The Dinner Habit That’s Expanding Your Waistline
More bad news for diet soda drinkers. (Photo: Getty Images)
Do you drink the occasional diet soda during dinner? Maybe you’re sipping on one right now? Odds are you already know that the drink is bad for you, but the occasional can isn’t the end of the world. However, a new study found that the sweet stuff is doing even more harm than you thought—and it could be derailing all of your hard work at the gym.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that people who regularly drank diet soda over a nine-year period packed on almost three times the belly fat of those who skipped the drink.
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Researchers analyzed data from 749 people, aged 65 and up. Even when they controlled for smoking, diabetes and activity levels throughout the study, diet soda was still strongly correlated to abdominal weight gain, an especially scary fact considering extra abdominal weight is associated with Type 2 diabetes, increased cardiovascular disease and inflammation. But we’re sure you’re still wondering, “Why is it that zero calories equals major weight gain?”
There are a few theories floating around. Since artificial sweeteners offer way more sweetness than sugar without any calories, your body thinks it’s getting a major calorie boost. But then it’s subsequently left on empty, making you reach for other sweet and high-calorie foods to fill the void. Other studies in mice have connected these sweeteners to changes in gut bacteria and decreases in the appetite-controlling hormone leptin. So yeah, the jury is still out.
While the researchers did note that weight gain was most prominent in already-overweight individuals, that still doesn’t give you a free pass to drink up if you’re fit. While drinking diet soda is probably fine every once in a while, there’s enough research out there now to finally make you want to ditch it for good.
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