4 ms·

Do people get fat because they drink diet soda or do they drink diet soda because they’re fat? (Or both)

by jmull 5y ago

Eelongate 5y ago
I'd guess both, and my guess is part of the problem is fat people who think diet soda is an alternative to actually dieting. Which seems like the sort of risk compensation the article is talking about. I tend to consider reality TV to be fake, but I think people like this really do exist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU > "Our mom told us when we were younger, if we ate a sugar you drink a diet coke afterwards and it will cancel out the sugar" > Do you believe that to be true? > "I did when I was a kid."
- addicted 5y ago
  There are studies done about this. People who drink diet soda gain no more weight than people who drink regular soda. It is true, however, that people who drink diet soda or regular soda gain more weight than those who don’t drink soda at all. Turns out diet soda does not make things better from a weight loss perspective, but it doesn’t make thing a worse either, which negates risk compensation as a theory.
- jmull 5y ago
  > and my guess is part of the problem is fat people who think diet soda is an alternative to actually dieting Reality TV is essentially fake. Even the real parts, since by its nature it focuses on the strange, absurd, bizarre and unusual. It's not that these things don't exist, but if they were common, normal, or usual, they wouldn't be featured on reality TV. The reasoning should be like this: "I found support for the idea that fat people think diet soda is a good alternative to dieting on reality TV, so this idea is probably uncommon, unusual and strange."
neogodless 5y ago
This seems like a case where things can be correlated without being causal. In other words, you can choose to drink soda, and make other decisions that lead to obesity - the cause of both might be the same. (You might be hinting at that by saying they "drink soda because they are overweight" but I'd suggest that's inaccurate. As in, being overweight doesn't cause soda consumption!)
kleer001 5y ago
It's complicated and relatively understudied in depth over the long term in humans: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7817779/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7817779/

Do people get fat because they drink diet soda or do they drink diet soda because they’re fat? (Or both)

by jmull 5y ago

Do people get fat because they drink diet soda or do they drink diet soda because they’re fat? (Or both)

I'd guess both, and my guess is part of the problem is fat people who think diet soda is an alternative to actually dieting. Which seems like the sort of risk compensation the article is talking about. I tend to consider reality TV to be fake, but I think people like this really do exist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU > "Our mom told us when we were younger, if we ate a sugar you drink a diet coke afterwards and it will cancel out the sugar" > Do you believe that to be true? > "I did when I was a kid."

addicted 5y ago
There are studies done about this. People who drink diet soda gain no more weight than people who drink regular soda. It is true, however, that people who drink diet soda or regular soda gain more weight than those who don’t drink soda at all. Turns out diet soda does not make things better from a weight loss perspective, but it doesn’t make thing a worse either, which negates risk compensation as a theory.
jmull 5y ago
> and my guess is part of the problem is fat people who think diet soda is an alternative to actually dieting Reality TV is essentially fake. Even the real parts, since by its nature it focuses on the strange, absurd, bizarre and unusual. It's not that these things don't exist, but if they were common, normal, or usual, they wouldn't be featured on reality TV. The reasoning should be like this: "I found support for the idea that fat people think diet soda is a good alternative to dieting on reality TV, so this idea is probably uncommon, unusual and strange."

neogodless 5y ago

This seems like a case where things can be correlated without being causal. In other words, you can choose to drink soda, and make other decisions that lead to obesity - the cause of both might be the same. (You might be hinting at that by saying they "drink soda because they are overweight" but I'd suggest that's inaccurate. As in, being overweight doesn't cause soda consumption!)

kleer001 5y ago

It's complicated and relatively understudied in depth over the long term in humans: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7817779/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7817779/