Diet sodas linked with health risks

Sodas -- even diet ones -- may be linked with increased risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. U.S. researchers found adults who drink one or more sodas a day had about a 50 percent higher risk of metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of risk factors such as excessive fat around the waist, low levels of "good" cholesterol, high blood pressure and other symptoms.

The study that appears in the journal Circulation included about 6,000 middle-aged men and women who were observed over four years. Those who drank one or more soft drinks a day had a 31 percent greater risk of becoming obese. They had a 30 percent increased risk of developing increased waist circumference. They also had a 25 percent increased risk of developing high blood triglycerides as well as high blood sugar, and a 32 percent higher risk of having low high-density lipoprotein or "good" cholesterol levels.

The researchers then analyzed a smaller sample of participants on whom data on regular and diet soft drink consumption was available. Those who drank one or more diet or regular sodas per day had a 50 to 60 percent increased risk for developing metabolic syndrome.

Researchers postulate that people who drink soda, whether diet or sugar-sweetened, tend to have similar dietary patterns: eat more calories, consume more saturated fat and trans fat, eat less fiber, exercise less and be more sedentary. The researchers adjusted for those factors and still observed a significant link between soft drink consumption and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Theories discussed about how diet sodas could increase a person's metabolic risk. "One possibility is that diet soda is sweet. Maybe drinking something sweet conditions you in such a way that you develop a preference for sweet things," they said. "Also, diet soda is a liquid. When you take liquids at a meal, they don't satiate you as much (as solids)," they said. The caramel coloring of some sodas also may play a role. He said caramel coloring in animal experiments was associated with tissue inflammation.

The American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation, said people should understand that the study did not demonstrate that diet sodas cause heart disease.

Bonnie - while we must keep in mind that this was an observational study, it was well-structured, simple, focused only on sodas, and followed subjects participating in the prestigious Framingham Heart study.

Did anyone notice the 800 pound gorilla in the room that was ignored? Artificial Sweeteners. The toxicity generated by these substances create an chronic inflammatory state that is as much to blame for the aforementioned health issues as anything the researchers alluded to.