Diet Beverages: The Grand Debate
_lyndseybrooke_
Posts: 2,561 Member
I found this article on Yahoo, so take it with a grain of salt.
http://www.fitsugar.com/Food-Nutrition-Myths-35730795
It's this "Myth" that got my attention:
I'm in the camp that says diet drinks are fine and certainly aren't going to make you gain weight. You should probably drink more water than soda, but cutting out diet drinks is pretty unnecessary. However, diet drinks helping you lose weight? Hm...not so sure about that one. I'd think it has little to no affect at all on weight loss unless drinking a diet soda keeps you from binging on foods that contain calories you can't afford to be eating. That wouldn't work for me, but to each his own.
So...thoughts on these two studies (links in the actual article)? What say you?
http://www.fitsugar.com/Food-Nutrition-Myths-35730795
It's this "Myth" that got my attention:
Myth 2: Diet sodas make you gain weight.
Fact: While you may have read that diet beverages make you gain weight, a recent clinical trial found just the opposite. In the 12-week study, published in the journal Obesity, dieters who drank diet beverages lost 13 pounds on average — 44 percent more than subjects drinking water only, who lost an average of nine pounds. What's more, the diet-soda drinkers reported feeling more satisfied. This study adds to a substantial body of research demonstrating that low-calorie sweeteners and the diet beverages that contain them do not hinder but can in fact help with weight loss. Two peer-reviewed studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by researchers from the University of North Carolina in 2012 and 2013 randomly assigned subjects to drink either water or diet beverages (without making any other changes to their diet). After six months, the diet-beverage group had a greater likelihood of reaching a meaningful amount of weight loss — five percent of one's body weight — compared to the control group. These studies reinforce that if you're trying to lose weight, diet beverages may help you peel off pounds, as they can help you achieve and maintain a lower-calorie eating plan.
I'm in the camp that says diet drinks are fine and certainly aren't going to make you gain weight. You should probably drink more water than soda, but cutting out diet drinks is pretty unnecessary. However, diet drinks helping you lose weight? Hm...not so sure about that one. I'd think it has little to no affect at all on weight loss unless drinking a diet soda keeps you from binging on foods that contain calories you can't afford to be eating. That wouldn't work for me, but to each his own.
So...thoughts on these two studies (links in the actual article)? What say you?
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Replies
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If you want to drink it, drink it.
If you don't, don't.
No reason to debate someone else's choice.0 -
If you want to drink it, drink it.
If you don't, don't.
No reason to debate someone else's choice.
The debate isn't over someone's choice. If I want to eat two dozen donuts a day, it's my choice. It's not going to help me lose weight, though. The debate is whether it's beneficial, counterproductive, or irrelevant when it comes to weight loss.0 -
From the CNN article regarding this topic...Cutting calories and boosting exercise takes a lot of willpower. Trying to simultaneously give up something else you regularly enjoy -- such as diet soda -- taxes your ability to stay the course. Most psychologists agree that our willpower is a limited resource.
Tell us your story
So while this study did not track calorie consumption, the group blocked from drinking diet sodas most likely ate (or drank) more calories over the course of the 12-week diet.
So it sounds like the study group were large soda drinkers in the first place. I am unsure if they were large diet soda drinkers or normal soda drinkers however.
I have heard of all the evils of the artificial sugar that the diet sodas contain as well so I guess one needs to consider that as well.
But that said - if you are craving a soda, a diet soda is a better choice...so I guess that it has its merits.0 -
I drink diet soda all the time. I'm losing weight. and yes I do feel more satisfied. I cut out sweets so my diet cherry pepsi makes me feel like i got something sweet. Really helps.0
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I drink a lot of Coca-Cola Zero and I don't know if it's helped me lose weight, but it hasn't effected my weight loss
And if anyone says that diet sodas cause weight gain then they are fools. The diet soda didn't make you gain weight, it was the amount of food you ate that made you gain weight0 -
if yu want drink then do it.0
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I don't drink diet soda just cuz I don't like the taste of it. I drink regular Coke. But if there was a Pepsi and a diet Coke... I'd choose the diet Coke. LOL!
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If there are zero calories in it, where would the weight gain come from? I don't understand how the whole diet soda good/bad is a debate to begin with.0
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I drink diet soda every day, between 1 and 5 cans (lol) and I find that doesn't help or hinder my weight loss. I definitely should drink more water, but that's neither here nor there.0
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levitateme wrote: »I drink diet soda every day, between 1 and 5 cans (lol) and I find that doesn't help or hinder my weight loss. I definitely should drink more water, but that's neither here nor there.
Considering that soda is almost entirely water, you're probably good.
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BenjaminMFP88 wrote: »If there are zero calories in it, where would the weight gain come from? I don't understand how the whole diet soda good/bad is a debate to begin with.
