Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Truth behind Diet Soda

With regards to Lixuan's posting on "Vitamin Water Deception", there are also drinks which are claimed to be healthy but actually not the case. One example would be diet soda, which is said to save calories and lose weight. In a research published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it indicated that while it is true that substituting a soda with artificial sweeteners for a sugary, high calories beverage can help lower calories intake, but there is no evidence that it helps one to lose weight in the long term.
In fact, 2 recent studies at the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) Scientific Sessions have linked drinking diet soda to weight gain and that artificial sweeteners in them could potential Type 2 diabetics. The study found out that aspartame- a calorie-free sweetener used in some diet sodas raised blood sugar levels in diabetics-prone mice.
In addition, a director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital at Boston believed that artificial sweetener in diet drinks stimulate our taste receptors for sweeteners, confuse the body's ability to determine calorie content based on sweetness and could cause one to increase hunger and food intake, resulting in weight gain.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanna-dolgoff-md/diet-soda-health_b_893625.html?ref=mostpopular
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39543011/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/dieting-why-you-should-ditch-diet-soda/

Here are some points for all to ponder on?
1)On diet, so drinking diet soda? Do you want to continue drinking?
2) Does posting calories really change how people eat? As teachers, we teach our students healthy eating, how to read food labels and make better informed food choices. But will they really notice the calories content of the food before or when they purchase it? Or would they rather not know?
Which of the categories you belong to?

No comments:

Post a Comment