If you opt for food and drinks with “diet” labels, you’re being duped. More often than not, these products — promoted for weight loss — are packed with artificial sweeteners that have never been proven to actually help with weight loss. In fact, a mounting body of research proves they do just the opposite. Case in point: Scientists recently found even more evidence that links a popular “diet” product to weight gain. The offender? Diet soda.
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Researchers observed 7,026 children and teenagers enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and assessed their calorie intake per day. From 2011 to 2016, the participants’ diet records showed those who drank diet sodas consumed more calories overall than those who chose to drink water regularly. In other words, the kids and teens who thought they were consuming less calories thanks to their diet soda, ended up consuming more calories throughout the day than those who skipped the sugary drinks.
When it comes to cutting calories and weight management, the study challenges the effects of diet or low-calorie sweetened beverages. Researchers found that diet drinks do not lower calorie intake, and diet soda drinkers consumed, on average, 200 more calories per day than their water-drinking peers.
Participants who drank regular soda consumed an excess of 312 calories per day, and those who drank both diet and regular soda consumed 450 more calories per day, compared to those who drank water.
This is far from the first study showing a link between diet soda and weight gain. You might be fooled by the “diet” label, but your brain isn’t. Artificial sweeteners like Splenda and aspartame may have zero calories, but when your brain gets a “sweet” taste, it expects calories to follow. When this doesn’t happen, it leads to distortions in your biochemistry that can actually lead to weight gain.
If you’re a diet soda drinker, weight gain might actually be the least of your worries. Drinking diet soda puts your health at risk for numerous conditions, including stroke and dementia, heart attack, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes and depression.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that drinking diet soda will allow you to “have your cake and eat it too.” If it’s a beverage you currently enjoy, it’s certainly time to ditch it.