Diet drinks 'can make you fatter'

Diet soft drinks may cause slimmers to become fatter, scientists revealed yesterday.

The artificial sweeteners disrupt the body's natural ability to measure the calorific value of foods, researchers found.

When a product sweetened with real sugar is then eaten the brain is 'tricked' into thinking it has no calories, leading to over-indulgence.

According to the researchers, we learn early in life that sweet tastes signal high calories.

Lead researcher Professor Terry Davidson, from Purdue University in Indiana, said: 'The body's natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners.'

In the study, one group of rats was given full-sugar drinks for ten days while a second was fed liquids flavoured with low-calorie artificial sweeteners.

The rats were then given a sweet, high-calorie chocolate-flavoured snack.

The rats which had drunk the liquid with low-calorie artificial sweetener ate much more than the group that had experienced the consistent relationship between sweetness and calorific intake.