Does Diet Soda Make You Fat?

People are fat because they don't know when to say when. Our country is all about do what makes you happy and endulge in everything including food. We're all a bunch of fat pigs. It's no wonder other countries get disgusted by us. People who are overweight make me sick. Get a grip for gosh sakes. I'm thin and I look fabulous and feel great. It's a real simple solution PUT DOWN THE TWINKIE TUBBY!

TO: Bob Dabob Bob, I did everything that you mentioned. It wasn't until I stopped drinking Diet soda that I began to lose weight consistently. I tried everything I could to lose weight before I quit the Soda. I believe something in it slows your metabolism down.

Everyone is different. For me, diet pops STOPPED my weight loss. Whenever I cut calories in the past and started excercising to lose weight (while drinking 5 diet pops a day) my weight loss would go down a little, then completely stop for months at a time. I used diet pops to fill my stomach and it worked. However, I became extremely frustrated with weeks of maintaining weight despite diet and excercise. Then, one day I decided to try and cut out all diet soda. I figured that if I am dieting and excercising and NOT losing weight it HAS to be something in my diet. Immediately my weight began to drop and my energy level rose. My dieting and excercising stopped "plateau-ing" and went straight down. My hunger pangs still comes, but at a much lower level than diet coke. The worst for me is when I would wake up in the morning with an empty stomach and then drink a Diet Coke. Soon after I would become ravenously hungry. My stomach would have a weird aching feeling in it. If you suspect that you are struggling with weight loss. Try cutting out all soda for 3 weeks. Excercise and count calories. You should lose at least 1-2 pounds a week, if not more. And watch out for other items like SLIM-FAST. It also has artificial sweeteners.

What happened to self control?!? How can you blame diet soda because you go and eat cakes and cookies. Come on people!!! I drank a lot of diet soda the whole time I was in the military and I kept a healthy weight, of course I was very active also. The key is excercise but, people don't want get off their @$$ and do it. Stop blaming everything as if it's something out of your control. Take control of your life and get fit. Of course use common sense also, obviously if your having pastries for breakfast and burgers and fries for lunch it's not good for you. I drink at least one diet soda a day but, I have kept a healthy weight. Probably because the diet soda is maybe the worse thing I drink all day. Make sure you also drink a lot water and if you have coffee in the morning try it black. By the way that study that was done in San Antonio, beleive me it's not the diet soda making those Texans FAT! I used to live in San Antonio and it is unbeleivable how many restaraunts they are. You are practically an outcast for being thin. Texans like to eat!

Connie I think you just have no self control. Being on as I diet about 99% my life, since so much crap is bad for you, diet soda is the only sweet thing I allow myself to have. drinking a 18oz of diet soda does not make you want more sweet things, as long as you have self control.

Diet soda usually contains zero calories. Without energy the body cant use diet soda it will not cause weight gain, sorry. Maybe it can trigger cravings and such but diet soda itself has no calories so the body has nothing to store or use. Water is cheap and is always the best choice. If you are serious about losing wieght drink water, cold water. Exercise 30-60 minutes a day and consume 500 calories less then your body needs (2500 for men and 2000 for women, so when trying to lose weight 2000 for men and 1500 for women). That will equal 3500 calories a week or 1 pound of weight. With the exercise you should lose about 5-10 pounds a month. What to eat? 60% carbs (for carbs try and make them complex as much as possible), the more fiber when comparing labels the better i.e. whole grain bread should have 2 grams of fiber per slice. Whole grain rice and the one that really helps...whole grain pasta (again, more fiber the better when looking at labels). 20% protein. Eat fish 2-3 times a week (salmon has those fatty acids OMEGA-3 you hear so much about) lean turkey and chicken without skins. Do not deep fry. Save beef for a treat every week at the most and keep it as lean as possible. Avoid fast food at all costs. 20% Fats. Secret here is make it good fat, if you do that your colesterol levels will improve. Fats from Salmon (poly) lower both HDL and LDL but the best are the (mono) fats, they lower LDL (bad) without affecting HDL (good). Almonds make a great snack as they are LOADED with mono-fats, olive oil is another mono-friendly food. The hard part is taking the time to invent meals that follow these guidelines, but once you have 5-10 fast recipes and 20-30 decent dinners it becomes easy as the food tastes better and is better for you. Breakfast: Oatmeal, small glass of fat free milk Lunch (my favorite): Soy hamburger (I LOVE these) on a whole wheat bun, fat free cheese slice Dinner: Salmon broiled (i like it plain), whole grain noodles (make sure its only ONE serving) with olive oil on the noodles (I also sprinkle a small amount of fresh parmesean cheese on them) and a steamed veggie (rice steamers work great for veggies!) Snacks: Bannanas, almonds and even sometimes a small potato with some hot sauce (I usually use the potato snack after working out). Drink: water or a small glass (one cup) of skim milk with meal Exercise 30-60 minutes a day or simply walk for an hour. That and a one a day vitamin, one baby aspirin a day and thats about it. I went from 320 to 169 in 18 months and feel great. Just remember....you cant fool your body. A calorie is a calorie. My diet gives me 100% calcium, protein, fiber and vitamins while staying under 2000 calories, I exercise another 300-500 a day. I had no trouble losing over 10 pounds a month. My blood sugar is 75, HDL is 67 and LDL is 60. My doctor kept saying after every test: "just keep doing what your doing, you are adding at least 20 years to your life"

