Study: Diet Beverage Drinkers Compensate with Unhealthy Food
Those who consume diet beverages could compensate for the saved calories through consuming food packed with sodium, fat, cholesterol, and sugar, according to a recent study.
While past research on beverage preference focused on in-between meal snacking, the new study focused instead on the nutritional quality of the food consumed, rather than when it was consumed.
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For their study, researchers examined 10 years of data recorded from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in which participants were asked to records everything they consumed over 2 consecutive days.
The investigators compared the participants’ daily calorie count, which included consumption of 5 types of beverages: sugar-sweetened (e.g., sodas and fruit drinks), coffee, alcohol, tea, and diet or sugar-free drinks.
Using a list of 661 discretionary foods that are not classified as part of any major food groups (e.g., cookies, chocolate, French fries, pastries, and ice-cream), they found that over 90% of participants consumed an average of 482 calories worth of discretionary foods a day.
Further, 97% of the participants drank at least 1 of the 5 chosen beverage types daily, 41% consumed 2 of the beverages daily, and over 25% consumed 3 or more of the beverages daily.
Coffee was the most popular beverage, consumed by 53% of the study population. Sugar-sweetened beverages followed in popularity at 43%, followed by tea (26%), alcohol (22%), and diet beverages (21%).
Overall, researchers found that while coffee and diet-beverage drinkers consumed far less calories per day than those who preferred alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages, they were more likely to obtain a greater percentage of their calories from discretionary food.
“It may be that people who consume diet beverages feel justified in eating more, so they reach for a muffin or a bag of chips,” the researchers wrote.
“We’d recommend that people carefully document their caloric intake from both beverages and discretionary foods because both of these add calories–and possibly weight–to the body,” they concluded.
The complete study is published in a future issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
Reference:
Illinois News Bureau. Diet beverage drinkers compensate by eating unhealthy food, study finds. September 11, 2015. https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/240046. Accessed September 11, 2015.