Besides the obvious junk foods, there are 5 foods that you may never have suspected of packing on the pounds.
1. Diet Soda.
Really? Research conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that the more diet sodas a person drinks, the more likely they will gain weight. The San Antonio Heart Study at UT revealed that those who drank the most diet soft drinks gained the most weight. “On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese,” said Sharon Fowler, M.P.H., faculty associate in the division of clinical epidemiology. An article by Mark Hyman, MD, noted that artificial sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar, activating our genetically programmed preference for sweet taste. They trick our bodies into thinking that sugar is coming, causing the body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which lays down more belly fat.
2. Diet Microwave “Dinners.”
They’ve got catchy, healthy sounding names, they come in handy single-person servings, and they’re super convenient. But the benefits stop there. Trouble is, most of the real nutrients in diet microwave meals were sucked out of them in processing. And while they boast their lack of fat content, they’re also loaded with salt, which will cause you to retain water and become bloated.
