I tend to be a skeptic about, oh, everything, so this morning, when I noticed a ridiculous-sounding theory about diet soda on my bottle of Fruitwater (clearly a party with a vested interest), I had to check it out:

“Yes, they have no calories but the artificial sweeteners may trick our bodies into craving more sweets. Know someone who says they’re addicted to diet… (you fill in the blank)?”

I do know someone who says that — me. I drink six Diet Cokes a day, and right now I’m also drinking my words, because it turns out that this whole trick-the-body theory may be kind of true:

Researchers say artificial sweeteners may interfere with the body’s natural ability to count calories based on a food’s sweetness and make people prone to overindulging in other sweet foods and beverages. … In the study, published in the July issue of the International Journal of Obesity, two groups of rats were fed either a mix of high-calorie, sugar-sweetened, and low-calorie, artificially sweetened liquids; or sugar-sweetened liquids alone. This was fed to the rats in addition their regular diet. After 10 days, they were offered a high-calorie, chocolate-flavored snack. The study showed that rats fed the mixed liquids ate more of their regular chow after the sweet snack than those who had been fed sugar-sweetened liquids alone.

Apparently, the body figures out that the sweet diet products don’t have any calories and goes on to assume that other sweet stuff isn’t so high-calorie either. I can buy that — evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense, since our ancestors needed to be able to find the highest-cal foods in an environment where dinner wasn’t always guaranteed. Even if the science is spot-on, though, I have to take issue with this columnist, who provides his own evidence in that he can’t “recall ever seeing a thin person buying a twelve-pack of diet Pepsi at the grocery store.” Mr. Adams, I weigh 107 pounds, and you’re welcome to accompany me on my next trip to CVS, where I will be buying yet another 12-pack of Diet Coke. Maybe also some Fruitwater.