Oh noes, a study presented at the American Diabetes Conference suggests diet soda is as bad for you as regular soda. It can make you fat and put you at risk for diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Flipping fantastic.
The statistics from this study are depressing. The researchers followed 474 diet soda drinkers for ten years and found that their belt size expanded 70% more than those who avoided diet soda. Even as little as two diet sodas a day caused the waistline of the soda drinkers to grow 5 times more than the non-drinkers in the study.
Why do you get so fat when the drinks are calorie free? Sharon Fowler of the UT Health Science Center at San Diego says it may involve artificial sweeteners and how they trigger your appetite. Drinking a diet soda could make you hungry, but without the sugar, you don't get any satisfaction from the drink. Artificial sweeteners could also interact with your brain and prevent you from feeling full. Alone or combined, these effects could cause you to eat more than your should.
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