Diet soda and weight and diabetes

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Seanb_us
Seanb_us Posts: 322 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
An interesting read about diet soda and waistlines and diabetes ....

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm

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  • LuvsToSpin
    LuvsToSpin Posts: 52 Member
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    Makes my water taste so much better!!!!
  • donmikulecky
    donmikulecky Posts: 15 Member
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    Thank you for that. I knew they were supposed to be bad but never saw any evidence for why. As a physiologist I need to know why.
  • danyelle67
    danyelle67 Posts: 115 Member
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    Thanks for sharing, very interesting. I am a big diet coke drinker and noticed my waistline has gone to h$#%...However, I have cut back to 2 sometimes 3 a day from 8. Thanks again....
  • SLaw4215
    SLaw4215 Posts: 596 Member
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    that's an interesting article. Thanks for sharing it with us. :flowerforyou:
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
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    That was an interesting article
    Thanks for sharing.
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Thanks for sharing this, it's actually the first sound medically-based information I've seen on the topic.

    I still have some questions of what was included in the first study, because I really do think that the participants' diet should have been included in the study to properly confirm that the results are clearly reflective of diet soda consumption and I didn't see that it was.

    It would also be nice to know what they consider 'heavy' exposure to aspartame.

    I'm not discounting the findings by any means, but the wording is incredibly careful when they speak about the results. it'll be interesting to see what else comes up as time goes on.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,245 Member
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    This is an interesting read, but there are some problems. I am thinking mainly of the waist size in relation to diet soda drinking. The problem is it that all they have found is an association between increased waist sizes and drinking diet soda. The problem with that is it is only a correlation, it says nothing at all about what is causing this. The researchers say that it may be the diet soda, and it might. At the same time it might be that people who are prone to getting fat, thus increasing their waist size, are more likely to eat and drink diet foods. I am always amazed when I see people go into a restaurant like say McDonalds and order a Double Big-mac, large fry, sundae and, you guessed it, a diet coke. The cause of that example I bring up having a larger waist is not the diet Coke, it is the 1610 calories of the rest of the meal. I still want to see a better study that finds some causality rather than just correlation. Having said that I don't drink diet stuff with aspartame at all for other reasons.
  • Timborino
    Timborino Posts: 19
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    Correlation is not causation. The first study adjusted for everything EXCEPT some key elements. See if you can see what's missing in this statement:

    "The results were adjusted for waist circumference, diabetes status, leisure-time physical activity level, neighborhood of residence, age and smoking status at the beginning of each interval, as well as sex, ethnicity and years of education."

    The second study appears to show more validity based on the article however the study would have to be read as conducted in order to determine the ACTUAL validity. In other words, as in the previous study, what factors were not considered or just left out for statistics sake.

    A study can say anything you want it to say. Google the twinkie diet.
  • Hollycat
    Hollycat Posts: 372
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    It's an interesting article, but I agree that correlation is not causation. I saw nothing that definitively points to diet soda being the actual cause of the increased average waist circumference. I suspect there are other things going on with people who choose to regularly consume diet sodas...e.g. "because I drink diet soda, I can have this and that as a sweet substitute"...? Just thinking out loud.

    Hollycat
    :flowerforyou:
  • beernutz
    beernutz Posts: 136
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    Correlation is not causation. The first study adjusted for everything EXCEPT some key elements. See if you can see what's missing in this statement:

    "The results were adjusted for waist circumference, diabetes status, leisure-time physical activity level, neighborhood of residence, age and smoking status at the beginning of each interval, as well as sex, ethnicity and years of education."

    The second study appears to show more validity based on the article however the study would have to be read as conducted in order to determine the ACTUAL validity. In other words, as in the previous study, what factors were not considered or just left out for statistics sake.

    A study can say anything you want it to say. Google the twinkie diet.
    Unless I'm missing it in the summary, It doesn't seem that the results of the diet soda study were adjusted for calorie intake. Could it be that people who drank a lot of diet soda also ate higher amounts of calories? That might explain their bigger waist circumference numbers. Perhaps people who drink diet soda ate more calories because they thought they were drinking fewer of them?
  • minnie86
    minnie86 Posts: 187
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    The fact that this study is correlational does not mean it can be disregarded. Maybe the science/siganiling pathways behind it is in the process of being discovered. One fact., diet coke has citrate. Citarte is a major precursor for the synthesis of fat (KREB'S cycle!)
    I found some interesting papers on googgle scholar when I typed: diet soda + animal models

    http://jn.nutrition.org/content/137/9/2121.short

    and if you drink regular soda: it even has the molecular mechanism!
    http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/2/1/5

    not sure how scientific it is, but it's worth the read.
    http://www.iff-ifoundfreedom.com/healthfreedom/dietcoke.html
  • butox
    butox Posts: 7
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    I am always amazed when I see people go into a restaurant like say McDonalds and order a Double Big-mac, large fry, sundae and, you guessed it, a diet coke.

