New study is wake-up call for diet soda drinkers

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(CBS) Sorry, soda lovers - even diet drinks can make you fat.

That's the word from authors of two new studies, presented Sunday at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

"Data from this and other prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas as healthy alternatives may be ill-advised" Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said in a written statement. "They may be free of calories, but not of consequences."

Consequences like weight gain.

For one study, researchers at the center followed 474 diet soda drinkers, 65 to 74 years of age, for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers' waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers. Specifically, drinking two or more diet sodas a day busted belt sizes five times more than people who avoided the stuff entirely.

And as waist size grows, so do health risks - including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions.

Just how does diet soda make you fat? The other study may hold the answer. In it, researchers divided mice into two groups, one of which ate food laced with the popular sweetener aspartame. After three months, the mice eating aspartame-chow had higher blood sugar levels than the mice eating normal food. The authors said in a written statement their findings could "contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."

But how?

"Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but unlike regular sugars they don't deliver something that will squelch the appetite," Sharon Fowler, obesity researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego and a co-author on both of these studies, told the Daily Mail. She also said sweeteners could inhibit brain cells that make you feel full.

So if sugar soda is no good, and diet soda isn't either - what should we be drinking?

Dr. Hazuda told the Daily Mail, "I think prudence would dictate drinking water."

[japanorama]

My doctor is telling me nothing I want to hear.
I'm switching doctors.

[suncat13]

So, what the results of this study suggests is that anything that triggers a hunger response but does not contribute calories is more likely to make you overeat. The corollary is that a small meal that is not calorie dense (say a couple of soda crackers that are a form of complex sugar known as starch) will trigger you to gain weight because the small amount of sugar and low calories in the crackers will trigger a hunger response.

[JUNKIENOT]

So their SAYING ASPARTAME IS GOOD FOR PEOPLE ? well if so i know who they work for.

[peguesplace]

Did you read the same article that I did? If so, then we need to spend more on education in this country... Also THEY'RE... not THEIR(possessive)... Spell check doesn't deal with context...

[knsteve]

I worked in the soft drink industry in the late 60's, early 70's (don't remember exact year) when the FDA banned Sodium Cyclamate as an artificial sweetener. It was a boon for people who had to restrict their intake of sugar. All diet soft drinks were pulled from the market. Now the story I got was the tests were performed on rats who were injected daily with the equivalent of 900 cases of diet drinks containing the sweetener daily. The tests were backed by the sugar industry who were losing millions in the soft drink market. This was the beginning of my mistrust of the government and tests like these. Now I wonder who is behind this and why.

[netjunkie1]

The water company

[maite123]

I am a diabetic and have been drinking diet soda for many years.
I use to weigh 190 lbs but went down to 146 drinking Noni and Pomegranate juices every morning alternating. Have been so for the last 5 years and my diet soda drinking and proper eating habits are still the same. 2 cans a day.

[kthor123]

ever noticed the people who drinks Diet stuff keeps getting bigger?

[WeHappyFew]

This is news how?

[agittleman1]

That study is interesting. Only problem I have is how safe is water. It seems to kill alot of people in africa. I noted that my water comes via a pipe which means it is not pure water. I am getting too fat but I am also 75 years old maybe one day I will die.Hmmmmmmm

[fge00]

Look sheep, it works like this. They come out with a study from some invisible clinic in surprise, surprise California. One day it's wonderful, the next day it makes you fat. Sorry to say that I have the metabolism of a hummingbird so I really don't know much about fat; but I do know that some people are predisposed to be overweight and others to be thin. Do you notice that you never actually see any of the people who supposedly do these studies or see where most of them are located? How many of these people are the perfect specimens they envision,or people like me who simply dislike people because they are overweight or overweight people who dislike themselves so they would like to make you their version of the perfect specimen? Who determines what the perfect body type is? They put out a study from nowhere and the wannabe doctors and scientist come out of the woodwork to comment about the obese and how they knew that this was happening all along because they read something or heard something from the friend of a friend. Some people are obese I will grant you that, but for some they are large because they are supposed to be large, it's genetic. Ask yourselves who these people are and what is their motive for this supposed study at this time and what they have to gain from it. You may be surprised by what you find.

[Trixie1955]

The study was done in Texas, not California. UT at San Antonio.

[rnemoyer]

I would expect any bias to be toward the artifical sweetners. Their interest and investment or worth millions. There is no money in promoting water.

[clarity55]

Drink tea without milk this holiday season