Diet Foods Making You Fat?

It looks like people really are starting to catch on to fact that we can't fool our bodies into optimal health and body weight.In this week's Time Magazine, they feature an article Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?

This article explores a couple of studies which link low-calorie sweeteners to something they are coining "metabolic syndrome. Basically, the body gets conditioned to crave sweet things, knows that the sweet things it gets don't have any energy, so it begins to condition the body to over-consume all sweet things.
According to the article "Two years ago, scientists at the University of Texas reported in an eight-year study that for every can of diet soda that a person drank, he raised his risk of being overweight by 41%, compared to a 30% increase in drinkers of regular, sugared drinks.

Someone posted a comment on Digg about my previous Diet Coke post saying something to the effect of "isn't this already commonly-known information...why post this?" Well, my friends, if it was commonly known, we wouldn't have such a problem nationally. If it were known, my new clients wouldn't gasp when I suggest to them that, if they MUST consume soda, that they consume the regular soda.

The official response to these studies from food companies is predictable: "This study simply defies common sense," wrote Dr. Richard Adamson, scientific consultant to the American Beverage Association, in a prepared statement responding to the study. "To suggest that foods and beverages with zero calories contribute to weight gain contradicts the overwhelming body of scientific evidence that supports that they can help you reduce calories and maintain a healthy weight."

In my opinion, further studies are going to show that it goes WAY beyond conditioning. There are millions of complex chemical reactions that occur each second in our bodies to maintain our metabolism and life. What defies common sense, in my book, is to assume that we can arbitrarily put these chemicals into our food supply and presume to even GUESS the long-term effect they will have on those reactions and our metabolic system. It smacks of arrogance to me. It also seems completely inauthentic to defend said chemicals when they are clearly being linked to problems simply because your company has financial stake in it...just my opinion.

If you want a healthy, lean body, start giving your body foods it had evolved to digest and metabolize. Clean fruits, veggies, and meats. Our world is full of delicious natural foods that are there for the eating if we can start challenging the line of junk we have been fed about diet foods.

Diet Coke Nation.

So, we all know that companies are put together to make money right... but do we really really understand how far some will take it to continue to make money? I am always teaching my clients to analyze what they hear and research things that they put into their body...question everything--even what I tell them. Why? Because our food supply really is messed up and the food companies are out of control. They are, in my opinion, slowly poisoning us, making a lot of money doing so and just denying the hell out of all of it. I see it every day...and so do you if you learn to look for it. So why don't we do something about it? Because we are being fed a line of marking crap EVERY SINGLE DAY making us complacent...urging us to just trust those nice folks at the food and drug companies.

Here is why we can't trust, why we have to wake up:
Most people, but particularly holistic practitioners have realized the dangers of Diet soda for years and years.

The artificial sweetener hikes food cravings and poisons the neurological system and kills your metabolism. The carbonation and acidity threaten bone density, and the "no-calorie" appeal makes it one of the most over-consumed junk foods in history.

Finally, even the main-stream news shows are unable to ignore the threat of this "food".

A recent ABC news report tells of some of the dangers of diet soda. You can watch the clip at:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/237/popup/index.php?cl=3577574
The report tells us that companies sell over $21 billion/year on Diet Sodas! Yes, Billion!
When asked to comment on recent studies pointing to the danger of over-consuming diet sodas (now, mind you, I would rather my clients drink regular soda than ANY diet soda so the newscast is cutting a break by adding the term "over-consumption" to the question), Coca Cola sent an official respose:

"Great taste. No Calories.
Wholesome Ingredients.
How could you drink too much."
Diana Garza
Communications Director
Coca-Cola North America

I'm sorry, I just threw up a little in my mouth. Are you kidding me? Wholesome ingredients?
So, I figure that I will post list of all of those wholesome ingredients:
High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sucrose, Water, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavors, Caffeine.
Yummmy...if only we could have a little more wholesome High-Fructose corn syrup in our America diets. What??? You say that HFCS is the NUMBER ONE ADDED INGREDIENT IN PROCESSED AMERICAN FOODS???!!! Thank god! Im feeling more wholesome already...although I certainly can see how these wholesome food ingredients might explain the ridiculous spike in adult onset diabetes amongst 6-year-olds. Perhaps we should come out with a wholesome Diet Coke baby formula...get us off to a great start from infancy!
Ok, I'm going to get off of it now and leave you with just one simple request: LEARN ABOUT YOUR BODY AND ABOUT WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT. Unfortunately, we just can't trust the companies or government to be straight with us on it...they have billions riding on us continuing to buy into their garbage.
Even after EVERYONE knows that cigarrettes kill people, are the companies even admitting to it? NO NO NO. How much proof will we have to have to make food companies admit that the things we are doing to our food is causing chronic fatigue, diabetes and cancer? Who cares? You don't need them to admit to it, you just need to know the truth and buy accordingly...then you don't have to worry about buying a load of crap because you, your family and friends will be living great, healthy lives without their processed trash.