Diet Sodas May Double Your Risk of Obesity

Via Mercola.com:

The prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic proportions and many Americans are making efforts to side-step extra calories. They are turning to diet soft drinks—Diet Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and Sprite—as their beverage of choice.

But is this a wise health choice?

Perhaps not, for according to a study by researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio, middle-aged adults who drink diet soft drinks may be drastically increasing their risks of gaining weight later on.

The study monitored the weight and soda-drinking habits of more than 600 normal-weight patients aged 25-64. When researchers followed up on the patients some eight years later, they discovered:

- Participants were 65 percent more likely to be overweight if they consumed one diet soda a day compared to if they drank none.
- Two or more low- or no-calorie soft drinks raised the odds of becoming obese or overweight even higher.
- Those who drank diet soda had a greater chance of becoming overweight than participants who drank regular soda.

In fact, nearly a decade ago, studies were already revealing that artificial sweeteners can:

- Stimulate your appetite.
- Increase carbohydrate cravings.
- Stimulate fat storage and weight gain.

I am not a doctor… But imagine… Your body is used to responding to sweetness with an insulin response as well as other biological reactions. “Sweet on the tongue” means that we’ve got sugars hitting the system. What happens when those sugars are not present? What if they are articifial non-foods? Could the system get confused and say things like, “Hey! Where is my sugar!?!”

So let’s say your body adapts, and deadens its response to sweetness on the tongue. Then it gets hit with the real thing (who that drinks diet drinks only eats diet foods?). Now the system goes into panic mode to keep blood sugar from rising too high.

If you read the whole article, you will see links to increasing, reliable evidence of the toxic effects of typical artificial sweeteners aspartame (Nutrisweet) and sucralose (Splenda). If those are a part of your diet, you should be aware of these as potential contributors to not only weight GAIN when you are trying to LOSE, but also suspects in “mystery diseases.”

A friend of mine says, “I’d rather eat my calories than drink them.” She drinks water, and when she eats sweet foods, they are the Real Thing. I’ll add, “I’d rather be honest with my body and not lie to it about what it is eating.” So I avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, too, including even those in trace amounts in gum. I personally think it would be better to eat and drink mindfully a small portion of a sweet food—really savoring every small bite—than to dash through a diet drink or “sugar-free” food that is even sweeter to the taste that the Real Thing.

Consider it. This may not be what is right for you. If diet sodas feel great to you, if you feel positive about yourself and what they do for you when you drink them, may God bless you with optimal health. If instead the diet sodas are a mask for some anxiety, consider using EFT on the thoughts before the addictive thought and notice how you feel after a week. After tapping on those emotions, does your body still crave the diet soda?

Tagged as: Eating, Weight Loss