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than regular sugar, our taste buds react to them by expecting a sugary treat, triggering chemical changes that result in those same elevated insulin levels.    Scientists don’t yet know for sure, but it is certain that the use of artificial sweeteners do predispose people to obesity and elevated insulin.

What Can You Do?

It’s best to limit soda consumption to an occasional indulgence, and then to drink soda with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.  If these studies are any guide, at least your body knows what to do with real sugar, and the insulin it releases is used appropriately to allow that sugar in your blood to enter the cells.

Better yet, since a diet soda has no nutritional value whatsoever, just imagine what a relative 500 percent increase to your own waist circumference might look like, and opt for water instead!