Is diet soda good for losing weight?
The study suggests that diet soda can help you lose weight and may have a positive effect on blood sugar levels in women living with at least type 2 diabetes. However, the study has some important limitations, experts say.
The study was not designed to determine why diet sodas are in the way of diabetes remission, but artificial sweeteners in these calorie-free drinks could play a role, says Mehdi Nasr, principal research author at D2Type Health, a digital health company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
“Diet soda can change appetite control by increasing your cravings for sweet or calorie-dense foods and impairing weight loss and glycemic control,” says Nasr.
These initial results did not include information on a wide range of variables that could affect diabetic remission, such as diabetic medication use, feeding habits, and exercise routines.
“I'm extremely skeptical of the outcome,” says Robert Cohen, a professor in the department of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, who is not involved in the new research. “I think the health risks of diet soda are exaggerated.”
Research has found statistically meaningful differences in weight loss (about 5 pounds) among people who drink water and diet soda, but this difference wasn't so great that it would result in different clinical outcomes like the higher odds of diabetes remission, says Cohen. This study should provide more baseline information, such as how close participants were tolerable to remissions at the start of the study, or whether the group was evenly matched based on weight or glucose.
Should I give up on diet soda?
Dr. Danielle Haslam, a medical instructor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Danielle Haslam, a nutritionist at Harvard Chan Chan Chan School in Boston, founded that based on previous research into the health effects of artificial sweeteners, the results are not entirely surprising.
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More research is needed to better understand how diet soda affects health, especially compared to water, Haslam says. But while this work is ongoing, it makes sense to take care and make mistakes and reduce diet sodas and artificial sweeteners, Haslam says.
Healthy Diet Soda Alternatives
The good news is that there are plenty of alternatives to diet soda.
If you don't like drinking lots of water, this is one way to get a drink that still shines without adding calories or artificial sweeteners to your diet, Cohen says.
New York City-based Samantha Heller, RD, says she was not involved in the new research.
“Water, tea, herbal tea and seltzer are all good drink options,” Heller says. She also suggests trying the following additions to your water or Seltzer Zhuzh.
Fresh fruit slices in small amounts such as orange, lemon, or strawberries such as rosemary bet verses such as basil, mint, and cucumber