Do Diet Drinks Hinder Weight Loss and Contribute to Belly Fat?

Drinking diet drinks can lead to weight gain and other negative health consequences.

 Do diet drinks interfere with the weight loss process and add belly fat? 

If so, why? If you're trying to lose weight due to artificial sweeteners, can drinking Diet Coke during the day be bad for you?

Diet drinks are advertised as a healthy alternative to their heavy servings of sugar and calories and are especially attractive to people who want to lose weight.

However, years of research suggest that diet drinks are not the ideal waistline option for which they were made. Not only are diet drinks nutritious, but artificially sweetened low-calorie or no-calorie drinks can be harmful to your health in a number of ways.

This image source by pexels.com

For example, drinking a diet drink is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms that increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes. In particular, diet drink intake has been significantly linked to abdominal fat and high blood sugar, both symptoms of metabolic syndrome.

A study of 949 adults found that people who drank diet sodas every day had a four-fold increase in waist circumference over a 10-year period. Additionally, the amount of artificially sweetened beverages has been significantly associated with weight and obesity.

Also, drinking diet drinks can increase your risk of diseases like diabetes and harm your mental health.

There are a number of ways that drinking diet drinks can lead to weight gain and other negative health consequences. For example, concentrated artificial sweeteners in diet drinks can increase appetite and increase the habit of consuming high-calorie foods. Artificially sweetened beverages can interfere with weight management, upset the balance of bacteria in the gut, and alter blood sugar control.

Also, those who drink regular diet drinks have very low dietary quality and eat fewer fruits and vegetables than those who do not drink.

While drinking diet beverages at the same time may not significantly affect your health, it is best to reduce your intake of artificially sweetened beverages as much as possible. If you are used to consuming several diet drinks every day, begin to slowly replace them with sparkling water, either with lemon or natural lime wedges or flavored. Eating or reducing your intake of diet drinks can be challenging, but it's the best option for your overall health.

Article source healthline.com