An article in the NY Times, February 5, 2008 by Nicholas Bakalar reports on a study by the American Heart Association in its online journal, Circulation.
He reports that the study was conducted for 9 years on more than 9,500 men and women 45 to 64 years of age.
The authors of the study found that eating a diet of predominantly refined grains, fried foods and red meat had a 17% increased risk of increasing cholesterol, blood pressure, and obesity. Readers of this newsletter won’t find that surprising.
However, they found that one, that’s right, just one can of diet soda, increased their risk 34%!! That’s more than double.
Click here to see my article on artificial sweeteners and their increased health risk.
Please pass this information to those you love who drink diet soda.
Hi, I know most cans of soda have high fructose corn syrup – that caused these kinds
of health problems. But what about a can of soda called “Mist” that has no hfcs in it.
Is that still a bad health drink??? It didn’t seem to be as bad to me??
Sorry. I don’t have any data on “mist.” Keep in mind though, that it’s the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas that are the problem. High Fructose Corn Sugar is not generally found in diet sodas.
Mabel, any regular soda is going to have huge amounts of sugar in it. Any diet soda is going to contain one of two neurotoxins – aspartame (Equal) or sucralose (Splenda), perhaps to the exclusion of the new sodas I’ve heard of which are sweetened with stevia. I feel your pain because I am trying to release my diet soda habit myself. I try to drink ice tea sweetened only a bit and only with stevia when what I really want is a soda. Perhaps a lemonade or limeade sweetened with stevia would help you wean yourself off Mist. It won’t be the same. Soda is just one of those things we have to wean ourselves off of, knowing that it contains no benefit other than to our taste buds! Good luck!
just get the soda – in any way, shape or form – OUT of your diet and your life!
There is absolutely NO nutritional value, of any kind, in a soda.
Water! Water! Water!
I knew soda was bad for our bodies, I didn’t know it was this bad!
Thank goodness i stopped sodas a long time ago. I have a friend whom i re-met in 1998. He ONLY drinks diet coke. He starts his day with it and ends his day with it. He doesent ever drink water he has never drunk tea or coffee. Chocolate mulk yes warm or cold. Maybe lipton iced tea. Wine and whiskey vodka with diet coke. He is 64yrs old. He is seldom ill. He is lean. I have never understood this.. quiet a phenonenon. Dont advise anybody to try. He must be and exception to the rules… as he has always been this way. Before diet coke it was oridginal coke. CRAZY is it not
I got myself off of diet sodas by drinking LaCroix sparkling water. It has no calories, and no artificial sugar. You get that bubbly goodness without any bad ingredients!