How Diet Soda Makes You Fat (and Other Food and Diet Industry Secrets)

[Stuart G]

Dr. Mark Hyman.
Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html

How do you lose weight? Substitute diet drinks for sugary drinks. Eat low-fat foods. Just eat less of the bad foods -- it's all about the calories. We are told, "Just have more willpower."
These ideas are false. They are food and diet industry propaganda that make and keep us fat and sick. Lies by the food industry combined with bad government policy based on food industry lobbying are the major cause of our obesity and diabetes epidemic.

Now, more than 35 percent of Americans are obese, and almost 70 percent are overweight. This is not an accident but the result of careful marketing and money in politics.

We are told it is all about making better choices. If we all took more personal responsibility, we could stop this obesity and diabetes epidemic. We have been told there are no good or bad foods, that the key to weight loss is moderation. And, of course, if we all just exercised more, all of us would lose weight. These ideas hold us hostage.

What the Food and Diet Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

1.Diet Soda and Diet Drinks Make You Fat and Cause Type 2 Diabetes
Diet soda makes people fat? Really? How does that happen?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
There are four or five more things the diet and food industry does not want you to know...Worth 5 mintues it takes to read..Especially the part where sugar, salt and fat are strongly addictive..........Not bad for the Huffington Post....

from deep within the article I found this..worth quoting:
"You might say that people who are overweight and just about to get diabetes drink more diet soda, but they scientifically controlled for body weight. And they found the artificial sweeteners increased diabetes independent of body weight!"

[Bay Boy]

1. a 16 ounce soda is about 200 calories...

...if you made no other changes to your diet except switching to a diet pop/soda that would save you 73,000 calories a year!!!
You would lose about 20 pounds in a year's time by doing that.

[shraby]

2. If it makes you happy, you just stay in your alternate reality. Real life doesn't work

that way.

[Bay Boy]

4. I am an expert in losing weight...

...on a personal level. I lost 60 pounds over an 18 month time period. I did it by counting EVERY calorie I ate over that time.

Here is a key point from the article:
"It (diet soda) makes you hungrier and crave even more sugar and starchy carbs like bread and pasta."
That right there is the proof that it isn't the diet soda making you fat but (for some people) encouraging them to indulge in other sweets. So if I were to have a diet soda and figured "well I did that so now I'll treat myself to some cookies" yeah you're not going to lose weight. But if you track EVERY calorie you ingest you can and will lose weight. Guaranteed!

[Mnemosyne]

6. If your body is operating at an efficient level, otherwise, nope. I gained weight at 800 cals from a

medication I was on, 100 # in 2003, to be exact.

Nice you can lose so simply. Good for you.

[Bay Boy]

7. That sucked, hope

you're able to recover from that. But the article wasn't directed at people with your condition or things like glandular problems.

They are trying to say that people who drink diet soda then reward themselves with other treats. And if they do that then I guess it is fair to say that diet soda makes you fat.

But if you count calories it all most doesn't matter what you eat as long as you eat less calories than you burn off.

[Mnemosyne]

11. Lost about 20# of it after stopped the medication, really screwed up my system. I have to laugh,

when I was thin, I remember buying Tabs with a candy bar! I felt it compensated.

I wouldn't drink a diet soda on a bet these days, my integrative med doctor said artificial sweeteners are pure poison.

Being older also makes weight loss very difficult, along with being female. Men usually have a much easier time trying to lose.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. So? I lost 30 pounds in 30 days

on the AMC/Leowes' diet. I took a job that greatly increased my physical activity (walking constantly and lifting things) and didn't have time to eat constantly.

If you want to lose weight, cut down on food intake and exercise more. Period. End of story.

[yellerpup]

26. I don't know anything about the diet

you mentioned, but your final conclusion is the never fail method.

[Pab Sungenis]

29. It's a joke.

I took a management job at a movie theater, where I'm constantly in motion and carrying things around. Exercise plus not eating as often = weight loss.

[Stuart G]

3. Please read the article before drawing conclusions..

The study this is based on thousands of people that prove the opposite of what you say. You have bought the food industry propaganda..

This is the study quoted in the article:

A new 14-year study of 66,118 women (supported by many other previous studies) found that the opposite seems to be true. Diet drinks may be worse than sugar-sweetened drinks, which are worse than fruit juices (but only fresh-squeezed fruit juices).

The only elongated study containing that many subjects is the famous nurses study often called the Harvard Nurses Study...they started following tens of thousands of nurses who volunteered to be subjects of a a study on heart disease and eating and exercize..I followed it early when results were published about 10 years ago that stated that 30 minutes of exercize, even if it is broken up, like moderate to extreme housework, or 15 mintues of fast walking with 15 minutes of moderate walking...was just about as good as 30 continuous minutes in terms of outcomes....So, this study on diet drinks fits the mold of the nurses study..with 66,000 study participants...The food industry sure wouldn't want you to know their chemicals are more dangerous than refined sugar...Keep in mind their diet chemicals do indeed cost more...a lot more than simple refined sugar....maybe the food industry makes more money on the diet crap...what do you think??????????????? got the picture

Oh...another thing...refined sugar isn't exactly good for you either...

