A NEW STUDY finds that drinking diet soda is linked to obesity.

I don't care. I am not switching from Diet Coke to regular Coke. I hate regular Coke. It's like drinking liquid sugar.

The group hypothesized that the body regulates its energy needs through appetite and that it learns to associate sweetness with a lot of calories. But when fed artificially sweetened foods and drinks on a regular basis, the body figures it can no longer use taste to estimate calorie consumption. It assumes that it can eat all the sweets it wants, without consequences.

But noted obesity researcher Barry M. Popkin cautioned that the San Antonio researchers don't have enough information to draw conclusions about diet soft drink consumption and obesity risk.

"One needs to study in a complex, sequential way how earlier diet drink intake affects subsequent weight changes, but these scholars have not done that," said Popkin, head of nutrition epidemiology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

UTHSC's Fowler acknowledged that the findings raise more questions than they answer. However, she pointed out that when people drink any kind of soda, it is instead of healthier beverages.

"I don't think it's a strong enough association to make a public health recommendation, but personally, I think people would be much healthier drinking water."

Yeah, fine. I'm still not giving up Diet Coke.