ABC NEWS: Artificial Sweeteners Increase Weight Gain

October 27, 2008

Study: Artificial Sweeteners Increase Weight Gain Odds

Fake Sweeteners, Lack of Calories May Trick Brain

Calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas may gain more weight than if they drank sugary drinks because of artificial sweeteners contained in the diet sodas, according to a new study.

A new study suggests diet soda may lead to weight gain. (PhotoDisc )

A Purdue University study released Sunday in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners.

"There's something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry," said ABC News' medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard.

Though Savard said more research needs to be done to uncover more information, the study does hint at the idea that the sweeteners alter a person's metabolism.

Savard said another recent study, which included more than 18,000 people, found healthy adults who consumed at least one diet drink a day could increase their chance for weight gain.

In the Purdue study, the rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, which drove them to overeat.

"The taste buds taste sweet, but there's no calorie load that comes with it. There's a mismatch here. It seems it changes your brain chemistry in some way," Savard said. "Anything you put in your mouth, your body has a strong reaction to it. It's much more than counting calories. It seems normally with sweet foods that we rev up our metabolism."

The information may come as a surprise to the 59 percent of Americans who consume diet soft drinks, making them the the second-most-popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the nation, according to a consumer survey from the Calorie Control Council, a nonprofit association that represents the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry.

Because so many foods today contain artificial sweeteners, the study results may go beyond diet drinks.

"The truth is, we're putting artificial sweetener in so many different things in water, in yogurt," Savard said. It's unclear if the results only adhere to diet sodas, she said.

"We have to rethink what this artificial stuff does to us. If we put this in water it might not be so good," she added.

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Member Comments (90)

Long-term weight loss success, it seems to me, is at least in part about ridding yourself of that "need" for sweets. Most of us enjoy something sweet now and then, but I didn't rid myself of the "need" for sweets until I had totally given up artificial sweeteners for several months. I cut back before this article was aired on GMA, but afterwards, I totally gave them up. I had been drinking 3 to 5 diet sodas a day for years, but after a few months of total abstinence, my sweet tooth was gone. The only years of my life that I was overweight and had the need for sweets, coincidentally, were the years I drank diet pop (something I started soing after I married a Diet Coke drinker). I am convinced that the basic facts of this story are valid from my own experiences. I was thin before becoming a diet soda addict and am thin again after giving it up. I simply no longer crave sweets. Water may be "boring," but after you become a water drinker, you develop and healthy thirst for it, and it is refreshing. Cheryl DG Sept 10CDRG1060 Sep-10

Long-term weight loss success, it seems to me, is at least in part about ridding yourself of that "need" for sweets. Most of us enjoy something sweet now and then, but I didn't rid myself of the "need" for sweets until I had totally given up artificial sweeteners for several months. I cut back before this article was aired on GMA, but afterwards, I totally gave them up. I had been drinking 3 to 5 diet sodas a day for years, but after a few months of total abstinence, my sweet tooth was gone. The only years of my life that I was overweight and had the need for sweets, coincidentally, were the years I drank diet pop (something I started soing after I married a Diet Coke drinker). I am convinced that the basic facts of this story are valid from my own experiences. I was thin before becoming a diet soda addict and am thin again after giving it up. I simply no longer crave sweets. Water may be "boring," but after you become a water drinker, you develop and healthy thirst for it, and it is refreshing. Cheryl Goodell Sept 10CDRG1060 Sep-10

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