Just be careful if you decide to choose – artificially sweetened – diet soft drinks to get your fix.
2 new studies (presented June 25th and 27th 2011 at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions in San Diego) are suggesting that diet drinks “may be free of calories but not consequences”!
Diet soft drinks or sodas may be failing to help people lose weight and may even be contributing to weight gain by raising blood sugar and leading people towards type 2 diabetes.
Human Study: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Ageing
To examine the relationship between drinking diet soft drinks and long-term change in waist circumference the Health Science Center team assessed the data from 474 participants. Measurements were made of height, weight, waist circumference and diet soft drink intake and participants were followed for an average of 9.5 years.
Amazingly, results showed that diet soft drink users, as a group, experienced 70% greater increases in waist circumference compared with non-users. Also it was interesting to note that the people who drank the most (more than 2 diet drinks a day) frighteningly, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500% greater than non-users!
It’s well known that abdominal fat may be a major risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic conditions. So, although many people are making a conscious effort to avoid sugar-sweetened drinks, they should maybe also think twice before they choose a “diet” version.
Study Of Mice – Consumption of Aspartame
In a related project, mice ate food to which aspartame (which is an artifical sweetener widely used in diet soft drinks and other products) and corn oil were added. The other group ate food with corn oil but no aspartame. After 3 months on this high fat diet it appeared that the mice fed the aspartame diet showed elevated fasting glucose levels and lower insulin levels than the other group – which indicates that the sweetener may contribute to the development of insulin resistance – that may lead to gaining weight and possibly type 2 diabetes.
Further to these studies – as I’m a big fan of Dr Mercola - I “dipped into” his website to see what his thoughts are about aspartame and was intrigued to learn about Victoria Innes-Browns findings with her study of Rats (Victoria is author of : “Are Your Diet Sodas Killing You” and “My Aspartame Experiment” )
Rat with Aspartame Developed Tumour
Dr Mercola says:
“Victoria Innes-Brown has done us all a great favor by publishing the findings of her private experiments. Over a two and a half-year period, she performed a set of meticulous and detailed animal experiments, documenting the horrific effects of using aspartame liquid comparable to diet soda.
I believe her work adds to the bulk of data already available, confirming and reinforcing the true health dangers of this popular artificial sweetener.”
Here’s the full link to Dr Mercola’s site with the full article :
Self-Funded Study Found HUGE Tumors From This Everyday Food!
So do you think you may be addicted to aspartame? If so, please think seriously about taking steps to get off it.
You may avoid unnecessary pain and suffering and your overall health will thank you for it!