Interesting ....do the Zero Calorie foolds make you fat?

"Are "zero calorie" foods making you fat?"

That question might seem like a no-brainer. Eating calorie-free foods rather than foods that contain calories has to be helpful in keeping your weight under control. Right?

Maybe not. Let's investigate that question by looking at calorie-free soft drinks. What does the evidence actually show?

Between the years 1987 and 2000 the number of people drinking calorie free soft drinks in this country increased from 70 million to 160 million.

During that same period of time:

- the percentage of adults who were overweight increased from 52% to 66%.

- the percentage of adults who were obese (obese is defined as a BMI greater than 30) increased from 20% to 32%

- the percentage of children who were obese increased from 10% to 17%.

Something clearly isn't working. "Why is that?" you might ask.

The answer is that we are using these calorie-free soft drinks to wash down Big Macs plus fries, Mrs.
Fields' super-size brownies and Starbucks' chocolate chip muffins.

Is that just coincidence or is something else going on here?

To answer that question we might want to consider a recent study that looked at the effect of soft drink consumption on obesity and the health consequences associated with obesity.

That study followed 6039 participants in the Framingham Heart study for four years (Dhingra et al, Circulation,
116: 480-488, 2007). All of the participants were free of metabolic syndrome, a medical condition associated with obesity that greatly increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease, at the beginning of the study.

As they had expected the scientists found that those subjects who consumed one or more sugar-containing soft drinks a day were 48% more likely to develop obesity and metabolic syndrome than subjects who consumed water or other natural beverages that were low in sugar.

But the scientists were astounded to find that subjects who consumed one or more diet soft drinks a day were just as likely to develop obesity and metabolic syndrome as subjects who consumed regular soft drinks!

This could not be explained by differences in their diet or exercise levels. Simple put the food choices of the all three groups were equally bad and they exercised to about the same extent - which wasn't very much.

The authors were at a loss to explain their results.

- Some experts think that the effects are all psychological. The theory is that we think we are being virtuous by drinking zero calorie soft drinks, so we give ourselves permission to eat more high fat, high calorie foods.

- Other experts think that the effects are chemical.
The theory is that the high sweetness of both diet and regular soft drinks causes the brain to release chemicals that make us crave other sweet foods - so we eat more.

Even though the mechanism of the effect is unclear, the results are crystal clear. The authors of the study concluded "In middle-aged adults, soft-drink consumption [both diet and regular] is associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and increased incidence of multiple metabolic risk factors [for diabetes and heart disease]".

So the next time you reach for that "zero calorie" soft drink or the packets of "zero calorie" sweeteners to add to your coffee or tea, just be aware that there is no evidence that they are useful in helping you control your weight.

And there is some evidence that they may even be making your weight control problems worse by encouraging you to eat high calorie foods to go along with them.

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Consumer group urges bisphenol A and phthalate phase out