I have heard before that the carbonation from the soda attracts fat in the body, which is why it is sometimes not a good thing to still drink. I think it is better to drink the diet, for less calories, even though I know we have all heard alot about effects of the sweetners used. I just had my 2nd baby, 3 months ago, and have lost another 15 lbs. in just the past month from simply restricting my fat intake to less then 15 grams, not eating anything past 4pm, calories no more then 1000-1200, and workouts at least 4 times a week. I think it all contributes, but don't see the need to drink pop. I drink alot of koolaid, or sugarfree drinks.

Greetings everyone. I'd just like to leave a comment on the subject. I drank real soda until I was in 4th grade, when my mother began drinking diet soda. Both my sister and I gained a lot of weight that year, though in honesty I don't recall our overall diet changing any, but I do recall we ate more. My mother did not gain as much weight as my sister and me. Fast forward, my mother never drank real soda again, and has always had extra weight, except when she was working out 2+ hours every night at the gym. My father only had diet soda, and started losing weight when he stopped buying it. My sister dropped 30 pounds when she stopped drinking soda and became vegetarian. Of course nobody saw a correlation between the soda and weight loss because "how can diet soda make someone fat"? Five years ago I stopped drinking carbonated beverages when I began the Atkins diet. I lost 30 pounds in 3 months- and have since gained it back. Is the blame on poor diet or diet soda? I can't say. Apparently nobody can agree either. At any rate, I stopped soda last week. I still have headaches, my memory is no better, I crave sweets more than I did when I was drinking diet soda, and I don't have any more energy than I did previously. I have to say this is just as bad as when I stopped smoking cold turkey years ago. Here's hoping the weight loss is still to come. I won't say diet soda makes you fat, but as far as I have seen first-hand, something in it obviously contributes. Wish me luck, I really really really want some diet soda.

I work at a bar and there is this fat obese lady that comes in every day with a 64 oz container from AM/PM and always orders to have that thing filled up with diet pepsi. I am sick and tired of doing that for the past 2 years for this idiot. Oh my god I am horrified every time I fill her damn container up!! One day I even said to her that diet isnt really healthy for you and she just gave me that stupid look like how a little kid gives you right before they pout. Now just recently when she handed me her mug container thing, I saw her hands and they have ballooned even worse than before. If she really cares about her health she needs to stop and realize what the hell she is drinking. Just imagine a tomato on top of a watermelon waddling through a door. Yes that bad. Only in the USA do we find horror like this.

During my study and experience with soda, it swells you. Helps to increase kidney and bladder infection. Also, contributes to diabetes. Plus, you become addicted which causes you to think without it, I can't function.

My comment is, lay off the artificial sweeteners, they are a miniscule part of the so called real sweeteners. If you observed the increase of soda consumption alone, it would account for a significant source of weight gain in the US. We all seem to ignore the fact that sugar is no more natural then cocaine,harmless in their natural states but addictive and harmful when refined and processed. Actual sugar consumption is skewed by the fact that manufactuers use more none sugar rated sweeteners. Case in point, a closer look at lowered sugar contents of certain cereals we find total carbs. content has increased in relationship to the non reduced regular cereals. I think these other sweeteners are sugar and if counted as such it would raise total US consumption to a more realistic per capita use of 200 Lbs. Food in the US is a business and has only one goal-profit not nutrition. If it weren't such a political issue the US Government would not allow manufacturers to make 0% trans fats claims per serving,when the actual content of .5% per serving allowed in their product labeling. .5% is a significant amount when 0% trans fats are the goal.

