diet soda and "taste-conditioning Process"

[paulawylma]

I'll reading Jillian Michaels "Master Your Metabolism" and the section on diet sodas might be of interest to those who don't consider diet soda a "sweet." According to Jillian, there's now a theory that when we are young our bodies learn that things that taste sweet have lots of calories. So when we switch to diet sodas our bodies get confused for awhile and then changes to things that taste sweet have no calories. This means that when you eat a sweet that does have a lot of calories your body isn't prepared and is forced to store those calories as fat. Ths effect is stronger among children who are given diet soda, because their bodies never learn that sweets have calories. This process is called the taste-conditioning process.

If this is true, then we can expect no S people who don't drink diet sodas to have an easier time than no S peole who do.

Any thoughts, disagreements . . .or agreements?

[BrightAngel]

I'm reading Jillian Michaels "Master Your Metabolism"
Any thoughts, disagreements . . .or agreements?

Re: Jillian Michaels' expertise on ANYTHING!!!
Don't get me started.

[sophiasapientia]

If this is true, then we can expect no S people who don't drink diet sodas to have an easier time than no S peole who do.

Any thoughts, disagreements . . .or agreements?

**Shrugs**



I drink diet sodas/beverages on a semi-regular basis and don't particularly feel that No S has been a struggle. Is it the best choice? No. Has it hindered my progress? No.

[Strawberry Roan]

I used to drink probably two diet Dr Peppers a day, one at work and one at night - started back on NO S on July 6th, haven't had a soda since. I just feel better, less puffy if you will.

My theory is, it just can't help my body to drink a diet soda. Whether it harms is still open for debate it seems.



As a side note, I realized when I wasn't dragging home 12 packs of soda from the store last weekend that I probably save at least thirty bucks a month, based on a very very conservative estimate of fifty cents per soda (we are lucky to still get those at the courthouse where I work).

More money for fresh fruits and veggies.

[wosnes]

I've read that the use of artificial sweeteners confuse our bodies -- they expect calories that don't come, and then we end up eating more. But as for to the body storing those sweet calories as fat -- it simply isn't so.

This is from Dr. John McDougall. I don't agree with his eating plan at all, but he's very knowledgeable.

The Human Body Does Not Turn Sugar to Fat

The process of synthesizing fat from sugar is known as de novo lipogenesis—the new production of fat. This activity is highly efficient in some animals, such as pigs and cows—which is one reason they have become popular people foods—these animals can convert low-energy, inexpensive carbohydrates—grass, say, in the case of cows and grains for pigs—into calorie-dense fats.5 However, human beings are very inefficient at this process and as a result de novo lipogenesis does not occur under usual living conditions in people. Thus the common belief that sugar turns to fat is scientifically incorrect—and there is no disagreement about this fact among scientists or their scientific research.

Under experimental laboratory conditions, however, where people are overfed large amounts of simple sugars, the human body will resort to converting a small amount of sugar into a small amount of fat (triglycerides) in the liver. For example, in one recent study, trim and obese women were overfed with 50% more calories than they usually ate—note, 535 of these extra calories each day came from four and a half ounces (135 grams) of refined sugar. In this forced-fed situation, the women produced less than 4 grams (36 calories) of fat daily from the extra carbohydrate.8 Extrapolation from these findings means a person would have to be overfed by this amount of food and table sugar every day for nearly 4 months in order to gain one extra pound of body fat from the conversion of sugar to fat—by de novo lipogenesis. Obviously, even overeating substantial quantities of sugar is a relatively unimportant source of body fat. (So where does all that fat come from?—the fat you eat is the fat you wear.)

From Dr. McDougall's newsletter.

From ScienceBlog

Although rates of de novo lipogenesis in the carbohydrate-enriched energy-balanced control diet were significantly greater in the obese than in the lean women, the absolute quantities of fat synthesized from carbohydrate via de novo lipogenesis during both phases of the study were relatively small. An editorial by Hellerstein points out that de novo lipogenesis is a “path of last resort†in the body’s overall carbohydrate metabolism.

So while it's possible for calories from sugar to be turned into fat, it's highly improbable.

[Tiggycat]

I very seldom drink soda - if I'm going to take in 150 calories of sugar I'd rather do it in the form of a donut!

I can't drink diet soda - I'm one of those who gets headaches from aspartame, even the amount in chewing gum, and drinks sweetened with Splenda are rare here (usually in flavours that don't appeal to me, and a lot of the time it tastes too sweet even for my sweet tooth).

So I've pretty much gotten away from soda altogether - I had a Coke about a year ago because it was delivered with an office lunch, and I wondered why I used to like it so much when I was younger.

I might have a flavoured water with Splenda once in two or three weeks, but usually if I want something flavoured I like Perrier's lemon or lime flavours (no sweetener or calories in them) - they have a new one that tastes like pink grapefruit that I enjoy.

[Murphysraven]

I do drink a fair amount of diet soda. I don't feel it has effected my craving for sweets. But I do think drinking soda, especially if it's caffienated, will dehydrate you. A lot of people mistake hunger for thirst.

When I'm feeling hungry in between meals I try to drink a big glass of water and most of the time my hunger goes away.