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Diet Soda May Increase Your Waist Lines: University of Texas

People who are health conscious obviously choose a diet soda. But now a new research has found that this tendency of the people to choose a diet soda lands them in to trouble by increasing their waist lines.

According to the research conducted by University of Texas, people who drink soda for nearly a decade gain more weight when compared to the people who consume normal drinks. They also found that ‘the fault may not lie in the metabolisms but in the attitudes of the people’.

How was the research conducted?
A 10 year-long study was conducted on around 475 people who participated in San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. At the beginning of the study, the researchers collected the height, weight, waist circumference and the diet soda intake data from those people and followed them for an average period of 9.5 years.

Findings:
The researchers found that there was a 70 percent increase in the waist circumferences of the diet soda drinkers when compared to non-diet soda drinkers. And for the people who drank two diet sodas a day, had an increased waist circumference which is 500 percent greater than the people who didn’t drink any diet soda and they are also the ones who are more likely to have abdominal obesity.

Reasons for weight increase:
The study report was presented in the American Diabetes Association meeting, San Diego and the researchers say that the data from this study and other such studies suggest that the promotion of the diet sodas as healthy alternatives is not recommended any more even though they are free from calories.

The diet sodas do not have natural sugars which cause weight gain; instead they do have some calorie free artificial sweeteners. The research report does not mean that artificial sweeteners make people gain weight. However, they showed how they affect the appetite and food intake of the people who consumed them frequently.

Researchers believe that the artificial sweeteners may distort appetite, increase sweet craving and also affects the brain cells involved with the feeling of fullness.

Some earlier studies do reported the health risks of diet sodas. For instance, the study published earlier this year found that people who drink a beverage every day have an increased risk of higher strokes and heart attacks. And another research conducted by UK researchers earlier this month found that sugary drinks can dull the taste buds.

The attitude of people also has a key role to play in weight increase:
The researchers worked in the other angle of how the artificial sweeteners affect the appetite and food intake. Finally they found that the reason for this is solely the behavioral phenomenon of the diet soda drinkers. People who take diet sodas think that they can eat more calories since they had a coke zero instead of a regular one. So, the fault is not the product’s but of the people who decide how to use it, says the experts.

The above said facts should be considered seriously since the abdominal fat is a major risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other chronic health problems, say the experts.