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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Diet soda a sign of future ills, study says

Thomas H. Maugh Ii Los Angeles Times

Drinking as little as one can of soda per day – either regular or diet – is associated with a 48 percent increased risk of “metabolic syndrome,” a key predecessor of heart disease and diabetes, according to research released Monday.

Researchers previously had known that drinking regular sodas contributed to the risk of metabolic syndrome, but this is the first finding implicating diet sodas, according to results published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The researchers were uncertain why diet soda had such a large effect.

Dr. Ramachandran S. Vasan of Boston University School of Medicine, the lead author of the study, said it is unlikely that an ingredient in soda causes the effect. More likely is that consuming sweet sodas changes dietary patterns or that soda is simply a marker for the poor eating habits of the participants.

Dr. Meir Stampfer, of Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study, said the findings were not unexpected, although “I’m surprised by the magnitude of the association.”

Stampfer previously reported that diet sodas increase the risk of obesity and high blood pressure.

Soda makers, however, rejected the study outright.

“The assertions defy the existing body of scientific evidence, as well as common sense,” said Susan K. Neely, president and chief executive of the American Beverage Association. “It is scientifically implausible to suggest that diet soft drinks – a beverage that is 99 percent water – cause weight gain or elevated blood pressure.”

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that includes excessive abdominal fat, high blood-glucose levels, high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein, the “good” cholesterol.

People with three or more of these symptoms have double the normal risk of heart disease and diabetes.

In the study, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Vasan and his colleagues studied more than 2,400 middle-aged, white residents of Framingham, Mass.

At the beginning of the study, those who had consumed more than one soda per day – either regular or diet – had a 48 percent higher risk of having metabolic syndrome.

The team then focused on the more than 1,600 people who did not have metabolic syndrome at the start of the study and followed them for at least four years. Those who drank at least one soda per day had a 44 percent higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome during the four years of the study.

Vasan said research has shown that people who drink sodas also tend to have a diet higher in calories, higher in saturated fats and trans-fats and lower in fiber. They also are more sedentary.

The authors tried to control for all those factors in the diet, but “even after all that we still found an increased risk,” he said. “Maybe it is very difficult to adjust for lifestyle.”

Alternatively, drinking sweet sodas might get people used to a sweet taste and “into the snacking mode,” Stampfer said. “It’s not the artificial sweetener, but what goes along with it.”

None of those theories, however, has been confirmed by experiments.

In a statement issued Monday, the American Heart Association said that diet soda remains a good option to replace caloric beverages that do not contain important vitamins and minerals.”

Water, diet soft drinks and fat-free or low-fat milk remain better choices than full-calorie soft drinks, the group said.