If you want to lose weight, you have to consume less energy, so the "low-calorie", "sugar-free" and "fat-free" foods on the market are very popular among dieters. As for "zero-calorie" foods, they can be said to drive dieters crazy. What are the common zero-calorie foods? Can you eat and drink as much as you want?

1. Zero-calorie carbonated drinks

Carbonated drinks are also called soda. Common sweet zero-calorie carbonated drinks include Sprite Zero, Fanta Zero, and Coke Zero. They taste refreshing and sweet. Can we drink them as much as we want?

Better not. Why?

Let's talk about the issue of sweeteners first. Their sweetness is mainly provided by artificial sweeteners such as cyclamate, aspartame, sucralose, and sucralose. These sweeteners have been proven safe and reliable through risk assessments, and as long as they are added according to standards, they will not cause harm to human health.

However, there have been some studies in recent years that have the opposite voice. For example, sweeteners cannot bring people a sense of fullness and may cause people to eat more food; for example, some artificial sweeteners may interfere with intestinal flora and increase blood sugar levels. At present, these studies cannot overturn the current risk assessment results, but if you are not so obsessed with these sweet carbonated drinks, it is obviously safer to drink less.

If you are addicted, it is better to drink this than to add sugar. After all, the harm of excessive sugar intake is very clear. Let's talk about the caffeine issue. Compared with fruit-flavored carbonated drinks, cola carbonated drinks all contain caffeine. A 600ml bottle of cola contains about 54 mg of caffeine.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans state that the maximum limit of caffeine intake should not exceed 400 mg/day, which corresponds to a moderate amount of caffeine intake in a healthy eating pattern. So in order to know how much cola-type carbonated drinks are appropriate to drink every day, you also have to calculate how much caffeine you consume through tea and coffee every day.

2. Zero-calorie soda

According to the national standard, it is not water, but soda (carbonated beverage), which is water with carbon dioxide and sodium bicarbonate added. Can I drink it freely?

Better not. Why?

A study found that the carbon dioxide in carbonated drinks can promote the secretion of ghrelin and stimulate hunger response. This study can only show that there is a correlation between the carbon dioxide in carbonated drinks and weight gain, but current research cannot determine the causal relationship, that is, it cannot be concluded that "drinking carbonated drinks will definitely make you fat."

So is it recommended to drink it freely? For example, use it to replace water. If you can drink water or tea happily, that's better. If you can't drink tasteless water and prefer to drink this, then drink it. As for weight loss, we can start from other aspects.

3. Zero-calorie sugar

The sweetness of zero-calorie sugar mainly comes from Monk fruit glycosides, steviol glycosides and erythritol. The first two are extracted from monk fruit and stevia respectively, and are natural sweeteners, while erythritol is mainly fermented from glucose. Can you eat it freely?

Better not. Why?

1. Zero-calorie sugar does not mean no calories. For example, the energy of erythritol is about 0.4 kcal/g.

2. People are born with a love for sweetness, and are more likely to eat more sweet foods. So when making porridge, cooking, or soup, it is best to put less or no zero-calorie sugar, and slowly cultivate your love for the original taste of natural ingredients.

Even if it is a zero-calorie food, it is not recommended to eat it without scruples; on the contrary, if you want to lose weight, do you have to not eat high-energy food? No. Eat it occasionally when you want to. If you have a reasonable diet, you are fully qualified to indulge yourself occasionally. So you don't need to be too fussy about the calories of each food to lose weight. It is more important to choose more nutritious ingredients, match them more reasonably, cook them lighter, and not eat too much.