Diet drinks linked to heart issues, study finds. Here's what to do - KSL.com

Artificially sweetened beverages, a new study has found, may be just as bad for your heart as the sugar-laden kind.

"Our study suggests artificially sweetened beverages may not be a healthy substitute for sugar drinks, and these data provide additional arguments to fuel the current debate on taxes, labeling and regulation of sugary drinks and artificially sweetened beverages," said lead author Eloi Chazelas, a doctoral student and member of the nutritional epidemiology research team at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, in a statement.

For example, compared to women who drink sugary sodas, sports drinks and juice less than once per month, a 2019 study found women who had more than two servings a day — defined as a standard glass, bottle or can — had a 63% increased risk of premature death.

"A lot of people said, 'Well, maybe diet sodas and artificially sweetened beverages are better than sugar-sweetened beverages.' But there's been recent evidence in the last couple years that would suggest that there are possible harms, if you will, from artificially sweetened beverages, particularly in women," Freeman said.

"We support the WHO's call for people to reduce sugar in their diets and we are doing our part by creating innovative beverages with less sugar or zero sugar, clear calorie labeling, responsible marketing practices and smaller package sizes," Smotkin said.

Sugary beverages included soft drinks, fruit drinks and syrups that were at least 5% sugar as well as 100% fruit juice.

During follow-up from 2011 to 2019, sugary and diet-drinking habits were separately compared to any first cases of "stroke, transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome and angioplasty," the study said.

Compared to people who didn't drink artificially sweetened beverages, high consumers were 20% more likely to have cardiovascular disease at any particular time.

"We know that people who consume diet sodas sometimes are already overweight or obese, so you have to wonder what other confounders and lifestyle may already exist," Freeman said.

A 2019 study found drinking two or more of any kind of artificially sweetened drinks a day was linked to an increased risk of clot-based strokes, heart attacks and early death in women over 50?

Drinking four or more artificially sweetened beverages, according to another 2019 study, increased the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease in women.

"What is it about these diet drinks?" asked Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, who was the lead author for the 2019 study.

It can be hard to give up that love affair, even if you know the object of your affections — sugary and diet beverages — may not be good for your health.