Diet Soda and Heart Disease

A report in the summer of 2007 that linked diet soda and heart disease got a lot of people wondering if they were doing themselves any favors by drinking diet soda instead of regular soda.

The Study

The study was published in the journal Circulation, which is published by the American Heart Association. It looked at 6,000 healthy people and followed up after four years to see if they had any health changes.

It found that people who drank one or more soft drinks a day—regardless of whether they were diet or regular sodas—had more than a 50 percent greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome than did those who drank less than a soda a day.

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of symptoms, including high blood pressure, high waist circumference, high "bad" cholesterol and low "good" cholesterol and insulin resistance, among others. When a person has three or more of these risk factors they are considered to have metabolic syndrome.

That's a problem because metabolic syndrome increases the risk of heart disease, strokes and peripheral vascular disease, in addition to diabetes.

Criticism of the Diet Soda and Heart Disease Link

Many people and organizations immediately came out and questioned the findings of the study. Since diet soda is calorie free and made with artificial sweeteners, there shouldn't be a link between its consumption and metabolic syndrome.

The theory is that people who drink diet soda already had risk factors for metabolic syndrome, such as being overweight and having high cholesterol, that don't have anything to do with whether they drank soda.

Researchers themselves said the study does not suggest that diet soda causes heart disease. It may be that the artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas trigger cravings for more calorie-laden sweets, which help lead to the weight gain and other health problems associated with metabolic syndrome.

Should I Stop Drinking Soda?

Is diet soda a risky beverage?.

Whether you drink diet soda or regular soda, there are lots of reasons to cut down on consumption regardless of this study on diet soda and heart disease.

If you're drinking several regular sodas a day, that's a ton of empty calories that your body doesn't compensate for. That's because the body has a more difficult time of registering calories when they're in liquid form.

Just because diet sodas are calorie free doesn't mean they're a great choice. Drinking diet soda has been linked to weight gain for much the same reason the authors of this study suggested—because it causes cravings for calorie-rich food.

Caffeine can be a problem for many people, and carbonated beverages in general should be avoided by people with acid reflux and other health problems.

Whether you decide to just cut back on or completely eliminate sodas is entirely up to you, but whether your sodas are diet or regular, there's a good chance you'll lose some weight when you kick the habit.

Giving Up Soda

Many people experience cravings when they try to give up soft drinks. It can be helpful to replace soda with something else flavorful—such as flavored water or tea—instead of just going for straight water.

Especially if you've never been much of a water drinker, going straight from soda to water will make you feel deprived. Even if you just switch to tea instead of soda you'll be making a much healthier choice for your body.

The diet soda and heart disease study is by no means conclusive, but it should get you thinking about the choices you make every day and how they can affect your health in ways you might not have imagined.