[jeff47]

9. And if you read the article

you'd see that the problem was one of substitution - by drinking a diet drink they were more likely to eat a sugary snack via cravings or justification.

Drink a diet drink and don't eat the subsequent sugary snack? That works.

Drink a diet drink and then eat a sugary snack? That doesn't work.

What works best? Getting off our fat asses and getting some exercise.

It still comes down to calories consumed vs. calories burned. Diet drink or not doesn't change that.

[Stuart G]

21. Calories in vs calories burned..??

Pretty simple?? well not so. If it were so simple then why doesn't everyone lose weight and keep it off?

Not true. Most gain it back?.........Why? cause the article says that the diet stuff is more addictive than the refined sugar which is very very addictive.. Well.........any proof people have trouble losing weight? How about this one....

Since the late l970s there have been over 1500 books on diet and weight loss on the New York Times best sellers list..

[jeff47]

30. Because only the concept is simple. Actually do it is hard.

We've got an evolution-provided drive to eat a ton of calories, since food wasn't always available. Now food is pretty much always available. So we have to resist that drive in order to lose weight.

Which is why there's tons of people trying to sell easy, magic cures to make it easy. You'll note that the magic cures have to change over time, as they keep failing.

Most gain it back?.........Why?

Because they ate too much to begin with - they got overweight. So they go on a diet to lose weight. And when they're done with the diet, they revert to their old, comfortable habits. Meaning they go back to the same eating habits that got them overweight to begin with.

cause the article says that the diet stuff is more addictive than the refined sugar which is very very addictive.

And the fact that they completely misuse the word "addictive" is a clue that you can throw away pretty much all their conclusions.

Since the late l970s there have been over 1500 books on diet and weight loss on the New York Times best sellers list.

Yep, there's plenty of grifters out to make a buck off people looking to make losing weight easier. They're now claiming it's diet soda.

[Bay Boy]

31. Well said!

[synapticwave]

10. Don't read the article, read the actual journal

HuffPo is misleading readers with this article.
From the abstract: (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2013/01/30/ajcn.112.050997)

Both SSB (sugar-sweetened beverage) consumption and ASB (artifical-sweetened beverage) consumption were associated with increased T2D (type 2 Diabetes) risk. We cannot rule out that factors other than ASB consumption that we did not control for are responsible for the association with diabetes, and randomized trials are required to prove a causal link between ASB consumption and T2D

The full journal article is only available by purchase, and I didn't purchase this particular article but the abstract clearly states that they found a correlation between T2D and ASB, but they have no proof for causation and that further study is required. And it says NOTHING about weight gain.

This HuffPo article is tragically mis-stating what this study actually looked at (assuming the abstract accurately summarizes the full article). From this study, there is no proof that ASB "CAUSES" anything let alone weight gain, only that a correlation was found between T2D and ASB.

[azurnoir]

27. and I did just that the first 10 ilbs came off in the first month

the rest more gradually after that

[Lionessa]

5. I may be living proof that not only is this true but the reciprical is also true.

I drink sweetened tea and coffee and go through about 5 pounds of sugar a week, just on tea, but that is about the only place I have sugar. And yes, I prepare my meals from scratch 98% of the time so I do know how much sugar is in my diet. I'm 5'5" and struggle to maintain 105#s, in that I tend to whittle down to 100#s or less if I skip a meal or two.

Please note that I typed "may" be, not certain that some other thing is more in play than sugar, though I do eat well, and don't count calories. I am a meat eater, dark meat and pork, can't stand white meat, can't afford beef just now. Lots of potatoes and noodles, very little bread, no soda pop, rarely any dessert. Lots of frying, in butter and olive oil usually, moderate dairy, mostly cheese and plain yogurt. So you see, not a particularly diet-y diet.

[Bay Boy]

8. Let me get this straight...

...you, all by yourself, eat 5 POUNDS of sugar a week and currently weigh 105 pounds? Do you run several marathons a week?

There are 1755 calories in a pound of sugar, times 5 pounds that's 8775 calories a week you ingest just in sugar.
Your daily calorie intake should be about 1313 or 9191 a week. Something is adding up here.

Please don't try to make the argument that the more sugar you eat the more weight you can lose.

[Lionessa]

12. All I know is my experience. And yes,

five pounds by myself. If you read the article you'll see that worrying about "calories" is a diet product propaganda, but hey go ahead and attack before you read the article.

