Your diet soda may be making you fat.

Studies from multiple sources are discovering that diet soft drinks may not be the healthy choice that most people think they are.

Source of weight gain?

For one study, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio followed 474 diet soda drinkers for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers’ waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers. Even more shocking was their discovery that drinking two or more diet sodas a day increased waist sizes 500 percent more as compared to people who avoided the stuff entirely.
A few other reasons why diet pop may not be as good a friend as you think it is.

Greater risk for diabetes:

Drinking one diet soda a day was associated with a 36 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in a University of Minnesota study. Metabolic syndrome is a condition that includes increased waist size, and puts people at high risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

And it may not just be making you fatter, but sadder, too...

Possible link with depression:

A study presented at a the American Academy of Neurology meeting found that over the course of 10 years, people who drank more than four cups or cans of soda a day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than those who steered clear of sugary drinks. The correlation held true for both regular and diet drinks, but researchers noted that the risk appeared to be greater for those who primarily drank diet sodas.

Possible factor in strokes and heart attacks:

Just one diet soft drink a day could boost your risk of having a vascular event such as stroke, heart attack or vascular death, according to researchers from the University of Miami and Columbia University. Their study found that diet soda devotees were 43 percent more likely to have experienced a vascular event than those who drank none. 

But how?

Other studies suggest a clue: "Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but, unlike regular sugars, they don't deliver something that will squelch the appetite," says Sharon Fowler, obesity researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego.

Wikipedia weighs in:

(pun intended!)

The effectiveness of diet soda as a weight loss tool has been called into question. 

Changing the food energy intake from one food will not necessarily change a person's overall food energy intake or cause a person to lose weight. One study at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, reported by Sharon Fowler at the ADA annual meeting, actually suggested the opposite, where consumption of diet soda correlated with weight gain. While Fowler did suggest that the undelivered expected calories from diet soda may stimulate the appetite, the correlation does not prove that consumption of diet soda caused the weight gain. The ADA has yet to issue an updated policy concerning diet soda. 

In an independent study by researchers with the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, soda consumption correlated with increased incidence of metabolic syndrome. Of the 9,000 males and females studied, soda drinkers were at 48% higher risk for metabolic syndrome, which involves weight gain and elevated blood sugar. No significant difference in these findings was observed between sugary sodas and diet drinks. The researchers noted that diet soda drinkers were less likely to consume healthy foods, and that drinking diet soda flavored with artificial sweeteners more than likely increases cravings for sugar-flavored sweets.

Learn more...

Sources:

YMCA of Niagara

Daily Health Post

Wikipedia