I haven't drank any sodas in a week now and i already feel better. Diet sodas often leave me feeling depressed in terms of lack of energy. Usually when i consume diet soda, unlike water, orange juice or milk, i often want to snack on something else as well, usually unhealthy. Diet Soda does nothing for you, it takes up space in your stomach where better liquids could be. In addition the caffeine is a direutic (spelled incorrectly?), which means it absorbs water in the stomach and can cause problems with bowel movements as most people i know replace drinking water with the soda. I once had a friend that drank so much soda every day and no water, that his blood was slightly pinkish, and cavities made their home in alot of his molars. Not only are sodas a catalyst towards gaining weight, but they bring to the table many more health risks that just aren't worth it.

I primarily think diet and regular soda makes you maintain abdominal weight. I switched last year from regular to diet soda and lost weight all over except for my abdominals. I just recently gave up soda completely and have started to lose weight in my troubling abdominal and flank region (despite being thing all over) and I think this may have to do with soda. I'll keep on with this technique and update everyone on my progress.

I was born and raised in Soviet Ukraine (now independent Ukraine) and I was living there until 2005. All my life I used real sugar only (beet sugar), like all the rest of our people. We had no idea about artifitial sweeteners and diet sodas. Our grandmothers used to make james, marinated vegetables and baked VERY delicious pies and cookies. But we have not so much overweight and obese people like in USA. When my husband came to Ukraine for the very first time he was suprised to see so much slim beautiful women walking on the streets. He said he had never seen so many slim women in his lifetime. He is not alone in his opinion, a lot of foreigners are looking for women in Russia and Ukraine. So I don't know if diet soda makes you slim or fat, but I know for sure that it's possible to stay slim WITHOUT diet soda and artificial sweeteners. And I'm sure that there is no "miracle pills" which can help to drop weight without changing eating habits and lifestyle; I mean if somebody will watch TV all day long and eat, eat, eat... everything... "miracle pills" will not work.

I was thin until my early 50,s than gained 35 lbs. I have been trying to get rid of the extra weight but just can't seem to lose it. I have been thinking about the diet soda which I only started drinking in the last few years before I rarely drank any soda and when I did it was regular soda. I have been wondering if diet soda is somehow preventing the weight from coming off. It does not make me crave sweets because most things are too sweet now that I am off sugar but wondering if there is some chemical in the artificial sweetner that has some effect on metabolism. I have been on quite a few different diets without much results and the only common denominater is the diet soda which I have not given up during any of these diets. I am going to try iced coffee and tea now and see what happens.

Eric Buck, that is the stupidest comment I've ever heard. People drink diet soda to avoid the 7 to 9 tablespoons of sugar. In addition to that kind of sugar consumed on a daily basis making you fat, it also destroys your teeth. I am not obese, no where near it, and I drink diet soda. When you drink a diet soda and eat a whopper and fries, you're still going to get fat.

Diet soda may not be the healthiest of foods,but I do not believe it causes weight gain. I,like so many othes,am a 'soda-holic'.Substituting diet soda for the 4 or so regular sodas a day that I use to drink has been a big part of the 30 pounds I have lost in the past 4 months.O f course that is not the only change in diet that I have made,but sugar free drinks really help keep me from feeling 'deprived',and therefore back sliding on my diet. The same has held true for my son.

I can see how your research has unveiled such sad findings because society forgets to go back to the common "what works for weight loss philosophy" and that is to just count your calories in & your calories out. However, I am definitely one of the fortunate few that understands how to count my calories. It's not a fad diet it's a fact. I have lost weight by switching to diet colas. I was accustomed to drinking about 3-4 cans of regular soda a day maybe even more. In a week that is a minimum of 3,150 - 4,200 extra calories. I don't try to compensate for the loss of sugar. I like this research because at least it aids in targteing that the issue is related to better informing or reiterating to our culture to count your calories!

