Posted on 10/07/2021 4:11:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The "diet" in diet drinks may be a false promise for some soda lovers. True, they deliver the fizz and taste of a soda experience, without the calories. Yet, new research shows they also can leave people with increased food cravings.
A study published recently in JAMA Network Open adds to the evidence that drinks made with sucralose may stimulate the appetite, at least among some people, and the study gives some clues as to why.
"We found that females and people with obesity had greater brain reward activity" after consuming the artificial sweetener, says study author Katie Page, a physician specializing in obesity at the University of Southern California.
Both groups also had a reduction in the hormone that inhibits appetite, and they ate more food after they consumed drinks with sucralose, compared with after regular sugar-sweetened drinks. In contrast, the study found males and people of healthy weight did not have an increase in either brain reward activity or hunger response, suggesting they're not affected in the same way.
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"I think what was most surprising was the impact of body weight and biological sex," Page says. "They were very important factors in the way that the brain responded to the artificial sweetener."
The study notes that most earlier research focused on males and people of normal weight. But this finding suggests that diet drinks sweetened with sucralose could be disadvantageous to the people who could benefit most from an effective diet strategy.
"It is precisely people with obesity who disproportionately suffer from a strong drive to eat high-calorie foods," says Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy at the University of California, San Francisco.
Page and her team measured the response to diet soda in three ways. They used functional MRI brain images of the 74 study participants to document the activation of parts of the brain linked to appetite and cravings. They used blood samples to measure blood sugar and metabolic hormones that can drive hunger. And they also tracked how much participants ate at a buffet table that was open at the end of each study session.
Determining whether diet soda helps or hinders dieters' efforts to lose weight has been tough. Some studies have shown benefits, but long-term research has found that diet soda consumption is linked to increased weight gain.
"This study offers some clues as to why," Schmidt wrote in an email to NPR. "Artificial sweeteners could be priming the brains of people with obesity to crave high-calorie foods."
There's ongoing research into the complex ways that artificial sweeteners may influence metabolism and weight, says Susan Swithers, a behavioral scientist at Purdue University who was not involved in the new study but reviewed the findings.
"These results are consistent with patterns that we've actually seen in my lab in [animal] studies," Swithers says.
One hypothesis is that it's not the artificial sweetener itself that has a direct effect on the body. The idea is that artificial sweeteners may confuse the body by tricking it into thinking sugar is coming.
"You are supposed to get sugar after something tastes sweet. Your body has been conditioned to that," explains Swithers. But diet soda may lead to a disconnect. The sugar never arrives, and this may blunt the body's anticipatory responses and throw off the ability to efficiently metabolize sugar that's consumed later.
This could mean that "when you get the sweet taste without the sugar, that changes how you respond to sugar the next time, because you don't know whether it's coming or not," Swithers says.
For instance, Swithers' lab has documented that when animals with a history of consuming artificial sweeteners get real sugar, their blood sugar levels rise higher than those of animals not fed artificial sweeteners. "It's a small effect, but over time this could contribute to potentially significant consequences," she says.
If this is happening in some people who consume diet soda, it could add to the risk of Type 2 diabetes, because when blood sugar rises, the body has to release more insulin to absorb the sugar. "So what you're doing is you are kind of pushing the system harder," Swithers says.
Given the new research, should diet-soda drinkers who are trying to reach a healthy weight give up on artificially sweetened drinks?
"People with obesity might want to completely avoid diet sodas for a couple of weeks to see if this helps to reduce cravings for high-calorie foods," Schmidt suggests.
Fat chance of that happening.
I drink many cans/bottles a week and I do not gain weight.
I eat ice cream and bread and can gain weight. Especially bread.
Diet sodas don’t work. You only see fat people drinking them.
Rimshot!
I think diet soda doesn’t create a craving for calories as much as it does a rationalization.
If I have a diet Coke with zero calories, I can trade in those calories I saved for an extra Big Mac.
They always wanted two Big Macs.
Lulz, so true.
I drink at least 1 Sparkling Ice Lemonade a day. No sugar added and really tasty with 0 calories.
Yep, I read this years ago.
Insulin is dumped into the bloodstream when you consume artificial sweeteners, just like it is when you consume sugar. Among the functions of insulin is taking the glucose out of the bloodstream and getting it into the cells in the body. Insulin doesn't know if your blood glucose level is high or low. It just knows what it's job is. Whatever glucose is in the blood stream will be moved into cells.
So you increase the feelings of hunger due to low blood sugar. Your blood sugar gets lower if you drink diet soda than it would have if you had consumed water, or unsweetened coffee or tea, or nothing at all. Drinking diet soda, or using artificial sweeteners including stevia, leads to eating larger amounts of whatever you usually eat, and probably larger amounts of foods that are higher in sugars, since your body will produce hormones telling your brain that your blood glucose is low.
You bet it does!
Plus cheese and hot peppers!!..and more beer!!
The same thought always goes through my head: What the hell is the point?
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Apart from the fact you may see these women eating fattening foods at McDonald’s, perhaps the reason why they’re drinking diet sodas is because they prefer the taste over nasty tasting corn syrup sodas.
I’m like a lot of people who prefer the taste of a diet cola over a regular cola.
To each his own. It’s just that diet drinks don’t help lose weight.
20 years ago I was classified as "obese". For a long time I had drank about a 12 pack a day of regular coke or mountain dew. I switched to drinking a 12 pack a day of diet mountain dew. That had no effect on my weight, but the change was worthwhile in eliminating the need of multiple new fillings every six months when I went to the dentist.
In the past ten years I've given up all sodas, among other changes in my diet, and have now got my weight down to the point that I'm just below the "overweight" category. Down about 50 pounds from where I was back when I was drinking the diet mountain dew.
I’m not sure I buy the ‘science’. It may be true for some people, but not all.
I’ve continued drinking a LOT of Diet Coke or Pepsi while on a keto/IF diet. Down 30 lbs and have kept it off for 3+ years. Have less belly fat now than when I was 20...and I’m on the far side of 60.
I’ve always liked what I call ‘fuzzy water’ - the carbonated seltzer water. I buy the lemon-flavored kind.
Have at it, femnazis!
I wonder about any report that states..”the insulin absorbs the sugar”...someone dun know nothing ‘bout insulin...
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