Rethink Your Diet Drink

By MC Kelby HERWriter

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The main benefit of diet soda drinks is that they have less calories. But new research may have diet soda drinkers rethinking their favorite diet beverages.

According to a new study, daily drinkers of diet soda have a 61 percent greater chance of stroke and heart attacks. Drinking regular or diet soda has previously been linked to diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes.

The study, which was released at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles, was conducted by Hannah Gardener of the University of Miami and a team of researchers.

The researchers compiled data from 2,564 multi-ethnic people based in Northern Manhattan. Researchers surveyed their eating behaviors, exercise habits, as well as cigarette and alcohol consumption. The participants reported an average soda consumption of more than 9.3 years. While 901 participants reported drinking no soda, 163 said they drank one or more diet sodas per day.

Also, volunteers were given physical check-ups that included blood pressure checks, blood tests for cholesterol and other factors that might affect the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Dr. Ralph Sacco, chair of neurology at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and senior author on the report, said, "As a first step, we just looked at total calories. It's a work in progress. I think we need confirmation in other larger data sets. We find this intriguing but it requires follow-up."

"This paper should be a wake-up call to daily soda drinkers to stop the 'chemical water' and move to natural, calorie-free beverages, like good old tap water," said Dr. Peter McCullough, consultant cardiologist and chief academic and scientific officer for St. John Providence Health System and the Providence Park Heart Institute in Southfield, Michigan. "Any way you slice it, soda drinking is not healthy and should be done sparingly."

Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center said, "In my 20 years of clinical practice, patients who consume diet soda tend to have more of a sweet tooth; to get more sweet cravings; to eat more foods with added sugar; and to like and eat more processed food than patients who avoid both regular and diet soda."

Some critics said not to throw away the diet soda just yet because of the lack of ʺa scientific controlʺ like a family history of cardiovascular disease or hyperlipidemia. Cardiovascular disease and hyperlipidemia are both known risk factors for stroke and heart attack,

Also, the study population may have been at a higher-than-normal risk for cardiovascular events. Roughly three-quarters of the study participants were African-American or Hispanic; both are considered to be at a higher risk for cardiovascular problems.

Finally, Gardener and her colleagues’ research failed to detect an increased cardiovascular risk among daily drinkers of regular soda.

Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41479869/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartHealth/diet-soda-linked-heart-attack-stroke-risk/story?id=12868269

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.