Let's face it.No one drinks die t soda  for the taste.People drink diet soda in the hope that it will help them lose weight or at least keep them from gaining it.Yet it seems to have exactly the opposite effect, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Texas said those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had waist  size increases that were six times greater than those of people who didn't drink diet soda."What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drank, the more weight they were likely to gain," said Sharon Fowler. The study was based on data from 474 participants in a large, ongoing research project, where the participants were followed for nearly l0 years. While the findings are surprising, they also offer some explanations. Nutrition  expert, Melanie Rogers, who works with overweight patients in New York, has found that when patients are switched  from regular to diet soda, they don't lose weight at all."We weren't seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us," said Rogers. So why would diet soda cause weight gain? No one knows for sure yet, but it could be that people think they can eat more if they drink diet soda, and so over-compensate  for the missing calories( ). A related study found some sweeteners   raised blood sugar levels in some mice." Data from this and other potential studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial  sweeteners may be risky," said study researcher Helen P.Hazuda, professor at the University of Texas's school of medicine. Theymay be free of calories, but not of consequences. The new study suggests that drinking diet soda   _  .
helps people to be healthier causes people to become heavier offers people more calories makes people much thinner