Study Suggests Diet Soda May Lead To Belly Fat. Critics Aren't So Sure.

[eridani]

Can't figure out why no one suggested the obvious, namely that people who are genetically insulin resistand and thus prone to easy weight gain are moe likely to try to limit calories from sugar by drinking diet soda. That is to say being genetically prone to belly fat leads you to choose diet soda

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/03/17/is-there-really-a-link-between-diet-soda-and-belly-fat/

It turned out that people who drank the most diet soda (at least one drink per day) had a much steeper rise in waist circumference over the years than those who didn’t drink the stuff at all. After adjusting for other variables like smoking status, age, activity level, and waist circumference at the start of each followup interval, the results were still striking: Waist circumference increased 0.8 inches for “non-users” (that is, non-diet-soda-drinkers), 1.83 in for occasional users, and 3.16 inches for daily users.

The researchers did not adjust for calorie intake, and it’s certainly possible that this or other variables were responsible for the connection. The study was also quite small in size, and would need many more participants in followup studies before drawing any real conclusions.

But it’s possible that belly fat could explain, at least partially, the many other health risks that are linked to artificial sweeteners. Why, though, would artificial sweetener lead to a rise in belly fat in the first place?

[PSPS]

1. "The researchers did not adjust for calorie intake"

Let me guess. These "researchers" acquired their credentials from an online "university."

[Warpy]

2. i always suspect the Fanjul brothers somewhere with open wallets

whenever one of these poorly done studies linking artificial sweeteners to everything from flat feet to cancer shows up.

And so they do, with amazing regularity.

[Jester Messiah]

3. The problem isn't the diet soda...

it's the double whopper and large fries usually found in the same vicinity, which the diet soda somehow fails to magically negate.

[mopinko]

4. anybody who couldnt tell that that study was full of holes

needs to go back to the high school.

[eridani]

5. The thing is that if the subject were not fat, the study would never have been

--commented on by MSM.