(10-04-06) Diet soda linked to obesity

Patrick Muir
Posted: 4/4/06
When Robyn Tobiasson goes to buy a soda, she chooses Diet Pepsi for two reasons: because she loves the taste and because it has fewer calories.

"It's a healthier choice over regular soda," the graduate student in occupation therapy said.

Tobiasson, like many other people, believes diet soda is a health-conscious alternative to regular soda. But researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that diet soda may be linked to obesity later in life.

The study followed more than 600 people ranging from 25 to 64 years old for eight years and found that those who drank diet soda gained more weight than their regular-soda-drinking counterparts.

Statistics released in the study showed that 33 percent of those who drank one to two cans per day of regular soda became overweight or obese while 54 percent of those who drank one to two cans of diet soda per day became overweight or obese.

However, researchers pointed out that diet soda was not proven to be a direct cause of obesity. One possible theory posed by researchers to explain the findings was that, as people started to gain weight, they switched from regular to diet soda, according to Illinois State University's Daily Vidette.

Beth Wolfgram, adjunct instructor in the U's College of Health, said she wasn't familiar with the study, but that if someone is going to drink soda, he or she should choose diet.

"If someone wants to have the occasional soda, I do recommend diet due to the calorie difference," she said. "The calories people drink can add up very quickly."

But before choosing soda, Wolfgram encourages her clients to drink 64 ounces or more of water a day and to include nutritious drinks, such as low-fat milk or 100-percent juice.

Another theory posed by researchers for study is that, although diet soda tastes sweet, the body still knows that it is nutritionally empty and sends the body the message to find more calories elsewhere to make up for those that are not in the soda.

There is also the possibility that, when drinking diet soda, people adopt a mindset in which they believe that because the drink is calorie-free, other foods can be eaten more liberally.

Source: The Daily Utah Chronicle

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