If you have been banded you know that drinking carbonated beverages is a big no no.
And it never seems to fail that I still talk to patients that are convinced that drinking diet soda is not a problem, because nothing happens. The sky did not open up and the walls did not come down around them. I respond with “that first cigarette does not kill you either” But some need more convincing. So if losing your band is not enough incentive to drop your bubbly habit, how about if you found out that for each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, increased a person’s risk of obesity went up 41%.
Are you sure it is really worth it?
Diet drinks and obesity
In 2005, Sharon Fowler and her colleagues from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio presented eight years of research data that explored the link between obesity risk and soft drinks. According to the WebMD summary of the study:
Fowler’s team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.
For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
26% for up to 1/2 can each day
30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person’s risk of obesity went up 41%.
