14 DAY TRIAL // A new investigation has recently determined that consuming only moderate amounts of carbonated drinks did not promote weight gain in overweight women. It was found that mood and carbohydrate craving were also undisturbed after the entire study period.
The investigation, entitled “Effects of sucrose drinks on macronutrient intake, body weight, and mood state in overweight women over 4 weeks,” looked at women aged between 20 and 55. All of them had a body-mass index (BMI) of 25 to 30, AlphaGalileo reports.
None of the women in the investigation knew that they were given artificially-sweetened drinks, or carbonated drinks. The research team was led by experts Marie Reid and Richard Hammersley, who are both based at the Queen Margaret University, in Edinburgh.
Interestingly, it was found that some of the women in the research group began taking in less calories from other food sources, after the researchers began administering the carbonated drinks.
The scientists developed an experiment in which they sweetened soft drinks with sucrose and aspartame, respectively. At the start of each week in the month-long study, participants took home 28 bottles (25 centiliters each), but were not aware of what sweetener had been used for their drinks.
Biometric data were also collected weekly, as were information contained in the diaries the test subjects were asked to keep. In them, the women wrote about their mood, at precise time during each day.
The results seem to indicate that, if people know they are drinking artificially-sweetened drinks, then they are very likely to expect negative results. However, if they are unaware of what they are doing, no ill side effects become visible.
“Widespread publicity about the supposed harmful effects of sugar may make such effects more likely, as believing sugar to be harmful may encourage negative emotions after eating sugary food and lead to the abstinence violation effect,” says Reid, who is a professor of applied psychology at Queen Margaret University.
“In other words, knowing that you’re drinking sugary drinks, while believing that they’re harmful, might result in the derailing of a generally healthy low-fat diet. Sugar in moderation plays a neutral role in the balanced diet, but an emotionally charged role in the psychology of food choice,” she concludes. Follow me on Twitter @TudorVieru