Parenthood makes you fatter?

Parenthood makes you fatter?

Parenthood makes you fatter?, If you think diet soft drinks will help you slim down, think again. New research suggests that diet soft drinks aren't as guilt-free as once thought and may actually contribute to weight gain.
Two new studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio suggest that diet drinks are associated with increased waist circumference and that the artificial sweeteners they contain may contribute to type 2 diabetes, Science Daily reported.

In the first study, epidemiologists examined the relationship between diet soft drink consumption and waist circumference from data of 474 participants in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA).


The participants' height, weight, waist circumference and diet soft drink intake were recorded at the beginning of the study and at three separate occasions over a decade.

Researchers found that diet soft drink consumers experienced 70 percent greater increases in waist circumference compared with non-drinkers. Those who said they consumed two or more diet soft drinks a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-drinkers.

"These results suggest that, amidst the national drive to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, policies that would promote the consumption of diet soft drinks may have unintended deleterious effects," the authors wrote. Parenthood makes you fatter?,

In a related study, researchers analysed the link between aspartame (sweetener widely used in soft drinks) consumption and fasting glucose and insulin levels in 40 diabetes-prone mice.

One group of mice were fed chow with added corn oil and aspartame, while the other group ate chow without the aspartame. After three months on the high-fat diet, the aspartame group had elevated fasting glucose levels, an indication of a diabetic or pre-diabetic condition. Parenthood makes you fatter?, parenthood fat, Social Science and Medicine, BMI 30 obese, BMI 25 to 29.9 overweight,

"These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans," senior author Dr Gabriel Fernandes said.

The research was presented recently at the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) Scientific Sessions.

Source: msn