Surprise! Low Fat is Making You Fat

When you're counting calories, everything adds up. The simplest solution seems to take advantage of the sugar-free foods that are available everywhere and for any craving. But, the truth behind the Splenda isn't so sweet. Sugar-free foods are making you fat.

A body of research has found that artificial sweeteners alter the brain's connection between sweets and high-calorie food. The result is a blunted enjoyment that actually sends you into binge overdrive.

"Data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," says Purdue University psychologist, Susan Swithers PhD.

A sugar-free chocolate chip cookie tastes great, but your brain isn't fooled. Your body is well tuned to take in high-calorie foods and respond to them. Artificial sugars mess with that internal mechanism. What is sweet should be caloric, but this isn't. So, you don't feel satisfied after that one cookie and you don't feel full. And before you know it, you haven't eaten just one, you've finished the whole pack. In the end, you've had a high-calorie snack, when you could have had one, delicious, high-calorie cookie.

Defeating the purpose of weight loss is only one of the flaws of sugar substitutes. Eating low-calorie foods also impacts your health, making you more at risk for heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

As America talks about the effects of the increasing obesity rate, it's interesting to note that incline has been paralleled by a growing body of low- and no-calorie foods. It seems like finding a way to have your cake and eat it without getting fat, is like finding the fountain of youth - impossible.

But, Swithers says there is good news. Counting calories is still a great way to regulate body weight, even if it's annoying. But, at least that means you can eat a piece of cake!

Coca-Cola Blames Calories for Making us Fat

Today, everyone's favorite soda maker, Coca-Cola released their first-ever response to obesity in America. Addressing the "issue of our times," as they call it, Coca-Cola means to show that their products aren't the baddies in the war on fat. It's the calories.

"It comes down to one simple fact: all calories count, no matter where they come from, including Coca-Cola and everything else with calories," says the benign female voice over in the avert. The commercial then hails Coke's 650 beverage options that are low or no-calorie.

At a time when New York City is gearing up to ban super-sizes soft drinks, and Massachusetts sounds ready to follow suit, it only makes sense for Coke to pipe up about their product's nutrition facts. And, of course, they're absolutely right with their message. Calories do create fat. But It's not just the calories in beverages that are unhealthy, and more importantly, low- and no-calorie beverages aren't altogether better.

"Drinking sweetened beverages, especially diet drinks, is associated with an increased risk of depression," said scientists at last week's American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting. Diet soda has also been linked to increased risk of stroke and - strangely enough - higher rates of obesity.

According to Katherine Zeratsky from Mayo Clinic, "Although switching from regular soda to diet soda may save you calories in the short term, it's not yet clear if it's effective for preventing obesity and related health problems."

If we really want to decrease our beverage calories, the most obvious choice would be that staple from the sink, water. But not everyone like the 'bland' taste of tap-water, so other options like coffee, tea and skim milk would suffice.

Now, Coca-Cola doesn't sell any of those drinks, so they're obviously not going to tell you about them. Especially not when all the growth they've seen over the past 15 years has come from their low- and no-calorie line, according to the Associated Press.

But the take-home from this new ad may not need to be all about Coke. Instead, it may be more of a public service announcement. We need to remember what really drives obesity in this country, and not vilify food and drink. Obesity comes down to each of us as individuals and what we choose to put in our bodies. As Coca-Cola rightly reminds us, "If you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you gain weight."