Diet Soda beats water for Fat Loss- new 52 week study

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Artificial sweeteners have a bad rep, but is their notoriety grounded in science? A new year-long study with 262 participants compared consuming at least 2 glasses of water a day VS at least 2 glasses of diet soda a day. All participants were put on a 3-month weight loss program followed by 9 months of weight maintenance. Other than the water vs soda, their programs were identical.

The diet soda group lost significantly more weight. There were no any negative effects on their appetite or their bloodwork, including a wide panel of cardiometabolic health tests.

Worth noting is that the study was funded by the American Beverage Association, but they were not involved with the actual research. Moreover, the study data were audited by a third-party organisation (Biofortis) at the clinical site to validate their accuracy and integrity.

Most prior studies found water and diet sodas have the same effects on fat loss. In this study too, in a small subset of the participants who had DXA scans done, the difference between groups in fat loss was not statistically significant, although the soda group lost 1 kg more fat. While the effect isn't huge, this is not the first study to find an advantage in favor of low-calorie sweeteners.

The mechanism of the greater fat loss in these studies is almost certainly unrelated to any metabolic effects concerning energy expenditure. Rather, sweeteners can promote diet adherence by satisfying your sweet tooth without all the calories that otherwise often come with this. If sweeteners help you lose fat, which is incredibly healthy, they may even be net healthy for you.

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