Here it comes...an ABC news article nailed this story yesterday, calling out what was wrong with it and providing some common sense information. But today the story's picked up like wildfire and the sensationalist headlines have got all the news sources all caught up. The story is that artificial sweetners have been linked to weight gain (aka. diet soda may cause weight gain). But it's stupid on numerous counts, as pointed out by ABC:

Don't kill yourself. You may have heard of a recent study indicating that rats gained weight when they ate yogurt sweetened with saccharine but not when it was sweetened with glucose. The result sort of flies in the face of why you were eating sugar substitutes in the first place - to help you lose weight.

Relax. There may be less to this story than meets the eye, indicating exactly why you don't make changes based on a single study.

This study has its share of weaknesses, such as studying a very small number of rats - as few as eight in some of the groups. It also uses saccharine, instead of a sugar substitute with a taste closer to that of sugar. There are a number of other flaws as well - enough to prevent drawing real conclusions from the results.

What's more, these results contrast with other studies showing that rats do compensate for calories pretty well when there is no perceptible taste difference.

Now, one could argue that such is the problem with sugar substitutes: they lure you into a false sense of caloric security. Wrong. The burden of weight management was never supposed to be dumped on the back of a sugar substitute. It takes effort, and we need to come to grips with that.

Sugar substitutes can be one step on the pathway to a healthier weight, but if it's the only step, you won't reach your goal. Of course, sugar substitutes are not a required tool of the job, just an option. Keep to drinking plain water or seltzer and you're fine, too.