You still don't get it "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" about my comments on chemistry anything labeled " f*cking organic " is ALSO CHEMICAL[or made out of 2 or more elemental compounds[then scare the fat wallet croud and toss around the words "toxic" and "toxins".[this opens the wallets of the can afford to pay more croud.To add insult to injury we have to get lectures from these "pseudo-enlightened doops with their condesending attitudes".I back up what I am saying with chemistry facts and principles.Take some chemistry courses, including biochemistry. It has to do with people being gullible and without posessing the knowledge..then being arrogant with comments about their " pride and being proud"...and then the " buyers of organic anything pay boo-coos more for the same "chemical compounds"..I know you have been indoctrinated in our advertizing, marketing and service industry[and Prevention Magazine type publications etc..So it is your money Mr. Proud, Boostful,Vein Glorious etc..just spend away..But your scientic knowledge base is a "BIG FAT AND MORBIDLY OBESE ZERO"..and if I am a doctor or the brother-in-law of Jesus Christ has no bearing on the facts and statements I made in my above posts..I used heart disease as just " one of many" predispositions for people..thin [ lousy carbohydrate metabolizers] to morbidly obese. Is this a satisfactory response to your question "Mr.Proud VG[vein glorious]et tu brute [and all the other traits of our southern friend BeeLZaBub..aka Satan Rogers. SAS=satan attitude syndrome..it always gets in the ways of chemistry and scientic facts WSS= wallet sucking sounds from buying organic labeled foods.. sigh..

Many years ago, I was "addicted" to Diet Pepsi. My hips were a little large, which displeased me. A friend admonished "You will never lose your hips if you keep drinking any type of soda pop!" I stopped. My large hips disappered in 2 months. Our secretary was very large. She drank 2-2liters of Diet Cola a day. I challenged her to change just that one thing, and eliminate it. She lost 72 pounds! So, yes, I agree with the Dr. and other contributors; and, also add that I think it is partly in the carbonation itself. Regards all.

i have been drinking diet soda for 20? years. I started when I went on a low calorie diet and lost 65 pounds! But my substitution was from sugar soda to diet soda and didn't feel any void with sugar. Since you can never really go off a diet without gaining weight I just changed the diet from low cal to low carb. I still drink soda and still eat no sweets! In fact I eat no carbs other than healthy fresh vegies! So, diet soda doesn't make you lose weight, exercising a lack of will power makes you gain weght!

I think and have always thought that diet soda makes you fat. When you consume something artificial, your body has no way of digesting it (processing it), and usually responds by bloating with water. So essentially the purpose of drinking diet soda (to lose weight and not take in empty calories) becomes defeated. Americans are fatter than most other nations in part because of all the artificial chemicals (hormones, pesticides, etc.) in our food. I have lived in London and Japan studying abroad, and I have also traveled all over the world, and trust me, our food tastes completely different b/c it is different. Other parts of the world don't pump their chicken with hormones, don't spray their veggies and fruits with poison and chemicals, and their people are much slimmer than most Americans (I am slim, b/c I eat organic). Diet soda has saccarin (sp?) a known carcinogen. For that reason alone, I stay far away from it. We should be extremely careful of what we allow to enter our bodies.

While I can't speak from personal experience (I make it a point not to use sugar substitutes neither do any in our six member immediate family), I can speak to my observations. The first would have to be that diet soda does not a diet make. In that respect I would have to agree with Sue Anderson (above) and the others who point out that a diet that focuses on a single item is poorly conceived and destine for failure. The purpose of any diet must be balance and moderation.

I have battled weight gain all my life. I gained and lost the same 50 pounds at least every 3 years. At age 40 I weighed 235 and through illness lost 100 pounds. Determined not to gain weight ever again I made up a few simple rules and have firmly stuck to them. No refined flour or sugar, no deep fried or fat added to anything, and except for skim milk not to drink anything with calories. This meant adding sweetener to coffee and tea and drinking diet soda. I am hooked on diet Pepsi and drink one or two daily. I also avoid juice and eat the actual fruit instead. I am now 67 and have not gained any weight.

