Do light drinks make us overweight?

In the fight against excess kilos, people prefer light-drinks instead of sugary drinks. New Canadian research, however, suggests that sweeteners in low-fat drink cause overweight.

The research

Canadian researchers made an analysis of the latest research on the effect of sweeteners on our health. For this, they based on seven clinical studies (1,003 participants) and on thirty follow-up studies (405,907 participants).

Clinical studies show that sweeteners lead to a slight but not significant decrease in body weight. The follow-up studies, on the other hand, show a different result. This shows that there is a link between the use of sweeteners (in the form of light drinks) and body weight. The more light drinks, the greater the chance of overweight.

In addition, the use of light drinks also showed the possibility of increasing blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Conclusion

The apparently contradictory results between clinical studies and follow-up studies confirm that the effect of sweeteners on our body is more complex than thought first. But in interpreting the results, it should not be forgotten that clinical studies lasted on average for only six months.

This time is probably too short to show significant negative effects on body weight and the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Follow-up studies have the advantage that they run for a long time and the number of participants is larger, but often they can not show a link.

In what way, intensive sweeteners, which do not deliver energy, can have a negative effect on our body weight is not clear. Various hypotheses, such as the reasoning that sweeteners increase your urge to sweetness need further investigation.

Source: Goed Gevoel