People who drink diet soda put on three times as much belly fat as those who don’t, study says

[Ichingcarpenter]

In the latest Diet Soda: Evil or Not? saga, The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging determined that people who drink diet soda occasionally put on three times as much belly fat as those who don’t. Over nearly 10 years, occasional drinkers gained 2.11cm of fat to their midsections, while non-drinkers gained only .77 cm. The bad news doesn’t end there: daily drinkers gained a whopping 3.04 cm.

The study’s sample group was 750 Americans ages 65 or older. The study ruled out factors including age, smoking, and exercise. Belly fat is not only unsightly, it is linked to increased risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.


Over the years, diet sodas and sugar substitutes have been accused of many things: tricking the body into thinking its ingesting sugar, causing a release of insulin (fat storage hormone); changing digestion by affecting gut bacteria in the large intestine; and causing a glucose-resistance, making us pre-diabetic.

However, every shocking claim is followed by a sobering defence of diet drinks by medical professionals, often calling into question the effectiveness of said studies.

Either way, consumers are picking up on the potential health risks, and putting down those cans of diet soda. Sales of low calorie soft drinks have fallen 20 per cent over the past five years in the USA since peak sales in 2009.




http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/25/people-who-drink-diet-soda-put-on-three-times-as-much-belly-fat-as-those-who-dont-study-says/

[Sienna86]

1. Very interesting

Goes along with other research. So if one must drink soda, it appears to be better to have an occasional sugar soda than an occasional diet soda.

[Freddie]

2. Just soda or anything with artificial sweeteners?

Don't drink much diet soda but I do put 1 sweet-n-low in my coffee or iced tea.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

Many of us, particularly those who prefer to eat our cake and look like we have not done so, have a love-hate relationship with artificial sweeteners. These seemingly magical molecules deliver a dulcet taste without its customary caloric punch. We guzzle enormous quantities of these chemicals, mostly in the form of aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, which are used to enliven the flavor of everything from Diet Coke to toothpaste. Yet there are worries. Many suspect that all this sweetness comes at some hidden cost to our health, although science has only pointed at vague links to problems.

Last year, though, a team of Israeli scientists put together a stronger case. The researchers concluded from studies of mice that ingesting artificial sweeteners might lead to—of all things—obesity and related ailments such as diabetes. This study was not the first to note this link in animals, but it was the first to find evidence of a plausible cause: the sweeteners appear to change the population of intestinal bacteria that direct metabolism, the conversion of food to energy or stored fuel. And this result suggests the connection might also exist in humans.

In humans, as well as mice, the ability to digest and extract energy from our food is determined not only by our genes but also by the activity of the trillions of microbes that dwell within our digestive tract; collectively, these bacteria are known as the gut microbiome. The Israeli study suggests that artificial sweeteners enhance the populations of gut bacteria that are more efficient at pulling energy from our food and turning that energy into fat. In other words, artificial sweeteners may favor the growth of bacteria that make more calories available to us, calories that can then find their way to our hips, thighs and midriffs, says Peter Turnbaugh of the University of California, San Francisco, an expert on the interplay of bacteria and metabolism.

Bacterial gluttons........................more


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-sweeteners-may-change-our-gut-bacteria-in-dangerous-ways/

[pipoman]

3. I have noticed a downward trend in soda drinkers

Over the past 5 years...I attributed it to not wanting to add $2 to their food ticket, maybe it is actually health driven...

[Jim Lane]

4. It wasn't a controlled experiment (alas, those are hard to do with humans)

All the study participants were 65 or older. I have to wonder if another explanation of the results is: By the time you get to be 65, you know whether you have a tendency to put on too much belly fat, and the people who do have such a tendency are more likely to drink diet soda. On that theory, if you barred them from drinking diet soda they would have put on even more fat.

[Nihil]

5. Might also be the relative volume consumed ...

Instead of having a single can of standard fizz they go for a bucket of "diet" fizz.

(Went to the cinema at the weekend and was pretty disgusted at the portions of
food & drink that some people brought in with them ... it doesn't matter if the label
says "diet" or "low fat", if you consume it by the trough-full it isn't good for you!)