You can still have a waistline with your Coke and a smile, a new study reports (inadvertently).
A new study in the American Journal of Clincial Nutrition (funded by Nestle Water) reports:
Replacement of caloric beverages with noncaloric beverages as a weight-loss strategy resulted in average weight losses of 2% to 2.5% [over six months].
This tiny reported weight loss is certainly within normal bodyweight fluctuation.
I am quite sure sugary drinks don’t do much to gain weight. The relation sugar per volume of water is just too low to be able to drink enough to really make a difference. If you’d drink that much fluids you’d more likely to die of swelling of the brain. However I just wanted to point out that 6 months is just too short to really say anything any which way.
This ‘study’ for sure doesn’t ‘prove’ it increases weight noticeably, in that the OP is quite right.
More likely it’s a 2% reduction in weight to reach a slightly lower plateau.
One noon I was enjoying a “sugar free” sparkling water at work after lunch. An angry, temporary employee, drug abusing, single mom living with a very abusive boyfriend confronted me. “What’s the sodium content of that?” I replied, “Don’t know, never paid any attention.” She shot back, “Well you’d better pay attention!!!” and stalked off in an angry huff.
The next day at noon she and her boyfriend were eating lunch, Ramen noodles, and this was back when the salt content was out the roof.
Well, in all honesty whilst all i am very skeptical of the Fat is Bad craze ( http://petrossa.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/the-disease-fat-does-not-exist/ ) 6 months is a bit short. If it’s 2% permanent over lifetime it’s ok, but if it’s a compounded 2% over lifetime then it really makes a difference.