Link Between Diet Pop and Obesity!

I’m sure everyone has heard this argument before but I believe it has ever been completely resolved. Diet pop is known for being a healthy weight loss drink when really there isn’t any proof that it is healthier and better for weight loss than regular pop. So is diet pop bad for you?

The University of Texas Health Science Center over went an 8 years study with over 1,550 people of all backgrounds, body types etc. to find out if there is a link between diet pop and obesity.

In their study, they learned that people that drink diet pop have a 41% increase risk in being overweight for every pop a person consumes each day.  But what was more appealing was that people who drink diet pop had a 67% chance of being overweight when people drink regular pop they only had a 47% chance of being overweight.

So for regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

• 26 percent for up to 1/2 can each day
• 30.4 percent for 1/2 to one can each day
• 32.8 percent for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 47.2 percent for more than 2 cans each day.

For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

• 36.5 percent for up to 1/2 can each day
• 40.1 percent for 1/2 to one can each day
• 57.3 percent for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 66.7 percent for more than 2 cans each day.

Another interesting thing I have learned was consuming artificial sweeteners of any kind actually showed to increase people’s cravings for food. You can think of it kind of like this; your body thinks your giving it food but the artificial sweeteners are zero calories so it craves food to make up for your bodies hunger leading you to eat more than you would of before.

I always wonder does diet pop really make people gain weight or is it when people think their overweight they start drinking diet pop. I contacted one of my all time favorite fitness professionals to ask him this same question and to my surprise he had done research and an actual study with 100 people on diet vs. regular. 

The study consisted of two groups of people having a group drink only regular pop, and the other group drink only diet pop for 3 straight months. After the 3 months a body composition test was taken and the result were unbelievable. The people average weight gain that drank only diet pop was around 3 pounds, and the people that drank regular pop only average about .5 pounds of gained weight.

I thought that was interesting. 

Now, this does not mean you should drink regular pop and feel like it is healthier. Just remember, a small can of pop has around 50g carbohydrates, and might I add those 50g carbohydrates are very high fructose sugars. What does that mean? It means if you don’t burn off those sugars in 15 minutes they will go straight to fat.

My recommendation is to focus getting most of your liquids from water as we are around 75% water, and it control most of are bodily functions. If your goal being weight loss than having a well-balanced diet, and a good weight loss program is a great way to start but make sure you follow a true weight loss program that focusing on balanced eating.

Hopefully you enjoyed this article and I wish you a great day!