Diet Drinks May Trigger Hunger Pangs And Cravings

 

The “diet” which the diet cokes, drinks, and other beverages claim to contain might turn out to be false for beverage fanatics. Although, it is true that they deliver the taste as that of a soda, along with the fizz and zero intakes of calories, now research claims that they might make people end up with increased cravings for food.

 

A health study, which was recently conducted and published in JAMA network open, infer that drinks with sucralose as a primary ingredient may trigger the appetite of the people who consume it, and the study also directs towards some clues as to why this is so.

 

Katie Page, the author of the study and an obesity specialist at the University of Southern California, says “The study discovered that males and females with higher obesity levels exhibited greater brain reward activity, especially after consuming artificial sweeteners.”

 

The study also found that after consuming drinks teeming with artificial sweeteners, the groups also recorded a downfall in the hormone that inhibits appetite and the candidates also ended up consuming more food than usual. On the contrary, people who did not consume such artificial sweetener-laden beverages did not exhibit any such activities.

 

The team measured the participating candidates’ responses to diet beverages in three ways. Firstly they relied on the functional MRI brain images of 74 candidates to record the activation of various parts of the brain, which are linked to cravings and appetite. Thereafter, they used blood samples to measure hunger driving blood sugar and metabolic hormones. Thirdly, they recorded the amount of food eaten by candidates at a buffet table, post each study session.