(Image source from: Diet Cola is the new the fat drink!})

Despite all the diet food and drink, are you finding it hard to budge those nasty love handles and muffin top? Also, is your skin looking more weathered and aged than ever? Well, then blame it on your diet cola.

Experts have found that the one-calorie fizzy drink can actually cause your body to store more fat around the middle, leading to a 'diet cola belly'. And that's not all! Few experts are also of the opinion that diet cola’s mix of carbonated water, colorings and sweeteners such as aspartame and acesulfame K could accelerate aging and yield disastrous health consequences.

Hoards of nutritionists and scientists now claim that diet cola’s 'healthy' image as a 'healthy' is nothing but a hoax.

Blame it on the fructose, artificial sweeteners, and sugar alcohols in diet colas that intrudes with your natural gut bacteria. This, in turn, severely messes up your metabolism and affects satiety. As a result, the body pumps out more insulin, the hormone that controls sugar levels and fat storage, so that you lay down what Toribio-Mateas calls 'diet cola belly in the form of more fat around the midriff' - just where you wanted to shed fat.

Not just that. The phosphoric acid in diet cola, responsible for its appealing tangy taste and the tingle you get when it is swallowed, is believed to speed up ageing process.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury