March 21, 2006
FlyLady.net Food For Thought Column
by Leanne Ely

Dear Friends,

A lot of you know that I am pretty much a stickler when it comes to deciding what to drink. The answer is always water and plenty of it. I get asked a lot about drinks — particularly, diet drinks, sodas, juices, etc. Everyone wants to drink something else besides water, especially when it's hot outside!

Well, I understand that. I drink coffee in the morning, so it's not like I don't understand what it is to have a particular fondness for a special beverage. But when it comes to drinking something with a meal, you gotta go for water. And water in-between meals, too. Water itself is a nutrient in that it helps your body run optimally and helps you to absorb the nutrients you've taken via your food. Important stuff, H20.

A new study just came out implicating sodas in weight gain—both regular AND diet sodas! Now listen, I know sodas go on sale in supermarket all the time and I know you like them. But bear with me for minute. You have to read these statistics!

The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio ran an eight year study to study the effects of soft drink use. Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, who ran the study, had this shocking statement to say,"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity. What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."

Of the 622 participants—all of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.For the regular soft drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

*26% for up to ½ can each day
*30.4% for ½ to one can each day
*32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
*47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.

But look at the increase for diet soft-drink drinkers!

*36% for up to ½ can per day
*37.5% for ½ to one can per day
*54.5% for 1 to 2 cans per day
*57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.

For each can of diet soda consumed, a person's risk of obesity went up 41%!!! One of the theories of why the difference may have something to do with trying to fool our bodies. We give them the sweet taste of a diet drink, but no calories. Another recent study showed that baby rats when fed artificial sweeteners craved more calories than baby rats fed real sugar.

Fowler says, "If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered."

She goes on to say, "People think they can just fool the body. But maybe the body isn't fooled. If you are not giving your body those calories you promised it, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Some soft drink studies also suggest that diet drinks stimulate appetite." To that I say, "EEEEK!!!"

I don't normally do Food for Thought's with research and all that stuffed into them. But this got my attention, big time and I felt you would want this info yourself. Don't forget too, that drinking sodas blocks calcium absorption and not being able to absorb calcium in your bones is a major contributor to osteoporosis later in life!

I hope this information will help you make the wise decision to grab a water next time you're thirsty!

Love,
Leanne