The Skinny On Diet Coke

Inevitably, one of the first things dieters do when they start their journey is to switch from regular to Diet Coke or other diet sodas. This isn't as painful now as it was in years past, when the taste of saccharin (along with it's alleged cancer-causing properties) made all but the most dedicated or taste bud-deadened drinkers flee in terror. The new diet sodas, with a variety of sugar substitutes, taste pretty good and offer all the caffeine and sweet "kick" of their sugar-laden counterparts.

However, the human ability to rationalize creates a problem for many in the switch from full sugar to diet soda: calorie replacement.

It's become one of the favorite chuckling points of fast food workers everywhere: the overweight person who orders the Super Giant Bacon Cheeseburger with extra mayo and a large order of fries ... and a Diet Coke. The real problem is, while this is a fairly outlandish example, it describes something that many dieters do, something of which they may not even be conscious. One of the most common ways it happens is the "upsizing" of meal combos. Dieters will focus on the larger diet soda, and conveniently ignore the fact that they may be doubling or even tripling the calorie, fat and sodium intake from the larger order of fries.

There is also some evidence to indicate that the consumption of diet soda triggers an insulin spike, which inhibits fat burning while the body searches for sugar that's not to be found in the bloodstream. According to some studies, the body will consume amino acids and carbohydrates as fuel, rather than fat, during a spike.

Another issue with diet drink consumption is the body's own native intelligence. On some level, your body knows that while you're getting the sweet taste of the soda, you're not actually getting any sugar calories. In a study of lab rats, those given artificial sweeteners craved sweets more than those fed real sugar. This is yet another way in which our bodies will compensate for any efforts to outsmart them. While not everyone is susceptible to the problem, if you are using Diet Coke or other diet sodas as a substitute in your diet, you'd do well to make sure you are not replacing those sugar calories from another source.

All Article Text on this site is copyrighted© 2006-2007 weightcontrolroom.com All rights reserved. Do not copy.
The info on this site is for informational purposes only and not medical info in any way, see disclaimer.