I have heard before that diet drinks can actually cause weight gain, but I have always assumed that this was because people deceive themselves into thinking that somehow, because they are drinking diet, they don’t have to watch what else they put into their mouths.

But I heard something today about the drinks themselves encouraging weight gain.

Is this factual? Is there some chemical characteristic about diet drinks (Pepsi Max, for example), that encourages weight/fat gain?

There is a lot of bullshit written about diet drinks, with little if any science to back it up. I have not seen any reputable evidence that they cause problems.

Person drinks diet drink
Tongue detects sweet taste, sends message to brain – SUGAR IS COMING
Brain send message to pancreas – SUGAR IS COMING
Pancreas produce insulin to counteract expected sugar rush.
Expected sugar never arrives.
Brain gets confused.
Brain craves sugar.
Person buys King Size Mars bar and full pack of Jaffa cakes and scoffs the lot.
Person gets fat.

QED

Please note: None if this is actual science or anything. Just feels true to me.

Also, the Islets of Langerhans sound like a lovely holiday destination.

IMO you are better off drinking the natural full fat version.

Dentist said diet versions just as bad for teeth, artificial sugar stuff is very bad for you and they don’t taste great either

Google “do diet drinks make you fat?” and you’ll get hundreds of results linked to various studies. I think the hard part is separating correlation from causation as diet drinks tend to be drunk by fatter people. It is frequently cited that diet drinks makes you hungry as the body still wants that sugar it thinks your giving it.

Basically what percy said:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938498002807

Person drinks diet drink
Tongue detects sweet taste, sends message to brain – SUGAR IS COMING
Brain send message to pancreas – SUGAR IS COMING
Pancreas produce insulin to counteract expected sugar rush.
Expected sugar never arrives.
Brain gets confused.
Brain craves sugar.
Person buys King Size Mars bar and full pack of Jaffa cakes and scoffs the lot.
Person gets fat.

My wife, who’s a nurse (a practice nurse who, among other things, runs fatty clinics) says this ^

Basically what percy said:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938498002807

This study was designed to assess the effect of drinks containing either sucrose or high-intensity sweeteners on food intake following exercise.

My completely scientific survey tells me that diet drinks are mainly drunk by overweight folk, while slimsters take the full sugar

Just sayin’

My take on it is that some people think that drinking diet drinks somehow gives them the green light to go on to eat fatty foods because they have had a drink to make them thin.

Ie, these silly people who get a Double Whopper Big Mac Max with Bacon & Cheese then wash the 1,500 calories down with a diet drink….

I am fairly slim myself, but have struggled for the last 9 months to shed the last 5 kilos I desperately want to shed.

I tend to drink diet drinks when I am trying to lose weight in order to allow myself a ‘treat’ while I deprive myself of other stuff. I find that, especially when I am trying to watch caloric intake, diet drinks can be psychologically helpful.

But now I’m not so sure…

There is a lot of bullshit written about diet drinks, with little if any science to back it up. I have not seen any reputable evidence that they cause problems.

+1.

artificial sugar stuff is very bad for you

Tommyrot.

Do Artificial Sweeteners Raise Insulin Levels?

Studies on artificial sweeteners and insulin levels have shown mixed results.

The effects also vary between different types of artificial sweeteners.
Sucralose Both animal and human studies have suggested a link between sucralose ingestion and raised insulin levels.

In one study, 17 people were given either sucralose or water and then administered a glucose tolerance test (9).

Those given sucralose had 20% higher blood insulin levels. They also cleared the insulin from their bodies more slowly.

However, results are mixed and other human studies have shown no effect (10).
Aspartame Aspartame is perhaps the most well-known and most controversial artificial sweetener.

However, studies have not linked aspartame with raised insulin levels (11, 12).

Saccharin Scientists have investigated whether stimulating the sweet receptors in the mouth with saccharin leads to an increase in insulin levels.

Results are mixed.

One study found that mouth washing with a saccharin solution (without swallowing) caused insulin levels to rise (13).

Other studies have found no effects (14, 15).
Acesulfame Potassium Acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K) can increase insulin levels in rats ( 16, 17).

One study in rats looked at how injecting large amounts of acesulfame-K affected insulin levels. They found a massive increase of 114-210% (16).

However, the effect of acesulfame-K on insulin levels in humans is unknown.
Summary The effect of artificial sweeteners on insulin levels seems to be variable, and the results are inconclusive. It may also depend on the individual.

For now, no high-quality human trials exist, so we don’t definitively know their effects on insulin.

http://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-blood-sugar-insulin

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it might be different combinations of all of the above to lesser or greater degrees for individuals depending on their individual circumstances.

johndoh – Member

My take on it is that some people think that drinking diet drinks somehow gives them the green light to go on to eat fatty foods because they have had a drink to make them thin.

