Diet Soda Beats Water for Weight Loss, Industry-Funded Study Finds

Ugh, I hate it when stories talk about studies and then don't link to them. Link to study:

http://consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/oby20737...

Eh. The difference in weight loss was 1-2 kg over 12 weeks. That's incredibly negligible. Moreover, while they monitored for exercise adherence, they didn't measure dietary adherence at all; they didn't measure adherence to "study drug" (were the people even drinking the recommended quantity of diet sodas / water?); while they did take the diuretic effects of soda into account, they didn't have a caffeine control which is an obvious potential contributor; and it sounds like people may have been allowed to drink diet tea which could introduce other confounding variables.

Most importantly, this is a link bait title for an observational study. At best all you can say here is that drinking 24 ounces of diet soda per day during a weight loss routine is correlated with slightly more weight loss, not that nutrasweet / diet soda induces weight loss as the title implies.

It may be that people who drink diet soda consider it a treat, so they doesn't indulge in other fattening treats. The people who drink plain water might succumb more easily to temptation.

But we don't know it this is the case, because the people who did the study probably just run to publish it the minute they got the results.

Not quite on topic, but back in 2004, I switched from sugar soda to diet soda and lost 40 lbs. I didn't make any other changes at the time, and I did and do continue to drink a lot of soda. So the idea that some people have that diet soda cannot aid in weight loss is silly. Next time you see a fat person at the store with 4 12 packs of sugared Mountain Dew, imagine them 40 lbs lighter with 4 12 packs of diet Dr Pepper. That was me.

The study was funded by The American Beverage Association so I'd assume it was a bit like having a hammer and looking for nails

Does anyone have an actual link to the study? I love a good ad-hominem as much as the next guy, but being able to read the actual thing might be useful. As far as I can tell, every single link on livescience.com leads to livescience.com, which is hardly enlightening...

I can see how this might work. For example on a 'slow carb diet' a can of diet soda per day is permitted. It has no sugar and people may consider it a treat - i.e. it's better to have that and stave off cravings than to have a chocolate bar.

I don't think this is news or worth even discussing if it isn't a proper peer reviewed neutral study. Rather this is more a PR exercise.

Would be interesting to read the original paper, but it does makes some logical sense that consuming laxatives would result in some water loss, and therefore weight loss. (Some artificial sweeteners are laxatives). Unfortunately it would not be the kind of weight loss most people are looking to achieve.

It's only a matter of time: Brawndo, it's what plants crave.

http://www.avclub.com/article/emidiocracyems-brawndo-is-now-...

diet teas – AKA laxatives.

headline should read "diet soda + laxatives" beats water for weight loss

You've got to be kidding me...

Probably the study was done on hamplanets who's body has changed to process diet-soda/mayo like water.