Does diet soda cause you to eat more or less?

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Sep 7th 2007 2:52PM

I have a friend that replaces meals with diet soda. Afterall, a Diet Coke is 0 calories and all the carbonation makes her feel more bloated than if she ate a 5-course meal. I definitely don't agree with her weight-loss philosophy, but I can see how it would work. A diet soda can help make me feel full when I'm not -- for an hour or so anyway -- but I don't drink it because truth be told, I don't like soda.

Based on that, I would assume that drinking diet soda would help you eat less, but that's not the case, according to a recent study. Diet drinks actually tend to lead to people over-eating. Why is this? One reason could be justification -- ie. I'm having a diet soda, so I can supersize the fries and have dessert too. Also, studies show that rats who are put on low-cal diets tend to overeat whenever they have the chance, compared to rats who are given a normal diet.

What do you think?

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Comments (5)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Andolyn 9-09-2007 @ 11:53AM

I think there is some truth to this .. my dietitian recently told me to eat those things that are full calories ( not light or fat free ) so i could feel full. One thing i do still do is drink diet soda.
By the way life is much better when i do get some nuritional foods in.

smdryad 9-09-2007 @ 11:50AM

Starving yourself to lose weight does not work in the long term. They body responds to starvation by lowering the metabolism to preserve energy for vital functions. So if you skip meals, especially breakfast, you are priming the body to store calories. As for the diet soda, it tends to trick the body into believing calories have been consumed. The body gears up to absorb the nutrients, but when none are found hunger is triggered. The same is true of consuming empty calories, these also increase appetite.

A weight loss shake that is high in protein, with a low glycemic index would be a better choice. Here is one that meets these criteria and is also high in Leucine, which preserves muscle when weight is lost. http://www.cinchplan.com/good_health

Amanda 9-09-2007 @ 11:50AM

I wonder if it makes a difference the reason you drink diet soda. I drink it because I think it tastes better. I have never liked regular soda. Therefore, I don't think of it as a "diet" food.

sbushy 9-10-2007 @ 5:51PM

That's like saying that speed limit signs "cause" people to drive slower. They do only for people who choose to obay the speed limits but people have a free will. If they choose to think they can eat more by drinking diet sodas then that's not caused by the diet soda. It's a result of a decision based on wrong information. And bring up the study with rats is apples and oranges. Rats have no free will. They're not out there trying to lose weight or maintain any sort of healthy diet.