If You Drink Diet Soda, You're More Likely To Eat Other Junk Food, Too

Drinking diet soda may go hand in hand with indulging in extra helpings of sugar- and fat-laden foods like cookies or french fries, a new study suggests. Researchers found that on the days that the people in the study drank diet or sugar-free drinks, they consumed about 49 more calories from high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods — such as ice cream, cookies, pastries and fries — compared with the days the individuals did not drink diet beverages. Scientists call such foods discretionary foods, because the human body does not need them to function. For comparison, on the days people drank regular sugary beverages, such as regular sodas and fruit drinks, the individuals consumed about 30 extra calories from discretionary foods, the study found. "The key finding is that on the days when people drank diet beverages, they consumed a higher proportion of discretionary foods compared to on the days that they did not drink diet beverages," study author Ruopeng An, an assistant professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science.  In the study, the researchers asked 22,000 U.S. adults what they ate and drank over the course of two nonconsecutive days. More than 90 percent of the people in the study said they had consumed discretionary foods on both days. An average of 482 calories per day came from these foods. People consumed the fewest calories from discretionary foods on the days wh...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news