Why is diet pop bad for weight loss?

bigboyhealth

I think the main issue some people see with all diet sodas is the use of sweeteners 950 and 951 - one of which is aspertame and has been linked (incorrectly) to cancer and whole host of other health issues. You can read more about the controversy here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

The take away is summed up here:
"Potential health risks have been examined and dismissed by numerous scientific research projects. With the exception of the risk to those with phenylketonuria, aspartame is considered to be a safe food additive by governments, worldwide, and major health and food safety organizations.[2][10][11][12][13][14] FDA officials describe aspartame as "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved" and its safety as "clear cut".[4] The weight of existing scientific evidence indicates that aspartame is safe as a non-nutritive sweetener.[10]"

I also used to drink a lot of fizzy drinks before going on my health journey and so Coke Zero (with the same amount of caffeine per ml as Coke) is helping me ease the transition out of sugar-laced soft drinks. It is still bad for your teeth though, so ideally I can slowly start to move away from it.

neanderthin

Look, I'm not making this up, although it's after midnight and I'm not going to track down the original scientific article. This first one is a review, the second one by the science editor the NYTimes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

Didn't see anywhere in the study that insulin was raised.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html

The original - big headline - study WAS done by the American Diabetes Association (because lots of diabetics do drink a lot of diet soda). And they did find people gained more weight using diet soda than regular soda. Counter-intuitive right? One reason is - just as you say - people pig out more after drinking a 'diet' drink. The other reason is insulin.

Insulin is what keeps blood sugar balanced all the time and for everyone. It's what makes you hungry at lunch time - even when you just ate. It's very responsive to learned stimuli. Including the taste of sugar.

Hyman's own "quote" on raised insulin was his own summation. The studies he referenced didn't state insulin was raised. This is the same Dr. Hyman who believes in "detoxing". Not strong evidence here.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Cherry picking is a science.:happy: Anyway, from most of my research, which over the years is quite a bit on this subject I've found that in order to increase insulin there "must" be calories involved.

clover5

Everyone has to make their own decision about drinking diet pop. I used to drink gallons of it. I don't know that diet drinks are "bad" for me, but they aren't beneficial either. That's why I have greatly reduced the amount I drink.

KimiSteinbach

I don't drink coffee so I drink one Coke Zero once a day...It gets me through my job...