Why Diet Soda Causes Weight Gain

If you're trying to lose weight or prevent diabetes, drinking diet drinks may sabotage your efforts.

People who drink diet sodas over regular sodas are more likely to be overweight or obese, but scientists weren't sure why. The theories fell into two camps: one, something inherent to artificial sweeteners causes weight gain or two, diet sodas imply a diet and heavy people are more likely to be on one.

While we can't discount either quite yet, put down one more point for the first theory. A new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel reveals that artificial sweeteners may have a deleterious effect on our gut bacteria. Read more

Avoid Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are dangerous, and useless for weight loss, says David Brownstein, MD.

An article in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2012;96:640-6) was titled, “Low-calorie sweetener consumption is increasing in the United States.” The authors used the information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in order to report their results. Specifically they looked at the consumption of low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) during the years 1999-2000 as compared to 2007-2008. They reported that in 2007-2008, as compared to 1999-2000, the consumption of LCS increased from 6.1% to 12.5% among children and from 18.7% to 24.1% among adults. Furthermore, the increase in LCS were observed in all weight, age, socioeconomic and race-ethnicity subgroups in both children and adults. Read more

Sugar: Worse for Your Liver Than Alcohol?

Joseph Mercola explains how sugar, fructose, and artificial sweeteners can make you flabby and sick.

... While total calorie consumption has contributed to increases in diabetes rates around the world, they don't explain the whole story. In 1985, the year I finished my residency and started in private practice, the average number of calories consumed per day for the global population was 2,655.

At the time, 0.62 percent of the global population had diabetes.

By 2010, the average daily caloric intake had risen to 2,866 – an eight percent increase – but surprisingly, the diabetes rate rose by a whopping 727 percent, to 5.13 percent of the total global population.

When scientists dug deeper to determine what it is that people are eating that's contributing most to the global crisis in obesity and obesity-related diseases, they discovered that a calorie isn't just a calorie.

The source of the calories you consume makes all the difference in the world. They discovered that it's the increase in total fats and carbohydrates specifically that's causing the massive weight gain in people around the world. What's more, there's just ONE food on Earth that, because of its unique composition, metabolizes in your body as both fat and carbohydrate – and that product is sugar. Read more

Can't Lose Weight? Artificial Sweeteners May Be the Cause

Can't lose weight? Artificial sweeteners may be the cause, says David Brownstein, MD, especially toxic sucralose.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener found in many low-calorie, sugar-free products. Unfortunately, it has become a staple in our food supply. It is 600x as sweet as table sugar and over three times sweeter than aspartame (i.e., NutraSweet). I would venture a guess that a product that is 600x sweeter than table sugar is not be a healthy item for the human body.

Sucralose contains three chlorine atoms in its structure. Heating sucralose can create a chemical reaction with the chlorine atoms where they are transformed into a toxic product.

A recent study (Env. Sci. Techn. 2011; Aug 31.PMID:21879743) reported that water treatment plants were unable to fully remove sucralose from the finished drinking water. The researchers studied 19 U.S. water treatment plants serving more than 28 million people. The scientists reported that sucralose was found in the finished drinking water in 13 of 19 sites. What this means is that the water treatment plants were unable to remove sucralose from the end product coming out of your tap. Read more