The connection between diet soda and weight loss or weight gain stirs up tremendous debate. Two proposed arguments are that diet drinks cause weight gain because they either keep people craving sweet foods, or people justify higher caloric intake when they’re consuming diet drinks. Another contention is that diet soda intake is linked to metabolic syndrome, which negatively impacts health and may make weight loss difficult. Alternately, some nutritionists argue that diet soda and weight loss can be positively connected when people pursue healthy and low calorie diets.
One argument is that diet soda and weight loss are not connected because of the nature of artificial sweeteners. It’s suggested that these keep people craving sugars, or that soda may not even satisfy sugar desires. In this case, dieters are more likely to eat other foods with sugar, such as crackers, cereals, and pasta sauces to satisfy ongoing cravings. Some experts suggest that consuming artificial sweeteners may become disconnected to calorie intake, so that dieters don’t sense and avoid sugars in other foods. This can interfere with appropriate food choice and increase the calories people consume, which more than makes up for the calories saved in choosing diet over regular soda.
Another theory concerning diet soda and weight loss is that people may justify higher calorie foods because they are drinking diet pop. Dieters may feel they’re cutting calories by avoiding regular sodas and give themselves permission to fill in this open space with extra servings of food. Some people may consume more calories than they would ordinarily because they feel the diet drink allows for greater caloric room. Since many diets are already too high in calories, drinking diet soda might therefore cause weight gain.
Some medical experts speculate, based on research, that there is a tie between diet soda and a condition called metabolic syndrome. This condition includes hypertension, raised bad cholesterol, a larger waist circumference, and elevated blood sugar, and it makes weight loss difficult. While it’s unclear that there is a direct connection between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome, there is a possibility that regular diet soda drinkers are at higher risk for it. In this case, diet soda and weight loss are not connected, and artificially sweetened drinks may be more connected to weight gain.
On the other hand, some nutritionists believe that diet soda and a carefully planned diet can help with weight loss. The key, they argue, is making certain that diets offer complete nutrition with low calories. Adding the occasional diet drink to this, especially to replace a high sugar soda, is unlikely to create much harm and could be a useful way to control sweet tooth urges. Some nutrition experts further argue that there is not enough evidence to establish a strong tie between sodas and metabolic syndrome. Far more research is required before diet soda and weight loss are considered incompatible.
