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I had a friend who was always eating and drinking “diet”, “sugar free”, “fat free”, etc., etc., etc - with everything he consumed, to any extent possible.

I am not a college graduate with a nutritional degree in wheat-germ studies or anything like that, but let me tell you what I think is causing a great deal of the weight/medical problems in America!

The number one failure is the "fat free," "diet" and "sugar free" items that people drink/eat in mass quantities (because they are better - "They are diet.") As you noted to your friend, this greatly increases caloric intake which people just do NOT think about.

The second most common failure is lack of water intake! Water IS the fountain of youth! The more we eat, the more water we should drink! Your body uses water to convert all those calories to energy and body mass! It flushes toxins from the body! Everyone needs to drink 8 to 12 glasses of water a day!

The last item (which is strictly my opinion, but makes sense to me) relates back to the first entry: diet/sugar free foods and drinks. I believe that the rise in Type 2 diabetes is related to the giant rise in diet/sugar free food products: Diet Coke is the number 2 soda on the entire soda market; it sells MORE than regular Pepsi! Now, this might just be a coincidence, since Type 2 Diabetes is more prevalent in obese people, but I think it might be more of a cause than most people (especially companies) want to admit (See tobacco use and lung cancer as it relates to companies admitting product failures) - I'm just saying...

I think the bad part of “diet” drinks and “fat free” foods is that they either contain nothing useful to the body at all or they contain carbs in a ratio of carbs to fat and carbs to sugar that is NOT normal. I think many dieters are constantly hungry or at least having “cravings” because their body is starving for normal food; food containing moderate amounts of regular fats and sugars.

I know well-informed diabetics KNOW that it is total carbs as much as sugar that they need to watch out for.

I also know six type-two diabetics in my life. Four of them were perpetual dieters before the onset of their diabetes.