Diet Beverage Drinkers compensate by Eating
Unhealthy Food, Study Finds
Want
fries with that diet soda? You aren’t alone, and you may not be “saving” as
many calories as you think by consuming diet drinks. A new study that examined
the dietary habits of more than 22,000 U.S. adults found that diet-beverage
consumers may compensate for the absence of calories in their drinks by noshing
on extra food that is loaded with sugar, sodium, fat and cholesterol.
University
of Illinois kinesiology and community
health
professor Ruopeng An
examined 10 years of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, which asked
participants to recall everything they ate or drank over the course of two
nonconsecutive days
An
compared participants’ daily calorie intakes, including their consumption of
discretionary foods and five types of beverages – diet or sugar-free drinks;
sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas and fruit drinks; coffee; tea; and
alcohol.
Using
a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture food database, An compiled a 661-item list of
discretionary foods, which includes foods that do not belong to the major food
groups and are not required by the human body but may add variety to a person’s
diet. These energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods include products such as cookies,
ice cream, chocolate, fries and pastries.
More
than 90 percent of the people in the study consumed discretionary foods daily,
averaging about 482 calories from these products each day. Although previous
research on beverage preferences and consumption of discretionary foods focused
on between-meal snacking, An chose to look at the nutritional quality of the
food participants consumed rather than when it was eaten. His paper will appear
in a future issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
·
About
97 percent of the study population consumed at least one of the five types of
beverages daily, with about 41 percent of respondents drinking beverages from
at least two of the categories. More than 25 percent of the participants
consumed three or more types of beverages daily.
·
Coffee
was participants’ beverage of choice, consumed by more than half – 53 percent –
of the population, followed by sugar-sweetened beverages (43 percent), tea (26
percent), alcohol (22 percent) and diet beverages (21 percent).
·
Alcohol
consumption was associated with the largest increase in daily calorie intake
(384 calories), followed by sugar-sweetened beverages (226 calories), coffee
(108 calories), diet beverages (69 calories) and tea (64 calories).
·
While
coffee and diet-beverage drinkers consumed fewer total calories each day than
people who preferred alcohol or sugary drinks, they obtained a greater
percentage of their daily calorie intake from discretionary foods. Associations
between beverage consumption and daily calorie intake differed substantially
across population subgroups, An found. African-Americans who consumed diet
beverages, sugary drinks and coffee, as well as Hispanics who drank alcohol,
had the highest daily calorie intakes across all of the racial and ethnic
groups.
However,
among people with the most education and highest incomes, diet beverages and
alcohol were linked with increased calorie consumption, whereas,
sugar-sweetened beverages and coffee were associated with elevated caloric
intake among people with the lowest incomes.
Obese
adults who drank diet beverages consumed more calories in discretionary foods,
as did normal-weight participants who drank sugar-sweetened beverages. In
exploring associations between beverage type and dietary quality, An found that
people who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages or coffee had the worst nutrition
profiles. Switching to diet drinks may not help people control their weight if
they don’t pay attention to the quantity and quality of the foods they consume,
An said.
More
than 90 percent of the people in the study consumed discretionary foods daily,
averaging about 482 calories from these products each day, An found. About 97
percent of the study population consumed at least one of the five types of
beverages daily, with about 41 percent of respondents drinking beverages from
at least two of the categories. More than 25 percent of the participants
consumed three or more types of beverages daily. Coffee was participants’
beverage of choice, consumed by more than half – 53 percent – of the
population, followed by sugar-sweetened beverages (43 percent), tea (26
percent), alcohol (22 percent) and diet beverages (21 percent). Alcohol
consumption was associated with the largest increase in daily calorie intake
(384 calories), followed by sugar-sweetened beverages (226 calories), coffee
(108 calories), diet beverages (69 calories) and tea (64 calories).
In
exploring associations between beverage type and dietary quality, An found that
people who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages or coffee had the worst nutrition
profiles. Switching to diet drinks may not help people control their weight if
they don’t pay attention to the quantity and quality of the foods they consume.
Source: University of Illinois
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