Hacker News Reader

Comment by foota | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible to engineer healthy and addictive food?

Most likely not. The unhealthy components are addictive because they were rare in the ancestral environment, and useful, which is also the reason why they're unhealthy in large quantities.

I like to think diet pop can fit into this category... but then there's the backlash of "unnatural chemicals" which sceptics believe must obviously be bad for you.

Diet soda is not healthy. At the very best it's ideally neutral, neither unhealthy or healthy.

However, some research has been coming out lately that suggests diet soda (more specifically artificial sweeteners) may have various negative effects on health. Nothing conclusive but enough to make me avoid artificial sweeteners entirely.

The carbonation in soda is bad for your teeth and bone health, regardless of the sugar vs. non-calorie sweetener debate.

Carbonation is unimportant. You won't get bone problems from drinking carbonated water.

The phosphoric acid is the problem - the cola drinks contain a large amount.

sorbitol is a laxative, pretty sure taking a laxative every single day is not great for you

However, sorbitol isn't an artificial sweetener it's a sugar alcohol and it occurs naturally in food. When most people talk about diet soda they mean artificially sweetened carbonated beverages.

It's not a backlash, it's science. See e.g.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

While there's no conclusive proof diet soda definitely causes weight gain, there's absolutely no evidence at all that it helps with weight loss.

Sugary or not, there's no rational basis for considering sodas of any variety "healthy."

Diet soda does not cause weight gain.

Diet soda makes you hungrier, and that makes you eat more and gain weight.

Root cause vs. proximate cause. If artificial sweeteners prime the body to expect calories that it doesn't receive, and (or by some other mechanism) this causes later overeating, then it's fair to say that diet soda does cause weight gain.

As an aside, I have a hypothesis that naturally focusing on proximate vs. root causes is actually a big contributor to the divide between major segments of the population.

Control being pure water, unsweetened coffee or caffeine solution? Give me proper science.

> there's absolutely no evidence at all that it helps with weight loss

I didn't claim this. "Healthy" food is a subjective term, and to most people does not mean "something that makes you loose weight". Compared to non-diet pop, it is a healthy alternative.

If you're trying to loose weight, stick with water. If you are managing your weight fine and enjoy pop, diet is better than non-diet. The studies you linked to support this.

> the backlash of "unnatural chemicals" which sceptics (sic.) believe must obviously be bad for you.

You mean like the fact that they inhibit beneficial intestinal flora [1], or that numerous studies have found that people have a higher risk for diabetes if they drink diet soda [2], or that people gain weight when they switch to diet sofa from regular [3]?

Yeah, those wacky skeptics - they'll believe anything...

[1] http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2016-0346#....

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23364017/

[3] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

It's literally impossible to gain weight from drinking diet soda. It doesn't have food energy. It can't break thermodynamics. It can only be explained by other factors like people over compensating with other calorie consumption.

Could things such as chemical imbalance or just the chemicals themselves affect metabolism / digestion, causing weight gain?

That requires some good research to prove.

What is known is that suddenly cutting caffeine after large regular intake will cause weight gain.

On the other hand, I stopped drinking all diet sodas and just drank water / carbonated water the last year. Absolutely no difference. Didn't even notice the lack of caffeine going from 6 diet dr peppers per day down to 0.

Which means of you drank unsweetened caffeine you might lose weight.

You think? I'll be on the lookout for carbonated caffeine water.

If you switch to diet soda from regular soda because of weight issues or diabetes risk, that seems like a pretty serious self-selection bias for later weight issues or diabetes risk.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/web...

These experiments are mainly just correlational, they do not control the usage of diet sodas. So, of course, people who drink diet sodas are going to be heavier: they're the ones trying to loose weight and hence the ones who will gain the most weight! There's no reason to drink diet soda if your body doesn't have any problems with weight.

Number 1: humans are not mice, the research cited does not even suggest that mice gain weight or how large dose is required. (BTW circumventing paywalls sucks)

Number 2: major confounder is that people who eat unhealthy or are already obese drink those diet drinks. People who aren't drink normal ones. Needs interventional study not dumb epidemiology.

Number 3: see number 2.

That would change the game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com