If you are trying to lose weight, you probably know that you need to lower your caloric intake and avoid foods and beverages that have large amounts of calories coming from saturated fat and sugar. In most cases, low-calorie foods and beverages are better options than high-calorie foods and beverages. Some confusion exists if diet soda, which usually does not contain any calories, can actually make you gain weight. If diet sodas are a part of your diet, you be should be aware of how these beverages may be affecting your weight loss efforts.
Caloric Content
The majority of diet sodas sold in the United States do not contain any calories or at least not a significant number of calories. While someone may have told you, "diet soda is worse than regular soda," this general statement certainly does not apply to the caloric content of diet soda. Vanderbilt University reports that a regular 12 oz. Coca-Cola contains about 146 calories. Diet Coke, however, only contains about 2 calories. If you do gain weight after adding diet soda to your diet, it is not because of caloric content.
Artifical Sweeteners
One of the primary concerns attributing diet soda to weight gain is how your body reacts to the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas. Aspartame and sucralose are commonly used to sweeten the majority of diet sodas in the United States. While these artificial sweeteners do not have any calories, according to Dr. David L. Katz, who specializes in nutrition and chronic disease prevention, artificial sweeteners may cause you underestimate how much you have eaten and crave more sweet foods and beverages that have calories coming from sugar and saturated fat. In other words, drinking diet soda may make you feel like eating high calorie foods and gain weight as a result.
Verdict
Vanderbilt University explains that diet soda will not directly cause weight gain but drinking diet soda may make you susceptible to weight gain. Vanderbilt notes that clinical studies have drawn mixed conclusions regarding the effect of diet soda and weight gain. Individual responses between diet soda and hunger vary greatly. A 2010 study in the "Yale Journal of Biology Medicine" reported a positive association between weight gain and diet soda consumption in adolescent boys. If you drink diet soda in moderation or sparingly and it does not prompt any changes in your dietary habits, it is unlikely to cause any weight gain. If it causes you to crave high fat and sugary foods, such as ice cream and doughnuts, and you indulge regularly, you will likely gain weight.
Regular Soda or Diet Soda
Diet soda is nearly always preferable to regular soda. Most regular sodas commercially sold in the United State are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup that can directly cause your body to store fat. A 2010 study by a Princeton University research team led by Psychology Professor Bart Hoebel found that high-fructose corn syrup promoted significantly more fat storage than regular sugar. The majority of this fat storage was directly over the abdominal areas, right over vital organs. The Harvard School of Public School agrees that diet soda is an acceptable replacement for regular soda but suggests that you use it in moderate quantity. Diet soda is not an acceptable replacement for water.
References
- Vanderbilt University: Does diet soda cause weight loss... or weight gain?; Julie Hughes; Oct 5 2009
- Oprah.com: Do Diet Drinks Actually Cause Weight Gain?; David L. Katz M.D.
- Havard School of Public Health: Healthy Beverage Guidelines
- "Yale Journal of Biological Medicine": Gain weight by "going diet?" Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings; Q. Ying; June 2010
- Princeton University: A Sweet Problem (High Fructose Corn Syrup)
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