Oh, and no I do not run at all, I do gardening and normal house work.

From the article

Just eat less of the bad foods -- it's all about the calories. We are told, "Just have more willpower."
These ideas are false. They are food and diet industry propaganda that make and keep us fat and sick. Lies by the food industry combined with bad government policy based on food industry lobbying are the major cause of our obesity and diabetes epidemic.

[Bay Boy]

13. I don't even know how to respond to you...

...for example. You know that sugar is one of the 'bad' foods right?
But you say you can eat 9000 calories worth a week of it and you lose weight.
No.

[Lionessa]

14. Then you are stuck in the proganda web that I never even approached simply

because I hate fake food, so I eat real, if you want sweet to be real, it's sugar. There are a few on here who've met me and can attest to my size, the fact that they nearly fell off their seats when watching me put 4-5 packets of sugar in a regular sized coffee, and eat quite heartily besides. Sorry it addles you, but the article should clear some of it up. Probably since nearly all my food is from scratch, I may actually get less "bad" stuff than nearly anyone in modern times. In other words, I'm not tricking my body and it isn't making me pay a price of obesity or diabetes.

PS There is one food type I've naturally stayed away from... anything with lots of flour, never took to bread or cakes, cookies are okay, but not too many. Even as a kid I'd much prefer a Giant SweeTart over a chocolate cake. I've even been known to snack on brown sugar suckers (a coffee spoon with fresh, sticky brown sugar jammed in it.)

[Bay Boy]

15. I too eat clean...

...and the only way I lose a pound of weight is by eating 3500 less calories than I need to maintain my weight.

A side question, do you still have all your teeth?

[Lionessa]

16. Well the reason you may not be losing weight is because

you're worrying about calories instead of health????? Don't know. Yes, of course I have all the teeth that weren't pulled as a teen to accommodate braces.

Thing is I've been "fighting" the whole diet BS for decades as I watched friend after friend, as well as ex-hubbies, become obese and fat while dieting, or very shortly thereafter. I'm thankful that I was at least able to get across to my daughter and son the stupidity of fake sugar. They both eat real. My daughter has a hereditary weight issue, but maintains it simply by eating small amounts of quality food when ever she wants instead of three big meals or even two big meals.

[Bay Boy]

17. You missed the part

where I said I lost 60 pounds.

[Lionessa]

18. No I didn't, just

thinking that continuing the way you are, sooner or later you'll balloon again, nearly every study of those that only counted calories shows this as a fact, iirc. Only those that changed the way they behaved, ie changed from eating out to eating home cooked, and/or major exercise/activity change actually keep the weight off.

[Bay Boy]

20. There is some truth in what you say

I did gain some back when I stopped counting calories. But it's because I ate more than I needed.
I guess I'll switch from counting calories to eating five pounds of sugar per week. I'll call it the Lionessa diet.

[Lionessa]

22. If that's all you ate, you might actually lose weight, but I don't recommend it as healthy.

I would recommend what my daughter settled on. Keep healthy food handy, eat often but only until the hunger ends, even if that's only three bites. Do not worry about "meals" per se, eat the salad as one "meal" and the vegies as the other, and the meat as the other, and so on, avoiding carbs is the only thing she restricts, though honestly she does not have her mother's sweet tooth so in no way does she consume the quantity of sugar that I do.

[TxDemChem]

23. I can't chose sides on this argument

But I recall learning about sugar metabolism in organic and biochem and that artificial sweeteners are usually right handed molecules (except Splenda, which has a completely different structure) and fructose, glucose, lactose and other natural carbs are left handed. Humans (and yeast) can't metabolize right handed carbs so they tend to pass through your system, but I don't recall how other organs behaved in the presence of artificial sweeteners. I would like to do some more biochemical research.

[Aristus]

24. I see the result of sugar-heavy diets every day.

It's killing people...

[Stuart G]

32. So sugar heavy diets are bad, and so are diets that use lots of fake sugar..It is like this:

king size cigarettes, or filtered..which would you like? maybe regulars?

sensible eating is what it is all about. but beware of tricks that food processors play on you..like the cigarette makers, changing the amounts of nicotine..oh, it is not addictive...they would say..

Read this book..or....read the article..it is about sugar, fat, and salt.........and addiction

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602711.html

[Michael_Cern]

25. Eating Healthy

For me it's all about what you put in your body. You don't necessarily need exercise to lose weight because it's all start with what you put IN it.

I've been dieting(not really, just eating healthier) for the past 6 months and I have gotten to where I have dreamed to be. I couldn't imagine not being in this position right now.

http://cooklikeacaveman.com/paleo-cookbook-review/

[RedCappedBandit]

28. I better go tell all the natty bodybuilders I know