Choosing the diet soda?

We all know this scenario: woman/man walks into a fast food joint, orders a super large meal (with dessert) and then asks for the diet soda. I think we can all sense the irony in that situation, the consumption of a high calorie meal with the concern about calories in the soda. What difference can that possibly make? Let's break it down. Say you order a Big Mac (540 kcals), large fries (500 kcals), an Oreo McFlurry (550 kcals) and a large Coke (310 kcals). That totals to 1900 calories! Now minus the soda (equivalent to getting a diet soda) and you get 1590 calories. That is still a lot of calories. It takes an extra 500 calories a day to gain a pound in one weeks time, so opting for diet does put you in the right direction calorie wise, but by eating this meal at all you are bound to go over the amount of calories that you expend and ultimately gain weight. So what are you options? Well first of all, a meal this calorie dense should not be eaten at all! If you are still choosing to eat this, than try drinking some water or seltzer with your meal and ordering the small sizes. This obviously does not solve the problem at all, but it does take the diet soda out of the equation and reduce calorie intake. Artificial sweeteners are not beneficial for your health. For some people, the side effects can be severe and most of the time people do not even connect the two to their sense of well being. Artificial sweeteners can actually make you gain weight. Sounds counter intuitive right? What happens is that your body senses something sweet, now out bodies are actually a lot smarter than we know. Just the sensation of the sweetness that your brain detects will increase you insulin levels regardless of the actual sugar being released into the blood stream. Insulin is the hormone in the body that is responsible for storing energy (ie-fat). If our levels are high, we'll constantly be in the storing mode. Besides this, some research indicates that the artificial sweeteners will raise your insulin levels on their own by interacting with taste receptors. After the drink your body has sensed something sweet (therefore preparing for it) and when it doesn't get it, it will still want it! This may come in the form of a ice cream or cookies later, but your body is going to get it sweet fix. So the next time you go to reach for your diet soda, or "diet" anything for that matter in an effort to lose weight or stay healthy, think again.