Health

Diet soda can make you fat

by cynthia yoo | February 8, 2008 at 11:20 am

2424 views | 5 Recommendations | 5 comments

A study has recently come out linking diet soda consumption with a metabolic syndrome that leads to "abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels and elevated blood pressure."

The scientists gathered dietary information on more than 9,500 men and women ages 45 to 64 and tracked their health for nine years.

Over all, a Western dietary pattern — high intakes of refined grains, fried foods and red meat — was associated with an 18 percent increased risk for metabolic syndrome, while a “prudent” diet dominated by fruits, vegetables, fish and poultry correlated with neither an increased nor a decreased risk.

But the one-third who ate the most fried food increased their risk by 25 percent compared with the one-third who ate the least, and surprisingly, the risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 34 percent higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none.

“This is interesting,” said Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the paper, which was posted online in the journal Circulation on Jan. 22. “Why is it happening? Is it some kind of chemical in the diet soda, or something about the behavior of diet soda drinkers?”

Without further information, it's hard to make the correlation stick. And from Stats 101 you know that correlation doesn't mean causation.

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Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:58 on February 8th, 2008

cynthia yoo, what I can tell you Cynthia is that the liver and other organs do not process artifical sweetners and other chemcials and preservative with causing cell damage,glucose and obesity and diet drinks I am sure have no effect on losing weight. Artifical anything in food though minor over time it can be quite apparent in the bodies cell structure. In my previous research cadavers from the 1950s and 1960s before the advent of preservative and additives began decomposing outside within days to a more complete skelatal state within 30 days, today, a body can look quite preserved after a month, sometimes two months before decomposition is complete, preservatives and chemical additives in our systems retard decomposition. And you thought the ancient egyptians had cornered the cadaver preservation market?

jlewis581

at 13:01 on February 8th, 2008

A Monolith of delicious diet cola flavor.

jlewis581 has contributed a photo to this story.

jordan

at 14:47 on February 8th, 2008

I would guess from what I see at restaurants (and I have no real evidence to back this up) that some people use their diet-soda consumption as an excuse for a secondary indulgence: "Well, I've got the Diet Coke, so a doughnut would be OK..."

Barry Artiste

at 10:18 on February 9th, 2008

Hell Jordan, you do not need evidence when you are stating a well known fact. Also drinking a couple of diet sodas or a case a day causes no harm is another misinformed fact.

NaomiPoet

at 15:14 on February 9th, 2008

I agree with Jordan's comment. But I think that the diet soda consumption is not just an excuse for a secondary indulgence. I think that a large percentage of people who drink diet soda are people who are struggling with dietary issues. It's not the diet sodas that are making people fat, it's the rest of the food consumption. Wonder what kind of difference it would make in a person's health if ounce for ounce people substituted water for the diet soda?