Diet fizzy pop

Two new studies have found that even diet sodas can make you gain weight and become fat.

The studies were presented Saturday (June 25) at the meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

The first study looked into data from 474 participants of the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA), a large population-based study of the disablement process in elderly Mexican Americans and European Americans.

Measures of height, weight, waist size and diet soda intake were recorded at the SALSA enrollment and then again at three follow-up exams over the following ten years.

The study discovered that people who drank two or more diet sodas daily had their waist size increase six times greater than people who did not drink diet soda at all.

A second study from the University of Texas found that aspartame, a sweetener frequently used in diet soda, increased blood sugar levels in diabetes-prone mice.

Data from this and other prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners as healthy alternatives may be ill-advised... they may be free of calories, but not of consequences, stated study researcher Helen P. Hazuda, Ph.D.

A study published earlier this year found that people who drink beverages (diet or regular) daily have higher chances of suffering strokes and heart attacks.

In the United States, the number of people who consume foods with artificial sweeteners (like diet soda) has doubled to 160 million during the past 20 years.
(Source:http://www.ibtimes.com/diet-sodas-linked-larger-waist-circumference-294793)

Mouse study:
Aspartame consumption in diabetes-prone mice
In the related project, Ganesh Halade, Ph.D., Gabriel Fernandes, Ph.D., the senior author and professor of rheumatology and clinical immunology, and Fowler studied the relationship between oral exposure to aspartame and fasting glucose and insulin levels in 40 diabetes-prone mice. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener widely used in diet sodas and other products.
One group of the mice ate chow to which both aspartame and corn oil were added; the other group ate chow with the corn oil added but not the aspartame. After three months on this high-fat diet, the mice in the aspartame group showed elevated fasting glucose levels but equal or diminished insulin levels, consistent with early declines in pancreatic beta-cell function. The difference in insulin levels between the groups was not statistically significant. Beta cells make insulin, the hormone that lowers blood sugar after a meal. Imbalance ultimately leads to diabetes.
"These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans," Dr. Fernandes said.

These two translational research studies resulted from collaboration between Fowler and Drs. Hazuda and Fernandes and their research teams. The Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science (IIMS) funded the work. IIMS is the Health Science Center entity that oversees the university's Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), a National Institutes of Health-funded program to encourage the rapid translation of scientific discoveries from the laboratory through the testing process and to practical application for the health of communities.
(Source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm)



Bottom line, 0 calorie is not 0 consequence!

I'm not quoting the wall of text "studies" but I will say this:

Check out my ticker. You see that big, shiny number? Yea, I got to that big, shiny number drinking about 2-4 diet sodas a day.

I'm probably not going to make any friends from this post, so no offense everyone:

This thread is a bunch of alarmism.

Using epidemiological studies to show that people on diet soda got fatter, and therefore diet soda makes you fat, is pretty far-reaching if you ask me.

Steer clear of all artificial sweeteners, diet or no diet if you ask me. They slow your metabolism down. Especially avoid aspartame. Avoid diet sodas, chewing gum and some low fat yogurts they are full of these vile sweeteners. When your body tries to break down aspartame it metabolizes into methanol which then converts into formaldehyde. Basically its poison

Your body produces formaldehyde and it is NOT a poison in doses typically seen in humans and it's certainly not toxic from people who drink a few diet sodas.. Formaldehyde metabolizes into formic acid and formic acid is excreted without causing harm.

You know who should steer clear of aspartame? People with phenylketonuria because they can't metabolize phenylalanine, which is one of the amino acids in aspartame.

Beyond that I don't see reason to fear it.

Your body doesn't know how to cope with all those fake sweet chemicals,

Also incorrect. Aspartame is metabolized into phenylalanine and aspartic acid and methanol. Phenylalanine and Aspartic Acid are amino acids found in regular food items (check out the contents in chicken and bananas for example) and methanol converts into formaldehyde in the liver via dehydrogenase.



Edit:

Effects of Methanol: About 10 percent by weight of aspartame is released as methanol. In the body, methanol converts into formaldehyde and formate. Because formate can cause blindness and metabolic acidosis [Tephly and McMartin, 1984], methanol is toxic when humans consume it in large quantities. In order for the body to accumulate a significant amount of formate, a human must consume 200 to 500 mg of methanol per kg of body weight [Food and Drug Administration, 1984], an amount that corresponds to drinking 600 to 1700 cans of diet soft drink at once

http://elvis.engr.wisc.edu/uer/uer98/author2/content.html

^ And this would be a good example of dose/context-- good post. This is why you can't take research using ridiculous doses delivered via injection and extrapolate that to say "better not drink that can of soda".