Pop Culture Saturday: Diet Soda and Weight Gain

Choosing a diet soda over a regular soft drink won't help you lose weight - it will, in fact, help yuo pack on even more pounds. A study conducted by the University of Texas Health and Science Center links diet sodas with weight gain - and startles even the experts. "We knew total soft drink use was linked to obesity," says researcher Sharon Fowler. "What was surprising was that when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher." Amazingly, when researchers closely examined the data, they found nearly all of the obesity risks associated with soft drinks came from diet soda.

The study looked at data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64, over a span of 8 years. One-third of the 620 participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study were classified as obese at the end. "There was a 41% increase in the risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler said. One possible explanation is that when the body thinks it's going to get calories in the form of a sweetened drink, then doesn't get them, it may seek revenge.

"People think they can just fool the body," says nutrition expert Leslie Bonci. "But maybe the body is not fooled. If you are not giving your body those calories you promised, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Also, some soft drink studies suggest that diet drinks stimulate the appetite." I say whatever you're craving, perhaps we should all cut out soft drinks completely. Gimme a good ol' Southern Sweet Tea!! Of course, with all that pure granulated sugar, there's just no winning the battle of the bulge.