ATLANTA (August 1, 2012) — Drinking diet soda could increase the amounts of a hormone that has been previously shown to be beneficial for people with diabetes when it comes to appetite and insulin secretion. The study, recently published in Diabetes Care, looked at the effect of diet soda on three gut hormones (GLP-1, GIP, and PYY) in youth with diabetes and found that consuming diet soda lead to increased secretion of GLP-1 in healthy subjects and subjects with type 1 diabetes (no increase was observed in type 2 diabetic subjects). GLP-1 is a hormone that acts in concert with other hormones to stabilize blood glucose levels. Individuals with diabetes (type 1 or 2) may have impaired levels of GLP-1. GLP-1 is generally considered to be beneficial in the context of diabetes and obesity due to its positive effects on appetite, gastric emptying, insulin secretion, and glucagon suppression. More research is needed to determine if this finding may impact future treatment of individuals with diabetes.