Drinking Diet Soda May Not Be the Answer for Weight-Watchers

Data from two recent studies presented at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association showed that diet drinks can actually make you fat.

Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Service Center at San Antonio, said these drinks may be free of calories, but not of consequences, therefore us diet drink lovers, may have to rethink our nutrition plans.

The studies found that individuals who drank 2 or more diet sodas a day had their waist size increase 6 times greater than people who did not drink diet sodas. As we all know know that's not a good scenario, because as the waist grows, so do health risks for developing diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Aspartame in artificial sweeteners may be the triggering factor to weight gain, it was discovered. Unlike regular or natural sugar they don't deliver anything to squelch the appetite. They also could inhibit brain cells that make you feel full and aspartame raised the glucose( blood sugar) in diabetes-prone mice, the studies revealed.

The researchers were said to have followed about 500 diet soda drinkers aged 65 to 74 years old for about 10 years. Artificial sweeteners may be ill-advised as healthy alternatives, it was concluded.

It seems that we can't have our cake and eat it too. For a fool-proof beverage without calories, It looks like water may be the only healthy alternative.

In the United States the number of people who consume foods with artificial sweeteners has doubled in the past 20 years to approximately 160 million. Now, how are we going to convince that many million people that some of the most used diet alternatives on the market today aren't good for you? That is going to be a pretty hard sell, I would guess.

The manufacturers of diet sodas aren't going to be too happy with this latest news. They have made a few million on selling diet products over the years, so it will be interesting to see what they may have to say about these latest findings.

Source: http;/www.cbsnews.com/New study is wake-up for diet soda drinkers