This question was asked in class yesterday, and I really didn't have a good answer to it. So, in my quest to be the Greatest Teacher Ever (GTE), I went looking for an answer. What I found was this, from Ryan Sager at Neuroworld:
Research suggests that artificial sweeteners — which basically fool our tongues by binding to and stimulating receptors on the taste buds...may mess up the brain’s connection between sweetness and caloric intake.Evidently, researchers have demonstrated (in rats) a positive correlation between the intake of artificial sweeteners and a tendency towards higher caloric intake, along with increased body weight and adiposity.
After all, sweetness is meant to signal to the body that it’s getting something it wants desperately: metabolic energy. If a certain amount of sweetness (the artificial sweetener) suddenly represents significantly less metabolic energy (fewer calories), the brain will want more and more sweetness as it fails to be satisfied.
I think it's like this: your brain recognizes how many calories are needed to keep you alive and active, and creates desires (cravings, hunger, etc.) that encourage you to supply those calories by eating. When you taste something sweet, your brain assumes that you're getting a certain amount of those calories. When you're tasting something that's artificially sweetened (and therefor not getting the calories) your brain readjusts and tells your body that it needs more calories...which means more cravings, more hunger, and in most cases more eating.
So, the answer to the question is no...diet pop does not make you fat by itself. But it does cause changes in your body that might make a person more likely to overeat and therefor gain weight.
I think that is very interesting. But what is the difference between diet pop and regular pop? Does diet pop make you gain wait, or does it too increase the cravings to eat more?
ReplyDeleteThis is probably a dumb question but, if diet pop is going to make you want to eat more than why not just go ahead and have a regular pop? Since neither one is really that much better than the other.
ReplyDeleteRegular pop in general is amazing in my opinion, but I can't stand diet pop...and this article makes a lot of sense if you think about it, because diet pop is artificial and your body needs the nonartificial nutrients to survive.
ReplyDeleteI don't think regular pop makes you gain weight. If you drink pop on a regular basis i think that your body will get used to the amount of calories and whatever comes from the pop, so you will kind of hit a plateau. Ultimately you should just stop drinking pop if you want to lose weight. If you absolutely can't survive without pop you should keep drinking the regular stuff and change everything else in your diet.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is just pop that makes you gain weight. There has to be other factors too, not just pop. But good article.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any either kind of pop will make you gain weight.
ReplyDeleteBy. heimy chavez
I thought diet pop was supposed to help you lose weight? Not gain weight? very good an knowlegable article.
ReplyDeleteI think that diet pop, or any other kind of pop for that matter will make you gain weight. The fact that it is diet does not really change anything. But that is really interesting to know that.
ReplyDelete