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Diet Sodas May Cause Weight Gain, Diabetes

More research with mixed effects:

Feeling Full on Diet Soda

Research published in Diabetes Care discovered that an appetite suppressing hormone, GLP-1, was significantly higher in volunteers who drank a glucose solution along with diet soda compared to those who drank glucose with carbonated water. The conclusion was that the diet soda drinkers may have become less hungry than their counterparts because of because of GLP-1s appetite suppressing properties.

Sugar Substitutes and Overeating

But wait. Another study led by Purdue University researchers gave an opposing result for a different artificial sugar. Saccharin, a sweetener found in Sweet N’ Low and Sugar Twin, was used in this test. Rats fed yogurt sweetened with saccharin ate more total calories and put on more weight than rats in a control group. The scientists thought that it was all in the rat’s little minds. Apparently, the brain looks for calories when something sweet is consumed, and when it doesn’t get them, the scientists concluded, the brain sends signals that slow down metabolism. Whether or not the same occurs in humans was not studied, but they say their findings are, “…consistent with recent prospective human clinical studies that have documented increased risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome in individuals consuming beverages sweetened with high-intensity sweeteners."

A Resolution?

Could it be that artificial sugar not only suppresses appetite but also makes you eat more? Yale researchers say, "Yes." On the one hand, they argue, “Sweetness uncoupled from caloric content offers a partial, but not complete, activation of the food reward pathways in the brain.” This partial satisfaction may lead a person to eat more. Also, the sweetness of artificial sugar may trigger sugar cravings and sugar dependence to further fuel a preference for more sugary foods. The study found, “….strong correlation between a person’s customary intake of a flavor and his preferred intensity for that flavor.”
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http://caloriecount.about.com/do-artificial-sweeteners-affect-your-appetite-b487138
 
Antiquehunter said:
How does one's waistline grow 500%? My 34" waist goes to 170"?
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Not a 500% increase in waistline, 500% more increase than the increase in another group of people. So if their waist increased by 1 cm, yours would have increased by 6 cm.

plindboe said:
Seems more likely that the causation is the other way around. When people are concerned about their weight they will tend to switch from drinks with sugars to drinks with sweeteners, so there will be a correlation between weight gain and usage of sweeteners.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but this seems a rather obvious conclusion, while the one suggested by the title seems rather unlikely.
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It seems likely there would be a correlation between weight and sweetener use since, as you say, overweight people are more likely to use sweeteners. However, I don't see any reason why there should be a correlation between weight gain and sweetener use. What you're saying is obvious is essentially that if an overweight person decides to lose weight and starts drinking diet soda, they'll suddenly start gaining weight six times faster. That doesn't seem at all obvious to me.


An interesting point is that the study focusses on diet drinks. However, I know quite a few people who use sweeteners in tea and coffee, and drink quite a lot, but who never drink soda at all. Has anyone investigated whether there's any effect from sweeteners separate from diet sodas? Maybe there's something about diet soda unrelated to sweeteners, or just something about the factors that lead to people drinking diet soda.
 
So once again:

Human study: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging
(...)
To examine the relationship between diet soft drink consumption and long-term change in waist circumference, the Health Science Center team assessed data from 474 participants in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging, or SALSA. This is a large, population-based study of the disablement process in elderly Mexican Americans and European Americans. Dr. Hazuda, senior author of the presentation, is SALSA's principal investigator and has led the study for two decades.
Measures of height, weight, waist circumference and diet soda intake were recorded at SALSA enrollment and at three follow-up exams that took place over the next decade. The average follow-up time was 9.5 years. The researchers compared long-term change in waist circumference for diet soda users versus non-users in all follow-up periods. 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.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm

No mention of diet or calories consumed.

Just like the observational study mentioned in the WebMD link by rjh01:

Researchers analyzed data from the San Antonio Heart Study, which followed more than 5,000 adults for between seven and eight years.

Because both of these studies were observational, it is impossible to say if the diet sodas played a direct role in the weight gain.

It may be that people switch to diet soda when they begin gaining weight without addressing other aspects of their diet that are causing the weight gain.

