Midlife Health Alert: Are Diet Sodas Dangerous To Your Health?

Many were surprised to read recent headlines about the linkage between diet sodas and heart risk in middle-aged adults. The LA Times had this sub-headline: "A study finds drinking a can a day is associated with a greater chance of metabolic disorder." This is no doubt upsetting to those who like the taste of soda but for health reasons have switched to diet soda and have limited their intake to one can a day at that. To now read that even one daily soft drink -- with calories or not -- is associated with a 48% increased risk of metabolic syndrome can easily lead one to the conclusion that no matter what one eats or does not eat there will ultimately be a study associating it with a higher risk of one thing or another. Of course this is the worst of all responses to this type of news because it can lead to ignoring all dietary guidelines. So an exploration of these latest results is called for.

What the study did and did not say:

1. It did not say that diet drinks per se cause heart attacks or even increase the risk of heart attacks.

2. It did say that diet soda consumption was associated with the increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a key predecessor of heart disease and diabetes.

This is a big difference. People who drink diet sodas might be different from people who don't drink diet sodas in a number of ways that could influence these results. While the researchers no doubt tried to control for as many of these variables as possible, when dealing with human behavior it is impossible to isolate them all. In fact, the study's lead author noted that "it was unlikely that an ingredient in soda caused the effect. More likely is that consuming sweet sodas changes dietary patterns or that soda was simply a marker for a participants' poor eating habits." This mirrors the American Beverage Associations response to the study, "It is scientifically implausible to suggest that diet soft drinks--a beverage that is 99% water--cause weight gain or elevated blood pressure."

The article notes, and previous research has repeatedly shown, that people who drink sodas have diets higher in calories, saturated fats and trans fats and low in fiber. They are also more sedentary.

The study attempted to control for these factors but still noted the elevated risk leading to the question of why the association between diet sodas and elevated health risks? The researchers have theories that range from soda's ability to reduce the feeling of satiety at meals (thereby increasing calories) to soda's increasing an individual's taste for sweetness also leading to the consumption of more calories.

The fact is diet soda is better than non-diet soda in terms of calorie control but there are many other choices even better than diet soda. Separate and above this is to insure that your diet is not excessive in calories regardless of the source, and that you are eating food that is low in saturated and trans fats and high in fiber. You also need to exercise. If you do these it is hard to believe that a can of diet soda will lead to a 48% percent increase in heart disease risk for you.

If you want to explore options to diet soda (and hopefully you do), drinking tea is a very good place to start. But be mindful that switching to a "healthy" beverage won't help you much if the balance of your diet and lifestyle is unhealthy.