Diet soft drinks boost risk of deadly vascular events

By David Liu, Ph.D.

Tuesday Jan 31, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- People who drink diet soft drinks or diet soda on a daily basis may increase risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death, according to a new study by Hannah Gardener and colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center.

However, the researchers found regular soft drink consumption and a more moderate intake of diet soft drinks do not seem to be associated with a higher risk for vascular events. 

The findings were reported online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Many food consumers prefer diet soft drinks to regular soft drinks with added sugars because the former do not contain calories.  But no one knows how long term consumption of the diet drinks would affect his health.

Gardener et al. examined the association between both diet and regular soft drink consumption and risk of stroke, myocardial infarction (or heart attack), and vascular death based on data on 2,564 participants in the NIH-funded Northern Manhattan Study, which was intended to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis in a multi-ethnic urban population. 

Specifically, the researchers looked at how often study participants drank soft drinks - diet and regular - and the number of vascular events that occurred during a ten-year period.

They found 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 other risk factors including metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure. 

Light diet soft drink users defined as those who drank between one time a month and six times a week, and those who drank regular soft drinks were not more likely to suffer vascular events.

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."

Diet soft drinks often contain artificial sweeteners of which some have been linked with other health problems such as cancer.

The findings of the study do not suggest drinking regular soft drinks is safe.  Soft drinks often with high fructose corn syrup have been linked with the epidemic of obesity in the U.S. and fructose has been associated with a myriad of health problems, previous studies found.