Comments on: Could ‘diet’ drinks actually promote weight gain?

By: John Spottiswoode

John Spottiswoode — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:18:35 +0000

This is something that I have suspected for a long time. Could it be that the sugar substitutes fool the body into thinking that it has plenty of sugar and puts to fat what it can, robbing the person of energy whilst directly causing an increase in fatness?

By: Dr John Briffa

Dr John Briffa — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:42:46 +0000

James
Yes, the study showed correlation and cannot be used to ‘prove’ causation. The point is, though, that the concept that diet drinks may actually cause weight gain/metabolic syndrome is not as ‘implausible’ as some would have us believe.

By: James G

James G — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:34:29 +0000

As ethyl d pointed out, doesn’t this really point to a correlation, rather than a causation?

The way I read these results, people who drink soft drinks, whether diet or non-diet soft drinks, are more likely to show metabolic syndrome than people who don’t, with no significant difference between the two. Or did I miss something here?

It seems that if you are just as likely in either circumstance, then there must be other factors affecting metabolic syndrome, which should be controlled for. Such as a high-carb and junk food diet, as ethyl d pointed out.

By: Dr John Briffa

Dr John Briffa — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:02:54 +0000

Thanks Claire - omission corrected!

By: ethyl d

ethyl d — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:30:08 +0000

Based on my own experience, I would guess that the reason why both drinkers of regular and diet sodas showed evidence of metabolic syndrome is that both groups are eating a high-carb and junk food diet in general; the drinkers of diet sodas just rationalize their choice by thinking the diet drink is saving them a few calories. This is what I was doing a few years ago when I switched from regular sodas to diet ones. I knew I needed to lose weight, but had not yet learned about low-carb eating, so was eating the “expert” recommended low fat-high carb diet and getting fatter and fatter. When I ate fast food, I rationalized ordering a diet soda by saying to myself that at least I was saving 150-200 calories by drinking the diet drink, despite my “value” meal with an enormous bun and enough french fries for several people. Now that I’ve given up fast food and eat low-carb real food, I still choose diet soda with Splenda, and am forty pounds lighter and feel so much better than I once would ever have thought possible. It’s not the diet sodas–although I accept that we might well be better off without them–it’s the rest of the poor food choices people make along with whatever they drink.

By: Claire Weeks

Claire Weeks — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:08:20 +0000

OOps you left a key word out of one sentence - What might come as a surprise to some is that when looking at DIET soft drink consumption, risk of metabolic syndrome was also up – this time by 80 per cent (almost the same as the sugary soft drink consumers).

A plausible theory is that the body expects to receive a surge of sugar into the bloodstream when a sweet tast is experienced in the mouth and therefore prepares a boost of insulin to cope with it. The low-cal ‘diet’ drinks of course do not send the expected sugar, so anything else consumed at the same time is much more likely to be turned into fat by the excess insulin. And of course insulin surges are associated with metabolic syndrome. This is of course a simplistic sysnopsis but one well worth testing.