DIET SODA IS JUST AS HARMFULL TO OLDER FOLKS AS REGULAR SODA

Country-pop radio stalwart Kim Mitchell likes to say “might as well go for a soda, nobody hurts” well, I've got two things to say to Mr. Mitchell-first off- get a boys name. Secondly, if that soda's diet and you're going for one every day- you may as well be going for a Big Mac.

We all know that regular soda is no good for you. However, the rise of diet soda was built on the promise of low calories and less sugar (or a different type of sugar) and you would be led to believe that while drinking diet soda wasn't exactly healthy, it wasn't nearly as damaging as drinking the occasional bottle of traditional soda.

The Circulation Journal has published the findings of a study titled “Soft Drink Consumption and

Risk of Developing Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and the Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-Aged Adults.” A veritable slew of health blogs have been discussing the results and it looks very clear that diet soda is a big sham.

Discussing the study, the GetFitSource Blog stated ““People who drank one or more diet sodas each day developed the same risks for heart disease as those who downed sugary regular soda.” The person who wrote the post was seemingly furious over the blatant false advertising indicated by the addition of a “diet” label to the name. There is nothing that's diet at all about these drinks.

“Needless to say this is somewhat of a surprising result since it’s definitely counter intuitive that the diet colas would have the same impact as fully sweetened sodas given the massive calories contained in the latter. Not surprisingly, a representative from the American Beverage Association opined: "How can something with zero calories that's 99 percent water with a little flavoring in it ... cause weight gain?”

The study also concluded that individuals who “drank one or more sodas a day diet or regular had an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, compared to those who drank sodas infrequently.” In terms of your heart health- diet sodas are conclusively as bad as traditional sodas.

The CardioBlog noted that this increase in Metabolic Syndrome translated into another troubling symptom- obsesity. Their latest post on this study noted that “What's more, compared to those who drank less than one soda a day, those who drank one or more were at a 30% greater risk becoming obese and had a 25% greater chance of developing high cholesterol.”

The Disease Proof Blog was also incensed about the hurtful effects of diet soda. Joel Fuhrman M.D, the writer of the post, seemed to imply that the use of artificial sweetener was responsible for the bulk of the damage. He quoted a recent post in another medical blog that said...

“Despite its widespread use, there is a surprising lack of human clinical trials evaluating its safety. Unlike with saccharin, no evidence has been reported that stevioside and its metabolites are carcinogenic. However, animal reports of nephrotoxicity do exist.”

Are the carcinogenic effects of artificial sweeteners baring unknown repercussions on millions of American hearts? The signs are increasingly pointing to yes.