The consumption of beverages such as Coca cola is one of the factors mainly related to adult and childhood obesity.

But even when consumers chose to switch from traditional to diet drinks, even drinking more (according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 25 percent more)  there was not the improvement in health that everyone believed in. .

Yet in diet drinks there are neither calories nor sugars: so is it possible that diet drinks make you fat? Let’s try to find out in the light of new scientific research, which has questioned the relationship between zero-calorie sweeteners and body fat.

As we will see, the answer is not obvious.

DO DIET DRINKS MAKE YOU FAT?

The simplest answer is no, as they do not provide energy.

However, some research has scientifically shown that there are types of sweeteners that promote the accumulation of body fat.

However, most studies have found a correlation between dietary drink consumption and increased weight. However, correlation is not a cause.

Among the studies that have correlated the use of dietary drinks as a fattening factor there is one, the Saint Anthony Longitudinal Study of Aging , which for example found a link between the consumption of dietary drinks and greater abdominal fat: four times greater than to those who did not consume it.

Finally, a meta -analysis collected about a thousand observational studies. While a correlation does not establish a cause, all observational studies have found a positive correlation between diet drink consumption, weight gain, and body fat gain.

STUDIES THAT IDENTIFY A CAUSE BETWEEN DIETIC DRINKS AND BODY FAT

A meta-analysis that appeared in the journal Neuroscience established that, in general, taking a sweetener has been shown to increase appetite, and therefore also zero-calorie drinks.

A study titled Sweeteners, Taste Receptors, and Gut Microbiome , which appeared in 2020 shows that sweeteners contained in diet drinks increase the concentration of GLP-1. It is a hormone secreted by the epithelial cells of the intestine that signals the body to make insulin.

This discovery, the study explains, occurred not only in mice, but also in humans.

In two human studies it was found that the intake of diet drinks changed the secretion of GLP-1 in the intestine compared to drinking water alone. In particular for isomalt .
So we have a cause-and-effect relationship.

Also in this study, two others are mentioned that are relevant.

• The first shows that sweeteners alter sweet taste receptors in humans.
• The second is that this alteration, in people with variants of the TAS2R38 gene, is linked to an increased need to eat and difficulty in getting sated.

DIETIC DRINKS, SWEETENERS AND SENTINELS OF HUNGER

A 2013 study showed, thanks to a glucose tolerance test called load curve, that compared to a control group who ingested a large dose of sucralose, had an increase in plasma glycemia and then in insulin. Here too we are talking about a fact, not a simple correlation.

In 1999, another very interesting study for the methods used showed that saccharin, another sweetener, had an effect on the subcortical taste receptors found in different areas of the brain.

These receptors “talk” with the intestinal ones, through impulses that from chemical become electrical, influencing hunger, as demonstrated by other studies.

In 2019, a study linked the consumption of simple sugars to that of zero-calorie sweeteners, finding a link between the consumption of sweeteners and a greater preference for foods high in simple sugars .

An Australian study confirmed that , by acting on the receptors, sucralose, another common sweetener, changed insulin sensitivity when associated with the consumption of carbohydrates (for example, a zero-calorie drink with pizza), worsening blood sugar.

In light of these data, we can say that the sweeteners contained in diet drinks affect blood sugar, insulin and sense of hunger.