'Big Mac and Diet Coke' Mentality

It may also be that people with very poor diets disproportionately drink diet sodas.

Popkin calls this the “Big Mac and Diet Coke” mentality.

“Especially in America, we have a lot of people who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets, but also drink diet sodas,” he says.

Sharon Fowler, MPH, who led the San Antonio study, acknowledges this, but she also thinks something else is going on.
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http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-gain-not-so-fast?page=2

I'm no MPH or PhD, but not measuring calories and/or diet seems a tad important.
 
Cuddles said:
Not a 500% increase in waistline, 500% more increase than the increase in another group of people. So if their waist increased by 1 cm, yours would have increased by 6 cm.
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Sure - I was being obtuse for comedic effect. I just thought it was a rather histrionic way to report a statistic. And when I see such 'hype' I start to question the validity of the entire study.
 
I'm sure all fat ****s with zero self control are glad to have more things to blame their fatness on.
 
Cuddles said:
It seems likely there would be a correlation between weight and sweetener use since, as you say, overweight people are more likely to use sweeteners. However, I don't see any reason why there should be a correlation between weight gain and sweetener use. What you're saying is obvious is essentially that if an overweight person decides to lose weight and starts drinking diet soda, they'll suddenly start gaining weight six times faster. That doesn't seem at all obvious to me.
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One possibility: "I'm starting to gain weight. Oops. Better switch to diet soda."
 
EvilSmurf said:
I think that it may be that diet soda drinkers tend to be generally unhealthy people who "compensate" for their unhealthy eating habits to drink a diet soda to "balance" it. It does not work.
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So you're saying that the triple cheeseburger, giant order of fries and diet coke dinner won't help me lose weight? Who'da thunkit?
 
Cuddles said:
It seems likely there would be a correlation between weight and sweetener use since, as you say, overweight people are more likely to use sweeteners. However, I don't see any reason why there should be a correlation between weight gain and sweetener use.
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It's likely because there's probably also a very strong correlation between current overweight and a history of weight gain.


Cuddles said:
What you're saying is obvious is essentially that if an overweight person decides to lose weight and starts drinking diet soda, they'll suddenly start gaining weight six times faster. That doesn't seem at all obvious to me.
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Thing is that diet soda is rarely part of any well calculated diet plan. In my impression its consumers tend to be people who are concerned about their weight but paradoxically still maintain a poor and fatty diet. It wouldn't surprise me if there's indeed a correlation between bad diets and usage of artificial sweeteners.

In any case there are alot of factors to consider. Headlines like "Scientists find that X may cause Y" often annoy me because these kinds of correlations are a dime a dozen and it's way too early to say much, if anything at all.
 
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I was always a bit annoyed at a schoolmate. He ate junk food every day, hardly exercised, drank soda, et cetera, and was still really slim.


Then I found out he had Crohn's.
 
Puppycow said:
I know that "correlation does not mean causation. . . yada, yada, yada." But look at this:
Studies: Why Diet Sodas Are No Benefit to Dieters



My recommendation is good ol' H2O. Tastes better than diet soda anyway.
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Um, so people who have weight issues drink diet soda? How did they control for that. I wonder what the correlation is between Weight Watchers and weight gain?
 
Since you can't determine causality from observational studies, and since interventional studies so far consistently provide evidence against weight gain because of diet soda, there doesn't seem to be much point to these headlines. Not that that makes any difference, though.

It is a loverly example of "confounding by indication".

Linda
 
I like to avoid speculation ... but what the hell. I'm not well-versed in nutrition, but it would be interesting to know if satiety by drinking diet soda sets a bodily expectation of a change in blood glucose levels, and whether this screws with this process (i.e. tongue says "expect sugar, brain", brain says "expect energy, body"), and whether this could have an impact on future cravings and food consumption by the person.

Regardless, I've been drinking a zero-calorie soda like it's the second coming for the last 2 months ... (as a "treat" to control my sugar cravings) and I've lost 15 lbs. Of course, I'm also following a low-calorie, higher-exercise-than-usual routine.
 
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