I used to pound down diet drinks. Low-calorie had to be good, right? It was an invitation to enjoy as much as I wanted, guilt-free. Diet soda was a source of caffeine, and a companion.

And this was all consistent with my identity as a cardiologist. I am very interested in the prevention of heart disease—for my patients for the public, and for myself. So while I never saw diet soda as a health drink, I felt it helped keep my weight under control.

New research, however, has raised the very real possibility that the non-sugar sweeteners that put the “diet” in diet drinks (and many low-calorie foods), may have been conspiring against me.

Rather than help me maintain a healthy weight, they may have been predisposing me to weight gain and metabolic abnormalities. This research is suggesting that drinks and foods using artificial sweeteners like aspartame may be doing exactly what we thought they should be preventing. At the very least, they do not seem to help people keep weight off... [read more]