Interesting article for the health minded person.

Thoughts?

http://www.nature.com/news/sugar-substitutes-linked-to-obesity-1.15938

"Sugar substitutes such as saccharin might aggravate these metabolic disorders by acting on bacteria in the human gut, according to a study published by Nature this week (J. Suez et al. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13793; 2014). Smaller studies have previously purported to show an association between the use of artificial sweeteners and the occurrence of metabolic disorders. This is the first work to suggest that sweeteners might be exacerbating metabolic disease, and that this might happen through the gut microbiome, the diverse community of bacteria in the human intestines. “It’s counter-intuitive — no one expected it because it never occurred to them to look,” says Martin Blaser, a microbiologist at New York University."................................

"fed mice various sweeteners — saccharin, sucralose and aspartame — and found that after 11 weeks, the animals displayed glucose intolerance, a marker of propensity for metabolic disorders.".......................

"So his team recruited seven lean and healthy volunteers, who did not normally use artificial sweeteners, for a small prospective study. The recruits consumed the maximum acceptable daily dose of artificial sweeteners for a week. Four became glucose intolerant, and their gut microbiomes shifted towards a balance already known to be associated with susceptibility to metabolic diseases, but the other three seemed to be resistant to saccharin’s effects. “This underlines the importance of personalized nutrition — not everyone is the same,” says Elinav."

I agree with that statement.  

I know a lot of obese people who eat cookies and doughnuts while sitting on their butts all day, and then cite studies like this blaming their physical condition on diet soda.

I have consumed 1-2 diet sodas daily for over a decade, and have no such ill effect.  I also don't eat cookies and doughnuts.

SCIENCE!

 

That's what I always say. A diet soda may not be better than water or something, but it is better than the 140 calories, 39g of sugar, and 39g of carbs in a regular soda. If you MUST drink sodas, it is certainly a better option