Diet Soda: New Study Shows Relationship Between Diet Soda and Weight Gain
A very interesting story was reported recently by WebMD.com. A report was made at the annual scientific session of the American Diabetic Association (www.diabetic.org) by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, of the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine in San Antonio, Texas.
Fowler collected data on over 1,500 people aged 25 to 64 over nearly an eight-year period. At the beginning of the study, 622 people were of normal weight. Over the course of the study, roughly one-third of them became overweight or obese. A correlation was found between increased soda consumption and the risk of becoming overweight or obese.
This in itself is not surprising to most people. What is surprising, however, is that there is a greater risk among diet soda drinkers than among regular soda drinkers. Here are the numbers:
The risk of becoming overweight or obese for regular soft-drink consumers:
26% for up to 1/2 can each day
30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
The risk of becoming overweight or obese for diet soft-drink drinkers:
36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soda consumers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese increased by 41% for each can of diet soda consumed in a day. With that said, there is a saying among statisticians that goes like this: “Correlation does not mean causation.”
What this means is that simply finding a statistically significant correlation between A and B does not mean that A causes B. It could very well be that similar lifestyle choices or decision-making patterns among diet soda consumers are creating similar weight-gain circumstances.
If you are old enough to recall the late ’80’s or early ’90’s, you may remember when a correlation was discovered between oat bran consumption and lower cholesterol. Once the relationship hit the press, it was several years before it could be reported that consuming oat bran could actually help to lower cholesterol in the blood.
The original assumption was that those consumers who were “likely” to consume foods containing oat bran would also be more likely to live a lifestyle that would result in lower blood cholesterol.
A similar phenomenon could be taking place with the diet soda metric as well — but then, maybe not. Recalling a scene from Alice In Wonderland where Alice is offered tea and then offended because she is given none, Fowler posits that the body may be baited into thinking that a high calorie beverage is being consumed (because of the sweetness of the diet soda) only to find none. In support of this idea, Fowler mentions a recent study in which rats fed artificial sweetener craved calories to a greater degree than their sugar-fed bretheren.
So what is a diet soda drinker to do? Well, the simplest thing to do is to stop drinking diet soda. In fact, stop drinking soda altogether. The next thing to do is to contemplate your lifestyle. Consider your caloric intake and whether you tend to justify consuming things you should leave alone. Are you active enough to burn the calories you consume? Do you tend to purchase and consume “low-calorie” or “diet” foods and beverages?
Research that provides results that cause us to ponder our own lifestyles is invaluable. Creatures of habit, as we are, need to have our world rocked occasionally.
Until more information is available, grab yourself a nice cold glass of water and think about whether you will be one of the 41% in the next seven or eight years.
References: WebMD.com (http://my.webmd.com/content/article/107/108476.htm by Daniel DeNoon, WebMD Medical News)
Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (ccwebgroup.com/tips) and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com, an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA), and Green Tea Extract.
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The Natural Truth About Quick Weight Loss
Actually, I was reading about fad diet and suddenly I received a message in my mail “Lose 20 Pounds in 10 Days!”So I thought I should write some more on quick weight loss diet plans and how they’re intended to fail miserably.
I have already written a lot on such topics and I think you should read this article because they are flawed at the grass root level! along with this article to learn exactly what’s wrong with quick diets.
There are a few facts that I want to discuss before getting into the specific details of how she lost 10 pounds in 10 days and more specifically, even after losing 20 pounds, how she has more fat.
1. Temporary weight loss will never teach to anyone how to maintain her proper weight.
2. Protein shakes are an unhealthy way to trick yourself into eating fewer calories.
3. It is unlikely that any person could lose 20 pounds of fat in 10 days. A large part of this loss is water and depleted muscle mass, not fat.Now let me explain how you get more fat (and of course unhealthy) even after losing 10 to 30 pounds with a quick fad diet.
Let’s assume, for an illustration, that a normally an active person with a body composition diets of 1300 calories a day and walks 10 miles, as normal one did.
With a total energy output of 2800 calories (ENERGY OUT), and a calorie intake of 1300 (ENERGY IN), the woman’s daily net calorie intake will be -1500 calories. In other words, she will have burnt 1500 calories more than she ate, and she will have lost 1500 calories worth of body fat in one day.
There are 3500 calories in one pound of fat. In order to lose 20 pounds of body fat in 10 days, her net calorie intake must be -7000 calories a day, not just -1500!
So, to lose 20 pounds of fat in 10 days, She must burn 7000 more calories than she eats each day, an almost impossible task for anyone!
This means 80% of the 20 pounds she actually lost in 10 days is NOT fat! Its muscle and water. With less muscle mass, body composition of a women has gotten worse and her body fat percentage has increased, even though she weighs less.
And I bet most of the 20% real weight loss i.e. fat loss was due to Oprah’s 10 miles walk so what was the fad diet good for?
And don’t forget that she’s going to gain back all the muscle and water mass in some time (that has happened to her no less than 10 times now) through a complicated process due to which she’ll gain a couple more pounds of excess fat than she had before going on the diet!
Read this article because they are flawed at the grass root level! to learn a little about the complicated process through which body recovers from the effects of a fad diet.
Courtesy:slimtour.com
The author is well known dietician and expert in losing weight.
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