Its not nice to fool mother nature.

WASHINGTON — Want to lose weight" It might help to pour that diet soda down the drain. Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their intake and body weight. The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Psychologists at Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn’t make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.

Appetite regulatory mechanisms in the body might get confused by the taste of sweetness followed by a lack of blood sugar rise and perhaps the mechanisms respond by upping appetite?

Artificial sweeteners in diet soda might be behind the results from a recent paper in Circulation which found diet soda as amount the dietary factors associated with a higher incidence metabolic syndrome (which includes higher weight, higher blood pressure, and higher blood sugar).

• When further adjustment was made for intake of meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, refined grains, and whole grains, analysis of individual food groups revealed that foods adversely associated with incident metabolic syndrome were meat (P for trend < .001), fried foods (P for trend = .02), and diet soda (P for trend < .001).
• Compared with individuals in the lowest quintile of meat consumption, those in the highest quintile of meat consumption were at 26% greater risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.
• Intake of hamburger, hot dogs, and processed meat seemed to promote the adverse association between meat and incident metabolic syndrome.
• Compared with individuals in the lowest tertile of fried food intake, those in the highest tertile of intake were at 25% greater risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.
• Compared with individuals in the lowest tertile of diet soda intake, those in the highest tertile of intake were at 34% greater risk for the metabolic syndrome.

But a causal link between diet soda consumption and obesity is not proven.

“This is interesting,” said Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the paper, which was posted online in the journal Circulation on Jan. 22. “Why is it happening? Is it some kind of chemical in the diet soda, or something about the behavior of diet soda drinkers?”