Put down that Diet Coke! Low calorie substitutes might actually fool your body into GAINING weight

Put down that Diet Coke! Low calorie substitutes might actually fool your body into GAINING weight

Low-calorie substitutes in food and drink may actually make dieters pile on the pounds, scientists claim.

Researchers discovered that the taste of fat and sugar gears the body up to expect a high-calorie hit. When it doesn't come the body's mechanism for controlling food intake becomes confused, making us eat more.

An American research team from Purdue University in Indiana carried out a series of experiments on laboratory rats.

Professor of psychological sciences Susan Swithers said: 'Substituting a part of the diet with a similar tasting item that has fewer or zero calories sounds like a common-sense approach to lose weight, but there are other physiological functions at work.

'These substitutes are meant to mimic the taste of fat in foods that are normally high in fat while providing a lower number of calories, but they may end up confusing the body.

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