Or just as likely (probably way more likely) is that they have a diet that regularly consists of diet, or low fat options. Ie they are eating “low fat” foods that are crammed with sugar so they are on a constant blood sugar roller coaster when what they really need is to eliminate sugar completely and get plenty of healthy fats into them.

Slimline Tonic = more pudding.

I heard that if you put Diet Coke down the toilet, it’ll actually rot the porcelain, turn your turds into a faecal monster, and your children will adopt some terrible cult following they don’t want.
I saw it on a vegan you tube channel.
Fact.

DrP

I heard that if you put Diet Coke down the toilet

…you’re just cutting out the middle man. It tastes like piss.

I saw it on a vegan you tube channel.

Pffft what do vegans know? I’m all about the Breatharian lifestyle these days. All food is murder. 😆

For what it is worth, my missus drinks a LOT of Diet Coke and she has a great body.

I just prefer the taste of the diet alternatives. Normal sugary ones are just too sickly.

I also have a great body.

Under the porch.

Dentist said diet versions just as bad for teeth,

I really doubt this, if so I would add him to the list of health professionals to avoid which include the doctor who supposedly said vaping is just as bad as smoking.

They are more acidic, to counteract the lack of sugar. So that might be true.

But it might not. Lots of hysteria on the internet about this.

To the OP I would suggest cutting them out and seeing what changes.

I wish diet drinks did increase insulin production, that way I wouldn’t have to inject it 5-6 times a day…

I put away 2-3 litres a day of diet pop, and my 6foot, 11.5 stone stature suggests it doesn’t have that big an effect on weight gain.

Ie, these silly people who get a Double Whopper Big Mac Max with Bacon & Cheese then wash the 1,500 calories down with a diet drink….

I resemble this remark.

I just prefer the taste of the diet alternatives. Normal sugary ones are just too sickly.

I think a big part of this is, it’s what you’re used to. I used to hate sugar-free drinks, they just tasted wrong. I made the switch from full-fat to unleaded and after a couple of weeks they tasted normal and the sugar versions tasted wrong.

Could be. I don’t have a sweet tooth anyway- never have.

artificial sugar stuff is very bad for you

Tommyrot.[/quote]

or tummy-rot?

I put away 2-3 litres a day of diet pop, and my 6foot, 11.5 stone stature suggests it doesn’t have that big an effect on weight gain.

It might increase insulin in people with a working pancreas though..?

Or kick the broken one back to life? That’s what I’m aiming for.

I really doubt this, if so I would add him to the list of health professionals to avoid which include the doctor who supposedly said vaping is just as bad as smoking.

I’m fully expecting aggressive new cancers to emerge within the next couple of decades due to vaping.

Fatties at the local Maccy D’s all seem to drink Large Diet Cokes so there must be some truth in it 😉

Aspartame is the excrement of GM bacteria – E-Coli
Diet drinks are literally crap .

Aspartame is the excrement of GM bacteria – E-Coli

you sure?

Aspartame is a methyl ester of the dipeptide of the natural amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine. Under strongly acidic or alkaline conditions, aspartame may generate methanol by hydrolysis. Under more severe conditions, the peptide bonds are also hydrolyzed, resulting in free amino acids.[60]

While known aspects of synthesis are covered by patents, many details are proprietary.[13] Two approaches to synthesis are used commercially. In the chemical synthesis, the two carboxyl groups of aspartic acid are joined into an anhydride, and the amino group is protected by converting it to a functional group[clarification needed] that will not interfere in the next reaction. Phenylalanine is converted to its methyl ester and combined with the N-protected aspartic anhydride; then the protecting group is removed from aspartic nitrogen by acid hydrolysis. The drawback of this technique is that a byproduct, the bitter-tasting ?-form, is produced when the wrong carboxyl group from aspartic acid links to phenylalanine. A process using an enzyme from Bacillus thermoproteolyticus to catalyze the condensation of the chemically altered amino acids will produce high yields without the ?-form byproduct. A variant of this method, which has not been used commercially, uses unmodified aspartic acid, but produces low yields. Methods for directly producing aspartyl-phenylalanine by enzymatic means, followed by chemical methylation, have also been tried, but not scaled for industrial production

Aspartame is the excrement of GM bacteria – E-Coli
Diet drinks are literally crap .

And beer is yeast crap. I still drink it.

I’m fully expecting aggressive new cancers to emerge within the next couple of decades due to vaping.

You must also still be waiting for all the new types of brain cancer caused by people using mobile phones that were predicted 20 years ago .

That’s the stuff in probiotic yoghurts.

What the Perching One said!