On the heels of the recent study that diet soda consumption is associated with an increased risk for developing metabolic syndrome, a new study out of Indiana has found that rats fed yogurt mixed with fake sugar put on more weight and ate more food than rats fed yogurt mixed with straight glucose. Check out the damage:

Animals may use sweet taste to predict the caloric contents of food. Eating sweet noncaloric substances may degrade this predictive relationship," the researchers wrote. "With the growing use of noncaloric sweeteners in the current food environment, millions of people are being exposed to sweet tastes that are not associated with caloric or nutritive consequences."

I have a suspicion that in a hundred years, people are going to look back at our silliness with nutrition and shake their heads, saying things like "Really, drink something that says right on the can that there's nothing but chemicals in it. How did that seem like a good idea?" 

Diet Coke just might be our generation's bloodletting or smoking to remain calm during pregnancy. --Weetabix

P.S. Flashback!