I gues this is “bash soda” week in the news! Another study just came out that suggested a  link between soda, even diet soda, to increased risk of heart disease.

Reasearchers found that 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. With metabolic syndrome , your risk of developing heart disease or stroke doubles. In addition, you have a risk of developing diabetes.

Previous studies had demonstrated a link between regular soda (which contains up to 10 tsp of sugar per can)  with multiple risk factors for heart disease. This was the first study that showed this risk extended towards diet sodas.

If diet soda does not contain sugar, then what could account for this proposed increased risk?
- The researchers suggested that ”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 also suggested the caramel coloring may have an effect on inflammation in the body (increased inflammation may be linked to heart disease.
- One last theory is that “diet soda is a liquid. When you take liquids at a meal, they don’t satiate you as much (as solids)”

Dr. Ramachandran Vasan of Boston University School of Medicine, whose work appeard in the study published in the journal Circulation,  said people who drink soda, whether diet or sugar-sweetened, tend to have similar dietary patterns. “On average, soda drinkers tend to eat more calories, consume more saturated fat and trans fat, eat less fiber, exercise less and be more sedentary,”

Keep in mind that this was only one study. Further research is needed to prove these links. In the meantime, The American Heart Association said the study did not demonstrate that diet sodas cause heart disease and said it can be better to have a diet drink than a full-calorie soda.

Check out this link for more details on this study.

 As I said in my earlier post on diet soda, moderation is best!

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