February 1, 2012
from
PreventDisease Website
Besides the fact that diet soda causes
dehydration, weight gain, mineral depletion, diabetes and caffeine
addiction, new research shows they're also responsible for an
increased risk of vascular events such as,
-
stroke
-
heart attack
-
vascular death
Soft drinks account
for more than a quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.
That works out to at
least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman and child.
The
new study was conducted by,
Hannah Gardener and her colleagues from the,
The research appears online in the
Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer.
In the current climate of escalating obesity rates, artificially
sweetened soft drinks are marketed as healthier alternatives to
sugar-sweetened beverages, due to their lack of calories.
However, past research has shown very
serious long-term health consequences due to highly toxic additives
and artificial sweeteners such as,
-
sodium benzoate
-
aspartame
-
acesulfame potassium
-
sucralose
-
high-fructose corn syrup
Gardener and team examined the
relationship between both diet and regular soft drink consumption
and risk of stroke, myocardial infarction (or heart attack), and
vascular death.
Data were analyzed from 2,564
participants in the NIH-funded Northern Manhattan Study, which was
designed to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis
in a multi-ethnic urban population.
The researchers looked at how often
individuals drank soft drinks - diet and regular - and the number
of vascular events that occurred over a ten-year period.
They found that those who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43
percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event than those who
drank none, after taking into account pre-existing vascular
conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood
pressure.
Gardener concludes:
"Our results suggest a potential
association between daily diet soft drink consumption and
vascular outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which soft drinks
may affect vascular events are unclear.
There is a need for
further research before any conclusions can be drawn regarding
the potential health consequences of diet soft drink
consumption."
Scientists at Boston University’s
medical school say people who drink more than one regular or diet
soda each day develop the same risks for heart disease.
Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, the lead
researcher, says he found that among 9,000 middle-aged people, those
who drank more than one soda per day had a 48 percent higher risk of
metabolic syndrome.
"Metabolic syndrome" is the term that refers to a group of symptoms
that increase the risk for heart disease, such as a large waistline,
and high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. The presence
of three or more of the factors increases your risk of developing
diabetes and cardiovascular disease, health experts say.
And those people in Vasan's study who showed no signs of metabolic
syndrome and quaffed more than one soda a day were 44 percent more
likely to develop the cluster of conditions four years later,
according to the article in the journal published by the American
Heart Association.
What’s more, people who drank more than one soft drink a day were
between 25 and 31 percent more likely to become extremely
overweight, have larger waists, and develop higher levels of
triglycerides and lower levels of "good" cholesterol than folks who
drank only one daily soda, according to the findings.
Low-calorie diet soft drinking clearly do not prevent weight gain or
obesity.
Epidemiologists from the School of
Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San
Antonio reported data showing that diet soft drink consumption is
associated with increased waist circumference in humans, and a
second study that found aspartame raised fasting glucose (blood
sugar).
“Data from this and other
prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and
artificial sweeteners as healthy alternatives may be
ill-advised,” said Helen P. Hazuda, Ph.D., professor and chief
of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology in the School of
Medicine.
“They may be free of calories but
not of consequences.”
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