A study that will be published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that diet soda does not help you save as many calories as you are led to believe. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois.
The study included 22,000 adults in the US. Researchers noted down details of the dietary habits of the participants. Results showed that those who drink diet sodas invariably end up making up for the absence of calories, more often by consuming foods that are high in sugar, sodium, fat and cholesterol.
One of the researchers made up a list of discretionary foods. The list comprising of 661 items and was compiled using a database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These items do not belong to major food groups; they add variety to the diet but are not really needed by the body. The foods are poor in nutrition and rich in energy - foods like cookies, ice cream, chocolate, fries and pastries.
During the study, it was found that more than 90% of the participants ate some of these discretionary foods on a daily basis. `Switching to diet drinks may not help people control their weight if they don`t pay attention to the quantity and quality of the foods they consume. We recommend that people carefully document their caloric intake from both beverages and discretionary foods because both of these add calories - and possibly weight - to the body. We also recommend that public health interventions take a holistic approach, encouraging people to assess their beverage consumption in the context of their overall dietary behavior`, said the researcher.