FACTS FABLES and FOOLS 1] everything is chemicals..2 or more elements are a chemical compound [organic or not].So Ascorbic Acid [ vitamin C ] is better taken as a "tablet " than it is with "fructose from the orange" as this fructose will manufacture fat in the liver. PROOF. Polynesia has the most obese people on earth.and they eat fruits, carbohydrates all year long as they have no seasons..facts and not fiction.. 2]diet sodas[most brand names [ have removed everything..even sodium [ as sodium will retain water]. 3] drink [monitor] 64 ounces of water a day and see how your urinary output is. Get a plastic urine [hospital type]container which is of the 1000cc..or 1 liter variety..is easy to do..will show your kidney function in a general way [ for people with healthy kidneys only]..I see too many general statements on these blogs..many people do not drink enough water and their kidneys slow down..hense they retain fluids and is bad for pre or hypertension also and 20% of blood pressure is based on proper kidney function FACT and not FICTION. 4]just about every so called study has ulterior motives..the condensed amount of sacchrin injected in rats..etc..then the sacchrin statements of carcinogen..then the aspartame takes the front in sales[convient for a new artificial sweetner]..then it causes something or another study..Then the sugar lobby gets the sugar cane product [the most costly] on the market as the brand name Splenda..Had to happen as the sugar lobby was going to congress and whining that USA has 10 states growing sugar cane and worried that the sales would go down and "sugar subsidies" would be necessary.. The post above[human] is thinner than most people because his/her body is a " lousy metabolizer of carbohydrates"..is his/her luck with the obesity gene..But he/she might have a genetic predisposition for heart disease and feel invincible..then one morning fall face down in his "organically grown granola"..so sad but so true..

I agree! In addition, I have a friend who maintains that every type of artificial sweetener except the Stevia Extract, is a potential carcinogenic, if consumed in enough quantity. So that makes a case for it being better to eat real sugar, but IN MODERATION. As for types of diets, I don't think there is any magic cure--unless you want an artificial, svelt body, quickly, and are willing to acknowledge that this weight loss may be temporary. The approach I find that works best is--be at a point in your life where you WANT to improve the way you look, you want to improve your health, and be willing to be patient in getting PERMANENT results. After all, it took you a long time to gain the weight; it is realistic to expect that it will take you a long while to lose it. (And the slower you lose, the less this change will shake up your metabolism. ) I am just beginning on this path, so it may be true that a little knowledge is a bad thing; but I think I have things pretty well figured out. But in the same way that a recovering alcoholic is more vehement in converting people than someone who has been 'at it' a while, I may be too zealous. (-:) I hope you who have not yet begun to think about doing this, will come to the conclusion that it is a good thing to do. Although I try not to induldge in "shoulda-woulda-coulda', I wish I had done this 30 years ago. It would have allowed me to do a lot of things that I couldn't then. --Linda

People who consume diet cola are more likely to be fat. Does diet cola cause obesity? Well, people who check into hospitals are more likely to be sick. Do hospitals cause sickness? Putting it another way, why would someone who was not overweight drink diet cola?

Several years ago a friend had lost a lot of weight, and she told me a big part of her "secret" was cutting out ALL carbonated beverages, whether regular or diet. She said she'd investigated a lot of research about weight loss, and found something that said the fizz in carbonated drinks expands the stomach and makes you eat more to feel full. I'm no expert myself, but based on my friend's example, I mostly choose water, tea or lemonade now.

I can see the point made about sweets triggering the craving for more sweets but for me the problem goes much further. I can't blame diet soda for making me fat or overweight. I'm in my fifties, retired and not as active as I was in my thirties or forties. I exercise one hour a day but the rest of the time I'm either watching tv or doing something else that is not ver strenuous. I still have a very strong sex drive and remember making love a couple of times a day, that was a workout that burnt some calories but my once willing partner finds it a bother now so I can check that off my list of calorie burning activities. I can't place all the blame for getting heavier on my diminished sex life either, aside from eating out of boredom I believe my metabolism has slowed a bit. There are also many opportunities and occassions to indulge in fattening foods. I wonder if a passionate, willing lover could undo some of the harm that nasty diet soda is causing? Nah, I'll just have to eat less and move around more.

Hi again. I am new to blogs.They sure make one reflect and analyse on all these responses. I for years had the theoretical answer to the " sweet tooth" urges. It would be a mouthwash that would "neutralize the sweet taste bud receptor sites" on the tongue. Not sure of wanting to desensitize them, or even destroy them, but the concept would be a way to incorporporate this concept of the "sweet taste memory" versus the " biochemical brain cravings. True my first memories of Keebler Lemon Cream Cookies had the sweet taste of lemon without the bitterness of lemon. But what would have happened if my tongue was desensitized.? I can reflect upon the memory of the cookie being soft and of the prpper consistency to bite down and injest ever sweet morsel. Now, what would I have thought and recorded in my brain if there were this theoritical "mouthwash desensitizer" and the cookie had just a bland taste?. Maybe as we speak the "evil ones" are making taste bud enhancers to have ever a more stimulating effect on the sweet taste buds. Where is the research to do sweet taste bud neutralizing. If it would be somewhat sucessful would help break the initial "brain bonding" that some of us have with these "simple sugars with complex lifetime pegurative effects on our health ".

