The studies have been out for years, but a recent NYTimes article reminded me that drinking Diet Soda causes one’s risk of obesity to increase. The article indicates the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, (which is basically just a group of risk factors for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc) was 34% higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none. That’s higher than the risk increased by eating fried foods. Those in the study who ate a lot of fried foods increased their risk by 25%.
A different study found that for each can of diet soda consumed each day, a person’s risk of obesity went up 41%. For regular soda drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
- 26% for up to 1/2 can each day
- 30.4% for 1/2 to 1 can each day
- 32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
- 47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soda drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
- 36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
- 37.5% for 1/2 to 1 can each day
- 54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
- 57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
However, correlation does not imply causation. No study concludes that diet soda causes metabolic syndrome. Yet.
To add to this, my impression of diet soda drinkers are that some of them drink it as compensation for the other terrible nutrition choices they make. Exclude all sodas and sugary drinks and then they’ll be in business. Nobody ever wrote a diet guide with the tagline “Drink all the diet cola you want with this!”, and there are a lot of diet guides.
Don’t get me started on Coke Zero. I don’t want to know what they throw in there to make it zero cal.
