Do you drink sparkling water?

 Hi Everyone!

I learned something very interesting. First, my preferred beverage is water. I have a Zerowater filtering system that has been a money saver and the best tasting water. It has a gauge to tell me when the filter needs to be change. I have had this going on 2 years and have only had to change the filters one time. So much cheaper than buying bottled water.

2 filters that last us over a year and we use this water for everything.

 Which brings me to my question. Do you drink sparkling water? Before it was popular with all the flavors I bought sparkling water in a liter bottle. I don't know why I stopped. This was years ago.

Forward to last year. With Mr. M's kidney cancer and now only have one kidney that is stage 4 we have made a lot of changes to our diet. Drinking water has always been difficult for Mr. M. so he went to the sparkling water with a bit of flavor. No sugar. I didn't like the flavor kind. Just seemed a waist because there isn't much flavor. I drink just plain old sparkling water. I love the cold bubble fizz flowing over my tongue and down my throat. OK, so I could have left that part out. 😜

My point being, it is very refreshing. 

However, we all have a peptide hormone produced in our stomach called, gherlin, also referred to as the hunger hormone. 

I'm not going to get into the Leptin part of this. I just wanted you to have a visual.  

 The ghrelin hormone was discovered in 1999  by Masayasu Kojima, Kenji Kangawa and a "some" research has gone into understanding this puppet master behind hunger signals  pushing the “FEED ME” button before meals, and the “FULL” switch afterwards. 

A study published by the International Institute of Anticancer Research showed that Ghrelin levels are usually lower in people who have a higher body weight compared to those with a normal body mass index (BMI).

This suggests that Ghrelin is not a cause of obesity. Still, there is some research to suggest that people who are of a higher weight may actually be more sensitive to the hunger hormone which could account for why you may feel hungry even if you have lower levels of the ghrelin. Yeah it's complicated. 

  I know I'm getting carried away with my research. Let me get back to my original question. Even though I'm on a heavy dose of prednisone right now, I have gained about 5lbs of my 25lb lose back. 😩 My thought was is the sparkling water making me add the extra pounds? Or water weight gain?

Research in rats. 

It turned out that drinking either the plain or the artificially sweetened carbonated water was causing the rats to secrete increased levels  ghrelin.  This actually led to ghrelin hormone being known as the “hunger hormone.” 

So, I wrote all of that to say, A 2017 study found that carbonated water (both sweetened and unsweetened) significantly increased ghrelin levels in humans and rats compared to plain water, leading to increased food intake and weight gain.

I'm backing off the sparkling water to see if there is a difference.

Note:

As in all things there are contradictions, and some feel that sparkling water makes people feel fuller and able to manage their weight. 

I will soon see.

Thanks for staying to the end and reading all of this. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Have a great day

Nicole