Hold on Boys and Girls.. 1] diet is a regimen[way of eating]so we need to see how we can smash the "sugar lobby" to change the name of "diet soda" to "sugar free soda"..many ignorant people will not buy sugar free soda as they say "i am not on a diet and don't want to loose weight"..The sugar lobby justs laughs at them... 2]any sugar cravings have to do with the predisposition to do so..I am 56 yrs old male..my early memories are of my mother buying me Keebler "Large Lemon Cream" they were packaged [ half box/half cellophane]in 5 rows of 4 big cookies each..I would have 2 cookies [dunked in milk]when we got home from the super-market..then climb up to hide the box from my older brother in the cupboard behind the soup terine..He didn't have the " sugar craving gene " and could not care less..He loved the salted hotdogs with white bread buns...We both grew up overweight and always pushing away our demons and taking our hypertensive medications. 3]these are issues the food and drug administration can handle if it "removes the influence of the lobbyists,special interest groups and political action committees.. 4] I am stubborn and want to die after we mfg " fiber fries" of 75% soybean mixed with 25% potatos for fries more beneficial with fiber and more crunchy..then the thinner 100% wheat bun with more than 5gms of fiber..and lean turkey or chicken burgers [with correct cheese as per trans fat..etc] 5] I might also stick around for a real aisle in the super-market of legitimate low carbohydrate foods.. 6] might live long enough to see by the 8th grade the following truths be taught in our austere school systems..[a] fats are mfg in the liver by simple and compound carbohydrates and not from taking in fat into the body. [b]fat is taken in the body and broken down by saliva,stomach acids,bile salts into fatty acids and ketones and do not travel " in toto" as huge molecules thru the liver and then hang out at your adipose tissue[ fat storhouses] [c]if one takes in so much fat such as oils and fats you have the "intestional turmoil" as many of you can attest..Too much of the more solid fats will end up in your stools as this is know as "stratorriha"or fatty stools.. Finally..if we can not do the above and talk and teach the truth to our citizens and stand up to all the special interests [ both corporate and governmental ] then we deserve what we become, just a country of uninformed T.V. easy marks to the marketing and advertising agencies. sigh and stepping off of my soap box. Yummy, a commercial about low fat carbohydrate cakes and pies and cookies too..opps, can't forget the candy bars with milk chocolate [ are listed as nutritional as they have some Vit D from the milk [ forget all the sugar}.!!

I worry more about the side effects of aspartame and artificial sweeteners than weight gain. If I drank more than one diet cola a day, I would get a rash on my upper chest and frequent headaches. The worse side effect was that I could not remember a seven-digit phone number long enough to dial it. All these symptoms disappeared once I gave up diet colas. Cutting out white food -- bread, potatoes and rice enabled me to lose weight while still having one regular cola a day. And it's been easy to keep it off by just cutting back on the carbs I mentioned while enjoying my one-a-day cola addiction.

i believe that stopping of the fake sugar starting early am in coffee and then all the fake sweets during the day has really cut my sweet craving off completely.it was just the second day after quiting cold turkey i stopped wandering around the kitchen several times a day looking for cookies,brownies etc. it was like a switch was turned off for me. for other reasons i quit soda and gone to juices,teas etc. never missed it after drinking it daily for 40 yrs.....but thats another story..

My experience is more like Jake said. I have been on the South Beach Diet for about 3 years and that diet allows artificial sweetner, in tea, soda etc. Before this diet I had a wild sweet tooth and now chocolate cany like Snickers, Milky Way, Twix etc. sits on my desk all day for my co-workers who find it impossible to understand why I don't like it. Even cake and pies are too sweet for me. By the way I am 5/3 and 110lbs. So no trouble for me.

