Diet Drinks and Artificial Sweeteners Can Make You Fat!

For years I have been hearing that soft drinks, both with sugar and with artificial sweetners in them, cause weight gain. So I decided to see what information I could find on this subject. Would I find corroborating evidence of this claim, or might it turn out to be just another ‘urban legend?’

Studies show that saccharine, while containing no calories itself, causes an increase in appetite in both animals and humans. That is the reason soft drinks containing artificial sweetners actually cause weight gain, despite having no calories in them to speak of.

Calorie intake of both humans and animals increases because the artificial sweetners increase the appetite of both, making them desire more food and feel more hunger pangs.

A Rogers and Blundell study from 1989 showed that people who ate yogurt sweetened with saccharine experienced a significantly higher desire to eat afterwards because of feelings of hunger, than did a group that was given yogurt with no added sweetners, and another group that was given yogurt sweetened with glucose (sugar).

Saccharine and other sweetners are actually added to livestock feed in order to fatten the livestock up faster for market.

So the answer is, diet drinks do not make you fat, but they do cause you to crave or desire additional food, especially sweet foods, that are often packed with sugar and fat. Giving in to the hunger pangs apparently caused by the artificial sweetners in diet drinks is what actually makes people fat, or fatter. You can read some information from this study if you are interested, by clicking here.

Kristie Leong, writing for Suit101.com identifies 4 dangers that soft drinks pose even when they do not contain artificial sweetners.

Leong says soft drinks cause health issues because they contain high fructose corn syrup, because they contain phosphoric acid, because they contain caffeine, and because the cans the soda is contained in are coated with a resin that contains BPA (bisphenyl-A).

The issue with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is the way it is metabolized by the liver, which breaks the HFCS down faster into its basic ingredients, which as a result are metabolized in a way that raises the risk of heart disease, fatty liver, and diabetes. Evidence from additional studies is piling up, that these risks are real and serious.

Phosphoric acid is something I remember hearing about in nutrition class at the university. My instructor spent a lot of time on phosphoric acid and its dangers. Phosphoric acid breaks down bone tissue and increases a person’s chances of developing osteoporosis. In the process of passing through the body and out in urine, it takes a lot of calcium with it. Most people, especially women and young girls do not get enough calcium to begin with and phosphoric acid depletes the calcium in the body even more.

Caffeine contributes to behavioral problems and hyperactivity as well as sleep problems and insomnia. Lots of people drink soft drinks because of the caffeine in them, but Leong says children and teenagers do not need the caffeine they contain. While soft drinks usually contain less caffeine than sports drinks or coffee, they do contribute to caffeine dependency in children and teens, Leong warns.

BPA or bisphenyl-A is the “. . . same cancer causing chemical found in plastic baby bottles, water bottles, and plastic containers that wrecks havoc on the endocrine system, potentially causing premature puberty and reproductive abnormalities. Soft drinks could be a particular problem when it comes to BPA leaching. They’re often stored in hot warehouses where heat can accelerate the contamination process. Plus, the drink itself is acidic which could further facilitate leaching of BPA into the drink.”