Soft drink manufacturers have been claiming for decades that diet soft drinks can help us lose weight, but a landmark paper has shown that there is zero (pun intended) evidence sugar-free fizzy drinks help at all with dropping kilos.
Even worse, they could be just as big a contributor to obesity as sugary soft drinks.
The discovery was made by a research team at Imperial College London and two universities in Brazil. Published in PLoS Medicine journal, the paper found that not only is there no evidence that sugar-free drinks aid weight loss, they may make people eat more. Because they mistakenly assume they can consume more calories after drinking a low-cal beverage.
"A common perception, which may be influenced by industry marketing, is that because "diet" drinks have no sugar they must be healthier and aid weight loss when used as a substitute for full-sugar versions. However, we found no solid evidence to support this," said Christopher Millett from Imperial's School of Public Health.
So why, then, do some studies suggest the opposite – that diet drinks are good for you? Funnily enough, because many of them are funded by soft drink manufacturers.
"The lack of solid evidence on the health effects of ASBs [artificially sweetened beverages] and the potential influence of bias from industry-funded studies should be taken seriously when discussing whether ASBs are adequate alternatives to SSBs [sugar-sweetened beverages]," said study author Maria Carolina Borges from Brazil's Federal University Pelotas.
Not surprising, the soft drink industry has fought back in response. They continue to push the message that "low-calorie sweeteners, such as those found in diet drinks, help consumers manage their weight as part of a calorie-controlled diet. At a time when we are trying to encourage people to reduce their overall calorie intake it is extremely unhelpful that products that contain no sugar, let alone calories, are demonised without evidence."
Originally published on Dec 26, 2016
