Experts Mixed on Diet Soda, Weight Control
Mar 4, 12:48 PM (ET)
By The Associated Press
Nutrition experts who are soured on soda often take a sweeter view of diet soda, which doesn't contain the sugar calories that many of them blame for weight problems.
Barbara Rolls, an author and nutrition expert at Penn State, is among its fans.
"Diet soda gives you a tool if you use it right" to wean off sweets and reduce calorie intake, she said.
However, others think it may encourage people to feel they've "earned" more dessert because they've cut calories from beverages. Although diet soda consumption is soaring, "we haven't seen the benefit" in lower rates of obesity yet, noted Dr. Louis Aronne, a Weill-Cornell Medical School nutrition expert who is president of the Obesity Society.
Harvard pediatrician Dr. David Ludwig worries that diet soda is causing "infantilization of taste buds."
Someone stepping out of a heavy metal concert can't appreciate a bird song, he said. Similarly, "if everything has to have a very intense sweetness, might that interfere with a child's or anyone's ability to appreciate another taste?" he asks.
"Broccoli, Brussels sprouts ... they just can't compete."
Article
Linear Mode
