It has long been believed that drinking sparkling water can help you lose weight by making you feel fuller and lowering your appetite.
According to a recent theory, drinking sparkling water may aid in weight loss by increasing your body's absorption and metabolism of glucose, or blood sugar.
Prior to filling your refrigerator with carbonated beverages, it is crucial to examine the study and its methodology.
This paper makes it apparent that it is not fresh research, but rather a novel concept that was developed by drawing on the findings of a study that was published in 2004 and additional research to bolster the notion.
It should be noted that the prior study did not even look at how sparkling water affected body weight. In reality, it was an observation of the effects of hemodialysis—the process by which blood passes through a kidney dialysis machine—and how it may reduce blood glucose. Additionally, no carbonated water was ingested during this investigation.
It is said that the impact of hemodialysate is similar to that of blood carbon dioxide, which raises the pH or alkalinity within red blood cells. The red blood cells are subsequently prompted to metabolize more glucose as a result.
According to estimates based on data from a 20-year-old study, a four-hour dialysis session appears to increase glucose utilization by 9g, or just around 36 extra calories expended.
However, the effects of blood carbon dioxide were not examined in the study on which the idea was based. Instead, it examined how hemodialysate alters red blood cell pH and how it impacts blood sugar. Because of this, it is challenging to compare the potential effects of carbon dioxide in fizzy water on blood glucose once it enters the bloodstream.
So what is all the commotion about?
There is a legitimate scientific concept in the paper itself that merits discussion. Unfortunately, the study's promotion has obscured some of its subtleties, with media headlines overstating the paper's conclusions.
Research that examines whether drinking sparkling water actually causes a sizable amount of carbon dioxide to enter our bloodstream and how quickly this is absorbed by the body—which will indicate how long the possible effects last—is necessary to determine whether this hypothesis is correct.
However, there is less than one gram of carbon dioxide in a glass of sparkling water, and this will be absorbed in a matter of minutes. The kilogram of carbon dioxide that our body naturally creates in a typical day through respiration—the process by which our body uses energy—is a very small portion of this amount.
Given these figures, it is likely that drinking carbonated water will not have any discernible impact on blood carbon dioxide levels, which in turn will not affect weight or metabolism.
The author of the hypothesis takes care to clarify in the study that a good diet and regular exercise are the two most important factors in weight loss and that carbonated water is not a stand-alone remedy.
Does drinking bubbly water increase appetite?
Fizzy water has also occasionally been claimed to help you feel fuller for longer, which may help you lose weight, in the media and in other research (albeit not by the author of this most recent hypothesis). The evidence presented here is inconclusive, nevertheless.
According to some research, drinking carbonated water made participants feel fuller for longer, while other studies have suggested that the opposite may be true.
Sparkling water was found to raise weight and levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin in rats in studies that particularly examined weight and appetite hormones.
These researchers also found that fizzy drinks raised the ghrelin levels of 20 men in a comparable trial. This suggests that consuming carbonated water can actually make you feel more hungry.
The evidence regarding the impact of fizzy water on hunger appears to be inconclusive. Fizzy water may, in principle, aid in expanding our stomachs, making us feel full. The evidence, however, does not appear to support this notion.
Both seem to leave the stomach at the same rate, according to a study that contrasted drinking still water vs drinking bubbly water after a meal.
Additionally, drinking water with meals had no discernible impact on feelings of fullness or hunger. It all comes down to the stomach's structure and how it breaks down and churns our meals.
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