    Some of us really like Diet Coke and it's not about saving calories. I mean if I am sitting in a McDonald's drive through chances are I'm having a "to hell with it" moment.
  • trianaw
    trianaw Posts: 177
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    I don't drink soda. But I've always known it makes you fat. I never understood why anyone would drink diet soda since it has an after taste. Also as someone said how do you order a HUGE burger & fries with a diet coke...
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,245 Member
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    I am always amazed when I see people go into a restaurant like say McDonalds and order a Double Big-mac, large fry, sundae and, you guessed it, a diet coke.

    Some of us really like Diet Coke and it's not about saving calories. I mean if I am sitting in a McDonald's drive through chances are I'm having a "to hell with it" moment.

    I'm not talking an isolated incident, this is a habit for them. Some do it because they like Diet Coke, others because they think the Diet Coke makes up for everything else.

    For that matter, why have a blow out calorie wise just because you are going to McD's or some other fast food place? You can eat within calorie restrictions even there. It is probably not wise to do it all the time since you can't get veggies there, but I do it occasionally and it has not caused me any problems, but I eat healthy more than 90% of the time.
  • i_love_vinegar
    i_love_vinegar Posts: 2,092 Member
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    I don't drink soda. But I've always known it makes you fat. I never understood why anyone would drink diet soda since it has an after taste. Also as someone said how do you order a HUGE burger & fries with a diet coke...

    Exactly! LOL I can't stand the after taste.
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
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    I don't drink soda. But I've always known it makes you fat. I never understood why anyone would drink diet soda since it has an after taste. Also as someone said how do you order a HUGE burger & fries with a diet coke...

    I've always been interested when someone says that diet soda has an aftertaste, because I certainly don't ever taste one. I'm presuming a good many people don't.

    As for ordering a diet coke with a huge burger and fries? I always felt a bit daft doing that, however, I wasn't drinking diet coke because it has no calories. I just happen to like the taste. For me, it's one of the few sodas, diet or otherwise, that doesn't have a sickly sweet taste.
  • fatkidlovescake
    fatkidlovescake Posts: 66 Member
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    I don't drink soda. But I've always known it makes you fat. I never understood why anyone would drink diet soda since it has an after taste. Also as someone said how do you order a HUGE burger & fries with a diet coke...

    I've always been interested when someone says that diet soda has an aftertaste, because I certainly don't ever taste one. I'm presuming a good many people don't.

    As for ordering a diet coke with a huge burger and fries? I always felt a bit daft doing that, however, I wasn't drinking diet coke because it has no calories. I just happen to like the taste. For me, it's one of the few sodas, diet or otherwise, that doesn't have a sickly sweet taste.


    Agreed! I've been drinking diet / zero versions of everything since being diagnosed as type 1 diabetic 6 years ago (i'm the one ordering a ridiculous amount of food and a diet coke - or at least until I realised my weight had crept up nearly 5 stone in 18months) but I genuinely prefer the taste of diet drinks anyway!!
    I have never understood the "aftertaste" of diet coke but whenever I have had to drink some regular coke (low blood sugar quick fix) I find it hard to stomach and think it tastes syrupy and a bit like what I imagine soil to taste like (personal opinion obviously as I know some people can't taste the difference!).
    But I've always drunk too much diet coke although I have cut down a little recently as I'm trying to drink more water and at 5'10" and 9st4lbs last January I had a 26" waist at 14st2lbs in March/April I had a 31" waist and at 12st10lbs now I have a 29" waist so personally I don't think that drinking diet coke has affected my waistline... Perhaps the layer of "extra body" over the rest of my body though...
  • beernutz
    beernutz Posts: 136
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    I don't drink soda. But I've always known it makes you fat. I never understood why anyone would drink diet soda since it has an after taste. Also as someone said how do you order a HUGE burger & fries with a diet coke...

    I've always been interested when someone says that diet soda has an aftertaste, because I certainly don't ever taste one. I'm presuming a good many people don't.

    As for ordering a diet coke with a huge burger and fries? I always felt a bit daft doing that, however, I wasn't drinking diet coke because it has no calories. I just happen to like the taste. For me, it's one of the few sodas, diet or otherwise, that doesn't have a sickly sweet taste.

    I think some diet drinks have an aftertaste when served from a fountain, even when the same drink from a can had none, because different sweeteners are used in the fountain versus the canned drink. I believe many fountain diet soft drinks still contain some saccharin, even if they also use a different primary sweetener, because it makes them last longer, whereas their canned version contains no saccharin. That may be part of the reason some people feel diet drinks have an aftertaste while others don't, even when talking about the same drink.

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