Diet Beverages: The Grand Debate

Options
_lyndseybrooke_
_lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
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:
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.

what-did-you-just-say.gif

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?
«13

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    Options
    If you want to drink it, drink it.

    If you don't, don't.

    No reason to debate someone else's choice.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    Options
    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.
  • kikisian
    kikisian Posts: 4
    Options
    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.
  • violasmith85
    violasmith85 Posts: 274 Member
    Options
    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.
  • Phill2488
    Phill2488 Posts: 97 Member
    Options
    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 weight
  • kbangash786
    kbangash786 Posts: 5
    Options
    if yu want drink then do it.
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
    Options
    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!

    coke-beats-pepsi.jpg
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    Options
    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.
  • levitateme
    levitateme Posts: 999 Member
    Options
    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.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    Options
    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.

  • ElliottTN
    ElliottTN Posts: 1,614 Member
    Options
    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
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
    Options
    ElliottTN 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.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    Options
    RllyGudTweetr wrote: »
    reducing celery consumption - or even peanut butter consumption....

    Woah there, never say words like that again!
  • Torontonius
    Torontonius Posts: 245 Member
    Options
    Which food chemical company commissioned the study?

    follow the money...
  • moremuffins
    moremuffins Posts: 46 Member
    edited November 2014
    Options
    sduey40h7hn8.png
    CT.png 103.9K
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
    Options
    Torontonius wrote: »
    Which food chemical company commissioned the study?

    follow the money...
    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. . . .
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    Options
    Torontonius wrote: »
    Which food chemical company commissioned the study?

    follow the money...

    When you resort to conspiracy, you've already lost
  • mz_getskinny
    mz_getskinny Posts: 258 Member
    Options
    BrettPGH_ wrote: »
    Here's how this debate works.

    Some people know that diet soda doesn't have calories and artificial sweeteners are safe to drink.

    Other people are wrong.

    haha THIS...I like this guy!

Categories