Low calorie foods are a big deal in modern society as every one wants to lose weight, but not sacrifice the foods and drinks they love. Everyone is of the belief that if it is zero calories, then you can eat or drink as much of it as you like, and it is because of this belief that Coke and Pepsi released their zero calorie drinks, which still taste sweet.

No calories = no weight gain, and maybe even weight loss, right? So these tasty and sweet zero calorie drinks are great, right? Wrong.

The sweet taste of these drinks tells the brain that it should be receiving some sugar very soon. When this sugar doesn’t arrive the brain craves sugar, and tells you to get it. There are many studies showing that people will get a sugary treat (such as chocolate) about 15mins after consuming one of these zero calorie drinks.

The surprising thing is that people often don’t recall having some chocolate or a bag of crisps after these drinks, and so are unaware of the additional calories.

In short, although zero calorie drink don’t directly give you calories in your diet, they do make you crave sugar shortly after and so are unlikely to have any benefit to weight loss.

Image courtesy of qiaomeng