You might as well grab the real deal when stocking up on soft drinks. According to a recent study, done by researchers at Imperial College London, finds that drinks containing artificial sugar are just as big a problem as those containing sugar. There is no evidence they help people lose weight, they say, possibly because people assume they can eat more because their drinks are low in sugar.

The report says the combined factors of what goes into diet drinks, how they are consumed, and their environmental impact mean that these type of drinks are far from helping to solve the global obesity crisis. In fact, diet drinks are a potential risk factor for highly prevalent chronic diseases.

Sugar-sweetened drinks, including sports beverages, have been identified as one of the major causes of obesity. Many countries, including Mexico and France, have introduced sugar taxes to try to reduce consumption.

The paper, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, is a commentary on the research done so far into artificially sweetened beverages promoted as healthier alternatives and the impact on weight.