Well, if you drink lots of diet soda then you would more likely have elevated sodium levels which will in turn cause an uptick in water retention..which in turn would cause your weight to go up.
but nah, I'm just being a technical A-hole bc people throw around the word weight when they really mean fat so it's always misleading. Code zero is the beezneez
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BenjaminMFP88 wrote: »If there are zero calories in it, where would the weight gain come from? I don't understand how the whole diet soda good/bad is a debate to begin with.
Well, if you drink lots of diet soda then you would more likely have elevated sodium levels which will in turn cause an uptick in water retention..which in turn would cause your weight to go up.
but nah, I'm just being a technical A-hole bc people throw around the word weight when they really mean fat so it's always misleading. Code zero is the beezneez
Since the sodium levels in diet soda are roughly on par with the sodium levels of a plain stalk of celery (+/- 30mg, depending on soda, vs 32mg for a 40g celery stalk), it would seem to me that - for example - a simple celery stalk with peanut butter would cause a larger uptake in water retention than diet soda would. I've yet to see folks advocate reducing celery consumption - or even peanut butter consumption - as a means of effectively reducing water weight.0 -
RllyGudTweetr wrote: »reducing celery consumption - or even peanut butter consumption....
Woah there, never say words like that again!0 -
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Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...-1 -
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Which studies can you link to that were not funded, but are peer-reviewed? I mean, if the fact that some money source funded them automatically makes their findings invalid. . . .Torontonius wrote: »Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...
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Torontonius wrote: »Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...
When you resort to conspiracy, you've already lost0 -
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Torontonius wrote: »Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...
When you resort to conspiracy, you've already lost
What conspiracy? I asked a question. Who funded the study?
Are you denying that lobbyist groups fund studies to support the claims of the people they are lobbying for?
It's been documented numerous times over the years - tobacco industry, insecticides, chemicals. Pardon me for being skeptical.
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Torontonius wrote: »Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...
Like you see this? This is tin foil hat, conspiracy nonsense. There's no point in debating someone like this. You can show them proof right in front of their eyes and they'll tell you that there's a giant conspiracy by food companies to intentionally give people cancer and probably something about lizard people from Planet X.
Wow. Overreact, much?
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Torontonius wrote: »Torontonius wrote: »Which food chemical company commissioned the study?
follow the money...
When you resort to conspiracy, you've already lost
What conspiracy? I asked a question. Who funded the study?
Are you denying that lobbyist groups fund studies to support the claims of the people they are lobbying for?
It's been documented numerous times over the years - tobacco industry, insecticides, chemicals. Pardon me for being skeptical.
General skepticism is fine and dandy. But there's no point in attempting to follow a money trail until you have a reason to do so. It's not like you can hide bias in experiment design or conclusions. You first look at the study. If at that point something looks off, then you wonder about funding and its associated bias.
You don't just go around assuming studies are invalid because people have agendas.0 -
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RllyGudTweetr wrote: »BenjaminMFP88 wrote: »If there are zero calories in it, where would the weight gain come from? I don't understand how the whole diet soda good/bad is a debate to begin with.
Well, if you drink lots of diet soda then you would more likely have elevated sodium levels which will in turn cause an uptick in water retention..which in turn would cause your weight to go up.
but nah, I'm just being a technical A-hole bc people throw around the word weight when they really mean fat so it's always misleading. Code zero is the beezneez
Since the sodium levels in diet soda are roughly on par with the sodium levels of a plain stalk of celery (+/- 30mg, depending on soda, vs 32mg for a 40g celery stalk), it would seem to me that - for example - a simple celery stalk with peanut butter would cause a larger uptake in water retention than diet soda would. I've yet to see folks advocate reducing celery consumption - or even peanut butter consumption - as a means of effectively reducing water weight.
Very true. I was initially was trying to make a stretch on how one could possibly gain weight on diet soda but yeah, it is a bit unrealistic as you say.0 -
I believe that diet soda makes no practical difference one way or the other. It doesn't hurt weight loss, and it doesn't help it either. And since the referenced study doesn't appear to control for calories (did it even track them?), it basically tells us nothing, except that the diet soda group apparently ate fewer calories, which we probably don't even know anyway.
As usual, it's a case of taking hold of yet another inconclusive study and presenting it as something of significance.0 -
"These pilot investigations are consistent with a revised hypothesis: Sweetness decoupled from caloric content offers partial, but not complete, activation of the food reward pathways. Activation of the hedonic component may contribute to increased appetite. Animals seek food to satisfy the inherent craving for sweetness, even in the absence of energy need. Lack of complete satisfaction, likely because of the failure to activate the postingestive component, further fuels the food seeking behavior. Reduction in reward response may contribute to obesity."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/
I think this is what it was referencing.0 -
I thought this was going be a debate on which diet soda was the best.
The answer is A&W diet root beer, BTW.0 -
No way. Diet Big Red.The_Enginerd wrote: »I thought this was going be a debate on which diet soda was the best.
The answer is A&W diet root beer, BTW.
Go trashy or go home.0
This discussion has been closed.
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