Is Diet Soda really the Villain?

There's a really thorough article over at WebMD today dissecting current wisdom diet sodas cause weight gain.

Turns out all the news stories and blog postings cite the same few studies: research in rats conducted by two investigators at Purdue University and two studies that followed soda drinkers over time.

Popkin, who heads the division of nutrition epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, says none of the studies makes a convincing case that no-calorie sodas contribute to weight gain.

“The bloggers of the world have latched on to the notion that diet sodas cause obesity, but the science just isn’t there to back it up,” Popkin says.

I like to consider myself the Clown Prince of Tearing Down Scientific Research, so I enjoyed this article. But for the record, while these studies don't conclusively prove that artificial sweeteners trigger weight gain, they don't prove that they don't trigger weight gain either. And if you shellack the whole debate with a patina of common sense, you can see some obvious problems with diet sodas, no fat rats needed.

Towards the end of the article (a bit too much towards the end, in my opinion), they discuss the "Big Mac and Diet Coke" mentality, where people seem to think they can eat more crap because they're not drinking their calories. In my mind, this is like saying it's okay to jam a fork through your eye because you didn't stab yourself in the ear with a knife, but I clearly don't think like most people.

Secondly, there's what the article called the "Sweet Tooth Hypothesis."

“We refer to a ‘sweet tooth,’ not a ‘sugar tooth,’ “ Katz says. “I think that is absolutely right. Our taste buds don’t really differentiate between sweet in sugar and sweet from, say, aspartame. The evidence that this sweet taste is addictive is pretty clear.”

His theoretical concerns are bolstered by 20 years of real-world experience with his patients.

“What I have seen in my patients is that those who drink diet soda are more vulnerable to stealth sugars,” Katz says.

I personally, have noticed this in my life. As an overweight, Diet Coke-chugging twenty-something, in the rare event that I ate fresh fruit, it would be common place for me to add sugar to it. Now, that would make me sick. Sure, I still eat sweets, but whereas I used to be able to polish off a pint of Ben and Jerry's in 5 minutes, sans brain freeze. Today, anything more than a single scoop and I'm queasy for hours. I think this has a lot to do with the drastic reduction in all added sweeteners in my life, including diet soda. Yes, I have the odd TAB, but it's a rare event.

I know what you're saying. "I'm different. I can handle diet sodas and keep my sweet tooth in check." Maybe that's true, but apparently the guy next to you can't. We're a fat, Diet Coke drinkin' country and we're only getting fatter, so maybe you and I should lead by example and can the can. It's not like it's benefiting you in anyway whatsoever.