(KRON) — People usually drink diet soda to lose weight, but that may not be the case.
A new study shows diet drinks contain a chemical that boosts your appetite. The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity.
It looked at diet drinks with the artificial sweetener aspartame and found that people felt hungrier and ended up consuming more calories.
In experiments, researchers found that aspartame may contribute to the development of a condition called “metabolic syndrome,” which involves a cluster of symptoms, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and a large waist size.
Other studies with mice show that artificial sweeteners could be causing people to absorb more glucose.
The mice did much better with plain old water.