Massive 10-Year Study Proved That Diet Soda Is Linked to Stroke and Heart Attacks

You have made your mind that from now on you are going to eat a healthy diet and live healthier life, but somehow you can’t stop drinking soda. You decide that you are going to start drinking diet soda, since we think that is not harmful because the large soda companies certainly know how to convince us.

However, the reality is quite different and the majority of soda manufacturers use aspartame, which is an artificial sweetener. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Iowa, this chemical increases the likelihood of heart disease.

Why Is Diet Soda Dangerous?

Dr. Ankur Vyas was the leading doctor of the study. This study is considered to be one of the most comprehensive since it included more than 60,000 candidates throughout the period of nine years. This study is called the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, and it was discovered that those women who consumed two or more cans a day had increase likelihood of 30% to have a cardiovascular event like a heart attack and 50% were more likely to die from a cardiovascular disease compared to those who didn’t drink it.

The findings of this study are consisted with data from previous studies, in particular those linked with the metabolic syndrome. Taking in consideration the scale of the study and the fact that one in five people drinks diet soda on a daily basis, the result of this study might be extremely important for public health in general.

The participants of the study were divided into four groups. One group consumed two or more diet sodas a day, the second group five to seven diet sodas a week, the third four diet sodas a week and the fourth group zero to three diet sodas a month.

After almost nine years, the researchers analyzed the health records of each participant and found out that congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, coronary revascularization, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death happened in 8.5% of the candidates in the first group, 6, 9% in the second group, 6.8% in the third group and 7.2% in the fourth group.

It seemed that the results didn’t fit the hypothesis that aspartame is one of the prime causes of heart disease. Nevertheless, according to the records, the women in the first group were much younger that the women in the other groups. Thereby, diet soda was causing health problems at an accelerated rate. Moreover, the women in the first group had the highest blood pressure, highest diabetes rate and highest BMI.

An official conclusion cannot be drawn despite the scale of the study, but this is definitely worrying. Further research is important so as to discover the relationship between diet soda and these diseases.

Until then, what you need to do eliminate diet soda from your diet completely. However, if you ever drink some, drink the regular one, which is better that diet soda.

Source: Mr Life Hacks

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