The Real Skinny on Soda Sugary sodas lead to weight gain, but it is not just the empty calories at fault, say scientists at the German Institute of Human Nutrition. It is the sugar! Many sodas are sweetened with fructose,
a sugar found naturally in many fruits. Researchers, at the institute, fed mice either fructose-sweetened water, a soda sweetened with sucrose (table sugar), diet soda or water, even though the mice that drank the fructose-sweetened water cut back on food, they gained the most weight, 8 grams of their weight; those in the other groups gained less than 5 grams. What’s up? “Fructose is converted to fatty acids in the liver at a greater rate than glucose,” says Hella Jürgens.
That may lead to weight gain. Fructose is also disguised as high fructose corn syrup; read labels and keep your intake to a minimum. | 
