That Diet Coke Addiction? Yeah, its a REAL Problem

Alright, I'm not one for alarmist reactions to popular-culture health stories with buzz, but this is probably the most comprehensive diet soda study (almost 10 years) and the results are alarming. I've already been on the record that I've had "a diet coke problem" before and that I almost never drink Diet Coke now, but I do occasionally because I'm against purity pledges. I gotta say folks, I'm starting to go all AA on this issue.

The Study Found:

Measures of height, weight, waist circumference and diet soda intake were recorded at SALSA enrollment and at three follow-up exams that took place over the next decade. The average follow-up time was 9.5 years. The researchers compared long-term change in waist circumference for diet soda users versus non-users in all follow-up periods. The results were adjusted for waist circumference, diabetes status, leisure-time physical activity level, neighborhood of residence, age and smoking status at the beginning of each interval, as well as sex, ethnicity and years of education.

Diet soft drink users, as a group, experienced 70 percent greater increases in waist circumference compared with non-users. Frequent users, who said they consumed two or more diet sodas a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-users.

Also:

"These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."

Yeah, when my diet coke addiction was at its worst, I was gaining the most weight. One individual's data isn't significant, but this large-scale and comprehensive study? It has me convinced that "Diet Coke" ain't my friend. Water, iced-tea (lightly flavored with juice), coffee, juice, etc. These will hydrate and refresh you. Put down the can!

Workin' Harder For Your Money

Surprise surprise, overweight women make less money than "average" sized women and significantly less than slender women...what about the mens? Slightly overweight men make MORE than "average" sized men. What's the solution? Shape up fatties! Yes, the researchers recommended that discriminated people seek to normalize their weight rather than we have to deal with bias and discrimination on a cultural level.

"That study found that compared to average weight women, those who weighed 25 pounds less made about $15,572 more, and women who weighed 25 pounds more made $13,847 less." That is a, pardon the pun, HUGE difference in pay and I'm feeling kinda ragey about (and poor!!!). Here's the Jezebel take down and HERE is the original study.

Its an international study and the US actually comes in 31st (with Iceland the least discriminatory), so anti-fat bias specifically against women was found to be present in all 134 countries studied. So, that's bad, but what's worse is the incredibly condescending "shape up fatties" message from the researchers at the end of the study summary. The simple minded, pat advice breaks down to: "Focus on what you can replace ice cream with," he said. "Maybe it's yogurt or fruit." 95% of diets fail, but regardless of those statistics, the researchers call on individuals to shape up rather than for anti-fat biases (found globally, though yes, there are still cultures that value and prefer fat women--though, insisting that women conform to being fat is as restrictive and body-diversity denying as insisting that they must be thin) be looked at as serious human rights violations and discrimination. Individual solutions are bunk--people's salaries and social mobility should be based on performance, education, hard work and skills, not suit size. I'm not saying that its impossible to lose weight and keep it off (and for those who do, they tend not to diet, but to integrate a lifestyle of exercise, healthy eating, extra movement whenever they can get it and a host of other things (like sleeping 8-9 hours instead of 6-7) and they tend not to be "thin" but simply "not fat" anymore--going from fat to thin and keeping it that way is really hard to sustain, but getting thinner is more likely to succeed if your goals in mind are health oriented and not specifically aesthetic.

So, dear reader, do you feel like your size has played a role in your salary? Career success? Share in the comments.