I am new to the board and would like to ask a favor. If you have had some experience with certain foods helping your arthitic condition, please take a look at my blog and comment on the article about foods and arthritis. I'm trying to help by getting first-hand experience with foods and arthritis that I can then report back to my readers and on this board. Thanks dave http://backbebetter.blogspot.com

I think diet 'stuff' makes a person enter the "I can eat more" syndrome. We all need to eat less, of whatever that might be, and move around more. Luckily, I am more on the hyper side than most.

I have long suspected that diet drinks and diet foods (those with artificial sweeteners) set up the body to "think" it had taken in sugars and would then produce insulin to counteract the intake, when it had no real sugar to counteract. With the extra insulin in the system, the body would crave real sugar and would start the process that might lead to consumption of real sugar to make up for the insulin. The added sugar would trigger more insulin production, and that insulin would trigger more craving for sugar, and so forth into a sugar spiral. I watched my mother for years use her various artificial sweeteners of the day, only to turn around and eat a half-pan of homemade fudge in one sitting. Unfortunately, since I had no clinical methods to measure any of it, I am unaware of any clear correlation between the two. Bottom line: I think it's too bad we don't know exactly what we are doing to our bodies, especially in this area. Maybe further studies will give us more insight. In the meantime, I refuse to consume anything with the word "diet" on the package or artificial sweeteners listed in the ingredients. Now, if only I could get back to proper eating habits in other areas, like eating fresh fruits and vegetables every day.... Lynn Wilcox

Hi, I'm an avid diet cola drinker.I do not crave sweets.My problem has always been carbs such as crackers and rolls.I first switched from regular soda to diet about 6 yrs ago,after I noticed I was starting to loose weight without trying:)Once I switched, the weight really came off.I dropped approximately 60lbs in 7 months.At the age of 41,I was amazed,to say the least.I kept the weight off and stable for a few yrs.Then, life stresses andchanges in my work schedule helped me put 25 lbs back on.All while drinking my beloved diet soda.I've now dropped 15,and slowly struggling to go lower. No, diet soda does not make me crave sweets.

I would like to know the amout of salt and other chemicals in diet drinks... Coca Cola for example. Salt, of course, often retains more water, and water has added weight. I agree on the insulin stimulation comment.

I think artificial sweetners would desensitize you to actual sugar. If you were used to the fake sweetness of diet soda how would you tell if something was really full of real sugar?

Both my parents had some form of blood sugar problems; my mother was glucose intolerant (low blood sugar) and my father is type II diabetic. I grew up in a home where there really weren't many sugars available so, I am used to drinking diet sodas and using artificial sweeteners. Until I hit 16, I was on the bulky side; not obese, but big all over...looking like I had football padding on (I was very involved in athletics as well). As a teen-age girl (just starting to notice boys), this was NOT a look that I appreciated or strived for though, and found myself starting to count every calorie that I took in; to include chewing gum, a leaf of lettuce on a sandwich, etc. and restricted myself to 300 calories a day. I started out at 159 and 5'3". Within a 3 month period, I was able to lose 55 lbs this way and was loving life. My new look and lighter feel made me the young lady I so strongly sought to be. The problem was, I could NOT see myself going back onto a normal eating schedule for fear of gaining back the weight. To this day, at age 43 and still weighing approx. 108lbs. and 5'3", I am still fighting with myself not to over eat...having periods in my live where I have starved myself and others, binged and purged...but, always drinking diet sodas and using artificial sweeteners (I use the latest one out, Splenda because it does taste so much better and I was getting head-aches from Aspartame). The crux of it all is that I am what the doctors consider physically very healthy!! My blood tests all come back excellent; ALL my cholesterol and triglyceride levels are excellent; my blood pressure is almost below normal; my body fat is lean; I do have an extremely fast metabolism (tested at 3X the normal rate)...on a side note, I am a Veteran US Marine. Though I do not recommend anyone choosing the road of weight maintenance that I did (I am in mental heath therapy for that), I also do not feel that Diet Sodas make a person fat, it is the mindset of the person drinking the soda that makes them fat. If the person does not take into account everything that has fat/calories will most likely put weight on them if they go above the amount that their bodies require, how can the blame be put on a beverage? Sounds more like intellectual laziness to me.

I agree with much of what you said Mr. Bosco. However, I don't have a genetic predisposition to heart disease, and I take excellent care of myself (always have). Yes, most of the people in my family are naturally more petite and slender. However, I also take pride in maintaining a certain body weight. And yes, there are dangers of consuming chemically processed foods as opposed to more natural foods. Are you a doctor?